10 THINGS I AM THANKFUL FOR

I know it is not Thanksgiving yet, but it doesn’t cause any harm to express some gratitude, isn’t it? I just got my first two weeks of unemployment insurance (UI) and I am so so happy about that. I know being unemployed is never a good thing, but let’s focus on the bright side today.

1) I am thankful for my unemployment money because it can cover my rent, utility, car, even my brother’s rent (I’m in charge of that since he’s still a uni student) without me touching my savings. Of course, I still have to spend a little bit from the savings for things necessary but I always think three, four times before spending.

2) I am thankful that I actually have savings. I applied for UI two weeks ago and got denied. I knew it was only a system error and eventually I would get it approved so I was not panicked. However, it is the unknown that easily scares people since you don’t know when the check will come.

3) I am thankful that I have a job allowing me to have savings. So many people live paycheck to paycheck while I am lucky enough to have 2-month savings. I know a lot of doctors, dentists saying that they had to sacrifice so many years studying and working hard to earn the title and the lifestyle, so this is fair. Hey, a lot of people work hard as well if not even more without ever having an opportunity to change their destiny. Therefore, I am thankful for the career, the opportunity that CU gave me and all the help I have.

4) I am thankful that I can visit my family anytime I want (of course I only visit my direct family for now) and have a home cook meal. It is a blessing and doesn’t require any further explanation.

5) I am thankful that my family is still healthy. As I mentioned before, there are several family members contracting the virus but they all recovered. Things could be worse.

6) I am thankful that I have a place to live. A nice cozy apartment that I am proud of and I have to restrain myself from décor too much (my pleasure guilt).

7) I am thankful that I wake up every day simply deciding if I should drink tea or coffee for the morning and what to eat instead of thinking how I survive the day.

8) I am thankful to have a great support system from family and friends. I have so many wonderful people in my life that I think of almost every day (although I may not text or call all of you guys).

9) I am thankful that I have many hobbies to dive into during this special time. It’s a matter of choosing which hobby I want to do today.

10) I am thankful for my life in general. I’ve read somewhere that if you have a roof above your head, food to put into your mouth and a dream/goal to pursue, you are luckier than 90% people on Earth. In that case, I think I hit a jackpot.

I believe that even in the darkest hours, we can still find something to be thankful about. Thinking about all the bad things happening right now doesn’t make us less suffering or make the situation brighter. If you have to think anyway, try something positive.

Cuộc sống ở Mỹ thời Virus

1) Ở Mỹ bị bệnh có bị cách ly hay không?

Không! Ở Mỹ bị bệnh thì cũng chỉ cách ly ở nhà, và những người ở cùng nhà được khuyến cáo tạm nghỉ làm 14 ngày. Chuyện lương bổng thì tuỳ trường hợp – nếu người nhà có thể làm việc online thì vẫn làm việc bình thường không cần vào công ty, còn nếu người nhà không thể làm việc online thì sẽ được nghỉ có lương (với điều kiện được khuyên nghỉ bởi bác sĩ chứ không phải tự ý nghỉ). Nếu trong nhà có người cao tuổi hoặc người có tiền sử bệnh thì có thể ở tạm tại các motel do chính phủ mua. Nói chung là nếu bệnh thì đóng cửa bảo nhau thôi, hàng xóm láng giềng cũng không biết. Được cái ở Mỹ nhà nào nhà nấy kín bưng, hàng xóm cũng ít tụ tập nói chuyện nên khả năng truyền virus ra ngoài rất khó

2) Ở Mỹ khi xác nhận bị bệnh thì như thế nào?

Ở đâu thì nguyên đó, không có gì thay đổi. Người nhà mình bị bệnh được vài ngày thì xin đi test, test xong cả 7-10 ngày trời mới nhận được kết quả vì hệ thống bị overwhelmed do quá nhiều người đi test. Vì vậy đến lúc CDC gọi điện thoại tới nhà thông báo kết quả dương tính thì đa phần người nhà mình đều hết bệnh rồi. Trong suốt thời gian đó, dù không biết có bị virus hay không thì mọi người đã tự cách ly rồi. Nhà có ông nội 95 tuổi thì bắt ông ở trong phòng không được xuống nhà vì cả nhà bệnh hết, chỉ ngày 3 bữa đem đồ ăn lên cho ông. Hiện tại ông cũng bị dương tính nhưng tạm ổn không có dấu hiệu gì bất thường.

