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In the Hot Zone
Today wraps up the third day of our “hot zone” training, in the real ETU. The hot zone, is really termed the Red Zone, as distinct from the Green Zone, where one can walk around without PPE – personal protective equipment – because no potentially infected individuals are allowed in the Green Zone. We newbies…
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Practice in the Mock ETU
So, the last two days of training with IOM involved wearing the full PPE and going through simulated cases with our very generous survivor-teachers in the mock ETU which is set up in the stadium where the training took place. Thursday, we spent about 30 minutes in the ETU, and say two patients in the…
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Words of witness
Today’s training ran us through some very specific medical algorithms about treating patients infected with Ebola. And, then, in the afternoon, we heard from a panel of 6 survivors of EVD (Ebola virus disease). It triggered, for me, memories of the panels of AIDS patients who spoke to us in medical school, and who we…
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Training Week
(Written on Monday, but not sent, as I got hit by a wave of jet lag): We did our first day of training today. I didn’t bring a camera, so no photos, but I surely will tomorrow. Our small group of 6 joined several larger groups of trainees, for a total of about 50 people,…
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A New Adventure…
Today I spent my first day orienting at Partners In Health, in Boston. In three days, I and my 1/2 dozen new colleagues, and fellow adventurers, will be travelling to Sierra Leone, to assist with eradicating the remaining Ebola outbreak that was so much in the news last summer and fall (and has so remarkably…
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The Black Lagoon
What a great image – the Black Lagoon. Maybe something like this image? It communicates darkness, the foreboding, the potential danger. It also signals the idea of Isolation, which the agoraphobic mother in the book If I Fall, If I Die suffers from. When I and my sister were growing up, our years followed the…
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Monday – waiting for the Ferguson decision
Last Monday morning, like most mornings, my commute was in the company of NPR, which, like all the news outlets, was describing the preparations in Ferguson, MO, anticipating the announcement of the Grand Jury decision. My last patient of the day was a man I have taken care of for some time, but this appointment…
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What informs your reading?
It’s book club day at From Left To Write, and I’ve been scrambling to get far enough into this book, J, to write something informed about it (full disclosure, I haven’t finished reading it, but it’s definitely grabbed my attention!). And, as I read, I find that my reading is being informed by podcasts that…
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Jewish Identity
I’ve been catching up on my podcast listening, partly because of a reminder from my daughter about the new podcast Serial (which is fabulous!). My podcast subscriptions include three podcasts produced by The New Yorker magazine: New Yorker: Comment New Yorker: The Political Scene New Yorker: Fiction New Yorker: Outlook And the most recent episode…
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The cats of my life…
the first cat I remember is Moppet, rest her soul, who we owned when I remember living briefly with my grandparents briefly on Cowper Road in Palo Alto. That was the year I was in fourth grade, and our teacher taught us to bake a pie crust. I came home excited about my new knowledge,…
