mystery
I'm going to have to get my own webspace soon. For the past couple of days, my blog has looked sorta funny. Didn't you notice that random 1/24 posting? Well, I just posted something and magically, it fixed itself... too spooky. One day I'm going to get off my lazy butt and actually create my own blog instead of biting off of blogger's templates.
Speaking of biting off templates.... Check out my good buddy's page: Choochy's blog. I didn't even know it existed until a few weeks ago. Honest.
1/29/2002
1/23/2002
besides the bronchitis thing...
The whole bronchitis thing distracted me from sharing about what I've been up to since Thanksgiving... here's the short and skinny on the past few months:
1. Coordinating volunteers to deliver meals to seniors and disabled people on the holidays through my organization's Meals on Wheels program. This was the first holiday meal delivery that our program has ever done! This meant that I did not spend Christmas or New Year's with my family and was not on the scheduled week-long vacation that everyone else in my program went on. I think Jan 1st was the day when my body said ENOUGH! and I got sick.
2. Organizing a Martin Luther King Jr Day event for almost 100 high school students in the Silicon Valley. Although I was sick for the crucial last weeks of planning, my team and I felt that our event went extremely well. The speakers were great and engaging, a lot of people came and the day went off without any major hitches. Gooooo event planning team! Our type A personality team rocks!
3. Currently I'm developing a short 5-minute presentation (with visuals and hand-outs) that I have to give to some of the people in my program this weekend on our annual mid-year retreat. Ugh to both the retreat and the presentation.
So yeah, on top of all this, there's the bronchitis thing. I took my last dose of antibiotics last night (woo hoo!!) but had to make a trip to the ER on Saturday night when I was having a hard time breathing. Ugh.
Being sick is stressful because I feel very powerless. My mind says that I need to do about 20 things right now, but my body says that I can only do one thing - rest. Most people would say, hey, that's great, I can just hang out and chill for awhile. But since I have all of these things hanging over my head, rest just doesn't feel, well, restful. Once again, this goes back to my need to have control. While I can help my body heal, it has to work itself out - I can't fix it and make it all better right away. This is very frustrating.
The whole bronchitis thing distracted me from sharing about what I've been up to since Thanksgiving... here's the short and skinny on the past few months:
1. Coordinating volunteers to deliver meals to seniors and disabled people on the holidays through my organization's Meals on Wheels program. This was the first holiday meal delivery that our program has ever done! This meant that I did not spend Christmas or New Year's with my family and was not on the scheduled week-long vacation that everyone else in my program went on. I think Jan 1st was the day when my body said ENOUGH! and I got sick.
2. Organizing a Martin Luther King Jr Day event for almost 100 high school students in the Silicon Valley. Although I was sick for the crucial last weeks of planning, my team and I felt that our event went extremely well. The speakers were great and engaging, a lot of people came and the day went off without any major hitches. Gooooo event planning team! Our type A personality team rocks!
3. Currently I'm developing a short 5-minute presentation (with visuals and hand-outs) that I have to give to some of the people in my program this weekend on our annual mid-year retreat. Ugh to both the retreat and the presentation.
So yeah, on top of all this, there's the bronchitis thing. I took my last dose of antibiotics last night (woo hoo!!) but had to make a trip to the ER on Saturday night when I was having a hard time breathing. Ugh.
Being sick is stressful because I feel very powerless. My mind says that I need to do about 20 things right now, but my body says that I can only do one thing - rest. Most people would say, hey, that's great, I can just hang out and chill for awhile. But since I have all of these things hanging over my head, rest just doesn't feel, well, restful. Once again, this goes back to my need to have control. While I can help my body heal, it has to work itself out - I can't fix it and make it all better right away. This is very frustrating.
1/14/2002
county med
2:30-3am, Sunday morning. When I walked into valley medical center's ER with a heavy chest and a tight cough, all I could think about was how I wanted to feel well again. I sat in the waiting room for almost three stinking hours in a county hospital waiting room probably comparable to a boring episode of ER.
