February 6, 2020

by drplasticpicker

I have nothing TO DO this weekend. I will probably DO a lot, but I have nothing TO DO. I even put my work text messages on BUSY. Not DO NOT DISTURB just BUSY. I will finish Fridays charts this weekend, and probably do a couple of patient follow up calls. But even with the climate work, I don’t have anything TO DO. Last week we gave UCSD Family Practice Grand Rounds and submitted an abstract to the Journal of Applied Research in Children. So a lot happened.

And it is Saturday morning and even the kids don’t have anywhere to be because it is quarantine still. Last night I came home late from clinic on the later side, but not as late as the Friday night before. Our daughter had a Girl Scout meeting at 630pm and their father picked up sushi with lots of plastic packaging, as the kids requested sushi. I guess the carbon footprint from sushi isn’t that much because at most it’s little bits of fish. So we had sushi while our daughter was listening to her Girl Scout meeting and I went to bed early. Even with a normal full clinic day, work is tiring. Dr. Dear Friend had a very irate parent and multiple child protection issue cases, and she had a harder clinic day than I did. But it’s hard these days at work because of all the saddness when our families come in. COVID-19 has particularly hit the hispanic and southbay communities more, and this is where I practice. This is where I grew up.

Yesterday’s stories. Dad died. Both grandmothers died. Favorite grandmother back to work, and the other grandmother watching the kids and more particular and causing hyperventiliating and stressing out already stressed over virtual schooled children. Someone brought their “service” dog in, who clearly is not a service dog. But really, who am I to say anything to a small creature who brings comfort during this insane time? I petted pretty little Juliet the mini-daushaund. I told the family about our crazy poodle mix that head bunts other dogs because she learned it from our rabbits. Lots of teens and tween with restrictive eating behaviors, because it’s the one thing that they can control. My coffee tastes off this morning, is it because I have COVID? But I’m vaccinated? Patients in clinic a month out of Covid and their sense of smell not back yet.

Dr. Dear Friend was so busy yesterday finishing up a Child Protection Case with the resident at lunch, and I was fighting through the phone lines to get my own parents their COVID #2 vaccine scheduled out of our network. That’s a whole other frustration. But I was able to get my father his appointment, and one appointment center step closer to getting my mother’s COVID #2 scheduled. We had about 15 minutes until the next session and Dr. Dear Friend and I went for a walk. It’s so important to decompress between clinic sessions. I don’t know why it took me 15 years to learn that. And this is what we looked at.

The last one is very exciting, as it is Portulacaria the Elephant Bush Succulent Plant. From an Ecosia search “though usually commonly called Elephant Food, another common English name is Porkbush and the Afrikaans name is Spekboom, which translates from two words, ‘spek’ meaning “bacon” and ‘boom’ meaning “tree” as Bacon Tree. The names come from the fact that the leaves are edible, though with a sour flavor. It is widely browsed by wild and domestic animals in Africa and while it is touted as a favorite food of elephants, ostriches and cattle and can even be consumed by humans, it seems to be less palatable to deer and rabbits in our California gardens – go figure. Occasionally this plant is also called “Dwarf Jade”, a name that we think is confusing since this plant is not that closely related to the Jade plant, Crassula ovata. Portulacaria afra has also been used to bind soil to prevent erosion and is noted as a very efficient plant for absorbing atmospheric carbon (CO2) and is described as a “carbon sponge”, using both the more common C-3 pathway for carbon fixation in the photosynthesis process and, when the temperatures rise, also used the Crassulacean Acid Metabolism (CAM) pathway that is found in many other succulents. Because of this use of the two photosynthesis carbon pathways, this plant has garnered some amount of attention in South Africa’s social media with a byline “The Spekboom Challenge”, which encourages people to plant it as a natural carbon sequestration method to combat the country’s carbon emissions, but while this plant is pretty amazing for its ability to switch carbon pathways and sequester carbon in it dry natural environment, there is more carbon emitted into the atmosphere in South Africa than could be offset by restoring the original range of Portulacaria afra (more than 4 million acres) and the science also does not support the wholesale mass planting of it elsewhere, particularly if replacing plants in other biomes with solid stands of Portulacaria afra as a strategy to combat rising atmospheric carbon levels.” https://www.smgrowers.com/products/plants/plantdisplay.asp?plant_id=1314

So it is 624AM now and I finished the pizza dough and one we will eat tomorrow and one I will deliver to Dear Friend today on my way to the Home Depot in Mission Valley, or maybe I’ll be fancy and go to Loews?

And now our family is ready for Super Bowl Sunday, and we will eat our home-made pizza with lots of veggies on top. We hope we will be watching a good football game and not the swapping of COVID-19 variants between the Kansas City Chiefs and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

But like the pizza dough resting in the fridge, I am going to rest this weekend. As I had written at the beginning, I have nothing TO DO purposefully. I am on my own time so don’t call me. The doctor is not always in. Whoever put that sign up in front of our clinic about a decade ago, I wonder if there are still in management? Or were they even a doctor? Probably some overpaid MBA. Signing off, your irreverent financially independent trying to save the earth pediatrician. I am going to head to the beach for a quick plog and do a lot of gardening this weekend. I’m trying to change the micro-climate of a my roofdeck!!! Just like I’m trying to change the micro-climate of the HMO parking structure top deck. I’m giving them a green roof for free. It would usually cost tens of thousands of dollars. But don’t worry, I won’t charge anyone. It was part of my journey to physician healing and wellness. If anyone official ever interrogates me, I’ll tell them the truth. All your EMR pop-ups drove me psychotic and look at my patient satisfaction scores and check back on the computer logs at how often I was on EMR “working” when I was not getting paid. What were YOU DOING? Probably not as much as me. That is my defense. Plus if I ever need to, I can just dig my plants up and bring them home. Succulents have very shallow roots. So today, I have nothing TO DO except rest.

I hope if you are not working, you should mentally rest. It’s important to turn it off. If pizza dough can do it, you can do it too!