Category: Plastic Picking Totals

October 6, 2020

by drplasticpicker

Yesterday morning I was in the state of FLOW. The creativity and the environmental work was flowing. I organized multiple projects for San Diego Pediatricians for Clean Air, AAP-CA3 Climate Change and Health, and various work projects. And then the real world intruded, and I had a full slate of patients. It was a good day, but emotionally draining due to one interaction. It’s interesting how the chaos in patients’ lives spills over into the lives of their doctors. As pediatricians we try to put up professional barriers but when parents delve into conpsiracy theories and choose not to vaccinate their children and put their children at risk – it’s one of the few things that can make any pediatrician irate especially if that young baby has fever. Yes ma’am, I’m telling you to go to the ED or a nearby urgent care clinic during a pandemic because your baby can be septic and at least needs blood work, urine cath, and a COVID test since you are not in our service area right now. Your baby may need a spinal tap, and it’s your own damn fault and the Lord help that baby that did not chose to be born to these set of parents. Did I say those words out loud that every pediatrician has thought? Of course not. But the irritability I’m sure comes across in my tone when the parents go off onto different tangents. As a pediatrician, it’s very important to stay focused when you are dealing with sleep deprived newborn parents that are crazy enough to believe the anti-vaxers. Yes I want high patient satisfaction scores, but I more want to make sure that baby does not die. I have realized afterwards that those same parents were suffering post-partum depression, actively using drugs, undergoing spousal abuse, homeless, or maybe just experienced some sort of trauma in their former home country and now has an inherent distrust of all large government-like systems (which includes the medical establishment). I in no way blame parents, but I deliver stern advice as I know my hair is grey underneath my monthly hair-dye. Ma’am, do you want me to call you tomorrow and check in on how you are doing on my day off (I of course did not say the last part)? Angry reply and tears, “I’d like to hang up so I can call those numbers that you gave me.” So my words had the intended effect to make her semi-panic and seek care and not sit on that fever for another 24 hours. With true sincerity I said, “I wish you the best of luck and please drive carefully.” Anyway, it’s frustrating right? I got home and some of that irritation spread to our dinner time as we were trying to throw pasta together and not get take-out. The kids were trying to tell me about their school progress, and I listened but not fully. I’ll ask them again about it today.

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Wow. This post really should be a year-in-review. An entire year of litter picking which includes street cleaning and beach plogging run, with the immediate goal of reducing ocean plastic pollution and the lofty goal of trying to save the planet. In total I’ve picked up 273 bags of ocean plastic pollution and salvaged 1006 items from the ocean https://drplasticpicker.com/plastic-picking-round-up/. I’m also mentally and physically healthier, and still working in health care middle-management. I’ve already made a big fuss about my Dr. Plastic Picker birthday, as Dr. Dear Friend bought me a birthday cake and I posted on the blog and my own personal facebook page. I keep spreadsheets of two things, our financial spreadsheet and our networth and the amount of bag of plastic that I have gathered. Both are very important to me, as I have stated before I am FISE (Financially Independent to Save the Earth) https://drplasticpicker.com/the-road-to-fise-financial-independence-to-save-the-earth/.

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September 3, 2020

by drplasticpicker

We have four cars and three drivers in our household. Our 2006 Honda Odyssey Touring Edition Minivan has less than 80,000 miles on it. We don’t really have a need for it anymore. Owning this extra car takes up mental headspace. We pay the insurance. We pay the DMV fee. My father-in-law has to think about driving it once in a while so the battery does not die. I keep on offering the minivan to others to borrow, as it’s an asset that has definite value. It’s a wonderful car. It’s just we don’t need it but we own it.

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August 9, 2020

by drplasticpicker

I’m trying to do what I can for AB345. It was rejected at the last committee hearing. The lobbying efforts including a statement from us as pediatricians from the South Bay of San Diego https://drplasticpicker.com/yes-on-ab345-press-conference-today/. I had blogged about my disappointment and the things I learned in what I thought was a light-hearted post https://drplasticpicker.com/ab-345-did-not-fail-politicians-failed-but-pediatricians-are-quick-learners-and-we-rise-up/. I actually sent a link to the post to the young policy analyst who I got to meet and a friendly neighborly note. “

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August 1, 2020

by drplasticpicker

About a year ago today I gave a speech in front of a local ethnic civic organization. My dad is a big funder of the organization, and asked me to give it. We had just had a measles case in our clinic, and RN Plastic Picker and I helped lead the effort to stop it. It was a complicated logistical dance with public health, our own infection control, patients and the media – but essentially I know that we helped stop a possible epidemic. I will always remember that as one of my greatest professional accomplishments. When I gave this speech in front of this civic organization, I related authoritarian governments with the measles virus. I spoke of needing to innoculate the population with knowledge of past evils, just like we innoculate children with measles vaccine. I had sent it over to my sister for comment, and as a gifted attorney and speaker herself she really liked it. I gave the speech and had dressed in a suit. My parents and my brothers were there. It is rare for all of us to gather just our original nuclear family (my sister could not make it since she lived out of state), and it was a big night for me. I had cancelled plans to fly to New York to visit Mr. Plastic Picker’s family to stay back to give this speech. It was important for my family and especially to my father.

