Plastic Bags

Do you remember when plastic grocery bags didn't exist? I do. However, most stores offer them ("Paper or plastic?") to customers. Some don't even offer paper bags any more.

Did you know that plastic bags that we use daily (for trash, groceries, etc) consitute 10% of our oil use in this country? Seriously. It takes 430,000 gallons of oil to make 100 million plastic bags. Yearly, 21,500,000 gallons of oil are used to make 5 TRILLION plastic bags world-wide, most of which end up in landfills. They are hard to recycle, take forever to degrade, and blow around, getting stuck in our trees and waterways. A term my son used on a windy day a few years ago coined it well: Urban Tumbleweed. Some municipalities (Such as San Francisco) are banning the use of plastic grocery bags due to the waste that occurs with this mode of bring groceries home. Reduce, Re-Use, and Recycle don't seem to work very well with plastic bags, unfortunately.

I am going back to cloth bags ASAP. Some of the newer ones seem to be made of a fiber of some sort that seems flimsy, but are actually quite strong. I get those bags at conferences all the time, and usually get rid of them, but I have been starting to use them for groceries, and they work fairly well! They are now selling them at grocery stores in my area for a couple of bucks each.


For a little humor, take a look at this: This was on a bag I got from Target the other day (Target does not have paper bags, BTW, and cloth bags don't seem to exist there.). I particularly like item numbers 3 and 6.

Honeybees and Cell Phones (A connection to their disappearance?)

There has been an ongoing problem for a few years now, nicknamed Colony Collapse Syndrome. Put simply, honeybees are disappearing. Beekeepers are releasing their bees in orchards and fields, and returning to find the colony gone, save for the queen and a few workers, and very immature bees. Up to 70% of honeybees in some areas are GONE.

Now an interesting possibility has emerged: Cell phones. According to this article in PC World, one of the prevailing theories is that cell phones are causing radiation that is impacting the bees ability to return to their hive. I don't know if this is the case, but if it is, we need to seriously reconsider our use of cell phones. We can't live without the bees pollinating crops. We can live without cell phones. More to come later.

UPDATE: Apparently, it is a parasite that has also affected honeybees in Europe as well. Honestly, I am glad it isn't the cell phones or towers, but they now need to figure out how to eradicate the parasite.

Earth Day

Today is Earth Day. Please remember to cherish this planet that we live on, and respect it. It is a gift from God.

I love Event Medicine!

It is days like today that I realize that my love of emergency medicine is alive and well. I worked out at Folsom Lake (a beautiful, albeit man-made lake just outside of Sacramento that provides a lot of the water for this region) for a friend of mine that runs an event medical service, First On-Scene EMS. It was a triathlon, and there were several hundred participants. This was a swim, a bicycle ride, and then a run. Its a lot of work for the participants. And sometimes a lot of work for those of us providing emergency medical care at these events. A lot of you know I also work for the Sacramento Rivercats, a AAA-affiliate Minor League baseball team. These two jobs have one thing in common. They are events. And event medicine is getting to be big.

The image that you see (on the left) is called the Star of Life. It is the multi-faceted approach to emergency care, with the ultimate goal of improving outcomes for those who are ill or injured. Notice the bottom phase, On-scene Care. This is where Event Medicine comes into play.

I started working in event medicine several years ago, and I love it! I thought I'd explain it a little more to everyone, so that you would understand what it is, and why it is important in today's society.

What is Event Medicine? Well, put simply, it is having emergency response personnel (EMT's and Paramedics) at events where large numbers of people are gathered. Rather than having someone call 911 when someone gets hurt or sick, a certain number of EMT's and/or Paramedics are on-scene to help stabilize and treat a patient and either transport them to the hospital, arrange for transport to the hospital, or release them from care (for minor injuries or illnesses that require no further treatment than provided).

Why is Event Medicine important?

