March 28, 2020

by drplasticpicker

The COVID-19 pandemic has definitely proven how powerful Facebook physician groups are. There are three main COVID-19 MD-only Facebook groups, and the clinical discussions, mutual assistance and advice is phenomenal. These are doctors helping other doctors, because we are all trying to save our communities. I was Zoom chatting with engineers from Hewlett Packard yesterday, and they were asking for information on what designs and equipment the medical community needed. I honestly told them, everything is on these Facebook groups. CNN is at least 48 hours behind these groups.

But one of the primary COVID-19 MD Facebook groups has 21,000 members! It can be a whirlwind of journal articles, posts, tutorial videos on how to make PPE and comments. There are journalist on the fringes, friends or spouses of members, and suddenly a post will receive a few comments and is then featured on a major news outlet. This is usually with permission of the commenters of course. You can see the pandemic coming toward you, as MDs from the current hot spots give us a preview of what is to come. One post that has been shared and copied multiple times has mentioned that on “Day 10 of illness Cytokine storm leading to acute ARDS and multiorgan failure. You can literally watch it happen in a matter of hours,” wrote the internist.

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March 24, 2020

by drplasticpicker

One of the bright spots of becoming Dr. Plastic Picker is since I have my own blog and a catchy internet handle, I can comment on some personal finance blogs that I have been reading for over a decade. When I was a young resident taking NICU call, I would look around me and analyze people’s financial lives. I realized that these super smart physicians that were training me were not as well-versed in personal finance. Some of the smartest ones went over to the dark side and sold their souls to pharmaceutical companies. You see, I am the daughter of an accountant and successful small-business owner. I absorbed my attending physicians’ lessons regarding medicine, but disregarded much of what they said about finances or real estate. Except Dr. Young-Ho Yoon, who advised me to start my Roth IRA https://drplasticpicker.com/dr-young-ho-yoon-pediatrian-and-environmentalist-1/. That guy is smart with his money.

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March 15, 2020

by drplasticpicker

Did the picture above catch your attention? It’s a bit odd. The large stuffed animal/bean bag animal is some kind of anime/Pokemon formerly loved object my millenial brother dropped off at my house. His 2-bedroom-2-bath downtown condo was getting too filled, and he passed this on to us. It’s an interesting piece of human artifact. Honestly, I did it more to keep it out of the landfill. If you want it , it’s in excellent condition so just let me know and I’ll clean it up (it’s pretty clean) and send it over after the COVID-19 crisis if you have kids who will love it. The other object is a plastic bag I made from scraps of plastic I save. I know it’s weird, but I have embraced my off-kilter personality. The Plastic Picker children consume enormous amounts of clementines now known universally as cuties. They actually do have fiber. My daughter and son pointed out to me about 1.7 grams per clementine https://drplasticpicker.com/squeasy-gear-1-tackling-the-pediatric-fiber-deficit-with-real-fruit-and-not-plastic/. But those cuties come in this god-awful orange plastic mesh bags with an elongated plastic product label strip that is a third the size of a piece of paper. Every time we throw these away, I have this irrational sense of guilt. I think it’s having picked up now 178 bags of ocean bound plastic. I’m not sure how a peditarician who picks up trash and pays my taxes and has not ever had an extramarital affair and never fake-called in a sick-day feels guilt? Not sure what my parents did to me when I was young.

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March 13, 2020

by drplasticpicker

I had purchased these rain barrels about 3 years ago. There was a major discount or rebate when I got them for almost 50% off. I forget the actual numbers. They are also made from 100% recycled plastic. They have served us well and with every downpour they catch gallons of rain that we later use to water the garden. Lettuce, tomatoes, lemons and many other organic delicious vegetables are the result. What I love about these rain barrels is that they were an investment that keeps on generating food and money savings. I just bought the rainbarrels, and my mother-in-law has taken them over and is so eager to use the water she catches as she says it’s better for her garden. I get to benefit from her garden’s bounty.

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March 10, 2020

by drplasticpicker

Dr. Plastic Picker is a little bit worried about COVID-19. Like everyone else I was touting hand-washing,which is the best way to contain the spread, and social distancing, which means stay home if you don’t absolutely need to go somewhere. I am worried not because I am worried about getting Coronavirus, which is a cold virus and given my age and no underlying comorbidities, I will likely have a mild illness. I am worried because I know human nature, and the health care system will only continue to run if health care workers think of ourselves as ESSENTIAL and quarantine ourselves if we need to and to show up to work when we are healthy.

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March 8, 2020

by drplasticpicker

COVID-19 is here. There is a cruiseship docked off the coast of Oakland with several infected persons and in our area there was 1 case at a local AT&T store. Dr. Plastic Picker worked at the CDC offices during the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the early 2000s, but the CDC today is not what it used to be. Messages are coming down from public health, but this lone pediatrician out on the blogsphere is skeptical of our public health leadership and I work as a front-line pediatrician at a large HMO now. I have some infectious disease chops as I did some heavy lifting to stop a Measles case last summer. During that case, I had to panic as Measles is highly infectious and unvaccinated infants were at risk. COVID-19 I am not as panicked since it is spread through contact, and I wash my hands. Also I am a pediatrician and my patients are not the ones at increased risk of death. But we have grandparents with underlying medical conditions so we do want to keep them safe.

Just like I think everyone should all pick up their own litter and maybe an extra 3-10 pieces on the beach, I can’t wait for the federal government or the CDC to mandate things. When I saw the plastic pollution along our beach, I went to the beach and I pick up trash and it makes me feel like I’m doing my part. Now that COVID-19 is here, I know that we all need to practice “social distancing” and I am not waiting until public health tells us to do so. We know how this will spread, by people fanning out to different locations from epicenters. Some travel is necessary. Most is not. The Spanish Flu moved slow throughout the world via train mostly. COVID-19 can spread fast. But our family will not contribute to this spread.

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March 3, 2020

by drplasticpicker

People are really in a panic regarding Covid-19. There are at least twice daily email updates it seems from upper echelon management about the policies and procedures. The most relevant item is that if one physician is potentially exposed to Covid-19 than that person has to be isolated for 14 days. So it seems prudent not to have physicians meet in large groups as we have to mobilize in case there is a real outbreak. We want to keep our physicians out of isolation. The reality is that if I get isolated, I’d probably just be surfing the internet and blogging and eating oatmeal and having a great time and getting paid. But it’s not good for patient care, as I can see up to 30 patients in a normal workday. I am a cog in a large efficient health care organization.

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