Poetry Friday ~ Comfort & Worn

Welcome, everyone! Happy Friday the 13th!

I have several topics I want to address today, and it’s going to seem random. I apologize in advance.

Firstly, let’s talk about the coronavirus and COVID- 19. Unless you’ve been vacationing on the moon you’ve heard these terms before. The coronavirus has been around for a long time. It’s the same virus associated with SARS in 2003. COVID- 19 is the disease caused by the newly identified type of coronavirus that emerged in China in December 2019.

COVID- 19 symptoms include cough, fever and shortness of breath. Now, these symptoms are similar to the flu, and we are in flu season so if you have these symptoms call your doctor and let her know, but don’t go crazy thinking you have COVID- 19. Don’t automatically go to the ER without speaking to your doctor first because if you don’t have it the ER (emergency room) is probably a great place to catch it, and if you do have it you’ll most likely pass it on to people that are probably in a more vulnerable state than you are. Please call your doctor and act calmly.

There is no coronavirus vaccine yet. Prevention involves frequent hand-washing, coughing into the bend of your elbow and staying home when you’re sick.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has these suggestions:

• Wash your hands frequently and thoroughly for at least 20 seconds (about a round of Old McDonald had a Farm). Use alcohol-based hand sanitizer if soap and water are not available.
• Cover coughs and sneezes with tissue, then throw the tissue in the trash.
• Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth with unwashed hands.
• Stay home when you are sick.
• Clean and disinfect surfaces and objects people frequently touch.

I’m not a doctor, but I’ve worked in the medical field closely with doctors for many years. There are a lot of nervous people out there acting in panic, and that only makes things worse for them, others and people in the medical field who are only trying to help. You can calm your nerves by simply keeping yourself informed and by applying the 3 Ps: Positivity, Preparedness, and don’t Panic.

Let’s stay positive, but prepared, and please don’t panic it only makes things worse for you and others.

I also wanted to mention that someone sent me a DM (direct message) on Twitter asking why I only feature certain people on my blog. First of all, I’m an equal opportunity blogger and always have been. I’m constantly volunteering to host people on my blog. If we know each other, and you want to be featured on my blog let me know. Contrary to what some people may believe I don’t own a crystal ball. If you’ve never asked me to feature you on my blog don’t bitch complain about not being featured on my blog.

Lastly, don’t allow anyone to influence your thinking or how you feel about another person. Give everyone the benefit of the doubt. Before you reject, turn your back on or completely disregard someone because another person told you to do so, think for yourself. Judge someone according to the way they’ve treated you and by their deeds. Make up your own mind who that person is. Don’t allow anyone to do that for you.

Colleen’s 2020 Weekly Poetry Challenge (Synonyms Only)

Here are the two words selected by Ruth Scribbles, winner from last month’s Syllables Only challenge:

COMFORT & WORN

Photograph by Aimee Vogelsang @vogelina

With painted on smile

she raises silent uproars

Once she brought you cheer

and kept you safe through the night

you happily held her tight

***

Now she’s forgotten

in a dusty li’l corner

wearing tattered clothes

recalling when a simple

hug could heal that broken soul

Photograph by Dominic Romero @domr_

Have a fun, safe and creepy Friday the 13th!

Photograph by Franck V. @franckinjapan

Real Life Horror: Superbugs

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) has packaged a series of disaster preparedness resources for the general public related to the possibility of a zombie apocalypse.

♣555

5 Real Diseases That Could Make You Act Just Like A Zombie

♣

“This is the way the world ends

Not with a bang but a whimper.”

~T S Eliot

♣

 

I have written on this subject before. Read my article How Will The World End? I believe ‘Superbugs’ are a real threat and I have the Medical and Science communities to back me.

 

Rising Spread of Drug-Resistant Superbugs

“With a sinking stomach, I scrolled through my patient’s medical record, down the list of antibiotics that could do nothing to help her get well. Her infection was due to bacteria resistant to most of our antibiotics. Treating it would be challenging—if we could do it at all—and require a regimen of multiple antibiotics, each with their own side effects and interactions. I called the Infectious Disease physician for her input –- for the third time that day. I’d had two other patients with similarly resistant medications in the past five hours.”

~Darria Long Gillespie, MD

How did we get here?

When doctors began using penicillin to treat infections in the 1940s, it was hailed as a “miracle cure.” Before antibiotics, strep throat was fatal. A simple urinary tract infection (UTI) could spread and lead to organ failure. Patients died from infections after surgery. But no longer. Infections that had once been inevitably fatal, claiming thousands of lives, were now treatable.

The balance shifts

Doctors started to notice that some patients seemed to be resistant to penicillin. Fortunately, pharmaceutical companies were able to develop other, more comprehensive, stronger antibiotics that could kill bacteria. But things are changing once again. And while new antibiotics are part of the solution, resolving the problem isn’t that simple.

 

A global health crisis

 

How big is the problem?

Big. And getting bigger. In the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that two million people become ill from resistant bacteria, and 23,000 die every year. It’s not just the U.S. and other developed countries, however. This is truly a global problem, especially in developing countries. In India, more than 58,000 infants died last year due to resistant infections. The World Health Organization (WHO) warns us of the possibility of entering into a “post-antibiotic era” in which our antibiotic regimens are ineffectual.

 

Why is this happening?

– Overuse of antibiotics

Some doctors prescribe antibiotics for any little issue. Your toe nail hurts? Here’s a prescription for antibiotics. You sneezed twice this morning? Here’s a prescription for antibiotics. You scratched your head? Here’s a prescription for antibiotics.

– Antibiotics pumped into some of our animal food sources, creating drug resistance in those animals.

Some of those bacteria strains may get passed to humans.

– Patients failing to complete a course of antibiotics.

Think of the times you may have stopped or forgot to finish an antibiotic once you were feeling better.

 

Superbugs sound scary — and they are.

 

A superbug is a strain of bacteria that can no longer be killed with an antibiotic — they become antibiotic resistant, or drug resistant. Some common infections and conditions that may become untreatable include MRSA, tuberculosis, urinary tract infections, E. coli and meningitis. Find out what you need to know to protect yourself and your family from superbugs, avoid infection and stay healthy.

 

“Anyone who pays attention to health news knows that deadly bacteria are a growing threat to everyone.” ~ Joel Fuhrman, MD

 

“Antibiotics are medications that fight bacterial infections. Often the bacteria learn how to avoid antibiotics over time. The more exposure to an antibiotic that bacteria have, the more likely the bacteria is to learn to avoid it. This is how bacteria develop resistance to antibiotics.”

~ Univ. of Nev. School of Medicine

Have you ever stopped taking antibiotics a few days after beginning your dosage because you were feeling better? Do you take antibiotics every time you get a cold? Are you concerned about the growing number of ‘Superbugs’?