Dear RJ,

I seem to recall your desire to write House fic, but feeling intimidated by the level of detail necessary in medical terminology.

Have no fear. The writers of House don’t care much about that, actually. Here we are: Television Without Pity » House » Lines In The Sand

There are a number of things wrong with this scenario. This is about Valley Fever, a fungal infection that you can get by inhaling dust kicked up in central regions of California, particularly desert or high desert areas.

Here’s the thing: it ain’t like this.

“He asks Ali if she was in an earthquake during her recent trip to Fresno. She says there was a small one, and House tells her that she’s not in love with him: she has a spore in her brain. Enh, same difference. A fungus called Coccidioides immitis lives in California soil, only to be released into the air by those frequent earthquakes and breathed in by anyone stupid enough to live in the evil dangerous hellpit that is California. It causes the milky tears he saw Ali crying as well as those aches and pains and cold-like symptoms both she and her dad were suffering from. It can also cause “loss of inhibition and judgment,” i.e. thinking House was a great romantic prospect.”

1. NO EARTHQUAKES IN FRESNO. The central valley ‘burg of Fresno lies nowhere close to a fault. The last earthquake I felt was over a decade ago; it sort of jiggled the apartment. The only reason I woke up at all was my bird shrieking — birds are very sensitive to earthquakes. Certainly there was no dust thrown up by it. Earthquakes happen somewhere else, like Coalinga.

There are, however, plenty of construction sites. And those are very good at stirring up dirt, as are dust storms. But we all know California is just shaking itself apart with the earthquakes, so no mundane little thing like a bulldozer will do.

2. The symptoms are half right - Valley Fever can have the cold/flu symptoms, and lots of others that appear some of the time, but not all of the time. “Milky tears” aren’t on the list, nor is loss of inhibition. Sputum, skin lesions, chest pain, headache, rales, meningitis, and other things you can find here can happen. Pretty much everyone who lives in the central valley is exposed; a fraction of those develop symptoms, and lots of us develop a mild case and/or immunity. My grandmother died of complications that came about because she had Valley Fever, not because of the fungus itself. I worked with an African American who missed lots of work because of problems with Valley Fever; he always sounded like he had pneumonia. Simply writing a scrip doesn’t always help. Of course, House might not have known that - but you’d think he would have done a little research and referred the patient to someone with expertise?

Anyone with a link to WebMD could do a better job than this. Also, California=Earthquakes R Us? not so much. Lazy, Lazy. Bottom line? House is ALREADY as poorly researched as most fanfic. We could certainly do better, even if our only resource were wikipedia.