I am working on a more substantial blog on CME/MOCs which has been very helpful. It’s mostly helping me organize my thoughts of CME/MOCs and how much they cost. Like with most things, I now realize that we all have plenty of CME/MOC opportunities for free at our HMO and there is no reason to pay for outside ones. But that will be a more comprehensive blogpost as I need to look up some more information before I publish it.
July 3, 2020
by drplasticpicker
The medical training process can be brutal. Even in pediatrics after the 80-hour-work-week restrictions and in a more “benign” supportive program, it was hard. I think all of us tend to forget as we get older and are professionally and financially and psychologically in safer places. I wrote this post about the culture of bullying in medicine and physician burnout, which I thought was decent https://drplasticpicker.com/stop-physician-burn-out-there-is-no-house-of-god/. The other byproduct of being a doctor is that I’ve fallen asleep in odd places.
July 2, 2020
by drplasticpicker
I had a full day of clinic yesterday and everyone showed up. I was mostly catching up on physicals. We are desperately trying to make sure we get the vaccination rates up. Because of COVID-19, the national vaccination rates have plummetted and we are worried about the collatoral damage of a vaccine preventable disease outbreak among children especially measles. I’m on the vaccine planning committees for our HMO and we are getting ready for drive-through vaccine campaigns and have generally been very proactive in this work. Our area’s vaccine rates have not plummeted and have indeed remained steady, and hopfully will increase with our work.
July 1, 2020
by drplasticpicker
There is always a bright side in life!!! We may be in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. I may have been fielding irate phone calls from frustrated front-line providers who feel they do not have adequate PPE. As parents we are all worried about whether school commences in September, and even if it does- will it fuel the spread of COVID-19? But it is the first day of July 2020 and it’s designated Plastic-Free July!!! Did you even know that such a wonderful month existed? Well I am Dr. Plastic Picker and this is going to be a fun month for me, filled with moments of trying to move my life to less plastic. I’m telling you, when I attended a talk on the Science of Happiness and Gratitude at one of our HMO Regional meetings and they said 50% of happiness is genetic, I know they were speaking to me! And Dr. Plastic Picker is so happy that it’s Plastic Free July!
June 30, 2020
by drplastipicker
It’s June 30, 2020. Things were a bit off yesterday. The great benefit about blogging is that it enables me to sort out my emotions. I mentioned to Mr. Plastic Picker that I was off yesterday because the world is off right now as the COVID-19 pandemic is rising. I think we forget, even Dr. Plastic Picker, the historic nature and god awfulness of this entire thing. Many of us, especially anti-maskers, are in a state of denial. Then my mother-in-law went to the ED, thankfully for a minor illness. My mother was upset at my father for an upcoming business trip to Arizona, where they are becoming another hot spot. But he’s cancelled it now. I had a slight headache and I could not figure out why. But it’s during these early morning blogging sessions that I find forgiveness and understanding and know that I am stressed like everyone else.
June 28, 2020
by drplasticpicker
My name is Dr. Plastic Picker and I am so mad at the world right now. I am mad at anti-maskers. I am mad at our national leadership. I am mad at every adult on Facebook that shared COVID-19 conspiracy theories. Yes, this is America and you have free speech. But you are also an adult, and as an adult you have to watch what you say as your words have consequences. All those words and Facebook memes have sowed doubt into our country and has fueled the spread of COVID-19. We are entering another wave of this pandemic.
June 28, 2020
by drplasticpicker
Good morning pediatric climate activist! The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Chapter 3 San Diego Imperial County (CA3) Climate Change and Health Committee is alive and well. I just paid $755.17 to renew my personal AAP national membership ($676), CH Chapter 3 Membership ($66.67) and Council on Environmental Health (COEH) Fellow Package ($12.50). Although I am usually very frugal, the $755.17 is well worth it and it lends our work credibility to work within the auspices of a larger organization. Plus, now I can consistently put FAAP (Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics) – Fellow COEH (Committee of Environmental Health) in my emails. So much of life is just about showing up. Just updated my Who Is Dr. Plastic Picker Page with these credentials https://drplasticpicker.com/about-me/. Go me.
June 27, 2020
by drplasticpicker
Dr. Plastic Picker is quite pleased with myself this morning. My friend Dr. Jill Gustafson had commented after I posted on my personal facebook page about Virtual Meeting Fatigue, that we should make up a meeting lingo bingo game. At one of my virtual vaccine meetings someone said the word “STAKE HOLDER” and that put me over the edge. I muted the meeting and started taking selfies of myself, and then took a nap. When I woke up and unmuted the mic, and the meeting was still ongoing and the lingo was continuing – although I did not hear the word STAKE HOLDER again.
I recently had a 25 day blogging streak. I wasn’t sure if I would just edit the site versus write another blog, but I found a recent gift from my friend Dr. Jill Gustafson inspiring https://drplasticpicker.com/dr-jill-gustafson-environmentally-minded-pediatrician-4/ so I decided to continue my streak. I’ve had many happy moments that I was thinking of sharing as a blog post. But the beauty of yesterday was almost too much so I will give you just glimpses of our day yesterday.
June 25, 2020
by drplasticpicker
There is a classic medical traininig American book called the “House of God” by an author who wrote under the pseudonym Samuel Shem. Published in 1978, it is a fictionalized rendition of a group of interns as they go through their dehumanizing medical intern year. If you are considering medical school, I highly recommend it. You need to know the history of our profession. In some sad ways it is still very accurate. I forgot now how much that book struck me, and that likely much of the way I name things on this blog is influenced by that novel. That book is set at Beth Israel Deaconness Hospital, one of the teaching hospital systems within the Harvard system. I trained at another Harvard teaching hospital that I call Mans Greatest Hospital, and all of us who trained there still harbour that belief.