Personally, I think dealing with the IRS as David does, is much more dangerous than many things that I have gotten myself into (or my government has gotten me into, James Bond indeed...).

I do have a natural curiosity, and I think that David has a good point, and that is if you can figure out how you almost got hit by a Mac truck by walking against the light, sorting that out in your mind is a very useful thing, which will keep you from making the same mistake twice. With opportunistic viruses, I don't think I can do anything different now that I know of, and like a piece of lead flying around in the air in the middle of a firefight, there is a certain randomness to viruses, be they HPV or the flu, that we have no control over, and cannot avoid exposure to. I would have to remain celibate to avoid it, and in my book, that just ain't gonna be.

As much as OCF tries to inform the public about HPV16 and the consequences of getting it, the truth is that the CDC thinks that about 80% of the whole US population will have some form of HPV in their lifetimes. We do not have any idea how many will get #16 vs. the other 129 versions, but we do know that the vast majority of people that get it, will have it cleared by their own immune systems, and it will be of no consequence to them. That being said, it is impossible to know today, given our understanding of our own genetics, how to determine who is in the group with an immune system that will recognize it, and who is not.

Given that, the ONLY thing that you have control over is getting screened for oral cancer every year. Maybe you are one of the lucky ones that has a perfect, robust immune system, maybe like David and I, you do not. We can't know or control that until it is too late. So OCF's mission is to drive people to annual opportunistic screenings, and we tell them about HPV because we want them to understand they cannot control this (like they could other risk factors like tobacco) and catching it early, is your best chance of staying on this side of the grass.

I do not find anything wrong with David wanting to know. I only comment on this occasionally, (as long as the treatment protocols stay the same) to make sure that it all stays in perspective. (Please note that on today's posting by David about PEG's I bit my tongue and offered no comment about continuing to swallow things if you have one. Indicating I am capable of restraint occasionally.)

I often used to wonder what attracted me to my first wife, who in our divorce, really cleaned my clock financially and in other ways. I finally figured it out, but after the fact, it was nothing more than an interesting observation on how my hormones were raging and how little control I had over them or my emotions. I still got my clock cleaned.... And figuring it out didn't put any money back in my account.

I would also like to say for as much as David and I like to snipe at each other in good faith and jest, I also agree that his passion for it is a good thing. It has turned him into a passionate advocate, something our disease does not have enough of, and we are lucky to have his passion on our side.