November 8, 2026

by Dr. Plastic Picker

Phew! The Blue Wave happened. That was really a crazy night as a country to go through. Now we all have a new cast of characters to watch on the political stage, Ossof, Abdul, Lance-Bottoms, Talarico, Hinojoso. It’s funny how those names are now part of our every day parlance.

I think we may have some new readers on the blog, so be forewarned that this is my unfiltered climate thoughts! It’s my climate diary of what it’s like to be this eco-avatar me.

And during the election I was giggling to myself because I learned what Fugglers were from a young child in clinic. The teeth look really REAL. So I made a social media post about voting and fugglers. It was approved , BY ME!

It’s still very surreal about the blue wave. For my part, I posted a few times about #VOTEKIDS and had the bottoms and the swag from our local AAP chapter. Mostly my part was doing the epic MEASURE B commercial. That was super interesting and I got to learn and work with a few interesting people. I don’t actually really like a particular person, and it was interesting to see them spinning in their own mind and what they thought of themselves and their place in the world. But I’m a doctor too so I know that psychology of being a pediatrician is interesting and we are all made different. In the end MEASURE B passed! And it was close so it really took ALL OF US! And everyone’s efforts were important and impactful, and we each have our own spheres of influence.

The San Diego Foundation website on measure B has the best analysis. https://votereducation.sdfoundation.org/issues/tijuana-river

So now that Measure B has passed, 20% is dedicated to stopping Tijuana Sewage River flows into the ocean. That is a dedicated 80 million dollars! Phew. That’s super important because the sewage is being traced to go all the way up to La Jolla now.

Also Prop 45 FAILED. Which is great because Dr. Sabrina Perrino and I worked with on this op-ed with a broad coalition. https://thecoastnews.com/opinion-protect-our-health-and-environment-vote-no-on-prop-45/ And it was a good thing because Prop 45 FAILED. It was a dangerous proposition! Phew.

We also made sure our entire family voted, and brought up our son’s ballot up to UC Berkeley, and when we visited our daughter at Cambridge and Harvard, brought her ballot and made sure it was counted! I think at some point maybe 2 years ago, I donated $500 to Environmental Voter Project? Dr. Bruce Bekkar had invited me to some virtual meeting and I chipped in $500. I don’t really work with them anymore, but I get their emails and know they are also doing good stuff.

So congratulations to everyone and the climate. I try to be non-partisan but in general the Blue Wave is pro-climate. I don’t really trust others to protect the earth and kids, so I have to keep on going by part for the next 4 years at least through San Diego Pediatricians for Clean Air. I promised a decade of action, and we are done with year 6! It was really great. We had a virtual meeting for our group, and a lot of students showed up and a new pediatrician! We also got a proclamation from the county, and it was San Diego Pediatricians for Clean Air Day recently! Shogo our webmaster updated our website, so check it out! https://sdpediatriciansforcleanair.com/san-diego-county-proclaims-october-27-2026-san-diego-pediatricians-for-clean-air-day

Wow! We have a day now! I’m proud of me. And little me when I was a little girl growing up in Clairemont, I think she’d be proud of me too.

October 26, 2026

by Dr. Plastic Picker

It’s 5:53am and I’m sitting at the kitchen table. We are back from Harvard’s Family Weekend, when freshmen and junior parents are welcome to campus to partake in lectures, activities and many happenings. Each family has a different student they are visiting, and every family has a different experience.

We were missing our oldest who was happily sleeping late in his apartment in the Bay Area (although we tried to facetime him several times), but the three of us were together through this important weekend. We reconnected and made memories, and we progressed in our relationships and understanding of each other, our new reality of being a spread-out family, and the world.

It was an absolutely beautiful weekend, and I shared many reels on Instagram. The task of helping a child to be enrolled as a first year at Harvard is a herculean task. But in the end, it’s a university like many universities but it’s her university and we get to celebrate her. And we make no apologies for it.

Here I am celebrating it with a hat!

And we got stickers, and bags. We bought mugs, and were going to buy more stuffed animals – but they ran out of the cute cheerleader /minibear that I liked. I’m going to go back and find it again on my next trip there.

That’s it! We are back and had a wonderful time as a family. I still was plugging away and doing some climate work. It can be overwhelming how many climate projects we are involved in, but it’s important to do to have a livable future for my children and all our children, and our patients (if you are a pediatrician or a nurse).