Over the years, our activities have changed. Many people engage is what is considered "higher risk" activities than in the past. Soccer, baseball, football, wrestling, running, swimming, biking (including biathlons and triathlons), skating, surfing, skiing, you name it. Many people are aware of "ski-patrol". This is a form of event medicine. People who are specially trained in both emergency medicine AND skiing and its particular injuries and treatment do ski-patrol. At biathlons and triathlons, the situation is the same. People are trained in their emergency specialty, and also in the particular injuries and illnesses expected at this type of event. This is the same for baseball, and other sports. Non-sporting events include fairs (like county and state fairs), parades, etc. At almost all of these, there are event medical personnel, waiting in the background (or sometimes mingling with the crowd with their gear) to provide care as soon as it is needed. For some events, it is the people participating in the event (Triathlons). For other events, it is the crowd and employees that we are treating (The Rivercats, for example).

One of the problems with the "old system" was that many people who were injured or sick at events would have delays in obtaining emergent care. This resulted in higher death rates, and higher complications (like infection from wounds). Having EMT's and Paramedics on-scene lowers those rates dramatically. We can stabilize patients readily, providing the SAME CARE for many injuries that waiting for an ambulance would provide, just quicker. Stabilization includes splinting possible fractures, immobilizing people onto backboards for possible neck and spine injuries, providing oxygen as needed, dealing with diabetic emergencies, heart attacks, etc. We monitor breathing, blood pressure, oxygenation, everything you get on a BLS ambulance. We just do it out of a tent, small room, or even out of vehicles.

OK, I see ambulances at events. What is the difference?

There isn't really any. Except cost. For an event to keep an ambulance sitting and waiting (sometimes with no need that day) is prohibitively expensive nowadays. Hundreds of dollars per hour, just to sit and wait. But event medical services are much less expensive, and provide the SAME LEVEL OF CARE as typical BLS (Basic Life Support) ambulances that are seen all over the place. While some events (such as varsity and college football, for example) mandate a higher level of standby care (due to the much higher chance of needing Advanced Life Support services), most don't need that level to be just "sitting and waiting".

Some event medical providers also have ambulances and other support vehicles, but those are not typically used to transport patients to hospitals. Many times, they are used to help us transport a patient to another ambulance provider that takes them to the hospital. Seems odd, huh? Let me illustrate by example:

It was a busy day! Today we had that triathlon. We had a bicyclist injured on the ride. A serious injury (no, I can't go into what, but imagine taking a header off a fast moving bike on an asphalt road and you get the idea). We went out there in a Jeep Grand Cherokee (just like mine) with specialty medical equipment. We evaluated the patient, kept her neck from moving, placed her in C-spine (on a backboard, strapped in), and took her in the back of the Jeep with one of us with her in the back constantly evaluating her to near the entrance of Folsom Lake State Recreation Area, where an ambulance was pulling up. We transferred her to their care. Immediately, we were informed of another racer that had also crashed. While the first patient was being transported to the hospital, we raced back to the second patient. Similar injuries (similar mechanism). This patient was in a little better shape, but still needed stabilization. The first patient triggered a typical 911 call, so we also had a fire department engine as well as the ambulance that transported the first patient. They came out with us and assisted in stabilizing this patient. Another ambulance transported this patient. While all this was going on, other event medical personnel were starting to deal with yet another patient, this one was having trouble with temperature control following the swim portion of the race. We went back to assist them. We have an ambulance there, and it was running and pre-warmed just in case of this type of problem. It was incredibly windy today, and cool. Getting this patient into the pre-warmed ambulance, getting her out of her wet clothes, wrapped in special blankets, and warm fluids helped to stabilize her, and thus avoid further injury and hospitalization. She left us with her family, instead of by ambulance. If we had not been there, another ambulance would have been called. In that time period, she would have gotten worse, not better, while waiting for it to arrive. Of course, during all of this, other patients were seen, for blisters, sprained ankles, pulled muscles, cuts, scrapes, etc. Whew!If 911 had been called without properly trained personnel on-scene, the patients would not have been treated as quickly, and I believe firmly that the outcomes would not have been as positive as they were today.

This is the same concept at other events. Having emergency personnel on-scene improves outcomes. Thus, the need for this rapidly expanding and very useful segment of emergency medicine.

