Another backdated post. But I have an excuse. No, it’s not the election results but rather, that I was called into the VA for a case in the middle of the night. It was a case that I was tempted to push off to the next day, but given the diagnosis, if the patient’s condition worsened, there would be no excuse for not having intervened earlier. The diagnosis was a throat abscess that can easily spread throughout the soft tissues and cause serious problems. It could also stay in place and not cause any further problems but that’s a chance I didn’t want to take.
However, things moved SO SLOWLY. OMG. It’s like no one wanted to go back to bed that night. Let’s move it people! But ultimately, the job got done and I had an uninterrupted Wednesday night sleep so that helped reset my sleep debt for this call week.
Earlier in the evening, SMS made a delicious meal that I came home to after a long day at Parnassus. I loved it! It’s so nice to come home to a delicious smelling home and tucking into a delicious dinner: salad, lemony pasta, and pre-cooked chicken.
As for the election, I’m mostly sad. I really believe in the power of government to work for the collective good by providing social safety nets and coordinating projects that require large-scale backing beyond smaller communities or individuals (e.g. infrastructure, health, education, public safety). I think this election really high-lighted how motivated by self-interest people can be at the expense of thinking about a larger community. In addition, there seem to be a lot of policies coming that are going to have significant economic impact in the pro-inflationary sense through tariffs and deficit increases due to tax cuts for businesses and high earners. And if these results come to pass, the MAGA world is 100% responsible even if they try to blame someone/something else.
The whole thing just reminds me of the frustrations of practicing medicine. Ultimately, I can’t care more about someone’s health than they do. And when choices with poor health consequences have shitty consequences, there’s no magic time machine that can give people a re-do.
I don’t know. I think I’m typed out for now because when I re-read this, I don’t want to sound to obvious to the point of sounding condescending but in this election, there was a referendum on democracy, caring for your neighbor, caring for the climate, caring for the world and relationships and I really, really believe that the wrong choice was made.
MAGA voters are so selfish. Incredible.
Thanks for continuing to do good work. We need people like you to continue on.
well said
Feeling disheartened 🖤 I had truly hoped sanity would prevail. By the way, “tucking into a delicious dinner” is such a beautiful description. Good luck with NaBloPoMo; this is my first year.
Your point about self interest reminded me of two people I know who lean right politically, but go more left because of their own personal experience. One is lesbian, the other has a mentally disabled son. My thought it, really? You need it to happen to you or someone you love before you care or even think about it? I think this is where we get the othering. Where men don’t care about abortion because they don’t get pregnant (but duh, they get people pregnant). SO FRUSTRATING.
I would hate the waiting at the ER. My cousin had a situation like that, where she was in severe pain, was given pain killers in the ambulance, but once they took her out and before she was admitted to the ER, she was up shit creek regarding pain relief. As policy, this makes absolute sense, no giving narcotics to someone not under the care of a physician. But wow, she was in a lot of pain until they were able to get her admitted.
This was absolutely a referendum and people will pay the price for it. It’s so sad all around. No critical thinking anymore.