SO SICK: Charity Thoman, MD, our newest columnist, is also in charge of overseeing the Communicable Disease Control Program for the Santa Barbara County Public Health Department. She says that she is more than happy to recount her adventures with “fascinating diseases” in her biweekly column, Health Matters. Dr. Thoman, who is also the mother of three boys, confesses that she “sometimes wears a Batman cape when at home.” Read all about the often grotesque and sometimes provocative ills that plague Santa Barbarans online at independent.com.