RALU News 10.1

Volume 10 Number 1 October 2017 RALU News CONTENTS A NOTE FROM THE PRESIDENT Dave Kemp p. 2 THE LYME DISEASE EMERGENCY Claire Momot p. 3 EVENTS p. 4 2017 AGM — NOMINATIONS COMMITTEE REPORT Les Miller and Brian Phillips p.6 TRAVELOGUE: CRUISING THE RIVERS OF EUROPE Lynn Barber p.6 FILM SOCIETY p. 9 Ian Dew ATHLETICS: THE WOLVES Margot Ponder p. 10 EDITORIAL: BACK TO SCHOOL Ian Dew p. 11 MARKETPLACE: A BOOK SALE p. 13 1 RALU News Volume 10 number 1 October 2017 RALU - NOTE FROM THE PRESIDENT By this time of year most of us in RALU used to be involved in classes, lecturing, setting tests, marking and dealing with what latterly seemed to be an increasing amount of administrative ‘stuff’. I have to say that although I enjoyed teaching most of the time, I don’t really miss it now. After nine years of retirement all sorts of other activities have taken over from the academic side of things. One of these has been my role in RALU activities, first as VP and over the last few years as President. That has been an enjoyable experience in the main, working with a bunch of interesting people, but it is time to move on and let someone with new ideas and new energy take over. Unless someone comes out of the membership to take over, I am willing to continue for another year, but that’s it, so any of you who is ready to become a member of the RALU executive, please let Brian Phillips or Les Miller of our Nominations Committee know of your interest. One of the issues that has been a continuing irritant through all of the time I have been on the executive is the attempt by RALU to resolve the dispute over the University’s treatment of pensioners in Pension Plan 1, most of whom have received little or no increase in pension payments for 15 years or so. The Financial Services Commission of Ontario (the dreaded FSCO) has supported our efforts to change that up to a point, but so far the university has been able to procrastinate and those pensioners who might have expected to see some retroactive payments on their pensions have received nothing. I hope that will change soon, but I have been hoping that for the past several years without success. This is the tenth year of RALU’s existence, which we will celebrate at our Annual General Meeting. I think we have come a long way since we began and hope we can go on to be a larger, stronger organization, in which more of our members will participate. Wishing everyone a pleasant fall and hoping that the winter will not be too severe. Dave Kemp 2 RALU News Volume 10 number 1 October 2017 THE LYME AND ASSOCIATED DISEASES guideline.php Scroll down to "Diagnostic Hints EMERGENCY and Treatment Guidelines for Lyme and Other Tick Borne Illnesses" and hit "download People who spend time in the outdoors in guidelines" and you can view the entire Northern Ontario are confronting an urgent new document / print it off. I brought it with me to threat: Lyme disease. Thunder Bay Regional the Canadian doctor's office at the walk in Health Unit reports that disease-bearing black- clinic, and waved it under his nose, in order to legged ticks have been found within the city of get him to prescribe the amoxicillin and Thunder Bay. With global warming their range is probenecid (he did not want to do it in a high moving north rapidly. enough dose). In the spirit of alerting and informing It is very detailed, and discusses all of the members in the current confusing situation in different options for treatment which is much disagreement among medical (medicine/dosage) and the advantages and practitioners, here is the a personal account of a disadvantages of each (starts around p.14, and person grappling with the first stages of the page 18 has a good list - easy to disease. It is intended as a beginning for the read/understand). It is quite through. That's process of securing first aid for the person who where I am getting my information. You should believes that they have been exposed to Lyme avoid sugar and gluten (from wheat, rye and disease, so they can quickly learn to navigate the barley flour) if you have Lyme. The tests are not medical systems in proximity to Thunder Bay (at reliable, and will not show Lyme at all in its early least). It does not take the place of an urgent stages. medical visit! Lyme Ontario also told me that if you get the *EM rash, you must have 4-6 weeks of A lot of people are in grave danger of antibiotics, minimum (if it's early stage). Take a ending up with disseminated or chronic Lyme, photo of the rash, immediately if you