Special Edition: Staying healthy

So many of the A's have had stints on the DL this season, maybe they should set up a clinic in the Coliseum parking lot. MLB.com reports that Nick Swisher has mono.

And, as we all know, baseball players aren't like you and me. When I get a bad cold, I call in sick. Nick Swisher gets mono, but he still has to show up at work. And this is why they speculate he's slumping.

Now all I know about mononucleosis is that it's also called "the kissing disease." I don't want to jump to conclusions and bad punchlines, so I did what anyone would do when they want to get themselves informed about a medical matter.

I did a Google search.

(And by the way, last May Google launched Google Co-op which enables a refined search when you query certain subjects such as health or travel. You can see this for yourself if you do a google.com search for "mononucleosis" and see a bunch of links that show up near the top of the search results to help you narrow down your search and find sites that labeled by folks such as the Mayo Clinic and Health on the Net Foundation.)

I read more at familydoctor.org about this infection caused by the Epstein-Barr virus that usually affects those between the ages of 15 and 35. The virus, found in saliva and mucus, is passed through kissing though in rare cases it can be passed by coughing.

And the site also said this:

Avoid sports, activities or exercise of any kind until your doctor tells you it's safe. Moving around too much puts you at risk of rupturing your spleen. You need to avoid physical activities for about 3 to 4 weeks after the infection starts.

Okay then.

Well I hope Swish gets better and gets out of his slump soon!