3.18.2020

17/03/2020 - Day 3 Self-Quarantine

Let's skip the movie talk today.
I did watch a movie, The Purge, but nothing important we can conclude from it. Except for the blatant fact the movie points out about how the nicest people could turn into beast to protect their loved ones.

Let's discuss reality.
How it happens on earth right now.
On the verge of crisis, society once again fails to exhibit humanity values.
My parents are both doctors. They work at a local hospital no more than 10 kilometers away from my house. My father runs the hospital chain, knowing every facts and issues they have had from +10 years ago. Yet he doubt his experience would hundred percent helpful for this pandemic handling measures.

He said that some of the healthcare workers at the hospital are resigning, or at least filing their request. Doctors, nurses, even security guards.
Wait, what? They avoid contracting the virus by running from them, not fighting on them.
I know it sounds bad. But seeing from their perspectives, they might have an elderly to look for in their houses, or siblings with complex diseases, or newborn babies. Who knows?
The only thing we can rely on, is their willing to sacrifice by helping those strangers in need. And it's expensive. Are we wealthy enough to pay for it?

We had never really prepared for this. Our healthcare system and infrastructures are obviously not ready. How about the workers?
Here is a short insightful article about Occupational Groups who face the greatest risk of being infected by Covid-19. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/03/15/business/economy/coronavirus-worker-risk.html

This graph shows group of professions who are most likely exposed directly to the disease and/or to the infected patients who carry the disease. Each bubble represents an occupation, the bigger it is, the more people do that job.

Healthcare workers are at greatest risk. They can encounter diseases and infections daily through their regular jobs and they typically work in close proximity to one another and their patients.

This is an obvious fact, but at least it can remind us how important the role of healthcare workers are in this kind of situation. A situation my father once called, a healthcare warfare. (..um, John is that you?) Anyway, hop to the original article site so you can check what do each of the bubble represent and how much they earn.

--

Today also remind me about my childhood dream of being a doctor.
I once fought so hard to get into medical school and I lost it.
But actually, the thing I lost first was my initial reason of pursuing it.

In the middle of the fight, I forgot why I did it.
I forgot about the nights when my mother dropped me off to Grandma's house because she had night duty at the ER. Some nights she could catch a quick sleep in between patients, some nights she was busy saving lives.
I forgot about the months my father wasn't home to be with me, wasn't even in the country, to pursue higher study so he could be better in saving lives.
I forgot about the years our family had just enough for basic necessities, but not enough for my tuition next month, so Mom tried to find another job because apparently having an MD and save lives still couldn't pay the bills.
I forgot about those moments, yet I still insist on going for it.

I failed, most of you might know already.
Twice.

I don't know. Would it be different if I remembered all those things?

3.17.2020

16/03/2020 - Day 2 of Self-Quarantine

Look, this is Monday. Some of us still go to work, some of us work remotely from our own home. I personally stayed at home and successfully conducted a regular meeting through our Whatsapp group. I spent my day cooking Sirloin steak with my mother while still having my online presence on the Whatsapp group, in case anyone needs me to do my job right away. Not my typical Monday, not having to rush from home early in the morning so I could arrive at the office on time and prepare myself for a regular lunch meeting later that day.

This Monday we go slow
Wake up a little bit later,
Shower a little bit longer,
Workout a little bit harder,
And most importantly,
Home a little bit merrier.

Our usual Monday would not let us to go slow
We wake up early to avoid those traffic
We shower fast if we want to have time for breakfast
Do we even workout? I don't think so.
And our home is empty until later the evening.
But not today.

Could we take this chance to reconnect with our family?
To reconnect with our earth?
To reconnect with our past self?

15/03/2020 - Day 1 of Self-Quarantine

Covid-19 outbreak is entering our city. We're approaching stage 2 of pandemic status with more than a hundred of cases and up to 3% death toll. The government is trying to contain this pandemic by promoting 'social distancing'. Companies & schools are formulating remote activities system, including my office.

My thought right now: I'm sure my survival chance is high. A 25 years old and working out at least 3 times per week, I believe my immune is strong. But nobody knows if I was, or still am, an asymptomatic carrier of this disease. If so, that would be harmful for anyone in contact with me above the age of 50, or already carrying another disease in their body.

Living with parents with age over 50 and frequently visit a 75 years old grandmother, that thought surely haunts me to the core. I travel quite a lot across the city within the previous week. I might be in contact with anyone travelling from affected countries within the past week. Maybe from the gym, or on the office lift, or from the bar. I might not realize until it happens. And let's just pray it won't.

To let the thoughts away, I'd like to spend this 2 weeks of quarantine into a movie-marathon week. Today I'll start with movie with quite a resemblance from our current situation.

93 Days, adapted from a true story of a group of medical health workers in Nigeria when they were trying to contain Ebola from an outbreak in 2014. I might not dive on details, what I can say is the movie shows a handful of disturbing images of Ebola-infected patients. And it certainly not the best image you wish to see during an actual outbreak in your city 😅

But well, it was Ebola. Disease with up to 90% mortality rate involving fatal hemorrhage and organ failures. Here now we are facing a different monster with mortality rate under 3%, not to belittle Covid-19, but probably more controllable than what it showed in 93 Days.

One thing I can learn from the movie,
it was to trust yourself.
One female doctor in Nigeria was trusting herself enough to contain an infectious disease from spreading to a city with 20 millions people packed and pressed together. The index patient lie about his contact with Ebola and the doctor trusted her guts for not trusting him. She trusted herself enough, or otherwise it would be the worst outbreak in a mega-populated city.

Trust yourself enough to decide.
Trust yourself enough to be patient.
Trust yourself enough to keep things.
Trust yourself enough to let go.

4.18.2016

Please,

allow me to reintroduce myself-

2.13.2015

Never too late saying hello 2015!

Well, okay, I'm a month late.
Considering that I've just finished my 30 days out of town, up on the hill, surrounded by people only God knew who, but surprisingly became a precious time, I can tell that blogging is my current interest.
A million to share. A billion in mind.
You know, I've never thought this is gonna be one hell of experience.
They said, this is gonna be boring.
They said, prepare your fun time ammunition (read: DVDs, lots of DVDs).
And we prove them wrong.

See, we had a lot of fun. You can see sparks splattered everywhere.

"And if you have a minute why don't we go
Talk about it somewhere only we know?
This could be the end of everything
So why don't we go
Somewhere only we know?
Somewhere only we know?"
(Keane - Somewhere Only We Know)