river

Stretching, yoga, and cardio when I can, but work (and a general dislike of off-ice training) is making it hard right now. If I can't skate, at least hopefully I won't be completely out of shape when the rink finally reopens.

Hmm... let's see what the most Yuzu-like thing I've ever done is. As I'm not GOAT-level in anything, I think it's kind of a stretch to find something. Maybe it's how my report card always said "needs improvement" in the place where they graded how well I paid attention in class as a kid? Given that Yuzu apparently always tried to play baseball with the flyers at his rink instead of practicing, I'm guessing he wasn't the greatest at staying on task either. Well, the last time I made hot chocolate, I did make a rather horrifyingly sweet concoction of hot chocolate with far too many toppings. There is that.

I don’t speak French, but even this link says that chloroquine is acceptable for use in pregnancy for anti-malarial prophylaxis if Google translate is right. I can find no information in English to back up your assertion that chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine are contraindicated in pregnancy, and several sources stating that they are appropriate for certain conditions in pregnancy. (CDC, WHO). I can certainly tell you that it is recommended practice in the US to continue hydroxychloroquine (which was the drug in the study, not chloroquine) in pregnant patients with lupus. Therefore, it is critical that pregnant patients be included in these studies - the physiology of pregnant women is so different that it can be misleading to generalize results from non-pregnant patients, and I could certainly use the clinical guidance as COVID-19 becomes more of an emerging issue where I live. Sorry, we’re getting off topic here. But the unnecessary exclusion of pregnant patients from clinical trials is clearly a sore spot for obstetricians, self included.

I’m an obstetrician. Hydroxychloroquine is not contraindicated in pregnancy, it is one of the preferred meds for lupus in pregnancy, at least in the US. I’ve read the study, not sure why you’re insisting that lost to follow up means they got better and left - I’m literally just reporting why those patients were not included in the final analysis, which was only due to clinical improvement in one of the six. And we do not have enough medication for everyone who is diagnosed - it is currently in such a shortage that prescriptions are being heavily scrutinized.

I have some serious concerns about the methodology of the French hydroxychloroquine/azithromycin study. 23% of the treatment group was excluded from analysis - 3 because they went to the ICU, 1 because they died, 1 left the study prematurely after improving, and 1 for an unknown reason. There were no ICU transfers or deaths in the control group. The primary endpoint of the study was virological clearance, not a clinical outcome... but mortality and need for intensive care seem like a pretty important secondary outcome to explore, not to just say "lost to follow up." Children and pregnant women were excluded from the study despite no contraindications in those groups. The study arms were not randomly selected, the control group was made of patients with either an exclusion criteria for the treatment arm, or patients who refused the treatment arm. Chloroquine and its derivatives have always looked promising in vitro for other viral infections, but unfortunately it's never been particularly useful in vivo. I don't think the evidence is there to routinely recommend its use, especially as it does have cardiac side effects. Also, in the US, we don't have enough medication to use it as a treatment for COVID-19 (and especially not a prophylactic treatment) and for those patients with lupus and rheumatoid arthritis for whom it has proven benefit.

Please. I work in healthcare, and I know a lot of other satellites do as well. I could really use a break from the COVID talk, as things are starting to heat up where I live. Obviously I don't mind talking about it, but for my own mental health, it's best quarantined (sorry, can't resist the pun) from my hobbies.

I believe he’s said before that he, like all athletes, tries to eat healthy, but does occasionally have a less healthy snack. There’s too much footage of him eating the bars of Ghana chocolate on set for him to have a chocolate allergy. He is allergic to alcohol, however. Edit: plus the GPF “flowers.” Based on how excited he looked when he realized what they were made from, I’m guessing he really likes chocolate...

He was born in Moscow, right? Yes!

Never mind, old (but cute!) news. The self-isolation is apparently getting to me.

They were the ones with the Austin Powers ex last season, right? Totally deserved the win.

Go watch their Black Swan exhibition. It’s great. There’s a reason it got as far as it did in the bracket.

Last season, ACI went on pre-sale in mid-June and SCI went on pre-sale in April. If you sign up on the Skate Canada website, they’ll email you when the pre-sales happen. Not sure exactly where on the site to do that, I signed up when I started to make plans for Worlds this season which was around a year and a half ago, so it’s been a while.

Yeah, I’m not, even though my rink is open. Which sucks, because I’m off work for a week (just because Worlds cancels doesn’t mean my PTO cancelled) unless the situation deteriorates to the point where I have to come back early, and I wish I could spend some of that time skating.