Thank you for letting me share my favorite picture from the weekend!!!

October 19, 2026

by Dr. Plastic Picker

Everything is really getting busy with the Montgomery Gibbs Executive Airport Leaded AvGas Pollution! I really got involved in this almost 5 years ago because it was a common sense issue. LEADED AIR POLLUTION IS BAD FOR KIDS BRAINS!!! And can you believe it’s gotten worse! I had no idea. I was so annoyed and irritated at the local inaction, that after working on the unleaded fuel talk issue locally – it made sense to help just change the state law. And California became the first state in the country to ban unleaded AvGas as of 2030. That’s in 4 years people! But even after you get a law passed, there are still those that profit from pollution and they will try to obstruct. And then mostly there are people who don’t do their jobs, and the issue falls off their radar screen.

But for all those that likely are very stressed right now. That’s a YOU PROBLEM, not my problem. All these children with developmental delay, I have to put in referrals. The health care and educational system have to pay outsized amounts in special needs services because someone ramped up flights for FLIGHT SCHOOL? When there is an option to do unleaded fuel??? They had an option to take action. But someone didn’t think about the 30 schools and all those school children that live under the flight path of these planes.

It’s funny how being a pediatrician makes one brave and there are so many other pediatricians in this conversation. The reason why is that our children and our patients aren’t able to speak up for themselves. Children bear the brunt of the ugliness of the world. They are vulnerable to the world of adults, that don’t take into consideration their neurodevelopment!

Well, guess what? My neurodevelopment is going great and we are ready for Wednesday’s webinar. We did such a small part. Had two students put together the event and did the social media ads (I wonder if they used AI?). I posted it everywhere. Emailed all the important family practice and pediatricians I know. At least I included them. Whether they show up, that’s on them. I showed up! I always show up. And that’s my super power. Well, not always – but most of the time because I have students from UCSD I need to supervise.

Anyway, I just wanted to say I have a lot of other projects I need to do. This one is super important, and many thanks to the amazing journalist that put it all together. Is there a halo around his head? His parents must love him so much , he’s that good of a person.

But I do have other projects that I need to work on. I have to finish our APHA poster. I’m curious why the two students who are supposed to be helping me with the poster are not helping me? I assume they are doing other important stuff but I honestly would like some help. And then we have a big working group now to address coding and extreme heat within our HMO and a date for the first meeting. That one is cool because we got together OC, San Diego, Southbay (is it southbay HMO) and MID-ATLANTIC!!! I’m really looking forward to putting together that literature search, and mentoring that specific student.

Okay. Just wanted the blog readership to know that Montgomery Gibbs Executive Airport/Clairemont leaded AvGas pollution is a really big and annoying issue, and so is the Tijuana Sewage Crisis. But there is also extreme heat and El Nino as well. OMG so many projects! There is endless opportunities for premedical students in pollution (unfortunately).

October 18, 2026

by Dr. Plastic Picker

I’m actually not sure who reads this blog or not. But it’s my blog, and where I share my unfiltered thoughts. The leaded AvGas pollution at Montgomery Gibbs Executive Airport – SUPER ANNOYING!!! I can’t BELIEVE IT’S STILL A THING! It’s not my job to clean up the leaded avGas pollution around Montgomery Gibbs Executive Airport! Literally, I have so many other projects to do. We have the proposed AI data center in DOWNTOWN SAN DIEGO (people are cray cray!), El Nino and the health effects, the freakin tijuana sewage crisis and epic heat waves. And our group literally helped pass the city and state-wide legislation on leaded avGas pollution which goes into effect by 2030, and at our local airport it’s STILL NOT DONE!

Anyway, when life gives you lemons you make lemonade. And guess what whoever is responsible for not getting this done (which I’m not sure who but I know there is a newstory that is going to drop), I have two premedical students that need a project. They are volunteer, and I need to teach them ANYWAY so they are getting taught on how to contact speakers, how to organize a webinar, how to moderate a webinar, how to register events with the WHO and Children’s Environmental Health Network, and how to write an abstract and publish a paper.

