This week's theme could be summed up in one word applied in a myriad of ways: storm.
I mean, we have the literal storm thing going on. Last night dumped many inches of snow and brought with it some wind. Our part of the world is not used to huge amounts of wind, so there are trees down everywhere. Me, I just finished shoveling all the wet floof around the house and I've got the bruhs out on the tractor plowing, as school was canceled today.
Honestly, I am quite thankful for the bruhs being present as the hubs is still a bit under the weather from his recent plaguery. He's got a lingering congestion that is more than slightly concerning me, but he won't even utter a peep of malcontent about the situation. He appears to be improving, albeit slowly.
The other storm is one of the mind. I started my Community Health Worker college course this week through ISU. That, on top of getting ready for my upcoming courses through LCSC has got me hopping. Oh yes, and I have my very driven daughter who is going through same thing down south in Pocatello at ISU. She's taking the equivalent of 36 credits this semester, some of that being an intensive EMT course, plus working at a care home as a CNA, and well, I think reality hit a bit yesterday.
For that is the storm part, the change, the upheaval, getting used to our new normals which is more than a fair bit of coursework each day.
I absolutely adore learning and school though, and had a little moment of joy when I aced the pre-assessment for the Behavioral Health and Substance Abuse Module that I also completed and aced today. All those years working with the public at the library and in 4-H really paid off.
That said, I'm really enjoying the course so far, especially the wealth of resources that have been collected and offered to us. Something I learned while being a librarian is that most people who are overwhelmed by something are often even more overwhelmed by knowing where to start, let alone having the energy to seek out services that they might not even know exist. It's nice to know things exist.
The final storm that I experienced over the last forty-eight hours was an emotional one. I read the book The People's Hospital by Ricardo Nuila. Holy heartstrings did that book hit me in the feels.
Dr. Nuila works at Ben Taub Hospital in Houston, Texas. Ben Taub is a public safety net hospital that is funded by the citizens of Houston. Through masterful storytelling he walks the reader through stories of his own patients, stories that show the glaring horridness and gaps that exist in the American healthcare system.
You see, I don't care about people's political affiliations when it comes to storytelling. Dr. Nuila lives and works among the people in his hospital. He cared enough about his calling as a physician to stay there and serve the care of humans when he could have easily chased the dollar. His book, via actual human stories, covers everything from costs, the state of fee-for-service structure in US healthcare, insurance, algorithmania, and the problem that is waste all through the lens of patients that he knows and knew personally.
The hardest thing for me to bear is the suffering people are going through that is completely unnecessary. Things like not being able to get care because you make $179 too much a month or running people through a bunch of tests because insurance requires it instead of just letting doctors treat patients in the most efficient and patient-centric way possible.
Something that has always bothered me, and this fits into my anti-divisionist mind framework, is that people are divided, catagorized, and labeled into groups that render them into numbers. When it comes to human beings I don't care where you come from, you should be cared for if you are sick. Period. The resources are there, we are just stubbornly holding onto systems and ideals instead of trying new things out.
Dr. Nuila's book though, it's not about the negative. Rather it is a painting of hope. We've got the means to treat and care for people, we just have to reimagine the machine, and me, I am a bit of an optimist and futurist. I believe we can figure it out.
In the meantime, I am going to be busy learning so I can find my place in the thick of all this caring for humans thing. A calling is a calling after all馃槉
And as most of the time, all of the images in this post were taken on the author's totally capable of calling iPhone.