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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.

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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.

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June 7, 2020

by drplasticpicker

We are living through a historic moment. Mass peaceful demonstrations for #blacklivesmatter dovetailing with the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our nephew, niece and brother-in-law in New York City participated in the demonstrations. They wore masks. I have already written my thoughts about the stain of racism on the health field as well https://drplasticpicker.com/blacklivesmatter-the-stain-of-slavery-colonialism-apartheid-extends-to-science/. The world has a lot of work to do. As America moves toward addressing the concerns of the #blacklivesmatter movement, #environmentaljustice should also be addressed because communities of color bear the greatest burden of climate change. Yet these same communities also bear the greatest burden of this pandemic. What a complex situation.

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May 31, 2020

by drplasticpicker

I just posted on my personal facebook page what I thought was a moving post about #blacklivesmatter. For the record Dr. Plastic Picker supports racial equality and equal representation for underrepresented minorities. I won’t post it here because I try to focus this blog on plastic and the environment. But when I reorganized the categories yesterday and tried to give them snazier names like changing “Interviews” to “Pediatrician & Eco-Warrior (Interviews),” I realized I have written a lot blogposts. One of the Secondary Net Career Positives from picking up now 198 bags of plastic and writing almost 200 blogposts is I am able to communicate my thoughts more effectively at work. I had to write a few longer pieces for work recently, and it was easy to write and those pieces flowed nicely. This is a very important skill.

Another Secondary Net Health Positive (I love being able to coin my own random phrases here), is that we have been eating more plant based, vegan, vegetarian meals and the entire family is healthier. The blog started off after I became frustrated paying weight watchers $29.99 a month. I had lost weight but I felt horrible. I would rush to Vons to buy a rotissiere chicken and put so much salt on it because it was 0 points on weight watchers. I do not even like meat that much, but following that program made me obsess over food like I’ve never done before. I realized something was wrong and I had to rethink wellness. Now I concentrate on picking up bags of plastic either #litterpicking or #beachcleanups and reducing the plastic packaging in our food. Trying to eat more sustainable has led us to a more #vegan #vegetarian diet. Above is yesterday’s simple dinner, which was Beyond Meat, store-brand pasta, and fresh tomatoes from our garden. It doesn’t look that special but it was delicious, easy to make and filling. We ate at about 3pm yesterday, and in the evening I snacked on some left overs and chia seed pudding https://drplasticpicker.com/five-high-fiber-plastic-free-breakfast-ideas-for-toddlers/. I feel so much better and Mr. Plastic Picker has noticed. LOL.

But let us get back to this series’ category and away from my random tangents. Here are the Secondary Environmental Net Positives for May 2020. I have really come to love this series because it prompts me to make small changes for the environment. I knew I wanted to get to fifteen changes for the post, so I finished lining the kitchen shelves yesterday with reused plastic coated science poster on asthma that had been sitting in my office for five years! Now my office is cleaner and I’ve protected our nice custom built shelves from the spices and sauces.

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May 8, 2020

by drplasticpicker

To say that this month has been a bit off is an understatement. We finished two months of COVID-19 quarantine. We are undergoing this collective experience. It has been documented on social media, including this blog. I made a comment on one of the COVID-19 MD Facebook Groups for Pediatricians under my real name. It was just a simple uplifting post about a patient encounter, and I kid you not – it generated already 373 likes and 32 comments of others sharing their stories. I was initially very excited but my wise high school son warned me that putting value in the number of likes one gets on social media is harmful. He is right. But I am still happy that the post resonated with my fellow pediatricians. It made them feel good. I think the story was straight forward, simply written and described a heartfelt encounter that many of us have as pediatricians. I was my gift to my colleagues as we are going through this collective angst.

What made me happiest about that post is that it was quickly written, well written and I think the by-product of now having written over 180 blog posts! I have now had 3 blog posts also accepted onto KevinMD. That my writing generates emotions is the greatest compliment I could receive. I’m still not quite comfortable with this new role I have taken (blogger/instagrammer/writer) but I love it. My old mentor in clinic years ago several times would send me grammatical corrections to my work emails, and I remember being unreasonably angry at him. I was so mad! Some of it was that I felt overworked as a younger mother and middle manager, but now I realize perhaps criticism of my writing hurt more than other criticisms because I valued writing as an artform.

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