Three more sleeps until a new adventure as my mother used to say. Whenever I know I’m heading out to a part of the world I’ve never been to or don’t get to visit often, I have a bit of a Bilbo Baggins moment as I come flying out of my domicile, dragging a suitcase, certain I’ve forgotten several important things and worried that all my careful planning will come to naught over some unforeseen circumstance. It usually comes out alright in the end, but I will have to admit that the only dragons I’ve encountered along the journey have been metaphorical ones. This trip is going to be a bit of a mix of unfamiliar (Poland – a country I’ve never been to) and old friends (Vienna – a city I love and it will be my second visit in five years). It’s not that far off my beaten path but I’ve been feeling a little put upon by life recently and it was one of the few packages I could find of the type I like that did not charge a single supplement. Someday I will find the ideal travel companion and that latter will cease to be an issue.
In the meantime, I’m running around trying to lash down all of the work responsibilities so nothing much blows away while I’m out of the country. I try not to leave too many loose ends for my colleagues as we’re all up to our ears in it these days and I don’t want to add to anyone’s burdens. I did finish my little study on what I actually have to do in the UAB clinic part of my job by tracking everything in the month of September. I had fifteen four hour clinic sessions last month during which I saw 7-8 patients per session. I taught students, residents, and my nurse practitioners during those sessions. Those sessions also generated something over 1000 messages that needed to be reviewed and answered and I signed off on roughly 300 forms that were mailed or faxed. Basically it takes me five to six hours of work for each four hour clinic session which is why I always have about four to six hours of writing notes and playing catch up every weekend. No wonder I’m tired.
On the Covid front, there’s not a lot to report. It’s still out there. It’s still spreading. It still, fortunately, is not putting too many people in the hospital or the morgue. The new booster is out there but good luck finding it. Without the federal government’s power and distribution system behind it, it’s relying on our frayed supply chain and the profit motive to make it to a pharmacy or clinic near you. I wanted to get one before I left for Europe but danged if I can find one. Every time I hear about it being available somewhere, they’re out before I can get there. It reminds me a bit of being a parent during the holiday season trying to find that hot new toy which is rapidly sold out everywhere. Compare and contrast the roll out of this booster against previous and then tell me that government should have no role in health care and that it should be entirely up to the free market.
A piece of good news was the announcement that this years Nobel Prize in Medicine is going to Kariko and Weissman who did the seminal work that allowed mRNA vaccines to be developed so rapidly. The fact that it was less than a year between the first report of Covid in Wuhan and the mass distribution of effective vaccine was a medical miracle and likely saved millions of lives. I know some of my friends and some of my patients are not fond of vaccines and will not take them. The number of proven deaths and disabilities from the disease is many thousands of times greater than the suspected deaths and disabilities related to the vaccines so I’m going to continue to trust them. I am willing to listen to arguments against them which are well sourced and based in science, but not ones from your google search of antivaccine groups and propaganda outlets.
Volume III of The Accidental Plague Diaries is complete and I simply await a proof copy to check. It will likely arrive while I am away so that task will be delayed a couple of weeks as I am trying not to carry any piece of any of my three careers with me to Europe. I want to unplug and decompress some. That doesn’t mean that the trusty laptop won’t go with me. There’s something therapeutic about writing a travel diary. I have my handwritten one from when I spent two months backpacking through Europe in the summer of 1984. I should get it out and transcribe it one of these days. I don’t think I’ve read any of it since it was originally written and it will be forty years this next summer since that particular adventure. No goblins or dragon on that one either. But there might have been a shapeshifting bear.
The next long post should be from 5000 miles away. I cannot say I am looking forward to the 24 hour process from the time I leave my condo to the time I arrive at the Sheraton in downtown Krakow. But I fancy I’ll survive it as I have survived other uncomfortable journeys involving multiple flights and airports. At least I have learned to wear my compression socks.
Life, The Universe, and Everything 