Category: Health

Photo by Joe WilcoxMar 27, 202311:05 pm

Our Daughter’s New Smartphone

From my perspective, the police violated our daughter’s Fourth Amendment protections when seizing the iPhone 13 Pro that she inherited from me as a 2022 Christmas present. The story: Parents of the household where she visited handed over the device when asked. But it wasn’t theirs to give, nor the cops to take. Our only child couldn’t, and so didn’t, authorize the seizure. Justification: A sergeant, and later detective, told me they sought evidence of a crime against our daughter, the victim.

Law enforcement’s fishing expedition deprives the device’s owner as she recuperates from a double stroke caused by oxygen deprivation and prepares to go to an acute rehabilitation facility sometime soon. She wants her iPhone, and the detective doesn’t respond to my calls. We even had tentatively scheduled a meeting whereby we would discuss possible passcodes to unlock the device. That was before our girl made massive strides unthinkable the day of the proposed meetup to which he didn’t show.

Photo by Joe WilcoxMar 25, 202310:34 pm

The Last Days of Mask Mandates are Now

I feel suffocated by the face mask that California requires me to wear in the hospital where our daughter recuperates. The rule applies to healthcare facilities of every ilk. But count the days. Starting April 3, 2023, face coverings will no longer be required. Related: The mandate demanding that healthcare workers to be vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus 2)/COVID-19 also ends.

Across San Diego, significantly noticeable number of residents continue to wear masks. Meanwhile, I see more and more of them discarded, each and every day, like the Featured Image. The mask presented for photographing, inside IKEA, on March 1, 2023.

Photo by Joe WilcoxMar 24, 20239:38 pm

A Solemn Story

Sometimes the best photo isn’t the best shot but the one you need. The Featured Image won’t flatter my photographic skills—or entice you to do the same. But the serene view, overlooking the stairs going down to Swami’s Beach in Encinitas means to soften today’s grim story.

In the hospital where our daughter recuperates, the woman in the room’s other bed isn’t so fortunate. She has moaned in pain, for several days now, and a mass of relatives has come to see her. The lady looks to be quite large, and because she suffers from failing kidneys, I assumed she must be diabetic. I was mistaken. Grossly.

Photo by Joe WilcoxMar 23, 202310:04 pm

‘I am Strong!’

For relatives, or anyone else interested, here is another update about our daughter, who has spent 22 days in the hospital—twelve on a ventilator. As she progresses—and more rapidly than anyone on staff would have guessed even a week ago—indications of stroke are obvious. While she can speak, her speech sounds nothing like herself; mumbled and stilted. She is jittery but by no means invalid. Cognition is good, but processes and motor functions are sluggish. That’s not a negative report. She recovers well, and briskly, without an intensive rehabilitation regime.

But that could change soon. Last night, around 8 p.m. PDT, the physical medicine and rehabilitation doctor called, and we spoke for about 54 minutes. He sees our daughter as being a very good candidate for entering an acute care program followed up by more out-patient rehab (which is fairly intensive). So that’s the tentative plan, depending on one of the facilities accepting her as a patient and insurance authorizing treatment.

Photo by Joe WilcoxMar 18, 20239:50 pm

Ode to a Good Day

“She talked” is how our daughter’s nurse greeted me today. That statement upfront is so I don’t bury the lede. But behind it are several tumultuous days of disappointment and progress.

Consider this the third installment about our adult child, who suffered oxygen-deprivation following an incident that receives no explanation for now. “Our Family Emergency Revealed” and “From Intubation to Extubation” are parts one and two, respectively. Because my Facebook is deactivated (since July 2019), this post means to update relatives and any one else interested in following the saga.

Photo by Joe WilcoxMar 13, 202310:02 pm

From Intubation to Extubation

I am a committed practitioner of Occam’s Razor, which adapted to my troubleshooting thinking translates to something like: A problem’s simplest solution starts with answering “What changed?” Applying that principle, I honed in on a simple, specific cause of my daughter’s lethargy. I stepped back from my obsession about dialysis and asked the question. Answer: She started receiving antiseizure medicine the day before her sudden sluggishness.

Recap: Last night, I explained that our daughter is in one of the local hospital’s intensive care units. To be clear, I won’t turn this blog into a blow-by-blow account of her recovery (whatever that may be). But open-ended story about her plight, and today’s happenings, are reasons for quick follow up.