I hope you now have a greater understanding now of what it is I do during evenings and weekends. Some people bowl, some fish, some play golf. I like to assist people and save lives. :-)

Of Easter and Loneliness

I have always enjoyed Easter. It is a reminder of my commitment to my Christian beliefs. I was baptized on Easter when I was a young girl., at the church that many of my family would go to for years, even if only intermittently for me. I was married in that same church.

And it traditionally has been a chance to meet up with family, catch up on activities, and enjoy a good meal together. I love having family around, even if it is only one or two family members.

Maybe I am just feeling "empty nest syndrome", or maybe being selfish, but this Easter just doesn't feel right. David moved out a few months ago, and although I have a roommate, he has his own life. No one coming over, no dinner (except what I made for myself). Even though David is less than a mile away living with Candace and her family, somedays like today, it seems like he is thousands of miles away. He is still recovering from tonsil surgery, so he wouldn't be up to coming anyway.

And I miss Diana and Jonny. I know it won't be long until they are here, but it can't come soon enough for me. Being so far away from them has left my heart aching.

I did go to Bloodsource and donated platelets and red cells today. Giving of myself did help me to feel a little better about today, but it still doesn't feel right.

Maybe next Easter will be better.

Vonage going away? Some may hope.

A few of you know my "battle" with Vonage; I will explain it for the rest of you, then go on with this story (And no, that isn't me, just another "happy customer" of Vonage):

In a nutshell, I decided to discontinue my Vonage service on my one year anniversary date with them. I agreed to one year of service, and I fulfilled my end of it, rather begrudgingly. I never got their WiFi phone to work properly. Ever. Their tech support was shoddy at best, and continually tried to blame my ISP, no matter where I was at the time. Right... Hmm, could it have been non-functional equipment? Noooo.... at least not according to Vonage.

So, I called and told the customer service rep that I wanted to stop service on my one year anniversary date. Nope. Can't do it. Why not? Because they interpret their contract to mean one year + one day, which means a whole month of charges to them. So, in their world 12 months does not equal a year. 13 months does. I refused to pay it, and they THREATENED ME, stating that they would charge me an early termination fee of $150, and the extra month on top of that. Excuse me? No. So, as a member of the press, I decided to investigate this further. I found a lot of people who Vonage had done exactly what they threatened to do to me. Or who coughed up the 13th month and walked away. After learning about those users, I contacted Vonage throught their press liason, and explained that I was working up an article on complaints regarding their termination policy. Got a phone call the next day from a press liason, who proceeded to inform me that they worded their contract intentionally to make sure that all users coughed up 13 months of service at a minimum. Nice. She did credit me with one month of service, so that I could terminate service without additional charge. OK for me, not for others.

Now, fast forward to today. A judge in Alexandria, VA has ruled that Vonage may not sign up new customers while it continues to infringe on 3 patents that competitor Verizon happens to have. Is this good? Believe it or not, I am on the fence on this one. Clearly Vonage angered me, and they will never get my business again, especially since they were so sneaky with their tactics. However, they are competition to other VOIP services, including Verizon, and quashing competition results in higher prices, lousy service, and less jobs overall. Does this kill them? Well, they admit a loss rate of 2.5%. I think it may be higher than that, since they claim this would irrepairably harm their service. It might just kill them. Their stock has been dropping like a rock.

UPDATE: Apparently, Vonage got a stay of the order that barred them from signing up new customers. They can still snooker new customers.

Jonny Walks!

Yep! He started walking! He goes about 10 feet, but he is doing it himself! (Wish I could have seen those first few steps...)

Jonny is also climbing. He climbs out of his crib (Time to convert to a toddler bed!), climbs OVER the baby gate, and is generally getting into everything and driving Diana nutty. You know, doing what every toddler does! As I told her on the phone, welcome to parenthood!

Here's some pics of him, taken recently:

Major Announcement:s: Gmail Paper, Gmail TiSP

Google has announced Gmail Paper, a new service of Gmail, their flagship email service. I suggest all of you subscribe to this utility ASAP, before they stop accepting new subscriptions. Click here to take a look.

Additionally, Google is now offering installation packs for their new broadband service, Google TiSP. It uses a new proprietary method to wire your house: no knocking out walls or outlets to do it! Click here to learn more.














(April Fools!)