They get all that mentoring and experience for FREE, and it’s a pretty easy project to do – so the two premedical students who really earned it got this project. This project got one of our previous students into Vanderbilt Medical School, another into Stoneybrook, one already interviewing at UCSF, and a resident at Children’s Hospital of Oakland. One of my climate friends Amanda Millstein once asked me when we were meeting on legislative priorities why I cared about leaded AvGas so much. The truth is that I don’t want to care about it AT ALL. But it’s super annoying and this thing NEEDS TO BE CLEANED UP. It’s not fair to the community, the children, and the grass roots activists are exhausted. I don’t mind being persistent about this because it’s an easy side-project for some of our students to do and I’M STILL HERE!

I was actually raised in Clairemont from infancy until 5, so I feel akin to the neighborhood and I worked there for a number of years at Kaiser Clairemont. We are just having a webinar but I sent it to everyone I thought needed to know.

I’m done with my part for now because I have a gazillion other things to do. I’m working on our epic October newsletter. I have to finish cleaning the grout in my kitchen. I have to finish the abstract for APHA. And I’m really proud of the students for all the work they are doing.

But do you think they used AI? I tell them I don’t use AI. We are dropping a paper on AI and the environmental effects. But I’m not the AI police. But please don’t use AI if you are working with me.

October 15, 2026

by Dr. Plastic Picker

Empty nesting. That was the goal, but it’s such an odd time. It’s been shocking to me how our lives and the interrelationship dynamics within our family have been upended just because our youngest left for college. Today is about the longest time she would have been away from home, since about 6 weeks would be the longest summer program.

We are all feeling the lost, the empty-nesting. Our oldest son was home this last weekend, and he was asleep in his old bedroom, and we enjoyed a weekend together. He was mostly doing 21-year-old things but we did have lunch together, and he saw a movie (horror so I did not go) with his father. We hugged and were together, and the grandparents were happy. But it wasn’t the same.

The empty nesting, it’s for a particular person but it’s also for a particular time in life. That time of literally building and maintaining that home for two vulnerable children is over. They are adults now and while still vulnerable in many ways, at the stage that they are supposed to learn things. I don’t want to take that opportunity away from them, so each of them is figuring it out.

I’m so incredibly proud of both of them. They are figuring it out. I think we hear more from our youngest because she’s more open with her feelings especially with me, so I’m living the angst with her. But she is absolutely figuring it out. She’s figuring out friends and classmates. She’s figuring out Friday nights, and outfits. She’s figuring out Shakespeare section, and source reading. She’s figuring out undergraduate clubs and preprofessional societies. She’s figuring out establishing personal boundaries, and continually coming back to who she is and what her values are. She’s figuring out quarter zips, and hoodies and how much to spend on a winter coat. She’s figuring out rainboots, and snowboots and you can’t wear sneakers in the rain and not expect to get them wet. She’s figuring out so many things and I’m incredibly proud of her. We’ll figure out how to deal with her intermittent nightmares soon, as she’s anxious at times like any young girl away from her protective family cocoon.

Our son has figured out so much in his now almost 4 years at UC Berkeley. He’s figuring out relationships and heart break. He’s figuring out graduate school applications and research labs. He’s teaching me and calls most nights. And I honestly need to appreciate his calls more. I have always been more unsure of my parenting with him, I think because I was a resident when we had him and was physically away from him more.

And I’m trying to figure out myself. Clinical work has been a blessing, and the rhythm of going to a familiar place and being with people who ask me about our daughter daily has been helpful. But I’ve scouring grout lines, replacing toilet seats, and I’m taking long walks by myself in unfamiliar paths. I’m going to conferences to public health associations I’ve never been a part of before, and I’m joining conservation boards and sponsoring trails so that other children have areas to walk and hike. I’m continuing in my climate work, and it helps.

But I’m so incredibly grateful for this blog. I’m proud of myself and my daughter. It’s been a happy time, but also a heart-breaking time for us. We are entering a different phase of our relationships and selfhoods, and it’s fundamentally a kind of parting. And that parting of the mother-young child relationships is heart breaking.

So for all the mothers and fathers that suddenly break out in tears, we are going through a similar process.

October 12, 2026

by Dr. Plastic Picker

I’m not sure if it was the weather? There is El Nino and a tropical storm that is coming through our area. The outsized amount of precipitation means that there are in other parts of the world, epic droughts. It’s forecast that upwards of over 400,000 people will die in this next climate fueled weather change.

