In a Town A, there were five bakers. Each employed five apprentices. So there were twenty five apprentices in employment.
Two bakers were not happy with the town mayor’s new rules and taxation policy. They decided to go to another town B to set up their business. So there was less opportunity for employment in town A.
Now in town B, there are eight bakers, creating more job opportunities there! So the youths from town A moved to town B to seek employment.
This is a simple analogy of businesses, job opportunities for the youths, and supplies meeting demands economically.
Don’t kill the geese that lay the golden eggs, then there will always be enough pies to go around for everyone!
Many people suffer in silence. The excuses are shame, taboos, ‘don’t wash dirty linens in public’, or ‘ you are weak’. And so, they ‘drown’!
Speaking up here refers to talking to someone close to oneself or a counselor. A meditation guru once suggested “meditating and telling the universe”. In peaceful solitude and self-reflection, one may find the answers or solutions.
Tell the universe (Picture courtesy of Ruzita Mohd Dan, Gp 2/92)
Injured her foot. (Photo by cottonbro on Pexels.com)
Little Tom fell from his bicycle.
Everybody at home panicked.
“He is bleeding a lot … a lot! Can you come home, mum?” the older brother cried.
“Listen, boy. Go get a clean towel from the cupboard. Cover the wound. Press to stop the bleeding. Just press. Daddy will be back in a few minutes. I will meet you all at the emergency department.”
*******
Nurse Chen went back to attend to her two patients. The doctors and nurses were hanging blood, pack after pack, only to see more blood being vomited and passed out. The resuscitation went on for these two regular patients who had cirrhosis liver and bleeding oesophageal varices.
Nurse Chen informed the ER staff to expect her son. He had five stitches on his foot.
*****
Both are emergencies. The amount blood loss varies. But the perception of ‘a lot of blood loss’ is very real in both contexts!
Silent supporters (Photo by RF._.studio on Pexels.com)
I put a lot of effort into drawing cartoon for this video post. Then…
“Hmm, so many are viewing my video on “Fitting mental chips…” The traffic seems to be increasing of late!” Then I stumbled upon a few bloggers who had been sharing my posts on other social media, no wonder!
Blood transfusion (Photo by Charlie-Helen Robinson on Pexels.com)
This is an interesting question!
A handful of patients had requested blood from unvaccinated donors. But more than 90% of current donors have either been infected with covid or vaccinated against it. Dr. Michael Busch explained.
People requiring transfusions may donate their own blood in advance (Autologous blood transfusion). They can also request donations from designated friends and family members. But according to Red Cross, there is no evidence that the latter’s blood is safer.
“Nurse B, my bag leaks again! The other nurse A applied the bag just thirty minutes ago!” called Mr. Ahmed, a bed-ridden patient.
“Sigh! Look at the mess! Now I have to change a new bag again, the bed linens and your hospital clothes!” Nurse B grumbled as she changed the linens and the stoma bag…
Nurse Chen saw the patient tearing silently. She went toward him.
“Nurse Chen, see that window? If only I can walk! I would jump out of it!” he cried sadly.
“What is the point of ‘saving my life from cancer of the large intestine’, if my life is such a mess everyday!” he lamented the poor quality of life after operation.
That happened in the late 1980s. A small pioneering team of surgeons and nurses were tasked to look into the care of patients who were operated and had a stoma (<—see the images here) on their abdomen or ‘tummy’.
Those days stoma bags were a basic bag with zinc oxide adhesive (below). Very often it leaked and the fecal effluent spilled all over their clothes and bed linens. The skin around the stoma became excoriated or burned by the frequent contact with the excrements. It became inflamed and excruciatingly painful.
It was very depressing for the patients, and frustrating for the patient, home-carer and healthcare staff, too.
Upon discharge, some patients used cloth, new-papers, coconut shell, empty tins over their stoma to collect the effluents. Some created their own stoma bags (see below).
Self-made stoma bag for faecal effluent or discharge
please put up your hands! ( Fish sculpture on lid cover by ChenSP)
Those absent- please put up your hands!
… if you are present, would you agree on behalf of those who have left [past]? or for those who have yet to arrive [future]?
In presentism, present-day rules. Not the past, not the future.
Many names of roads during colonial times have been renamed to VIPs of today. That part of history and story about those locations is, therefore, lost.
‘Pa, you always say that during your time, you used to have ten cents daily pocket money! What can ten cents buy today?’
‘We used to manage these workloads with half the workforce! You don’t need extra staff!’ proposed a senior nurse manager. Yea, but today, we manage patients, machines, and lots and lots of defensive documentation! However, the future may be changed when we start to get more robots instead of nurses!
Don’t compare why things were done then, cannot be done now, and vice versa. Each period has its own weaknesses and strengths, and its own challenges. Yet the true challenge is when a veteran or baby boomer, used to chalk and blackboard, now has to meld into current technology and computer age!
One can’t help but to compare and contrast differences!
Chen Song Ping 