Happy Pandemic Anniversary (March 11th)
Yes, this is over a week late but better late than never.
Co-workers:
Our recent ‘must-watch’ TV has been WandaVision. It’s on Disney+. We got suckered in last winter and kept the subscription, and I have not regretted it. I watch all the animal shows and all the old Disney cartoons. It’s a welcome break from Netflix (I heard recently about two roommates who watched EVERYTHING there is on Netflix during the pandemic— is that even possible?). Our other recent acquisition is Discovery+. L likes the Magnolia Network, and I can watch every single episode of every show Andrew Zimmern has ever been on. And now there’s a new Paramount+. We haven’t made the leap yet but with all the streaming services, who even needs cable? Still, we haven’t cut the cord. Someday, though. Someday.
Back to WandaVision. If you don’t know, it’s Disney/Marvel’s recent contribution to the Marvelverse, a very cool take on what happens to Wanda after Avengers: Endgame. One weekend, while we were up north, snuggled up on the couch in a cozy bungalow, we decided to watch all of the Marvel movies that lead up to Endgame (Disney+ has it so that you can watch it in Timeline order. Amazing.) Anyway, there was a moment after The Snap, when Thanos kills off half of humanity (his madman reasoning, sometimes, is not so mad to me), that felt like art imitating life imitating art. The remaining Avengers are disheveled; Cap grows a beard, New York City is empty, and people are grieving. This movie came out before the pandemic, but that is what the pandemic felt like. I felt like a bearded Cap, searching for a new purpose. It’s not a stretch because The Snap, in our case, killed over 500,000 people. Yes, over half a million people. Sure, not all in a day, and it’s not half the world, but it sure felt like it, at times. Today, exactly a year in, on our Pandemic Anniversary (March 11, 2020, was the day WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic), the world is slightly different. People are getting vaccinated. People are getting their third stimulus check. When I walk to work, cars fill the streets, and the subways are full of people (it’s still not standing-room-only, but the seats are full, as opposed to a few months ago, when people left three or four seats between them). We can have parties with other vaccinated people. I guess we’re progressing, but 1900 people a day are still dying, and a part of me still feels this terrible, gripping fear that there will be another surge. My little community hospital is still not completely open to elective surgeries. We’re being forced to do our operations at other hospitals.
In other news, March is Colon Cancer Awareness Month, and my face is on a screen in Times Square, along with all of the other 2020 Fight CRC ambassadors. It’s pretty cool, but I equate it with being a J.C. Penney catalog model— your mom will send copies to all her friends, but most people looking at it still won’t know who you are. It’s just a little part of what I’m doing to help bring awareness out there, but, you know, there’s so much more I have to do in this realm and others. One of my patients told me that five of her friends got colonoscopies recently after reading about my work (but also seeing her battle cancer). It was a very proud moment for me. Next week, I’m giving a talk on colon cancer at Charles B. Wang Community Center in Chinatown.
Find more about colon cancer, fecal incontinence, and sacral nerve stimulator therapy on Hey Poopy. They have now interviewed me three times, probably because I swear like a sailor in real life. I’m always professional, but sometimes an ass is an ass, and there’s no getting around that.
One of my poems was accepted for publication (coming out this fall). And a story won third prize in ShtoryTime (one day it will be first prize, cash prize)!
Yes, some mornings, I wake up, and I fully realize that I’m doing too much. I think I’ve talked about how once in a while, I need to reel everything back and cancel everything. Once in a while, I believe that if most of us focused our energies on one thing, we could each be the RBG or Marie Curie or Chien-Shiung Wu or Alice Ball of our chosen field. Yes, we’re coming off International Women’s Day and Black History Month, so I’ve been reading about female scientists (who were, most of the time, wholly overlooked during their lives). Maybe it requires just picking the thing and sticking with it. On Baseline Med, I wrote about my top tips for medical students.
Celebrating my 38th birthday in a cedar tub:
Anyway, go watch WandaVision, get vaccinated if you can, keep wearing a mask, and Always Go Black Tie.
that is a great connection to The Snap! Keep on truckin'! I swear like a sailor outside of school too. probably from it being all pent up during the day and then when i get home, it is unleashed. so proud of you for spreading colon awareness and being a Time Square Face Ambassador!!!