I wonder if this kind of stuff will be the eventual treatment plan for people with IBD.

Wait...what qualifies this as uplifting? Or news?

Sounds like a fresh take on the call center- suicide scenario (Phoebe in Friends, Reese in Malcolm in the Middle)

I liked the blog post. I would argue that there is some gray area of expertise here. A general statistician may not necessarily know the specifics of SIDS as well as a pediatrician. Often times people who are experts in their field must offer some fringe knowledge on a subject and so should probably consult with experts who overlap in knowledge, especially when the opinion they are providing could impact the livelihoods, safety and health of others. I think the pandemic was full of a bunch of nonsense, it was weird to watch people on both sides of the perceived fence argue that their specific expertise (in statistics or in public health or in politics or in economics or in medical specialties of infectious diseases or emergency medicine) talk about the pandemic as if their one area of expertise entitled them to making broad sweeping statements to all around that the pandemic should be treated in their preferred way. Yet, at least on a local level, no one I knew was willing to talk to people in other specialties Bout the same issues or figure out how they could come to an agreement or even just an understanding about the different needs based on their expertise. I think this phenomenon you refer to happens at every level interpersonally.

Like I said, good read, thanks!

Oh, that sucks! Sorry you went through that, even 17 years ago. DX

I remember quietly wondering if I was having a heart attack for several days a few times off and on. I went to the ER, they said my EKG was fine, Covid negative, went home and after a week it settled. Fast forward a few months, the same issue recurred, I came back to the same ER about it, they saw my EKG and told me I likely had pericarditis, but what's worse, is the doctor on call said he looked at my past EKG and said it matched; they'd missed my pericarditis diagnosis months prior. It sucked. And the meds just sent me back to the hospital again and again. XD

Did you end up on colchicine, too?

Not disagreeing with you, but I just want to add something to this, because I think it's relevant. There is a risk of pericarditis caused by viruses in general. I'll add my own anecdote, as an example, but there were plenty of people with pericarditis before Covid. In late 2020 (before vaccination rollout) I had post viral pericarditis (as in, pericarditis that came as an autoimmune response to a viral illness), and there was no evidence that I had had Covid prior to that. I'd been tested for Covid a bunch both before and during my initial pericarditis bout, but there were no signs it was from any of that. However, there were signs that I had gotten it as an autoimmune response to a cold-like illness. I had had the common cold about a month prior, and 3 different cardiologists, an infectious diseases Dr, and multiple internal medicine doctors all came to the conclusion (after about 3 in house Covid tests) that it was actually the cold that caused this.

I say this because I think people have some misconception that pericarditis is a new disease entirely. It isn't. Pericardial issues have been going on for a while and they can basically result from any illness, viral, parasitic, or fungal, that causes inflammation. It's not common, but it happens.

Getting vaccinated didn't trigger my pericarditis to recur, but every time I got sick with a cold or flu it would result in a recurrence the last 2 years. That doesn't mean the vaccines can't trigger it, but I think it's worth noting that the human body is capable of responding to just about anything perceived as a foreign attack in complex and unexpected ways.