jnseel

If you ever can afford the biologics, you really should consider using them. I’m a nursing student and have AS, so I have focused my clinical research on AS. The immune suppression is SO minor—patients might have a cold for 5-7 days instead of the usually 3-4, or might need longer rounds of antibiotics to kick an infection (10 days instead of 7, that sort of thing)...but studies show that patients with AS/RA/PsA who use biologics not only live longer, but have a higher quality of life than those who do not. It is the only way to prevent disease progression.

I’ve tried every biologic approved for AS that is available in the US, the side effects are minimal. The worst I’ve had was on Remicade (more frequent sinus infections, but I had sinus problems before AS) and higher susceptibility to UTI while on Cimzia—which is stated as a possible side effect and can largely be negated with increased personal hygiene practices.

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Edit: I don’t know what country you are from, but most pharmaceutical companies have prescription assistance programs to help patients cover costs. That might be something you could look into if you are interested.

Not OC but follow up question: I am a nursing student in the US. As of right now (subject to change, of course), I am still expected to attend clinicals and provide patient care like nothing is happening. While COVID-19 is present in our state, there aren’t very many cases (28 confirmed cases as last press release) and personally, I’m not that worried about getting infected while on duty—if I’m doing my job with regard to infection prevention (hand hygiene in and out of every room, appropriate PPE usage, patient education), I shouldn’t be able to transmit anything patient to patient. However, my husband is convinced having nursing students treating COVID patients will ultimately increase patient-patient transmission and COVID deaths.

Does having nursing students tending to patients pose any sort of additional risk or contribute to negative outcomes? Are medical students still working in hospitals in Italy?

I wonder if this might be remedied by recent increases in mammography by ultrasound? I remember seeing a fairly recent study (within the last 2-3 months) with the conclusion that ultrasound technology has improved to the point of detecting cancerous lumps with fewer false positives than mammograms.

Good to hear that students are still able to stay in a learning environment—no simulation is a better teacher than the real thing. We will be better prepared for any future pandemics by being present for this one.

The way I see it: even if students cannot work with COVID patients, we can unburden the doctors/nurses who DO by helping with non-COVID patients as much as possible.

So thankful for your contribution with the Italian Red Cross.

My (limited, as a nursing student and not a radiologist) understanding is that mammograms are good at identifying lumps, but not always at identifying whether or not those lumps are malignant or benign—ultrasounds seem like they are better at determining dense breast tissue vs other benign lumps vs malignancies, and can help avoid biopsies by decreasing the number of false positives.

But again. Not an expert. We haven’t even talked about this at school, so this is a real non-expert with a vested interest (high risk due to family history) just shooting the shit about stuff I’ve read on the internet.