This makes sense. Our daughter said she felt anxious. We also at home, her father and I, felt anxious. She’s away from us, the youngest, and we are used to being there more for her than our oldest. But the weather is changing, the climate is changing, and she’s at the same time off to college and was sick with her first prolonged illness.

She’s better now. She’s learning how to adapt. We are learning how to live with our anxiety. The world is learning how to adapt to this changing climate.

I reminded her to meditate. I reminded her to re-center and to ground herself. She is worried about existential things, but I told her fundamentally that she is surrounded by so much love and community. All those webs of connections have transplanted to Cambridge. But when she left for college, she did not go alone. We all went with her. All of us.

Mommy loves you very much. You exist. You exist in a cocoon of love. There is nothing to fear because my love for my daughter is infinite, and that gives me strength to plug along and try to make the world safer for all of us, all of our children. Because it makes me understand more how powerful everyone’s love for that child/daugther/son/child/nephew/niece can be.

Lots of climate projects this week! Lots of climate projects last week that were major! I hope everyone voted. I VOTED! I reminded our son to take his ballot up to Berkeley to vote, and we are brining her ballot to her in Cambridge shortly so she can vote as well. Please vote! It’s one of the most impactful things you can do for the world an the climate!

October 10, 2026

Did you see my epic commercial debut on Vote yes on Measure B?

It was very shocking to see my image, because I’m not wearing my glasses. It was so hot that day, and I was so sweaty! They put so much vaseline on my hair, but I’m okay with this! I have a lot of other pictures where I’m really girlie and satisfies my vanity.

Here, I thought was very flattering for Charting Pediatrics podcast.

I’m very proud of the commercial, because I’m okay looking like a real doctor! It said Dr. Vi T. Nguyen MD which is not really how doctors are usually listed – but they had to emphasize that I’m a DR and an MD. And I worked super hard for my MD and I worked super hard to take care of my patients and the community, so when Measure B (which includes supporting organizations like the American Academy of Pediatrics, League of Women Voters and Tijuana River Coalition). That’s why I showed up. Multiple groups asked me because they needed a doctor. So when I said my lines, I actually MEANT THEM! I think the diction is the part I’m most proud of. I remember this one moment during my training as a pediatrician in Boston and being asked if English was my first language. It actually isn’t. Vietnamese is, but I learned English pretty quick as a 5 year old in Clairemont at Louise May Alcott Elementary School.

Just wanted to let you know that I was really proud of my Measure B commercial as it’s important for children’s health and for the patients affected by the Tijuana River Sewage Crisis.

Plus when you see me in real life, you’ll say – OMG, You look much prettier. See, it’s all about managing expectations. I know my husband loves me because he thought I looked great. My nose looks pretty good! LOL. Just wanted to document my adventures as Dr. Plastic Picker who got to star in a commercial! It was 6 hours of filming and all volunteer from my end, and I had no idea they were going to use my segment. Another doctor came for the filming as well and that was a super interesting little side story, as I think all doctors and people are interesting. As long as we have the same goals, I’m willing to work with others.

October 8, 2026

The American Academy of Pediatrics National Convention and Exhibition just ended in San Diego. The filled audience that was inspired and connected by the national leadership on vaccines, immigrant children and defending science and medicine – have gone home. Since AAP NCE was in my actual home town and we were presenting a poster, it made sense to go. I honestly always think of things in terms of financial sense, and it made a lot of financial sense. I didn’t have to pay for housing, flight and only ate a meal at most a day there and an oat milk cappuccino. The oat milk cappuccino is expensive still at Starbucks. Its about $5 and they always ask for tip, which I do tip but it increases the cost. I had a premedical student with me, so covered some of her meals and coffee – she paid for the student registration. We definitely got a lot of swag bags!!! I’m giving out the swag to all my patients who come in the next few days, because it’s good karma and spreads the joy to my patients. They now know that their pediatrician is continuing to be educated in her field, which is taking care of them!!!

There were so many beautiful moments I wanted to remember from the AAP. But the one I wanted to remember the most was showing up for climate and health. It gave me so much purpose to those four days that I spent at the conference. It was interesting that no one on the Council of Environmental Health which I’m a part of, reached out to me. I had some of my co-author friends there, but without a paper to do and key people who are actually friends there – they did not reach out. That’s okay. I’m okay with not being necessarily liked for myself. I’m respected and appreciated for the shared work that we are doing which is okay with me.

