From the Late Night with David Letterman website...

derdrittemann2003@yahoo.c · medicine forum Guru Joined: 11 Sep 2005 Posts: 1799

Monday, July 17, 2006
Show #2590
by Michael Z. McIntee
(Mikemack@aol.com)
News From The Late Show Home Office

On the show tonight is a Dr. Charles Westfall, an expert on ticks. Dave
understands the dangers of ticks and realizes the importance of making
a daily body-check for the parasitic critters whenever you spend time
in the woods. And how do you give yourself a full body check for ticks
when alone? Dave will only say it involves straddling a mirror.

Back from commercial, we see Dave leafing through Dr. Charles
Westfall's book, "The Tick-ing Time Bomb." It's a large tome, a
lot more than one would expect for a book about ticks. It's not all
written pages, though. There are some pictures. Dave holds up a photo
of the big tick conference attended by many.

DR. CHARLES WESTFALL: He's a tick expert at the Parasitology
Laboratory at the National Institutes of Health and the author of the
book, "The Tick-ing Time Bomb." Anyone who watches the show
regularly knows that Dave has a fascination about ticks. He's been on
the tick bandwagon long before it was hot in the news, so this booking
came as no surprise to me. Dave mentioned earlier that only 1 in 200 of
the common deer tick is infected with the Lyme Disease. And it is not
fatal. Dr. Westfall expands on this. He then talks about the more
lethal Rocky Mountain deer tick. The doctor brought along some live
tick samples for us to examine. So tiny are they that they are hard to
see. We "see" the common deer tick, a tiny speck no bigger than a
poppy seed. Next is the more dangerous Rocky Mountain deer tick. Dr.
Westfall becomes slightly alarmed when he cannot spot the tick in its
case. Dave points to Dr. Westfall's wrist and asks, "Is that it
right there on your wrist?" Dr. Westfall looks at his wrist and
screams out, "Oh my God, it's a Rocky Mountain Deer Tick!" He
jumps up and screams that he is infected by the deer tick. He runs
across the stage holding his wrist away from his body but it is too
late. He feels the tick disease already running through his whole body.
Dr. Westfall begins to frantically scratch at his head and face. He is
indeed infected. In a complete state of panic, Dr. Westfall runs out
the back of the theater screaming like an hysterical (add your own
stereotyped person/race/gender). Dave, confused and faking concern,
says, "He ain't coming back."

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I don't personally remember ever hearing the phrase "over-diagnosed"
that was mentioned here and at Lymenet. Might be wrong about that,
but...

It's a wacky comedy bit, people.

Lighten up.

derdrittemann2003@yahoo.c · medicine forum Guru Joined: 11 Sep 2005 Posts: 1799

the 3rd Man wrote:

pmerv@hughes.net · medicine forum beginner Joined: 11 Apr 2006 Posts: 4

Let's imagine a comparable "funny" skit on, say, prostate cancer. Hm.
This does have possibilities. Or maybe cerebral palsy would be funnier
- or how about a really bad case of hemangioma? You know, the one where
blood vessels proliferate and cause strawberry marks. They can actually
"eat" away parts of a person's body, say the face, and usually occur in
children. Now THAT would be funny, don't you think? Maybe you or Chuck
could suggest one of these to Dave for a future show.

the 3rd Man wrote:

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