Corona Virus Knee Jerk Reaction: The Importance of Avoiding Knee Jerk Reactions and Changing How You React to and Handle Difficult Situations

     Recently I read a news article that San Francisco was ordering its citizens to only go out for necessities and emergencies. The article I read stated that they could be charged with a misdemeanor for violating this order.
"Police Chief Bill Scott said at the press conference that violations of the order are punishable by a misdemeanor, but “that is an absolute last resort.” 
I read this and instantly put a post on Facebook stating that they were becoming the new Russia and they were becoming a police state. This was a knee jerk reaction. Knee Jerk reactions most always have negative consequences! 

     I have worked hard to make it a rule to never post anything political on my Facebook wall because I do not want to get into politics there. It is not why I am there. I also work hard to never post things when I am emotional....emotional words spoken or typed can cause hurt to others....But my emotions got the best of me and I spewed. The consequences of this was upsetting a very good friend. That made me very sad! I am sorry for it and do not know really how to undo the damage.... 

    Were my comments my belief?  Really not important, not something to put out on Facebook and for sure not something to react to emotionally. I cannot change anything by reacting emotionally.

    These are hard times we are in right now, I am extremely worried about our economy, about the people I know and love without essential supplies because others have taken more than they will ever need in their lifetime. (those who prepared are not the guilty parties, those who hoarded are). I am worried about the elderly or people on fixed income who were not able to get to the stores before the hoarding began. Many could go hungry because they can only afford to buy food once a month but when they went to buy their food supply, none was to be found...that worries me.  I am also very worried about those I love who have lost their jobs and might become homeless because of it. I am worried we will never recover economically from the fallout.....those are the things that scare me...but letting my emotions get the best of me is not the answer, that will not help anyone!

    How do I stop the worry? I don't! However,  I deal with it in a positive way by helping who I can and not letting my emotions guide me. 

    How to fix that I put that emotional statement out on Facebook? It can't really be fixed because it is out there...so all I can do is move forward and remember to think before I speak or type...to act with reason, not my emotions!  I know this and practice it most all of the time....but there are times my emotions get the best of me.

    I was going to post the link to the article that prompted my knee jerk reaction but this is not about that article or what was in it, it is about how I reacted emotionally to it and the importance of reacting positively.

    Do I still feel that way I did when I ran on my emotions? Not important....How I feel will not help anyone. Things are as they are, there is nothing I can do to change them. I can  however change how I react to them. It is a part of the growth mindset which I forgot until I took a professional development refresher class for work today. 

    Yes these are very difficult times! They are hard on all of us. Some will have it harder than others but a negative mindset will only make it harder. This is a time to be as positive as possible, to stick together emotionally, to think of ways you can help those who might have it harder than you and to mentally lift each other up!  If you can't help others monetarily you can help them by praying or having a positive attitude. This is my goal as we go through these difficult times. 
     

The Norovirus Train Outbreak

    Back in the year 2009 my mom, both of my  kids and myself went on the yearly school field trip to ride the Durango Silverton Railroad. There were four classes plus their families on the train. I would say maybe 100 of us total, maybe more. We were in two portions of the train and other passengers in the other portion. I am not sure how many of them there were but when we stopped for lunch it looked like maybe 50 or so. I am telling the story from memory so numbers might not be exact....

    We had a wonderful day. We saw beautiful scenery, had a nice lunch and fun train ride. The train only goes to Cascade Canyon dung the winter months so we were on the train about 4 hours. Went back to school and everyone went home...it was a great trip!

    That night my youngest woke up vomiting, then my oldest woke up saying he felt sick. He is like me and fights vomiting so we both fought it but were in pain and had diarreah. None of us wanted food the next day. It was a long night. We were all so ill.

    The next mornig my mom called and asked if we had been sick. She said she had been so sick all night throwing up. I got calls from others who were also up all night throwing up 

     That Monday I had to return to work, I worked at teh school my kids atended. The kids stayed home. That day though there were not many kids at school. As the week went on there were kids carrying trash cans down the hallway. The health department came in and we found out we had Norovirus. We are not sure how we got it but all but one person on the entire train got sick from it. Then we took it to family members. They had to shut the school down to do some high power cleaning. 

     I learned a lot about  a virus I had never even heard of. It guess it is one of the cruise ship viruses....it can attack large groups of people. This is because the vomit is contagious. The spores get in the air and if you are near it and breathe them you will get sick. It is also contagious through contact. It is a strong virus and does not respond well to cleaners.  But what makes it worse is those spores. They thought that someone had gotten sick on the train, the spores got into the heater vents and we all became sick! 

