African Gray Parrot at San Diego Zoo (Taken 11.14.21) |
For the greater part of the past two years, we've all been confronted with death in one way or another. Some of us lost people to COVID-19, some of us lost loved ones or friends to other causes and couldn't attend in-person funerals, the music scene certainly lost some giants, or maybe you've just seen or heard or read a story that hit you especially hard, besides all the coverage in our average news cycle. At the moment, my dad is in hospice, but also had a long stint of non-COVID illness leading to this moment when we couldn't visit at all. I currently have three acquaintances with terminal cancer. Death sometimes feels like it's all around us.
And so yesterday when I read that Petra Mayer- the books editor of NPR- died, it just hit me. I mean, I don't have a radio anywhere in my house and we have SiriusXM in the car so we almost never even listen to terrestrial radio. I was not familiar with her work or writing, at least not by name. But here's this woman -- my age or close -- who three days before dying was geeking out on Twitter about Doctor Who; two weeks before, she's out at a Monkees concert; a month and a half she's celebrating a new union contract, a new podcast, pictures of her cat. And now, she's dead.
Whenever I stumble across a death, I'm a doom scroller. I want to know how or why someone died, particularly for what can be considered a premature death. According to NPR, her death was due to a pulmonary embolism. Causes can include birth control, smoking, high blood pressure, surgery, heart disease, but are actually pretty common. As many as 1-2/1,000 people a year develop blood clots. And can they happen from vaccines?
Dr. DeSancho stresses that your risk of developing a vaccine-related blood clot is no greater than the general population’s overall blood clot risk. “The risk of getting a blood clot either venous or arterial from the COVID-19 vaccines is very minimal compared to the risk in the general population,” she says...among the more than 7 million recipients of the Johnson & Johnson/Janssen vaccine, there were just six possible cases of blood clots in the brain, she explains. “The risk of complication is extremely low,” she says. - Weill Cornell Medicine (7.14.21)
So it's sad, and we have to look ourselves in the mirror. We truly never know when we're living our last day. But I'm certainly not going to waste the time I have on some jackhole calling me a fat ugly hoe on Facebook as much as he was trying to antagonize and bait me.
Instead, I'll tell you that Darren and I had a lovely afternoon. One of our kittens had a little cyst or something that we could tell was bothering her for about a week and it was growing and she was at the point of crying if we touched her at all, so we had to take her to B Street Veterinary Hospital. They were super busy and took her in (we called first), but told us it would be more than an hour before seeing her. To kill time, he and I picked up lunch at Giorgino's, pulled out our beach mat and had a picnic at 28th Street Park. When we finished and still hadn't heard from the vets, we decided to go to the San Diego Zoo to kill time. Shortly after we arrived (scoring the very first space in the very closest row to the entrance), we got a call from the doctor. We had to talk her through where the abscess was, she told me the treatment protocol, quoted me a price. The Zoo closed at 5, and right about then she called us for pickup, saying that she found the problem, drained it, gave Magnolia some light anesthesia, an antibiotic to clear up any residual infection, and $234 later, our kitty is clearly feeling much better and sleeping off her drugs, and we can rest easy knowing that she's no longer in pain.
I know that vets are affected by the pandemic; if you just count the sheer amounts of pandemic adoptions, business is busier than ever, but the all women's practice at B Street has now come through for us twice this summer. I never mentioned it, but shortly after we put Kiwi down, we got a condolence card from their office with her paw prints on it. They have signs on the door asking people to be patient and think about the kind of vibes they bring into the office and I really hope people take heed. We have been so pleased with the care our furry babies have been given. Appointments are backlogged for weeks, but they leave flexibility in their schedules for emergent care. And I appreciate there are no surprises after treatment. Another expense we hadn't planned for but our babies are well worth it.
Stay safe out there.
- COVID-19:
- COVID-19 Hospitalizations, ICU Admissions Increase in San Diego County - Times of San Diego (11.14.21)
- Surge of COVID-19 cases in U.K. fueled by unvaccinated kids serves as a warning for California - LA Times via KTLA (11.14.21)
- Deaths in children and young people in England after SARS-CoV-2 infection during the first pandemic year - naturemedicine (11.11.21)
- 5 states with highest COVID-19 admissions this week & 5 other things to know: AHA - Becker's Hospital Review (11.12.21)
- Direct Comparison of Antibody Responses to Four SARS-CoV-2 Vaccines in Mongolia - Cell Host & Microbe (11.11.21)
- Music News:
- Fans raise thousands of dollars for homeless San Diego singer living in his car. Rick Lyon played music at Imperial House for around 17 years until he got down on his luck. - CBS8 (11.14.21
- News:
- Kaiser health care worker strike averted as tentative deal is reached, company says - CBS News (11.13.21)
- NPR books editor Petra Mayer has died - npr (11.13.21)
- Other Reading:
- Why thieves love to steal catalytic converters. In the past few years, this little car part has sparked a massive crime wave. It has a lot to do with the booming market for precious metals. - The Hustle (11.13.21)
- Government:
- White House
- FACT SHEET: Renewed U.S. Leadership in Glasgow Raises Ambition to Tackle Climate Crisis
- President Biden Announces Former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu as Senior Advisor and Infrastructure Coordinator
- State Dept
- Global COVID-19 Stats (JHU 11.13.21 5:21pm):
- 252,920,587 Known Cases/12,429,366 28-Day New Cases
- 5,095,436 Known Deaths/197,804 28-Day New Deaths
- Global COVID-19 Stats (JHU 11.14.21 5:21pm):
- 253,291,318 Known Cases/12,541,594 28-Day New Cases
- 5,100,151 Known Deaths/199,434 28-Day New Deaths
- US COVID-19 Stats
- CDC COVID-19 Vaccination Data Tracker
- American Academy of Pediatrics Children and COVID-19 Dashboard
- JHU
- Saturday:
- 47,043,735 Cases/2,084,690 28 Day New Cases
- 762,954 Deaths/37,273 28-Day New Deaths
- Sunday:
- 47,074,080 Cases/2,111,996 28 Day New Cases
- 763,092 Deaths/37,261 28-Day New Deaths
- CDC Data Tracker:
- +126,958 New Cases/46,910,412 Known Cases
- +1,846 New Deaths/759,552 Known Deaths
- 553,881,535 Doses Delivered
- 439,034,461 Doses Administered
- 226,157,226 Partially Vaccinated
- 194,951,106 Fully Vaccinated
- 58.7% of Total Population
- 68.7% of Population ≥ 12 Years of Age
- 70.5% of Population ≥ 18 Years of Age
- 28,571,625 Boosters
- California COVID-19:
- State of California Safe Schools For All Hub
- Vaccination progress dashboard
- Coronavirus: Resources for Californians
- R-effective: 0.91
- San Diego County
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