why does my hand smell like an old lady's neck - New Random Thread

[coldforge]

I liked Vleck.

[Greg Nog]

Nog, do you remember Vleck? I'm his FB friend now, and he capitalizes all proper nouns. Like

Sure hope there's not much snow cuz I'm surveying CANAL STREET today

Going to stop off at BARCADE after JIMMY'S 43 for a night cap

Ha!  I ain't seen him in a while.  Maybe he's conceiving of his life as some kind of screenplay?

INT BARCADE.  VLECK IS BUYING A BURTON BATON NEXT TO A PRETTY GIRL

[elpollodiablo]

Lolz! Did you ever see his comics? Totally bizzarre stoner non sequitur weirdness.

Additionally, since this is the random thread: looks like I might potentially be seeing Vleck a lot more, this summer. I think D and I are going to sublet in Brooklyn starting in May.

[Greg Nog]

Whoa!  Neat!  Especially since my life was chaos chaos the last time you were in town. 

[nonotyet]

Here is a question that my job has made me ask several times but I have never gotten a satisfactory answer to it beyond "BECAUSE."

Why, in psychiatric language, when you say "rule out ________ (psychotic disorder, agoraphobia, bipolar, whatever)" do you actually mean "I am thinking that this person probably has _________?"

it doesn't make any god damn sense 

[alex]

I'm not terribly qualified to answer this one, and I'm sure someone who is will be along shortly, but I always thought that it refers to the diagnosis that the psychiatrist thinks is second-most likely, and that should therefore be ruled out in order to substantiate the first diagnosis. In other words, diagnosis: A, rule out: B" means "we think it's A, but it could be B, so let's try to test for B in order to make sure we can rule it out!" Never heard it to refer to the thing the doctor actually thinks is the most likely diagnosis. But that could be ignorance on my part.

[milesofsparks]

I think D and I are going to sublet in Brooklyn starting in May.

!!

[elpollodiablo]

[alex]

I'm not terribly qualified to answer this one, and I'm sure someone who is will be along shortly, but I always thought that it refers to the diagnosis that the psychiatrist thinks is second-most likely, and that should therefore be ruled out in order to substantiate the first diagnosis. In other words, diagnosis: A, rule out: B" means "we think it's A, but it could be B, so let's try to test for B in order to make sure we can rule it out!" Never heard it to refer to the thing the doctor actually thinks is the most likely diagnosis. But that could be ignorance on my part.

I'm not sure how clear of an answer that really was, so let me try again: I don't think "rule out B" really means the same as "we think it's probably B", but rather, that it means "the symptoms are such that it could potentially be B, but we think it isn't (because we actually think it's A), so our first step should be to test for B, in order to be able to, if indeed negative, exclude it from our considerations altogether".

That said, you should probably just wait for Jess' reply.

[jm]

I think D and I are going to sublet in Brooklyn starting in May.

seriously dogg let us meet up when you don't have to return a rental car

[jess]

I'm not terribly qualified to answer this one, and I'm sure someone who is will be along shortly, but I always thought that it refers to the diagnosis that the psychiatrist thinks is second-most likely, and that should therefore be ruled out in order to substantiate the first diagnosis. In other words, diagnosis: A, rule out: B" means "we think it's A, but it could be B, so let's try to test for B in order to make sure we can rule it out!" Never heard it to refer to the thing the doctor actually thinks is the most likely diagnosis. But that could be ignorance on my part.

I'm not sure how clear of an answer that really was, so let me try again: I don't think "rule out B" really means the same as "we think it's probably B", but rather, that it means "the symptoms are such that it could potentially be B, but we think it isn't (because we actually think it's A), so our first step should be to test for B, in order to be able to, if indeed negative, exclude it from our considerations altogether".

That said, you should probably just wait for Jess' reply.

Ha.

I'd agree with Alex for the most part, although to be honest, a part of the answer also is BECAUSE since it is just convention too, like many aspects of chart writing (such as our abbreviations, like r/o for rule out).

The way the DSM is set up, a lot of diagnoses have the provision "unless better explained by something else (sometimes a specific something else too)" and also there are specific diagnoses for psych problems that are secondary to physical problems (like hypothyroidism induced depression, say) or substance use. So in order to properly diagnose someone with one thing, other things may need to be ruled out.

