Dear all:

I've been working on our taxes -- which is complicated enough when one member of the family is selfemployed but even worse when two are selfemployed.  Just boring enough to try to take my mind off of it by procrastinating thinking about the many causes of anemia that are not from iron deficiency or at least not from insufficient iron intake.  

And.... it dawned on me that bedbugs are a cause of iron deficiency anemia.  I heard the most horrid second hand account of a bed bug infestation initiated by a hoarder.  I do not know if this occurs in other less urban areas, but I swear every building I have visited where there is rent stabilization has its story of the hoarder.  We have one severe cases and several minor cases in our building (sometimes I do feel like my dh might have ended up there had I not intervened).  

But the worst case I heard of was where it was discovered because the babies beds were against the wall.  The mother could not figure out why her children were anemic -- until they moved the cribs away from the wall.  Lo and behold there was a black line along the wall.  It was not dust or dirt from the cribs up against the wall. The bedbugs had eaten through the wall into the cribs.  

A few years back one of my colleagues pointed out that one of the hazards of our profession is sitting on other peoples beds.  She was very concerned about picking up bedbugs that way.  A few years later I developed a horrible rash from bug bites right at the intersection of where my shirt tucked into my pants.  I was convinced that it was bedbugs, but in the end I think it was merely fleas.  

While I'm doing taxes I need to get the handout for an upcoming conference on breast treatments by various other professions  -- eg a dermatologist, a radiologist, a breast surgeon and a physical therapist.  I was already pondering bedbugs when lo and behold -- among the items the dermatologist will discuss is bedbugs.  Have you ever been to a lactation conference that include bedbugs?

First we have bugs in formula, now we have bugs on the breast!! 

Sigh, truly the arthropods shall inherit the earth.  They are so indestructible and outnumber us by a considerable margin.  Even if we decided they would be a more ecologic solution to eating protein, I doubt we would eat enough to make a dent in their population numbers.

Susan Burger

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