April 2, 2020

Without oxygen


Without oxygen, 
our cells die and our organs 
stop their functioning. 

 COVID19 haiku   

“This disease is different from what we typically see, and its severity has unsettled even our most experienced doctors. One man arrived and had to be intubated immediately; his blood-oxygen level, thirty-eight per cent, was the lowest any of us had ever seen. 
(Greater than ninety-five per cent is normal; eighty per cent is alarming.) 

We have seen other patients with levels in the sixties or seventies. Another patient’s levels plummeted to below twenty per cent in the few seconds it took us to connect him to a ventilator. "


Previously, in this blog we looked at two forms of "drowning." Both of these posts are more metaphoric than clinical, or they may be accurate.  I'm not a brain scientist.

This post was about depression, and how we can drown in our own self generated darkness. 


The first post that discussed drowning was in 2009, three years after the death of my father from congestive heart failure.  As the heart fails, and the lungs fill with fluids, so one drowns in your own body. 

April 2 happens to be the 14th anniversary of the death and loss of my Father.  Our parents make such an impression on us, and when they go, there are holes that never get filled.  There are places in our hearts that never get comforted.  And yet, there are also memories that won't get forgotten for some time anyway. 

What are your favourite memories of your parents?

Feel free to leave your answers in the comments, or you can email me at lesgoodman66@gmail.com






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