    It was not fun, we were sick for several days and for weeks after the outbreak the custodians followed kids around wiping doors down every time they were touched. 

Norovirus

Cruise Ship Virus
     

Hand Sanitizer Danger

     Personally I do not like hand sanitizers. I think they help germs mutate and cause  germs that can't be controlled. Some people also use them instead of hand washing thinking they kill all germs when they do not. Also we need some germs to build our immune system. Mostly though I do not like them around kids because they are dangerous. the number one ingredient is alcohol and alcohol is dangerous for kids.

     I worked in a school a few years ago where a young student put hand sanitizer in his water bottle and drank it. He did it just because he wanted to. No real reason, he is a kid and should not have had alcohol at his disposal. I mean would we just sit a bottle of pain killers in the room with kids? No we would not. Would we put a bottle of whisky in the room with kids? I sure wouldn't. Would we put any kind of poison in the room with kids? No we would not. The labels say to keep out of reach of children...right? The school removed all hand sanitizer bottles after that!They became aware of the danger.

     I still work with kids and most of them have hand sanitizer in their back packs. They think it smells great!  They will take it out and ask me to smell it. All I smell is the alcohol but they think it smells great. These are 6 and 7 year old kids. They are carrying around a small bottle of alcohol and this is ok... They are taking this to school and it is ok. However these are kids and they could drink it, if they do, they could die. To me none of this is ok!

    Please people beware, don't buy your kids small bottles of alcohol, schools need to stop allowing it in the building. Get back to washing hands before someone dies. It says Keep out of Reach of Children for a reason! Lets protect our precious little flowers...our kids.

Kids Drink Hand Sanitizer

Coronavirus Pandemonium and Y2K Frenzy Promoting Selfish and Crazed Behaviours

      As I have been hearing about the Coronavirus (COVID-19) and watching as it is crippling the world economy and wreaking havoc with the stock market, as the media promotes fear and worry...... as people are exhibit crazed behaviors I have been wondering why people are so scared. I have read and heard many doctors say that while it is risky for some people, the elderly and immune compromised to get it,  many will not even know they have it and many people will recover. .  I understand that some people will die from it due to the complications that arise and I understand that there are those who are compromised because of this virus but not everyone who gets it is going to die. The statistics show that more people have died from the flu. However people are not freaking out when someone gets the flu. 

           So why the worry? Why the pandemonium?  Why are so many people literally freaking out? I really do not know. What I do believe is that this entire crazed behavior mirrors the frenzy that took place during Y2K. Remember that time when the year 2000 would make the computers crash and the entire world would shut down?  People were so scared, they were irrational and well, crazed.

     When I heard stores were running out of things like Clorox, wipes, hand sanitizer, water and of all things TP I wondered if it was really true. Could people really be hoarding again like in 1999?  I also wondered why TP? This virus does not cause digestive issues, are people so scared they think maybe their version might result in digestive issues?? I do not know and do not understand the hoarding, crazed behavior.

     I decided to go to Costco to check it out for myself and see if it was real, if people were that crazed and selfish.....I  also just needed TP.  I didn't need it because I am scared that I might run out if the world shuts down....it is just time to buy it.

    The reports are true, Costco was  out. We went to Wal Mart and they were out of Clorox, sanitizer, wipes, water and TP.  I am just floored. First of all the pandemonium of it all is ....well...in my mind...ridiculous. If people are quarantined then others can drop of TP and other supplies for them.... the virus is not digestive so they do not need that extra supply for any other reason than irrational hoarding.  

    My next thought was of the selfishness of those who are guilty of depleting the supplies. Iif they buy them all out what about the rest of the people who need them? What do we do? Just do without as far as the hoarding people are concerned I guess. Nothing really more to say than it is a very selfish act on the part of those who are depleting the supplies so no one else can buy them. 

    I saw a story where women were fighting over TP which is just mind blowing to me too. 

    Am I worried about getting COVID-19? I am not!  I am just as worried about getting a cold because I have a tendency to get pneumonia from a simple cold,  I am mostly concerned that I will be quarantined if I have a cough or cold which by the way folks is common this time of year. I am also scared of the  entire pandemonium frenzied selfish crazed behavior of the people in the world..(it is not just the US, it is all over the world). The behavior of people scares me more than COVID-19.