The moment I wanted to remember was giving the biggest real hug, to Dr. Melissa Campbell who is my former continuity clinic resident. I actually helped train her, and she spent three years with me in clinic at Kaiser Otay Mesa. She works in our system now, and I do miss her. She knows the real me, because I’m a real mentor to her. It was the tightest hug and rare, because she’s a new mom trying to figure out life and work!

The other moment I wanted to remember is encouraging and making reality a joint podcast interview with my good friend Dr. QT Nguyen from University of Utah on the District 8 Extreme Heat and Fire Summit. The producers had reached out to me prior to AAP NCE about doing the podcast interview, and I had agreed and prepped for the interview. But I actually had the day wrong in my mind and had prepped a day EARLY. Since I had more time, I realized it would be more impactful for climate work (and actually ultimately easier for me) if it was a joint interview. I convinced Dr. QT Nguyen who I have known since college, to do the interview with me. She suggested wearing matchy-matchy clothes. We had a brief session prior, and just sat there as friends and chatted for a bit. I fixed my make-up and she straightened some fly-aways and we talked quietly about what we wanted to get across. I’ve done enough interviews that i know kind of how things go over, and I wasn’t too worried because she’s actually a former speech and debate kid from high school.

So we did the interview and honestly, I’M SO PROUD OF US! We did really well and had an authentic back and forth about a topic that is very important. Wildfire smoke and it’s affect on pediatric health. I think we got across the fact that we are friends and have the same last name (Nguyen-Nguyen), and that it’s a scary threat to pediatric health. Wildfire smoke can travel thousands of miles away and definitely increase rates of asthma, adult cardiovascular events and all sorts of likely cognitive outcomes. A lot of scary things are released into the air when things burn.

There were so many moments during that conference. I think I ran into over 30 other pediatricians from work, training, climate work – that we stopped and connected together. But at the same time, for various reasons it was exhausting. It was emotionally exhausting because I had to mentor and lead our group of premedical students who helped organize the h3sd. Everything went well, but that mentoring this cycle was exhausting for me because the nature of some students is immature. I can be immature at times too, but definitely the importance of this work makes me want to be better.

So here I am, being a better mentor – a better adult and the mature person in the room as we head into the planning for H3SD 2027! I’m grateful for this journey. I’m giving myself a lot of forgiveness too, because being away from my children is confusing and this sense of constant unease. But I’m learning and I’m seeing my son this weekend!

Thank you for following along my parenting, mothering, environmental journey.

September 27, 2026

by Dr. Plastic Picker

My upper arms are nice and sore this morning! Yesterday I was at Sweetwater Park near the E street marsh and at Gunpoweder Point. Last time I had been there was over 15 years ago, and I remember that area well from junior high and high school years. I had taken Marine Biology as an elective one summer at Hilltop High School, but we essentially spent a glorious summer at what was known back then as “The Chula Vista Nature Interpretive Center.” It was such a wonderful peaceful summer observing birds and fiddler crabs, and coloring sheets about marine life.

So I was back at that area, now as Dr. Plastic Picker and a pediatrician. There was a general call out to help in the area, and I had sent it out to our department and also at our clinic. We had 5 amazing youth and adults from our own clinic, and we helped plant 100 native plants into a barren area that had packed dirt after likely decades of industrial use.

It felt so very wonderful being there with two of my own patients. We dug holes and planted native plants, and we created berms and watered the berms multiple times. We applied sunscreen, and hydrated out of a common watering station. We made sure we all rested and hydrated. I saw someone watering one of the new plants in the ground and there was this beautiful rainbow that blessed her.

I really enjoyed digging those holes! I think in total my pediatric patient and climate partner dug 15 holes and we planted 15 native plants together. We noticed a spider, and I noticed that he noticed a spider. It was a really interesting spider. We got to share these patches that now medical student Wayne Mai made years ago!

Sharing those patches with the youth that came by felt REALLY REALLY GOOD! I had paid for those patches years ago, and it had been designed with love by one of our then premedical students (who is now a medical student). I had lost them and then I found them this summer! So they are finally being put to good use.