get one because the doctors here do not take it seriously (and keep photographing it each day). enough. I had to go to 5 doctors to get the Doxycycline is the preferred medication, Doxycycline I needed in the first place at the but is only effective at high blood levels. proper dosage and for the right length of time. It These are the doses for early stage Lyme. (You was a complete nightmare! would need much more/a longer treatment The International Lyme and Associated time to treat disseminated or chronic Lyme) Diseases Society (ILADS) has diagnostic Doxycycline dosage: guidelines, and I trust them FAR more than the 200 mg twice/day (400 mg total/day) for CDC ones (based on personal experience - the approx. 6 weeks (you need to be symptom-free single dose of doxycycline worked for day, but for 4 weeks, while on the medicine). then 2 days later, the symptoms came back, and [Note: you can also be prescribed it at worse than before, because it was not enough 200 mg 3X/day for 600 mg total/day - I suppose medicine to eradicate the Lyme bacteria. You it depends how bad it is. I found the 400 mg to have to have long term, high dose treatment, be effective, until I became allergic]. because the various bacteria are hard to kill, and Doxycycline is a nasty drug, though - it is can also enter periods of dormancy). Here is a very hard on the stomach. I got sick on it and link to where you can download the guidelines: threw up the dose twice and had to re-dose. So, if http://ilads.org/lyme/treatment- you ever have to take it, I suggest buying wild 3 RALU News Volume 10 number 1 October 2017 rice cakes made by Lundberg, and eating up to bitten, and also consider joining the Lyme 1/2 a rice cake, then taking the medicine, then Disease Forum on Healing Well.com (the people eating the second half of the rice cake, with lots on there were extremely, extremely helpful and of water - that's how I kept it down. It needs to supportive and very knowledgeable!). be something that is a carb, but has no iron or Lyme Disease - HealingWell.com calcium in it. You should not have iron or calcium 2 hours before and 2 hours after taking *EM stands for "Erythema Migrans" - it is the the medicine. This is why the wild rice cakes are technical name for the typical bullseye rash, that good. occurs in some people after a tick infected by If you can't take the doxy (I turned out to Lyme bites them. Here is a basic definition for be allergic), they usually give you Amoxicillin with you: probenecid. You must have probenecid with it, because it extends the half-life of the "Erythema chronicum migrans (New Latin, amoxicillin (which is otherwise too short to be literally, "chronic migrating redness") refers to effective). However, they do not make probenecid the rash often (though not always) seen in the in Canada any more. I had to go onto the website early stage of Lyme disease. It can appear HealthTap and pay for a U.S. doctor to prescribe anywhere from one day to one month after a tick it to me, and get it sent to a pharmacy in the USA bite." (they have to call in the prescription, so you have to give them the phone number, because in There are lots of photos online - there is a fair bit Canada you cannot indicate a preferred of variability with the way they look - people pharmacy on the website - so you need to tell the should be made aware of that. doctor that it will have to be called in by him). The dosage for that is: 1000 mg of Claire Momot Amoxicillin 3X/day with 500 mg. of probenecid 3X/day (I take both pills at the same time). Claire is an alumna of Lakehead University and Cefuroxime axetil is another drug that can daughter of Member Walter Momot prescribed, but it also needs probenecid with it. Augmentin XR 1000 is supposed to be very good too, but is not available in Canada. EVENTS Other drugs that work well are administered intravenously. This year is ultra-busy with competing events on many nights. As well as RALU events, Post script. I would definitely recommend that this list contains non-RALU events. Some have readers learn how to link to that particular ILADS sketchy details, so consult the webpage and document, because it was extremely helpful. Facebook for updates. They will need to be informed, and able to argue with doctors who subscribe to the other school of Fall Term 2017 thought (that there is no such thing as chronic Lyme, it's all in people's heads, the EM rash is just Monday 16 October a spider bite, etc...) The Film Society.

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