    Bottom line folks, wash your hands just like  you should have been doing all along, stay home if you are stick and don't freak out, all you are doing is fueling the fire of the frenzy. 

Here are a couple of very informational messages from the Surgeon General and Dr Drew.. 

Resources:

Dr Drew on Coronavirus

Surgeon General Says Risk of Coronavirus Remains Low, Most People Will Not Need Hospitalization

Banner Hospital Nightmare

     When you go to the emergency room you expect it to be busy and you expect to wait but the experience I had the other night at Banner Gateway in Arizona was one of the worst I have had at a hospital. All of my Banner experiences have been bad but none have topped this one.

     When I entered the hospital there was a line with 6 people and there were about 15 who were already sitting down. I made my way to the front of the line and was checked in. Then sent to sit down.

    Around 30 minutes later I was called to triage where they asked what was wrong. I told them I was there for severe back pain, in the kidney area and a fever. They took my temperature which was 99.9 and then told me to have a seat. I had to use the restroom so asked them if I needed a container. They gave me one and sent me in to the restroom. The man who gave me the container said to sit the container on the counter when done. I did that when I came out and he came over to put a label on it. Then later about 20 minutes I was taken to a room. The same guy who gave me the container took me to the room and told me the urine came back clear. Then he left.

     I was in the room for about 30 minutes before I saw anyone again. It was very cold.  The same guy came in for a minute and sad they needed to do a urine sample. I said they did and he said ok and left before I could ask for a blanket.

    Finally about 20 minutes later the doctor and a nurse showed up. The doctor said he ordered a CT scan and blood work. Then they left quickly not even noticing me shivering and were gone before I could ask for a blanket.

    Another 20 minutes went buy and couple of nurses came in to take blood and start an IV. She got me a blanket!  They put in the IV which was the most painful IV I have ever had. They put in one arm and my vein rolled so they wen to the other one and it even hurt after they poked me. The IV hurt the entire time I was there. They also said they would do a urine sample but never gave me
another cup.

     They left and I waited another 30-40 minutes before a girl came to take me for the Cat Scan. It was uneventful.

     After the CT scan I was taken back to my room and a bit later a nurse came in and told me to get dressed so I could wait in the Red Zone area for my results so they could use my room. I dressed and was taken to this waiting area where there were other people. But there were at least recliners. I sat in one. There is where I remained until they called me back with my results around 11:30 

     I arrived at the hospital at 6:30 and was done at 11:30 which isn't uncommon but just the way the entire visit was handled and felt made for a bad experience. I know they were busy but I have seen busier hospitals do better.  When I left I had a fever of 100.9 and a few days later it was worse so I saw my doctor and she said I did have a kidney infection which they should have caught.

Grateful in Everything 21 Day Challenge...Journey Along With Me if You Wish

     I just read a post on Facebook that states that you can re-wire your brain to be happy by recalling 3 things you are grateful for every day for 21 days. So, I am going to give this a try. I will simply add to this post and to the comments as well. I was going to write it in my journal or on Facebook but this is more fun. I am going to also make it a bit lighthearted by adding comical things I am grateful for too.
     If you want to join along you can comment in the posts and we can take this journey together...

     Day 1 January 3, 2019
             
            I am grateful for my amazing family. They are priceless parts of my life.

            I am grateful for a God who loves me unconditionally because without His love so many things would be impossible to tackle in life.

             I am grateful for toilet paper, without which well, I am not even going there....

Christmas Forever AZ

    Last year I stumbled across this post on Facebook about a light show called Christmas Forever AZ.  It was Disney themed and so of course I wanted to go! My aunt, cousins and I went to check it out. We found it to be so amazing! The Disney theme made us feel like we were there. We had not been able to go that winter, this show made us feel the Disney magic.

     This year I saw that it was the 5th anniversary for the light show. Well I had to go. This time I took my mom, my aunt and another aunt. We all loved the show. It was different than last year, better (which I thought was impossible). Amazing! You feel the show, the smells take you into the magic. These guys go all out!

     I am a huge Disney fan so this show adds magic to  the season. Disney magic! I think Walt would love this show.

     If you have a chance check it out. The video does not do it justice!  Bravo Pratt Brothers!

     Enjoy my video of the show Christmas Forever AZ video

     Check them out on Facebook for more details. Christmas Forever AZ Facebook

    The last show is December 31, 2019 and there will be no show December 24.