Aside: You say CLIPPERS ...

... I say CHIPPERS.

I'm sure that, before you found this site, you had to wade through lots of Google links for the Los Angeles Clippers and various pieces of personal grooming equipment. So I wondered if a more distinctive acronym could be squeezed out of Chronic Lymphocytic Inflammation with Pontine Perivascular Enhancement Responsive to Steroids. Fortunately, there are many web-sites out there to help with forming acronyms. I used Acronym Creator which worked pretty well.

As I used the same words which make up CLIPPERS as input, some of the results are quite contrived, or don't use all of the terms properly. Still, some of the better ones (which I have adapted slightly) were:

CHIPPERS     Chronic lympHocytic Inflammation with Pontine Perivascular Enhancement Responsive to Steroids

CRIPES       ChRonic lymphocytic Inflammation with Pontine perivascular Enhancement responsive to Steroids 

CaLIPERS     Chronic Lymphocytic Inflammation with Pontine perivascular Enhancement Responsive to Steroids

CHIMERaS     CHronic lymphocytic  InflaMmation with Pontine perivascular Enhancement Responsive to Steroids

fLaPPERS     chronic  Lymphocytic inflammation with Pontine Perivascular Enhancement Responsive to Steroids

CaROLINES     ChROnic Lymphocytic INflammation with pontine perivascular Enhancement responsive to Steroids

CyCLOPS     ChroniC LymphOcytic inflammation with Pontine perivascular enhancement responsiv to Steroids

CavaLIERS     Chronic Lymphocytic Inflammation with pontine perivascular Enhancement Responsive to Steroids

Perhaps inevitably, none of these trip off the tongue quite as well as CLIPPERS. So we are probably stuck with it, at least until someone renames it Pittock-Keegan Syndrome ....

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Living With CLIPPERS by Bill Crum is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Aside: Contagion

(This is another of those occasional Asides which are only a little about CLIPPERS.)
 

I went for my flu jab last week; I've only started having them since being treated for CLIPPERS so this is only the second. In the UK the good old NHS ensures that as a member of an at-risk population I automatically get an invite to get one for free at my local clinic. So I've had the jab and it was all very straight-forward and no trouble at all. Now I'm wondering what I've been exposed to along the way.

Cover mouth, cough, then wash hands.

I made the appointment and showed up at the clinic. Which was full. Of people coughing - half of them seemed to have flu already even though it was a special flu-jab day. So I checked in and sat down away from the worst of the splutterers. The check-in at my practice is computerised - there is a touch screen and when you arrive you click the relevant brightly-coloured button to select "male" or "female" and your date of birth, after which it identifies you and asks if it has found the right appointment. So far, so good. Perhaps because I got used to it in hospital, I automatically used the handwash next to the screen and sat down for my appointment. I didn't have to wait long, probably 5 minutes or so. However in that time a steady stream of people checked in at the same screen and not one of them used the handwash before or after coughing and touching the screen (or anything else). Given that everyone in the room was in an "at risk of infection" category (about 90% were pensioners and the rest pregnant women) they didn't seem to be taking many precautions. If any one of them had been exposed to Norovirus for instance then this packed room seemed an ideal place to transmit it. Anyway, pretty soon I made it into the injection room and once I'd convinced them I really was supposed to be there (not being elderly or pregnant) the jab itself was barely noticeable.

Next year I'm taking more precautions.

I'm not about to turn into Michael Jackson and wear gloves and a facemask everywhere. Still having had a few bugs in my time and not wanting any more while my immune system is compromised I think I'm entitled to be a bit paranoid.

Read other articles in this series at Living With CLIPPERS.

Living With CLIPPERS by Bill Crum is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Aside: What Passes for Humour Round Here

Please note this is an aside that has nothing directly to do with CLIPPERS even though it relates to a CLIPPERS-monitoring visit to the NHNN. Normal CLIPPERS-related service will be resumed as soon as possible.

Funny?

 

(while filling in form)

NURSE:  "Do you have any pets?"

BILL:      "Are you making this up?"

NURSE:  "No" (shows me the question on the form)

BILL:      "Next you'll be wanting to know what colour underwear I've got on!"

NURSE:  "Mr Crum, if I wanted to know that I would take you next door and ask you to change your trousers."

Serves me right for trying to be a smart-ass!

Not Funny! (and Not Advised!!)

Sending the following to my wife at the end of my Day-Care appointment.

They drilled a couple of holes for a look-see.

(The bandage was actually from my arm where the MRI contrast was injected and even though the train wasn't too busy, yes, I probably did get some funny looks.)

 

Read other articles in this series at Living With CLIPPERS.

Living With CLIPPERS by Bill Crum is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Thanks Sis!

Snapshot of a card I recently received.
http://www.edwardmonkton.com/
http://www.reallygood.uk.com/

Read other articles in this series at Living With CLIPPERS.


Living With CLIPPERS by Bill Crum is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.