Bigger or Better: Life outside of Texas

 Sometimes during hard times in life, when we are not absolutely overcome by stress, we get to grow a little in our soul. Hardship seems to naturally bring reflection--the very beginnings of it are seen in the common exclamation "Why me? How could this happen?"--and once we get over the self-pity, we can delve into true introspection, and begin an honest examination of our essence. Which is how I arrived at questioning whether I valued flesh over spirit, i.e. mankind's health or his redemption. I am very passionate about promoting health literacy and preventing disease [This may have come from my nursing career, or it may have caused my nursing career, or it may be that I don't want to be in charge of healing the entire world so let's get everyone's self-actualization going.], and boy have I had a lot to work with (or rather, work against) in this SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. I'm posting medical articles, giving [mostly]-solicited advice, and commenting with [the ...

 Last week the bishop of our church congregation [which doesn't actually congregate nowadays, being mostly on Zoom] helped us fill out a list of foods we needed from the Bishop's Storehouse [think of it as a  Food Bank, but managed by a religious organization]. It's the second time in the past two months that I've received groceries from the Storehouse, and it is such a God-send. I feel a little weird being on the receiving end, because it's not like we don't have any money, but it helps relieve some financial pressure when we don't have an income.  And it has a big impact on our menu.  Meat for hamburger patties? From the Storehouse. Cheese for the hamburgers? Tomato slices? From the Storehouse. Potatoes for homemade fries? From the Storehouse. Bread buns for aforementioned hamburgers? From the Storehouse, and quite miraculously: the volunteer who bagged the groceries put a cantaloupe on top of the buns, so they were a bit flattened, but overnight they flu...

 When I was high-school-age or younger, I thought the best way to approach (or, rather, receive ) difficulties in life was to take it all at once, and then you're home free for the rest of your life. No. Bad idea. If all of my trials came at me altogether as if they were the worst searchlight to ever locate a human being, I would crumple and burn. I believe my childhood logic was only taking into account the troubles that had happened to me so far, which were mostly non-fatal illnesses and school-related worries. I hadn't considered such things as conflict at work, or being overworked, or having (as I do now) no work. Logically, it's impossible to experience all of those work concerns simultaneously--how does one have conflict at a job if there is no job?--but even if there were no paradoxes, the "one-and-done" trial by all-existing-elements would not succeed. I'm defining success in trials as the ability to get back up after being knocked down, and it's a...

 Once upon a time, back when I was single, I had an acquaintance [I know that sounds stand-offish, but I feel really bad saying she's a friend right now when I can't even remember her name. I am so sorry, whoever you are] who used the term "funemployment." Well, that's one way to spin unpaid productivity. Or, more realistically, periods of unpaid unproductivity. My last day of work at my temporary job was last week. I was feeling nostalgic, and took pictures of things I'd miss. Like how the pictures in the women's bathroom are odd for the demographic they should be aiming for. ~framed pics of golf courses--not the first thing I think of when considering the female gender in a bathroom~ Or being in my favorite stairwell ~inspirational quotes and everything~ Or the lame retardant. I find it very interesting that the thought didn't even occur to me to take pictures of the people I've been working with. But, you know, I have their emails and cell numb...

 As I was trying to fall back asleep early this morning, I reflected on how much "x" is used in medical jargon. It doesn't represent a sound or a particular suffix, so I can't think how it got into so many abbreviations. Ultimately, this thought prompted me to go through the entire alphabet looking for all the ways "x" is used. And, no, it wasn't as soporific as counting sheep. But now I can share what I've come up with. A--[nothing that I'm familiar with. Actually, I'm going to skip all of the vowels because I don't think they are mainstream medical words] Bx--biopsy Cx--culture (as in microbial growth, not referring to the common beliefs and values of a group) Dx--diagnosis Fx; fxn--fracture; function Gx--[apparently used in pharmacology; I've never used it. or seen it.] Hx--history (e.g., social history, medical history, family history) Jx--joint [maybe. according to Google, anyway] Kx--[umm, nada.] Lx--maybe laxatives. maybe nothi...

There's a very important lesson I have learned from church: in confrontations, it is less antagonistic to share personal experiences than to share doctrinal arguments. I'm going to apply that to COVID-19, because for illogical reasons, it is a controversial topic. Is it going to answer every question about SARS-CoV-2? No. Are my experiences representative of those of healthcare professions across the country? Probably not. But hey, this is a blog, not a medical journal. Treatment Since the second week of May, I've been working with the Infectious Disease (ID) division, primarily to help out with COVID-19 patients. In the first week or two, all we had for treatment was tocilizumab (to stop a 'cytokine storm', which is an overexcited immune system making things way too hard on the body). It doesn't affect the actual virus at all. And is only helpful if you actually have a cytokine storm. And ok, technically, we also had convalescent plasma (antibodies from the b...

The other day at work, one of the patients I was following as part of the Infectious Disease consult team had an interesting convergence of current and "rudimentary" medical treatment. He had an infection [hopefully you figured that part out, since the ID team was consulted] in his foot that would not be cleared by antibiotics alone. Why? Because he had necrotic (aka dead/rotting) tissue that the bacteria would hang out in. If the tissue is dead, that means it doesn't have blood circulation to it anymore, which means any antibiotic we gave him--either intravenously or orally--would not reach where the bacteria were hiding. And it was most definitely not something that can be cured with Neosporin. The necessary cure? Cut off the dead tissue. Which usually takes multiple trips to the operating room, since we'd like to only remove unsalavageable tissue, which is a developing process--we watch for what heals and what doesn't. The alternative for becoming an OR frequen...