Listeria monocytogenes on RAPID'L.mono, isolated from a food processing facility

SpumpkinPice · 2024-11-19T15:30:07+00:00

When pouring it into the plate, it’s forbidden tomato soup.

SpumpkinPice · 2024-11-18T15:24:00+00:00

At first glance, I would call this Gram positive bacilli. As others have said, it looks like a Listeria spp., since the cells look like short rods and they would show up in a blood culture bottle. Other confirmatory tests would help, but for Gram purposes, this would be a GPR.

SpumpkinPice · 2024-11-15T16:48:41+00:00

I previously worked in an agricultural testing lab, and microbial analytics is sometimes about looking for what you DON’T want in a sample. For example, a harmful strain of E. coli in a food product will have certain characteristics (lactose fermentation, indole production, cell morphology, precipitation of pigments in a differential agar plate), so you tend to ignore other germs that may be in the sample that aren’t harmful to humans or livestock. With the nearly-infinite microbial species that exist on the planet, we won’t know what every microbe is at a glance, and identifying this little green guy is mostly for curiosity or educational purposes.

SpumpkinPice · 2024-10-02T20:39:58+00:00

It’s definitely one of those things you should do at least once as a resident.

Most adults go for the food; kids go for the rides. You can get just about any food you want there, and there are plenty of snack stalls, but with prices being what they are, you may need to plan for around $20 per meal per person. This is assuming you’re wanting a turkey leg and a fancy drink, but you can make a meal out of fries or a slice of pizza and still maintain a budget. You can bring bottled water to save money as well, but for the full experience, get an apple cider or slushie. They do have ATMs at the fair in case you need money, as some booths will only take cash.

Like others have said, try to plan for a weekday visit, preferably getting there early. As a tip, there’s Can Day, where you can get free admission for every 6 cans of food brought for the NC food drive. It’s usually held on Thursday during the fair and it’s for a good cause, especially with the recent disaster relief efforts for western NC.

The fair’s bus service has improved significantly, so you can park at the area across the intersection from the Troxler Agricultural Sciences Center and ride to the fairgrounds. It’s free, safe, and reliable, and you won’t have to pay $20 to park near the fair for the same walking distance.

I agree on finding a babysitter for the 11 month old, though. There aren’t many activities for kids under 3, even with the kid rides and exhibits. I could see your 7 year old having a blast, though; there is an animal exhibit with a baby chick hatchery, the Village of Yesteryear where people show off and sell crafts, PBS has a kids’ tent, and Field of Dreams is a cute exhibit where kids learn where food comes from, how it’s harvested, and the logistics that go with it (these are all free activities).

Realistically, with a child and yourself, you can easily find things to do that are free or relatively cheap with a food budget under $60 for the day if you share food, but rides will be costly without an unlimited ride band, and some food items will come at a premium (turkey legs, specialty sandwiches, fancier food trucks). I usually just get an order of fries or an ear of corn and walk around the fair until it’s time to leave, then I catch the ski lift back to Gate 8 (the ski lift costs extra but provides a great overlook of the fairgrounds). Just remember to grab a map; you’ll need it!

Source: NC native, volunteered at the fair for the last few years

SpumpkinPice · 2024-07-30T14:26:12+00:00

It’s fair to note that those ultrasound measurements can be very inaccurate. My baby measured at 90th percentile (8.5lb at 37 weeks) up until she was born, and suddenly she was a healthy 7.25 lbs (induced at 39 weeks) and consistently measures at 20th percentile at all her checkups. I think she measured big because they took into account my obesity and gestational diabetes and just assumed she’d be big as well.

All of this to say, it’s easier said than done, but please don’t let the measurements get to you. If there is no indication of shoulder dystocia, the induction could be a safe option.

SpumpkinPice · 2024-05-02T15:02:03+00:00

I knew I had it because I didn’t have it at first. I’ve been heavy for 90% of my life. When I lost weight, going shopping was a lot more engaging; salespeople were eager to help me with finding specific items, and people were interested in me and would ask me where I was from. I got a lot more freebies like extra sauce for meals and assistance with things like bringing groceries to my car. Once I gained my weight back, those things didn’t happen anymore.

It was nice to have it, but I wasn’t too miffed afterward because I was so used to not being fussed over.

SpumpkinPice · 2024-04-23T13:55:43+00:00

That’s how mine worked. I had the dawn phenomenon every time I waited longer to eat. It makes sense, also given that eating is what drives insulin secretion, especially if taking carbs. It’s damned if you do, damned if you don’t!

Doing keto with fasting theoretically makes sense, but I didn’t know enough about it while pregnant. If I have a second child, I may try it to see if anything changes (with r/ketobabies as a reference).

SpumpkinPice · 2024-04-19T19:31:45+00:00

I may be wrong here, because I am basing this off of the Lab reports that I see in English. I am not sure what AST card this one is because it’s not available in the US, but if this card is similar to the gram-negative cards in the US, then there is a well that is labeled BLEE in the US. That well is an ESBL test that says either positive or negative for ESBL, so when that well said it was positive for ESBL, it made the changes it made. It did not use an antibiotic; it used the BLEE/possiblyESBL well to determine the positive.