Photo by Joe WilcoxMar 12, 202310:36 pm

Our Family Emergency Revealed

Tonight I reached into the box of @Work Android Collectibles and blindly pulled out a new figurine to photograph and share. Whoa, what unexpected, sad serendipity: Healthcare Worker / Doctor / Nurse. That compels me to finally, clearly reveal our family crisis. Our daughter is at one of the local hospital’s intensive care units. Her condition is grievous.

Around 4:20 p.m. PST, on March 2, 2023, her best friend texted about being at the hospital waiting to see our only child. Someone they both know called him about an emergency with her. By amazing coincidence, he was six minutes drive from the facility and actually arrived and parked seconds before an ambulance arrived. He saw EMTs quickly haul her out of the back.

Photo by Joe WilcoxMar 10, 202310:02 pm

Old Glory Waits With You

While waiting more than 90 minutes in an ICU and surgery recovery waiting room today, I let distraction interfere with my appreciating the brightly-lit, tastefully charming, spirit uplifting surroundings, which included an American flag. Considering how the Stars and Stripes has come to represent all that some people see as wrong about the country, the banner’s presence surprised but delighted.

I took the opportunity to use Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra‘s 50-megapixel camera. The Featured Image shows off some fine detail (zoom in to see)—only rivaled (and exceeded) by the smartphone’s 200MP alternative. Vitals: f/1.7,ISO 160, 1/60 sec, 23mm (film equivalent); 1:36 p.m. PST. The photo is cropped but otherwise unchanged.

Photo by Joe WilcoxDec 3, 20229:41 pm

Drug Culture

Our many attempts to cut the cord finally succeeded when we disconnected AT&T U-verse and switched to wireless Internet and content streaming. Six months in, we’re satisfied with the freedom from channel surfing and the ability to choose what content from which services we want to watch.

Besides streaming, we grab over-the-air-channels using the Antop HD Smart Bar HDTV & FM Amplified Antenna, which I highly recommend. Occasionally, my wife or I will let some broadcast station fill the living room with sound and even entertain the cats. Surprising: How outrageously often commercial breaks fill with pharmaceutical ads. Their number is seemingly endless. I will walk by, roll my eyes, and wonder: Is America really such a drug culture?

Photo by Joe WilcoxNov 29, 202210:44 pm

What the Past Means to the Present

Strange sometimes are the things tucked away—and forgotten. Our gas stove is acting oddly, with the clock resetting and occasional, but different, error codes flashing from the control panel. Surely something is in the process of failing; perhaps a fuse or circuit.

Appliances were new when we rented the apartment five years ago, and the owner’s manuals came with them. We stuffed the folder containing each in the cupboard above the range, which is from where I retrieved the lot today. How foolish of me to expect meaningful troubleshooting that reveals what are the codes. Instead, the manufacturer instructs to call for service should one of them appear. Oh yeah? Thanks for nothing.

Photo by Joe WilcoxNov 27, 202210:45 pm

Defying COVID-19 Mandates

Today, international news media report that uncharacteristic—and possibly unprecedented—protests are underway across China (See BBC, Guardian, Sky News, The Times). Citizens are reportedly taking to the streets because of the government’s zero-SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 policy, which has brought sweeping, but irregular, lockdowns across some of the country’s regions.

Going on for nearly three years, the restrictions, which include literally locking residents into high-rise apartment buildings as means of combating Coronavirus outbreaks, are as oppressive and severe as the first massive quarantines implemented in late January 2020. While the rest of the world moves to living with an endemic disease, China maintains a pandemic public health policy.

Photo by Joe WilcoxNov 13, 20228:39 pm

Emergency at the Golden Arches

As my wife and I crossed El Cajon Blvd at Texas Street, today, we heard an ambulance approaching from behind. Cars pulled over, and I startled, realizing some came uncomfortably close to us—in the crosswalk! The emergency vehicle turned into the McDonald’s parking lot, which was before us. Sound of another siren brought my eyes to a firetruck coming from the other direction.

I decided to stop and mark the moment, from afar. The Featured Image comes from Leica Q2. Vitals, aperture manually set: f/5.6, ISO 100, 1/320 sec, 28m; 9:38 a.m. PST.