Hey, ready for your daily dose of horrifying health news? Cause today's is, uh, pretty horrifying. Considering it's being called a "catastrophic threat" to medicine and a "nightmare bacteria" on the rise in U.S. hospitals. Yes, we're talking about antibiotic resistance: Strains of already nasty bugs that have developed complete and total immunity to antibiotics. In other words, infections that we used to be able to treat with antibiotics are now more likely to kill you.

According to chief medical officer for England, Sally Davies, "Antimicrobial resistance poses a catastrophic threat. If we don't act now, any one of us could go into hospital in 20 years for minor surgery and die because of an ordinary infection that can't be treated by antibiotics."

"And routine operations like hip replacements or organ transplants could be deadly because of the risk of infection." Here in America, the "nightmare bacteria" has shown up in 42 states.

Eight hospital employees have lost their jobs after refusing to get the flu shot, which became mandatory for all staff this year.

Workers at IU Health Goshen Hospital in Indiana had the option to file for medical or religious exemptions -- but were then given the boot when they wouldn't get the vaccine.

The hospital says its new stricter rules are meant to protect patients with weaker immune systems, since the flu can be particularly dangerous and even deadly if those people catch it. While I appreciate that they're looking out for their patients' well-being, I have to wonder: what about the rights of their own employees?

By now, everybody knows Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been hospitalized with a blood clot, is being treated with anticoagulants, and will likely be released from New York Presbyterian Hospital in 48 hours, but we don't know much about the actual blood clot. Is it dangerous? Where is it? How did she get it? Are blood clots common?

Well, blood clots are fairly common and they can be dangerous, but the good news is they can be prevented, too. Clots form when blood pools and thickens, and once they're formed, they can travel through the body. There are different types of blood clots: A brain clot can occur after someone suffers a skull fracture (hmm, or a concussion?); a leg clot known as a deep vein thrombosis can occur after long periods of lying down (hmm, while recuperating from a concussion?); clots in blood vessels in the neck, lungs, and brain can occur as a result of clogged arteries or other conditions. The most dangerous type of blood clot?

Most moms don't hesitate to give our babies a little acetaminophen when they are under the weather and miserable, because we all pretty much follow the same notion: "How bad can a little pain and fever reducer be?"

Well, as it turns out, giving babies acetaminophen may put them at risk for developing asthma once they enter their preschool years. (Isn't that just great?)

I sit in the doctor’s office in a boxy blue paper gown, waiting. My heart is bouncing in my chest. What I find out today will shape my life for months -- years, even. I’m here to learn more about the breast cancer that wormed its way into my body when I wasn’t looking.

"Were my margins clear?" I ask the oncologist when he finally appears and explains that he’ll be sending my tumor cells to a lab in California for a test that will measure the chance of a recurrence.

"We wouldn’t be having this conversation if they weren’t," he says.

My margins were clear! I sigh in relief.

A month ago, I would have seen clear margins as a sign of a feeble mind. As a retired college professor, I still find it impossible to read without a pencil. My book margins are littered with notes.

A month ago, I belonged to the land of the healthy. I was on the giving end of sympathy, a much easier place to be than where I am now. 

The deadly fungal meningitis outbreak just gets scarier and scarier as the numbers continue to climb: At last count, 214 cases across 15 states, with 15 confirmed fatalities. All this because of a few tainted batches of one particular type of medication? Well, maybe not.

The FDA is now investigating two other drugs made by New England Compounding Center, or NECC, the same company responsible for the contaminated (now recalled) steroid. And it gets worse.

State pharmacy regulators accuse NECC of violating its license in Massachusetts by soliciting bulk orders from physicians when they were only authorized to deliver "patient-specific prescriptions." What does that mean?

Imagine you've been to the doctor multiple times for a vitamin deficiency. Now imagine that even after numerous treatments, you still have a deficiency, as well as low white blood cell counts. So your doctor runs some blood tests and finds out something awful. You are HIV-positive. He informs you of this. Do you a) cry, b) be grateful you found out what the problem is and commence treating your HIV, c) sue the doctor. If you're a certain 31-year-old woman in the sue-happy state of New York, you do c. Your reason? Besides hoping for a quick payout, I mean? Because you just don't want to know. Um ... okaaaay.

I've been battling chronic migraines and other assorted types of headaches (there are a SHOCKING number of types of headaches) for years now. They're genetic in my case - women from my father's side of the family seem to get migraines that just won't quit.

I've actually grown so accustomed to the headaches that I feel sort of weird when I don't have one!

In my travels through the nebulous world of diagnosis to treatment, I've learned a lot more about that pounding ache than I learned in nursing school. There are some downright surprising reasons for headaches.