My doctor is French, and as it turns out I had an appointment already scheduled with him today just when I needed one.  I was supposed to get some blood work done as a follow-up to my last visit, but we spent most of the time talking about my gimpy ankle.  He took a look at it and diagnosed shin splints, which is what I had been expecting.  But since I've been a ball of nerves lately, I asked about the possibility of a stress fracture and he sent me to get an x-ray.  On the way out, he mentioned he shouldn't be working on the fourteenth of July.

The radiologist told me they would send the results of my x-ray to my doctor within forty-eight hours unless there was a fracture, in which case they would send them as soon as possible.  I'm really, really hoping that the fact that I haven't heard anything yet is good news and not because my doctor decided to take the afternoon off.

I had a somewhat humbling - if unsurprising - trip to the doctor today.  I've been freaking out about, well, literally everything lately and started to notice some tightness in my chest over the past couple of days.  Which naturally caused me to freak out a little more.  Hence the trip to the doctor.  Long story short - I'm fine, but my heart rate is on the fast side of normal.  It's a Fiat, when it should be a BMW.  (Yes, my doctor actually said that.)  I'm supposed to get more cardio exercise (which: check) and drink less coffee.  That second item is going to be even more painful than the cardio.  Good thing for me it's just a heart.  It ain't worth nothin'.

Circumcision Shown to Slow Spread of HIV in Africa

By Craig Timberg

Washington Post Foreign Service

JOHANNESBURG, Dec. 13 -- Two major studies released Wednesday confirmed that circumcision can dramatically slow the spread of HIV among African men, suggesting that widely offering the procedure could prevent millions of deaths in countries most seriously affected by AIDS, researchers said.

The studies, in Kenya and Uganda, found that circumcised men are about 50 percent less likely to contract HIV than those who are not, a result that echoed similar research last year from South Africa. In all three studies, the results were so persuasive that researchers stopped their experiments several months early and offered circumcisions to all of the subjects, deeming it unethical to withhold a procedure that might prevent an often-fatal disease.

...

But if the procedure was offered widely in countries with high rates of HIV, it might prevent "many tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions of infections over time," said Kevin De Cock, director of HIV/AIDS for the World Health Organization, speaking on the conference call.

tee hee.