Southern California Fires, Part 2
Staff Photo
Sitting in her car, heading north after her father's funeral, my wife has joined this massive exodus. She phoned me a few minutes ago to say that Interstate 5 was closed, and she has been directed to an alternate route north to Los Angeles. I did not speak to her very long since the cell phone system is being overrun and emergency personnel need those airways.
When disasters of this magnitude occur, the medical systems are also overrun. My son is an ER nurse in San Diego and has been working overtime caring for hundreds of people, many that have pre-existing respiratory problems such as asthma. Recently, fires in Northern California caused me to cough for a few weeks. I ended up with pneumonia, if you can believe it. I am still coughing.
Sharing the national news with the catastrophic fire is the fact that Marie Osmond fainted on Dancing with Stars. Now, she is blaming it on the smoke from LA fires. Personally, I think it was more of a combination of crash dieting (she has put on a bit of weight after having all of those children), anxiety (afraid she would fall on national TV while dancing), and a hyperventilation. If you see her puffing away after her performance, you can see her breathing very, very hard. When you blow off that much carbon dioxide, you are going to end up on the floor - which she did.
Los Angeles has some notorious brown air anyway. Added to the smoke in this valley is going to cause some serious respiratory difficulties for thousands of people. San Diego's air is a bit better as long as the wind is blowing off of the ocean. Right now, there is a dry, desert wind, blowing from the East. According to the national weather reports, conditions may be improving, but it is going to take days and days before these fires are contained.
Most asthmatics have the foresight to bring their medications, but in the chaos of a quick evacuation where you may be collecting irreplaceable family heirlooms, beloved pets, and some clothes, it would not surprise me to have pharmacies being inundated by refill requests.
I am clearly worried about my wife. Writing this blog is helping me cope with this anxiety. I have to work today, but I would rather be helping out at a shelter someplace if I could get there. Right now, Southern California does not need any more people heading south. My wife is supposed to call me every hour to let me know how she is progressing. Fortunately, she is calmer in traffic than I am. I go nuts sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic. I just want her home so she can decompress and quietly cry over the death of her father. She needs the sanctity of her home. She needs to pet her dogs (Canine Antidepressants). And, she needs some hugs, which I will provide.
Related Topics: Technorati Tags: California fires, wildfires, grief, smoke, health
3 Comments:
Dr. Moser, for what it's worth, things are improving everywhere but San Diego, so once she manages to get out of that area she will probably be out of the worst of it.
I've lived in California all my life and cannot remember a Santa Ana condition as bad as the one we had this week, nor a series of wildfires that were so devastating in such a short period of time. As a kid, I'll never forget seeing the area we lived in surrounded by fire on all sides, or my mother frantically hosing down the roof of the home she and my father had just purchased 2 months earlier. Fortunately we were not harmed by that fire, but it inspired my father to learn how to clear brush and create a fire break around the house. Fortunately it wasn't threatened again in the time we lived there.
My thoughts and prayers go out to my fellow Californians this week - it's been tough for everyone, and especially hard on your wife. Prayers for her safety coming home, too.
My wife made it home safely this evening after a long and exhausting trip. Thank you so much for your concern.
I think I can speak for all of your readers in saying that we're glad to hear that she got home safely, and hope she is coping as well as can be expected.
Our thoughts are with you both.
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