That said, many people do have multiple diagnoses (and some are given together without that being problematic, depends on the disorders), so sometimes we have some things are we are really sure of or we think there's no diagnosis, but there's a little evidence for another disorder but more would be need to be known to diagnose that. If you are pretty sure that the diagnosis is valid but not entirely, it's a "provisional" diagnosis, whereas "rule out" is when you want to make sure something that seems less likely but possible isn't actually an issue. Psych assessment, when done extensively, is long, complicated and quite expensive, so often it's done piecemeal and patients aren't assessed for everything possible, and some disorders can only be determined over time, so it's not uncommon to have those things in charts.

Also, I'm pretty sure this terminology is present in other areas of medicine as well, but in many of those, the ruling in or out is much more straightforward, so it may be substituted with a "get this particular test done."

[kyle]

So I got to face push somebody today.  I was the the Natural History Museum, and asked a random dude to take a picture of me with the crocheted coral reef (so cool!), and he asked me to take a picture for him, and we kind of ended up just walking around together and chatting since we were both alone, and he was nice enough.  Then, when it was time to part ways, he decided he wanted a kiss and I literally had to put my hand on his face and shove it.  He wasn't scary and there were tons of people around, so mostly it was just really damn funny.

I like that I missed this.

[elpollodiablo]

I think D and I are going to sublet in Brooklyn starting in May.

seriously dogg let us meet up when you don't have to return a rental car

Man, that was a fucking *terrible* day. I'll tell you all about it over drinks next time I'm in town.

[elpollodiablo]

Greg, I thought of you when I saw this closet mod



http://i.imgur.com/Yk8LM.jpg

[Greg Nog]

That's a hell of a castle!

[dieblucasdie]

This is awesome:

http://highschoolsportsblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2011/01/atypical-gameplan-doesnt-catch-flower-mo.html

To say the game between Flower Mound Marcus and Plano West Tuesday in Flower Mound was bizarre may be an understatement.

At the end of the first quarter Marcus, the No. 2 team in the state and the No. 12 team in the nation, had two points. Two.

West had four.

The reason for the low score was a tactic that Plano West head coach Anthony Morgan devised heading into a rematch his team desperately needed in a tight district race.

"It'd be nice to trade punches," Morgan said. "But we did that at our place."

Trying to run with Marcus resulted in a double-digit loss in the last meeting between the teams.

Tuesday Morgan and his team came up with a different plan.

"Let's just limit their possessions and be very deliberate and patient on offense and work it into our bigs," Morgan said.

The first overtime, in which neither team scored a point, was a two-possesion period. Marcus won the tip and missed its first shot and never saw the ball again.

The final score was 38-31 in triple OT.  Almost all those points came in the 3rd Quarter when they briefly abandoned their strategy.

[FreddyKnuckles]

That's a really poorly written article about a really interesting story. 

[milesofsparks]

so today it finally happened:  I saw a dog in a fur coat.  maybe this is common elsewhere and I just don't run in the right circles or something, but it kind of blew my mind.

[elpollodiablo]

Strangely enough, I saw a dog wearing a fur coat the very first night I was ever in the city, back in... '06? It was in Tompkins Sq Park. We laughed, and the dude with the dog (wearing his own puffy, fur-lined parka) called us a bunch of fucking yuppies.

[Aglaya]

I keep threatening to shave my room mate's cat, spin his fur into yarn, and knit him a sweater out of it.  I think it sounds brilliant, but she doesn't.

[mixed cats]

Every time I brush the cats I put the collected hair in a ziploc
Someday it will be a vest for Linus to wear.

[milesofsparks]

being sick is SO BORING.  especially when it makes you too tired to engage in any useful or interesting activity.  I'm tired of the mediocre movies on Hulu and my computer's too old to stream Netflix... please entertain me, internets!

[clare]

GI posted this link to some cute games a few weeks ago. they might be fun while you're sick (or really annoying).

[Good Intentions]

There's even one about getting better from illness:
http://www.eyezmaze.com/eyezblog_en/blog/2008/02/grow_nano_vol3.html#more

I love the Eyezmaze games. They're tremendously charming, and some of them are have really interesting premises, like Grow RPG, where the puzzle is constructing a game world which will allow a hero-figure (not under your control) to beat the evil demon at the end.

[G.C.R]

I love how the doctor plunges a giant syringe into your little guy, and then the little pink lady wiggles her but while making you food. Those games are a death by procrastination waiting to happen.