Friday, April 23, 2021

 Dear friends-

I was diagnosed with a nasty GI bug and put on 2 weeks of horrid meds, which I have completed. Made me feel terrible. Still dealing with the repercussions. There will be a recheck to see if I'm 'cured' and then life goes on. At this point, replenishing my poor gut with fermented foods and probiotics. 

My healthcare provider offered NO help. I know you know. If we want to know what is wrong with us and we want to improve our health, we have to be proactive and do it ourselves. Dr Google helped me to understand what the bacteria was and suggested ways to recover. That's why so many of us visit naturopaths and acupuncturists and chiropractors. Western medicine is so inadequate. 

Of course, western medicine has made amazing advances, for example-vaccines for covid. But who has access to vaccines? Who gets to live and who dies? The inequities are so obvious. I'm lucky. I got vaccinated early. Unlike so many of my fellow citizens. 

I've registered to help with the vaccination effort in Seattle. Just waiting for my 'assignment'. I've asked to work in my neighborhood, which is largely Asian and immigrant Somalis and Ethiopians. 

I guess I'm just angry this morning. 

In other news, I attended another birth yesterday with our young midwife, Emily. It was the family's fourth baby. A strapping boy. She's a pediatric resident and he's a stay-at-home dad. They plan to return to Alaska to work in the Alaskan healthcare system. I'll go visit them on Sunday to see how they are doing and check in on their babe. I wish every mother had access to the type of care we provide. Back in the day, I thought that home birth with midwives would change the world. Ah, my young self. 

We moved the dogwood from the front of the house where it never bloomed to the back of the house and it is covered with blossoms. It needed to be cooler and out of the sun. What do we each need to thrive? 

Apropos of nothing, here is my new Website: mayasgarden.org.

I think it is very pretty. 

May you all be well and safe today. 

4 comments:

am said...

Hope that your GI bug is soon only a memory. So true that we have to do medical footwork these days. I can no longer afford alternative medical care but the money I spent on that beginning in the late 1980s, rather than Western medicine, has served me well because my health is unusually good at age 71, and I have the tools to keep it that way as long as possible. Being Mortal, by Atul Gawande, gave me a much-needed perspective for when the time comes that I need to accept an abrupt or gradual loss of good health.

Thank you for the link to your lovely new website!

Ms. Moon said...

Oh, Beth. I am so sorry you had to go through that antibiotic regime. I hope it did its work. Or at least well enough that you can now heal fully with diet and so forth.
Your new website is beautiful. You are such an amazing human being. I love you.

Elizabeth said...

I'm so sorry to hear of your healthcare struggles. Sometimes it's good to surrender to grumpiness and anger at -- well -- everything. It will pass. And Beth, your website is fantastic! I am thinking about attending one of the meditation sessions and dharma talks.

beth coyote said...

Elizabeth-it would be a kick to 'see' you at a meditation. Anytime.

XX Beth