5am. I was still in the waiting room. The thing was, all I had was a painful cough. I could have been in and out in 30 minutes. A person had to be bleeding, pregnant or near death to get any service (believe me, I saw a few of these people who were immediately shuttled in). After evesdropping on people in the waiting room, I learned that the average time to see a doctor seemed to be about 6 hours. SIX HOURS!? My roommate Jia came with me and I had her track down other locations that I could go to because obviously I was going to have to wait until daylight to see a doctor. We headed off to o'connor hospital (a private hopital) where the waiting room was deserted. I was escorted into a room in less than 30 minutes and diagnosed with bronchitis with a possibility of walking pneumonia. After an EKG and a chest X-ray, I was given a prescription for two types of medication and an inhalor type device.
7am. Jia and I walked out of the hospital. the sun was rising and the birds were chirping. We headed off to walgreens to get my medication and then headed home. Oh my goodness.
I guess I could chalk it up as "one of those experiences". But as I left o'connor hopital at 7am, I couldn't help thinking about those people that I had sat with in the waiting room at valley med. I wondered if they were still waiting to see a doctor at 7am. I'm sure that valley med was packed with those who could not afford insurance and possibly illegal immigrants who don't even qualify for insurance. While I had a choice of which facility i could go to for emergency services (I picked valley med because it was closer), I'm wondering how many of those people could not go anywhere but the county hospital.
I work at a non-profit community health organization that, among other services, provides insurance for kids in low-income families. After seeing the disparity between those who are fortunate to receive prompt and personal care and others who have no choice but to wait 6 hours to see a doctor, it made me realize how vital quality health services are. Sunday morning's adventures reminded me how fortunate I am to have health insurance and amazed at the process that you have to go through if you're sick or hurt and have no way to pay for these services.
So I guess this fiasco gave me a renewed sense of admiration for my friends studying to be in the medical profession and a greater understanding of the value of the organization I work for. I guess in almost every situation, there's always something to think about.
2:30-3am, Sunday morning. When I walked into valley medical center's ER with a heavy chest and a tight cough, all I could think about was how I wanted to feel well again. I sat in the waiting room for almost three stinking hours in a county hospital waiting room probably comparable to a boring episode of ER.
5am. I was still in the waiting room. The thing was, all I had was a painful cough. I could have been in and out in 30 minutes. A person had to be bleeding, pregnant or near death to get any service (believe me, I saw a few of these people who were immediately shuttled in). After evesdropping on people in the waiting room, I learned that the average time to see a doctor seemed to be about 6 hours. SIX HOURS!? My roommate Jia came with me and I had her track down other locations that I could go to because obviously I was going to have to wait until daylight to see a doctor. We headed off to o'connor hospital (a private hopital) where the waiting room was deserted. I was escorted into a room in less than 30 minutes and diagnosed with bronchitis with a possibility of walking pneumonia. After an EKG and a chest X-ray, I was given a prescription for two types of medication and an inhalor type device.
7am. Jia and I walked out of the hospital. the sun was rising and the birds were chirping. We headed off to walgreens to get my medication and then headed home. Oh my goodness.
I guess I could chalk it up as "one of those experiences". But as I left o'connor hopital at 7am, I couldn't help thinking about those people that I had sat with in the waiting room at valley med. I wondered if they were still waiting to see a doctor at 7am. I'm sure that valley med was packed with those who could not afford insurance and possibly illegal immigrants who don't even qualify for insurance. While I had a choice of which facility i could go to for emergency services (I picked valley med because it was closer), I'm wondering how many of those people could not go anywhere but the county hospital.
I work at a non-profit community health organization that, among other services, provides insurance for kids in low-income families. After seeing the disparity between those who are fortunate to receive prompt and personal care and others who have no choice but to wait 6 hours to see a doctor, it made me realize how vital quality health services are. Sunday morning's adventures reminded me how fortunate I am to have health insurance and amazed at the process that you have to go through if you're sick or hurt and have no way to pay for these services.
So I guess this fiasco gave me a renewed sense of admiration for my friends studying to be in the medical profession and a greater understanding of the value of the organization I work for. I guess in almost every situation, there's always something to think about.
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