We have about 150 more patches? So I’ll make sure to do enough events to deploy the rest of the patches. This is our contribution from San Diego Pediatricians for Clean Air!!!

It felt so good to learn how to dig holes! I had honestly never thought about how to dig a good hole. I got to share with my husband, my in-laws, and my own extended family (especially my nephew) how interesting it was to dig holes in the impacted dirt. He gave me some pointers on wearing real boots next time we dig holes. He said it would have made it easier.

But my upper arms are sore and I have a well earned blister, and I am so happy that I was able to be with four really wonderful people I know from work and clinic. We helped plant 100 native plants at an area that is an important habitat for native birds in the south county.

And I got to think about digging holes and watch other people dig holes, and I told my 17 year-old patient that how one approaches digging holes is really a metaphor. It was good to get down into the ground and do some real climate work yesterday!

September 24, 2026

by Dr. Plastic Picker

It is almost a month since we dropped our youngest off at Harvard for First-Year move in. So much has happened in a month. I had started this blogpost to update the readership but it was there half started, because I wasn’t really ready to share or talk about things. I don’t ever think as a parent one gets over your child growing up, and moving into college and their adult lives. High school friends family had similar posts, children who we have known since 4 now settling into their dorm rooms. It was wonderful to see on facebook their smiling faces and excitement. We were also living in our own family and drama, as every family has different dynamics and birth orders and number of remaining children at home and different lives outside of our parenting. But it was good to see that the stage we were in, others were in as well.

Move-in a month ago went very well. There was the mad dash to her packed as she would be the first to actually move cross country via plane. I remember sitting at work about 3 weeks before she was flying out and thinking, “gosh, she needs to get things actually into her suitcases.” We had no plan, but did have a deadline with the day we were flying out together as a family of 3. She was very organized with her list, and the last few weeks at home with me were lovely – especially now that I am thinking back in the quiet of my empty house. She needed to pick up dorm essentials at Target. She needed a better bathroom caddy. Towels. Bathrobe. One container of her bathroom needs to get by before she figured out how to navigate Harvard square. We needed stationary, and she needed face-masks so that maybe she would have a face-mask party with the college girlfriends. Which dress should she bring? Which shoes did she need? How cold was it going to get, and did we need to buy the winter gear here? We ended up at REI and at Carlsbad outlets and bought some outerwear and fleeces that would get her through at least the beginning of the fall. It was this lovely time and rushing home from work, because she needed to be driven somewhere and wanted to see her childhood spots one last time.

The actual Harvard move-in was lovely. Everything happened honestly seamlessly. The timing for each uber ride, T ride, dorm drop off and coffee-meet up with our newly transplanted child was perfect. Mr. Plastic Picker and I were amazed and nostalgic and excited for her. We helped her move into her actual room, and didn’t over buy. We met her roommates and saw the environment that she would be navigating for the next four years. We walked down streets and neighborhoods that we knew so well as students, but now really belonged to her. Her Harvard experience has been so vastly different than ours, but it’s comforting knowing the names of the buildings and the streets and having some basis of knowing where she is.

We saw students from San Diego from rival high schools, and had impressions and thoughts – that likely are not true at all anymore. And those students were characters in the first few weeks, and they’ve faded as new friends and roommates and classes and activities have crowded her days. We got to live with her fully for the three days we were together, moving her in and making sure she was settled. After much back and forth with my own sister, we had purchased for her super fancy (for us) luggage from AWAY as her college luggage set. I had never bought fancy luggage like that for myself, but for her – we wanted her to have something nice. And we made the Harvard instagram account with our luggage that had 3.5 million followers! That was an entire adventure in itself.

And since move-in, we’ve had 30 days of text messages and facetimes and conversations and updates. Harvard Move-In day was beautiful. She joined the Harvard class of 2030.

So somewhere in that crowd is our daughter, who joined the class of 2030. She’s an adult now and settling in, and living her life. I want to give her privacy and she’s been so giving to allow me to share some of her childhood with my patient sand parasocial friends. But it’s time for me to let that part go. It’s been so beautiful sharing these stories with the blog readership and with so many of my real friends. Thank you for cheering us on, and we’ll continue to do the same for you and mostly for our earth! There is still a lot of climate work to do!