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Covid Morph

So far I have gotten positive Covid tests on one patient a week, all with really different symptoms.

One older person who was short of breath walking, tired, coughing and loose at the other end.

One young one whose only symptom was profuse throwing up.

One with a sore throat, nasal congestion, cough and feeling fairly awful and about to go on a trip, darn it.

There isn’t a nice pattern to tell me what the local strain is doing. It can do any darn old thing. I have also seen someone with strep throat and another couple who had similar symptoms to the others but did not have Covid. It’s morphing like an AI, I swear. I am masking in clinic but so far so good.

The Ragtag Daily Prompt is essential. I think it’s pretty essential for me to wear a mask in clinic, in crowds and on airplanes, since I am quite tired of pneumonias.

I have been the only “provider”, that is, doctor, in the clinic for the last two days. The medical assistants and front desk and I are starting to work as a team. I ask the front desk person how to communicate with her from the clinic room most efficiently. Something was weird about the refill system and it kept refusing refills. On Tuesday I had over 100 “documents” in the computer “box”. Lab work, specialist reports, refill requests, x-ray reports, nursing home things, surgery reports, wound clinic, emergency room, and so forth. I am trying to skim them, but I can’t say that I will remember person A’s dermatology report after skimming 60 others. If you go to your primary care provider and have had some major medical thing recently, remind them. They may have gotten and read the note, but gosh, it’s hard to remember at 100+ per day. Right now I have not met most of the people, so it is even harder.

The photograph is just for fun, taken a few weeks ago on the trail that runs by the Colorado River. Lovely!

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Canyon Brook

Welcome back, Cee! Glad you are healing!

I am living near Slope Creek and Canyon Brook. However, I have not found the creek or the brook. These are street names. The wildflowers here are blooming along this concrete ditch at the farm kitty corner to me. The farm has cattle and sometimes I hear roosters in the mornings.

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Giant rolls?

Do these look like giant delicious rolls?

Or maybe the front one is the Starship Enterprise and the back one is an enormous rabbit chasing it.

I do miss bakeries. I still go in with my daughter and sniff all of the delicious aromas, but I can only eat the things without gluten. Never mind, I could eat whatever I wanted for half my life.

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: bakery.

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Tinker, tailor

Tinker brought up this rhyme for me:

Rich Man, Poor Man, Beggar Man, Thief,
Doctor, Lawyer, Indian Chief.

It turns out that another version is

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Sailor,
Rich Man, Poor Man, Beggar Man, Thief

And I had forgotten AA Milne’s version called Cherry stones:

Tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor, rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief,
Or what about a cowboy, policeman, jailer, engine driver, or a pirate chief?
Or what about a ploughman or a keeper at the zoo,
Or what about a circus man who lets the people through?
Or the man who takes the pennies on the roundabouts and swings,
Or the man who plays the organ or the other man who sings?
Or what about the rabbit man with rabbits in his pockets
And what about a rocket man who’s always making rockets?
Oh it’s such a lot of things there are and such a lot to be
That there’s always lots of cherries on my little cherry tree.

Now I’m going to have to play with a version with some current jobs:

What about a tweeter, a twerker, a medical AI?
Influencer, programmer, cooker of meth highs?

Oops, that might not be the children’s version.

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: tinker.

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Outdoor feed

My daughter, her housemate and her housemate’s parents came Friday night. We all went to Arches National Park yesterday morning. This is part of the Parade of Elephants.

This morning we went to the Colorado National Monument again.

My daughter and I both practically backed away from this optical illusion. CUT THAT OUT! NOT FUNNY!

Anyhow, the outdoors is my feed, nourishing and amazing all the time.

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: feed.

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Staying the course

Have you ever started talking to someone, only to find out that they throw amazing accusations and lies at you? I have had a patient say “You are FORCING me to use heroin.” It’s a bit disconcerting.

Imagine this in a debate. I can leave the room and end things in clinic. I can ignore family members that tell made up stories about me over and over. They want to believe what they want to believe. They don’t fact check. Aren’t you glad I don’t do that with people in clinic? Make stuff up? I don’t want a doctor who does that nor a president.

I don’t find it “presidential” to spend an hour and a half snarling lies, false blame and accusations. That is not leadership.

I am not voting for the biggest liar on the block.

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: serenity.