Not a week, a lifetime!

News blues

I suspended posting for over a week to learn what I needed to learn to act as caregiver to my bestie, Mary.
A week ago, I accompanied a nervous Mary to the hospital, checked her in, hugged her “tot siens”, and left her in the very capable hands of the thoracic surgery team that would relieve her of an unknown quantity of pleural mesothelioma nodules accumulated in her chest and upon the lining of her left lung.
It's been a rough week, rougher for Mary, but she’s home now.

Before describing Mary’s surgical and post-surgical encounters – and my lesser encounters as care giver, let’s revert to the familiar: the pandemic. 

Or should I say, pandemics? 

Pandemic 1: Covid
An abbreviated set of Covid numbers
Worldwide (Map) 
July 23, 2022 – 569,461,510 confirmed infections; 6,383,200 deaths
July 14, 2022 - 558,366, 400 confirmed infections; 6,357,300 deaths

US (Map) 
July 23, 2022 – 90,390,200 confirmed infections; 1,026,950 deaths
July 14, 2022 – 88,967,000 confirmed infections; 1,022,000 deaths

SA (Coronavirus portal) 
July 23, 2022 – 3,998,000 confirmed infections; 101,980 deaths
July 14, 2022 - 3,998,000 confirmed infections; 101,880 deaths

Pandemic 2: Emergent monkey pox
Outbreaks of monkey pox in more than 70 countries is, the WHO declares, an “extraordinary” situation that now qualifies as a global emergency.

Declaring a global emergency means the monkeypox outbreak is an “extraordinary event” that could spill over into more countries and requires a coordinated global response. WHO previously declared emergencies for public health crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2014 West African Ebola outbreak, the Zika virus in Latin America in 2016 and the ongoing effort to eradicate polio.
The emergency declaration mostly serves as a plea to draw more global resources and attention to an outbreak. Past announcements had mixed impact, given that the U.N. health agency is largely powerless in getting countries to act.
Last month, WHO’s expert committee said the worldwide monkeypox outbreak did not yet amount to an international emergency, but the panel convened this week to reevaluate the situation.

Read more >> 

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On war and culture war

"You couldn't make this up. Last night Russian state TV ran a report on the unexpected 'benefits' of having your son killed in Ukraine. You can buy a [cheap vehicle] Lada with the compensation given to you by the state!
Watch the report >> 

Moreover, Russia, after coming to an agreement with Ukraine on shipping grain from the port of Odesa, bombed the port – and thereby the agreement.

Russian missile strikes have hit the southern Ukrainian port of Odesa, just one day after Ukraine and Russia agreed on a deal that would allow the resumption of vital grain exports from the region.
Serhii Bratchuk, a spokesman for the Odessa military administration, said two missiles hit the infrastructure of the port and two were shot down by Ukraine’s air defense.
At least six explosions were heard in Odesa, according to Ukrainian member of parliament Oleksiy Goncharenko.
It comes one day after ministers from both Ukraine and Russia signed an agreement – brokered by the United Nations and Turkey in Istanbul – to allow grain exports from Ukrainian Black Sea ports aimed at easing the global food crisis sparked by war.

Read more >> 

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The Lincoln Project:
Tucker Carlson’s Unofficial Presidential Speech  (1:12 mins)
Part of the plan  (1:10 mins)
Last week in the Republican Party - July 19 , 2022  (2:10 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Believe it or not! A four-year assessment by 82 leading scientists has found,

A market-based focus on short-term profits and economic growth means the wider benefits of nature have been ignored, which has led to bad decisions that have reduced people’s wellbeing and contributed to climate and nature crises, according to a UN report. To achieve sustainable development, qualitative approaches need to be incorporated into decision making.

Read “Humans need to value nature as well as profits to survive…” Focus on market has led to climate crises, with spiritual, cultural and emotional benefits of nature ignored >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Mary’s harrowing journey with surgery becomes clearer each day as she adjusts to her new reality: pain, confinement, pain, physical limitation, pain, and pain killers. 

The journey will unfold as she becomes more comfortable and I’ll share her own words as we go forward. For now, the summarized version:
Surgery took about six hours. During that time, the surgical team removed an astonishingly large and well-formed series of malignant masses from her chest, lining of her left lung, her heart, her aorta.
Mary had asked the surgeon, previous to surgery, to take an informal photo of what he removes. This, as she, none of her friends and family, had a clue a to what pleural mesothelioma nodules look like.

Now we do.
It ain’t pretty. Indeed, it is astonishing.
“How on earth,” Mary asks, “Did I walk around with that much gunk around my lung and not know?
That’s the question.

Malignant epithelial mesothelioma nodules, exised.
July 15, 2022.

A close look at the photo shows well-formed, well-developed, well-entrenched malignancies. That “stuff” has been around for some decades.
How did it escape detection for so long?
More to the point, how much longer could it have gone undetected ifMary hadn’t heeded the advice of a doctor during a casual conversation?
Back then, Mary admitted experiencing pain in her hip. The doctor suggested x-rays. 

Mary poo-poohed that. “X-rays? For a sore hip? Seems too trivial.”
Thank the gods she took the doc’s advice.
Thank the gods she asked her primary doc’s advice on why she had a short, dry cough while doing certain yoga exercises.
Thank the gods, her primary doc ordered x-rays on her chest.
Here we are, six weeks later, with the gunk displayed here, displayed here. That is, it’s no longer squatting in her chest.

Thank the gods!