Old news?

Interesting news item from yesterday about Evil Healthcare Giants and their Sneaky Plans to Wreak Havoc.

Health Care Investor Buys 33.4% of Lions Gate Shares 1 Week before the Release of Michael Moore’s SICKO

I got to see the movie, obviously. But maybe it would've been more difficult than a couple blocks' walk if I still lived in Duluth? Probably would've had to go to Minneapolis, or hope that some bright spark with bucks reclaimed the NorShor Theatre from its current incarnation as The Norshor Experience (maybe NSFW? It's pretty cold in Duluth) and showed a little Sicko for folks unable to drive two-three hours.

That theatre was pretty great. We saw Wellstone! there with free paper bags of popcorn. But I'm sure the Experience is just as stimulating in a variety of ways.

Boop-boop, be doop, BOOP! Or, Lung disorders.

Could UCers and Crohnies develop BOOP?

I'm unsure if this is a real problem for IBDers. Here's a possibly more legitimate link for Wiki-waries.

I first got pneumonia the winter after my diagnosis. Nothing like BOOP, it began as a cold and then developed into what felt like an iron patch in my chest, pressing me into a doubled-over position when I tried to climb the five flights of stairs to the apartment. I must've looked like such a smoker! But the whole time, I thought, hey, I should go to the doctor again because the first Cobra-covered CT scan had found nothing. They would believe me now, I could barely walk up the stairs. I could barely ... damn it.

They found an eeny spot on the left lung. They gave me a shot. No BOOP, no COP, no Popcorn Workers Lung (though not for lack of trying, mmm...), just a baby pneumonia with no exit strategy.

Still, the idea of BOOP interests me, and not just because it's fun to say. Boopboopboop. But "Bronchiolitis Obliterans Organising Pneumonia" seems to be a related disease, rather than a result of ulcerative colitis or other inflammatory autoimmune disease (as Wikipedia says). I suppose I shall have to ask a damn doctor.


With the pneumonia scare, I met the first general practitioner I've ever liked. He had one ear. Ours was a short, sweet yet blood-curdlingly tragic tale.