Tetanus: When Gardening Becomes Life Threatening

After I was told that I could not have more antibiotic because the tetanus test showed I did not
have tetanus, I found a significant amount of information on the Internet which said that there
was no test that could be used to diagnose tetanus.

The following are the subject lines of the emails I sent in hopes of getting Dr. Fitzpatrick to
change her mind about the antibiotic.

Unfortunately she was wedded to the idea of me going into her hyperbaric chamber to fight the
tetanus, since tetanus is anaerobic, I guess was her reasoning.

But from what I knew about hyperbaric chambers there was no way I was going to be able to
stand the air pressure change without getting the extremely painful muscle seizures in my back. (I
stayed very still most of the time because that made the feeling that had preceded them, and still
came back, again go away.

In any case, the following are the subject line of the emails I wrote to Alan Graham, my
Department of Vocational Rehabilitation case manager, and Corrine Romero, my Traumatic
Brain Injury case manager, in hopes that they could help me get an antibiotic refill from Whole
Life Clinic.

This was after Whole Life Clinic had denied the refill and told Alan Graham that I did not have
tetanus. I copied (cc) the messages to Whole Life Clinic.

(Below each subject line is the link, in case you want to compare the page to the email.)

"Please read, "How is tetanus diagnosed?" toward the bottom of this article"

"Mayo Clinic info on Tetanus: "Laboratory tests aren't used to diagnose tetanus" --
I'll make that bit red"
www.mayoclinic.com/invoke.cfm?objectid=587F4C3E-C865-43F8-A8C3BA3F134978C3&dsec
tion=5

"Less likely... but it does not say that it rules it out. this is far toward the bottom.
If you had felt the contractions, you'd know why I'm scared"
www.emedicine.com/emerg/topic574.htm

"This talks about how it CANNOT be used to diagnose the active disease
conclusively: Test limitations!!!!"
http://64.233.179.104/search?q=cache:TPystMnGCDUJ:www.rapidtest.com/Tetanus_8205-3.do
c+tetanu s +test&h l=en

"Under "Efficacy and Immunogenicity" it gives test results similar to the ones
TriCore's test had... this is NOT for identifying the disease"
www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/dird-dimr/vpd-mev/tetanus_e.html