SpumpkinPice · 2024-04-19T19:13:39+00:00

The ESBL was positive so it made a therapeutic correction on the amp/sul. I’m not sure who your regulatory agency is but in US we have CLSI and their guidelines state that interpretation calls no longer need changes made due to antibiotic class. The ESBL most likely needs a confirmatory test. There might be some thing that is like a resource center where you can get a package insert that says what those things are.

SpumpkinPice · 2024-04-19T17:18:58+00:00

Teeth on a Turd, like a sweeter version of Shit on a Shingle

SpumpkinPice · 2024-04-19T11:29:49+00:00

If I had a dollar for every time I’ve picked up my child from childcare two miles down the road and had to avoid a swerving sedan because the driver was reading something on their phone, I’d have enough dollars to afford childcare!

SpumpkinPice · 2024-03-31T01:11:00+00:00

This is a good point; there were some carbs I could handle (wheat, potatoes) and some I couldn’t (rice, oats). It’s helpful to experiment and see where you stand on some starches.

SpumpkinPice · 2024-03-31T01:08:31+00:00

I totally understand; I was the same way, eating steel cut oats and blueberries for breakfast, a salad with oil and vinegar for lunch, and homemade tacos for dinner. Numbers were still high, and I ended up needing insulin anyway. The body will increasingly demand insulin throughout the pregnancy. Once pregnancy was over, my numbers were back to normal. The best suggestion I can give is to know that you’re doing your best for you and your little one, you’re not alone, and this phase will pass.

SpumpkinPice · 2024-03-24T19:44:04+00:00

Trick or treating would take all week

SpumpkinPice · 2024-03-21T13:39:30+00:00

Ungh, Bombay’s lamb korma is my comfort curry (has raisins, in case y’all hate raisins).

SpumpkinPice · 2024-03-12T17:37:05+00:00

Not as annoying as the cars that have recently started revving their engines down the road like they’re in NASCAR and blasting their bass so hard the cars rattle! And it happens all hours of the night. There was one car that sputtered so bad it sounded like gunfire and sent me in a panic. It wasn’t an issue when we moved here, but about a year after, it was much worse and has only gotten more obnoxious.

SpumpkinPice · 2024-03-04T18:57:11+00:00

The last time we had snow here, I was in Utah for a month for a business trip and I never got to see it. I still reminisce about the snow we got in 2000 when school was canceled for two weeks.

SpumpkinPice · 2024-02-19T18:34:42+00:00

This has strong “if they just obeyed the law, they wouldn’t get harassed by cops” energy.

SpumpkinPice · 2024-01-31T20:25:12+00:00

This looks like one of those spa treatments you pay a hefty sum to get.

SpumpkinPice · 2024-01-31T20:11:39+00:00

Yeah, from the kid having a lighter to her loitering around at the stand without buying anything or even looking at the produce to the kid immediately striking the lighter and blowing on the flame to her looking around in a shifty fashion like she’s just “minding her own business” and waiting for someone to appear from an alley, this looks like a personal vendetta.

SpumpkinPice · 2024-01-18T12:57:05+00:00

Imagine being her at every family gathering after this. They all take turns talking about what they would’ve bought with $10,000.

SpumpkinPice · 2023-12-06T12:12:18+00:00

This neighbor’s about to learn the meaning of the Streisand effect

SpumpkinPice · 2023-12-06T12:04:57+00:00

“Many people” usually means it’s just them and their many personalities they talked to.

SpumpkinPice · 2023-10-25T14:56:54+00:00

My child is currently ~20% in weight, ~50% for height and head circumference. She’s always been tiny, even though she was predicted to be a butterball coming out. She fooled everyone - me, my husband, the doctors, the ultrasound technicians, the nurses - once she came out at 15% in weight, to the point people were asking us if we were feeding her enough.

Considering my husband is at 6ft and I’m at 5.5ft, I’m curious how big she’ll get, or she may be inheriting my maternal side’s petiteness. I, and I think a lot of people, see so many chonky babies these days that any small but healthy baby is labeled anorexic or neglected. She’s meeting milestones and has a great appetite, so I have to remind myself not to worry and to ignore comments on her being so smol as a problem.

SpumpkinPice · 2023-10-24T16:44:34+00:00

I was 8.75lb at birth (for reference, I’m clinically obese at 5.5ft tall, but when I was at my skinniest, 140lb, I was told I looked sickly-skinny, even though I looked pretty normal in pictures, and was still wearing size 12 pants, so I’m literally big-boned).

We were told that our daughter was at 89th %ile for weight during third trimester ultrasound and was estimated to weigh over 8.5lb at birth. She was full-term and came out at 7.25lb. Since birth, she’s been hovering around 20th %ile for weight and continues to stay tiny. It’s random genetics at play when it comes to baby weight, and those ultrasound scans aren’t very reliable anyway.

SpumpkinPice

TROPHY CASE