Helping The Elderly

Thought this was an incredibly beautiful photo.


Someone playing ball with an elderly lady in a wheelchair! 


Too often, I think we forget or neglect the older, disabled, and disadvantaged population.


These were once the people who cared for us! 


As we grow older, life can get so much harder in terms of health, disability, finances, and even loneliness.


It is so important to show compassion, kindness, and care for the people who need us, and not to forget anyone along the journey of life!  😉

Even Dogs Wear Masks

Even Sophie the dog wears a mask against Coronavirus.


– If giver doesn’t wear mask and receiver does – 70% chance of transmission


– If giver wears mask and receiver doesn’t – 5% chance of transmission


– If giver wears mask and receiver wears mask – 1.5% chance of transmission


That’s doggie good statistics to avoid the Coronavirus plague.


People can learn just like dogs.  😉


(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Forgot To Bring Blood

So I go for some blood work today.


Lady pokes my arm, and nothing comes out. 


She moves the point of the needle around and around– still no blood. 

 

She says: “Hey, it’s your fault!”


I say: 

You’re right, no one told me that I was supposed to bring blood with me today. 


She looks up and says, “Okay let’s try the other arm!”


Then she spanks the arm…and I blurt out laughing, “hey do that again!”


Then poke, poke, and the blood easily fills a half dozen tubes.


She’s said, “You see that worked!”


I said:

I only brought blood in my right arm today!


If I could read her mind: “Ok, get the F*** out of the office.”


But she was nice and actually says, “You can get your results in about 3 days.”  😉


(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Keep The F*** Away From Me

Social distancing is the new norm.


Shaking hands is a no-no!


Even in the park yesterday, they had a sign prominently displayed that read:

Thank you for practicing social distancing. Please stay 6 FT apart.


We might as well all just wear t-shirts or little reminder signs on each of us with:

Keep the F*** away from me!


That about sums it up without putting up a specific distance range. 😉


(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Lockdown In Coronavirus

This photo is sort of what it feels like to be in lockdown during the Coronavirus pandemic. 


You’re stuck inside, but still have to keep everything moving anyway!


As we enter the next phase with people itching to go back out and “restart” life and the economy and the second wave where more people unfortunately get sick, we are really as they say:

Stuck between a rock and a hard place. 


That where bad thing can happen (G-d forbid) and it’s  never a good place to be. 😉


(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Matzo Ball Soup For The Soul

It’s a pretty well-known Jewish tradition that Chicken Soup is almost like an cure all. 


Our moms for centuries have preached chicken soup whenever you didn’t feel well or felt like you may be coming down with something. 


Hmm…I wonder if it even works on Coronavirus. Heck, I’d try it for sure. LOL


From an alternative medicine perspective, like it says on the package:

It’s penicillin in a pot.


Anyway, I thought this package kit of matzo ball soup was pretty cute. 


With the old lady that looks like she’s about to fall in the soup saying:

Good. Not as good as mine. But good. 


Hey, I guess there is no package matzo ball soup that is going to be as good as homemade. 


Especially as I was taught that the magic ingredient is not chicken, but love!  😉


(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Bacteria Vs. Virus–The Cure!

There is an old adage that:

The enemy of my enemy is my friend

Both bacteria and viruses are enemies of people in that they often make us sick. 

If they can make us sick, why can’t they be used to fight and make each other sick (i.e. destroy each other). 

Thus, bacteria can be our friend, if we use them to destroy viruses, like Coronavirus. 

Why can’t we create a “virus-eating bacteria” (and vice versa “bacteria-eating virus”) to destroy these little monsters that are infecting and killing us?

Let our enemies kill each other!  😉

(Credit Graphic: Andy Blumenthal)

The Doctor Is Out!

So one huge downside to this Coronavirus shutdown is that you can barely get any help for other medical conditions or elective surgeries. 


I just heard this morning from a relative about family members that can’t get shots they need for pain control or surgeries for breathing problems.


Everything now is COVID-19.


That’s the priority (maybe all of the top ten priorities)!


But does it really make sense to completely triage COVID-19 above Cancer, Heart Disease, Respiratory Disease, Strokes, Alzheimers, Diabetes, Kidney Disease, Liver Disease, Parkinson’s, and more. 


Coronavirus patients are who the hospital and ICU beds are for now. 


And the respirators. 


The testing. 


The new research dollars. 


Perhaps, the global medical community has gone a little Coronavirus crazy, extreme, radical, overboard in their singular focus, panic, and chaos over just one virus to the exclusion of everything else!


Apparently, our totally “overwhelmed” medical system can’t “walk and chew gum at the same time.”


Certainly, we have a lot to be grateful for to the dedicated and selfless doctors and nurses in the medical community for everything they are doing to help people with Coronavirus under very trying circumstances.


The problem is that in the meantime, people that have new or other chronic conditions are being left out and sometimes to rot. 


Unless of course you are a big fan of telemedicine, which may be good to get something routine looked after, but something major, and I think you’re in big trouble. 


After this Coronavirus (assuming there is an after), there is going to be a lot of pent up demand for medical care. 


I think a lot of people are suffering now with conditions that they were waiting to take care of until they were absolutely necessary, but unfortunately when it became necessary, then the care was not there. 


Makes you wonder whether and when you should do or put off medical procedures in the future: just because the care is there “today,” doesn’t mean it will be there tomorrow. 😉


(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

The Great COVID-19 Lie

We have been told that the first case of Coronavirus/COVID-19 death in the U.S. was in February 2020. 


First, we were told it was February 29 in Kirkland, Washington. 


Then that is was earlier on February 6 and 17 in California. 


But I and others who I have spoken to believe that the first cases of COVID-19 were with us many months earlier. 


Both I and my wife developed extreme coughing around the September/October timeframe. 


The coughing didn’t go away for months!


As is now being reported with COVID-19, it was like it reactivates again and again, 


I went to the MinuteClinic and was prescribed antibiotics. 


The cough lingered and got worse a second time. 


I think I went another time to Minute Clinic or to Urgent Care and got a stronger antibiotic. 


The cough lingered and got worse yet a third time. 


As I become weaker and more sick (with fever at some point(s)), I found myself waking up and barely able to even get out of bed. 


I forced myself back over to Urgent Care again. 


I was given the flu test and it was not the flu. 

 

And no one seemed to know what it was!


They told me that they were getting so many cases…I believe they said each location was seeing about 100 patients a day!


I was so weak I just laid on the doctors exam table half falling asleep and barely able to move to get up. 


I was given yet an even stronger antibiotic and I believe some steroid medication. 


After about 3-4 horrible months and almost near collapse, it finally started to get better. 


I don’t remember ever getting anything like this! 


I hadn’t traveled anywhere either. 


Lots of people seem to have had a similar experience. 


Was this COVID-19 or some precursor to it?


I/We may never know the truth. 


But these symptoms and sickness was not normal.


And the high number of cases I was hearing about was beyond anything I can remember. 


As we know everything about this COVID-19 is not normal as we can all attest to after weeks and months of global lockdown. 


The reason that you are hearing all the confusing and contradictory communications and crisis from the “experts” and in the media is because the professionals are confused!


And we are left to wonder: when will we find out the truth about what this is, when it started, what the real dangers to us are now and into the future, and whether there will really ever be a cure for it? 😉


(Credit Graphic: Andy Blumenthal)