3) Ở Mỹ nếu bệnh thì bác sĩ chữa như thế nào?

Như đã nói, CDC chỉ gọi báo kết quả dương tính rồi thôi - không cần đến bệnh viện trừ trường hợp trở nặng, khó thở… Trong trường hợp của gia đình chị họ mình thì mọi người có kết quả sau khi đã hồi phục nên càng không cần đến bệnh viện. Gia đình chị có đưa ông tới bệnh viện khám vì ông hơi sốt nhẹ. Bác sĩ cũng chỉ đo lượng Oxy, kiểm tra máu các thứ xong cho ông về vì lượng Oxy vẫn đầy đủ chứng tỏ phổi không bị tổn thương. Từ ngày đầu đến nay, nghe nói là gia đình chỉ uống Tylenol mỗi lần bị sốt, bình thường thi uống nước ấm, rồi nước chanh gừng các thứ như khi bị cảm, rồi tẩm bổ này nọ.

4) Phản ứng của đại gia đình mình thế nào khi hay tin có người trong nhà bị COVID-19?

Bình thường J Nói chung thì từ đầu tháng 3 sau khi mình dọn nhà xong thì các anh chị em họ cũng không tụ tập nữa vì tình hình dịch bệnh. Tuy vậy anh chị em họ vẫn chat trêu chọc nhau mỗi ngày cho vui vì ở nhà không chán quá. Đến lúc chị họ đi test thì ngồi chờ kết quả như chờ xổ số mỗi ngày. Thiệt tình mà nói thì do đều là người trẻ, lại không có bệnh tật gì sẵn nên không ai lo lắng gì. Chỉ có lúc hay tin 1 người bác của mình bị bệnh khi cơ thể vốn dĩ ốm yếu sẵn thì cả đám có lo lắng chút – may mắn bác mình qua khỏi chỉ sau 2,3 ngày (người ta nói tại bác mình có sẵn sốt rét nên chắc bình phục nhanh hơn). Tới khi nghe chị họ nói là ông nội chị bị sốt thì cả đám cũng lo, nhưng rồi ông cũng khoẻ. Ngoại trừ 2 lúc đó thì cả nhà bình chân như vại.

Tóm lại, con virus này cũng hên xui lắm, cũng có những người trẻ khoẻ phải vào viện dùng máy thở, cũng có người già yếu lại không làm sao. Mọi người đọc báo hằng ngày thấy chết chết chết nhưng không phải như vậy, không phải cứ bị con virus này dính vào là chết đâu. Tất nhiên chúng ta vẫn phải tuân thủ nghiêm ngặt social distancing hoặc stay-at-home order, vì tỷ lệ chết của con virus này cũng tương đối cao mà chưa có cách chữa trị chính thức (mọi kiểu chữa chỉ là thử nghiệm). Sống có ý thức, chứ không phải là sống trong hoảng loạn. Mình upload ở đây ảnh chụp màn hình từ facebook của chị họ mình chia sẻ về 14 ngày sống chung với Virus để các bạn tiện theo dõi.

Love,

#Flattenthecurve day 5

I am kinda losing my sense of time and date now. Every day is weekend now with no sight of Monday. I am thankful that at least I live close to my family now so if the situation keeps getting worse, I will stay with them to escape loneliness.

On facebook, there are still some conversations here and there between closing or opening dental clinics. I think most people agree that we should close clinics and open for emergencies only. However, some dentists still ignore the ADA recommendation or even State Board’s order to open because they see this opportunity as a once-in-a-lifetime chance to make a profit while all the other competitors close. There are always good and bad people no matter where you live.

I happened to live in Washington State – one of the three states that got hit hardest in the country by the virus. Since a lot of my family members work in healthcare – specifically for several nursing homes in the area – I am more worried about the situation than my staff. They thought I was overreacting and that is okay. Everyone has different worries – either financial burden or health. At least at this point, we all worry about the same thing: our unemployment status and our sanity.

Politics aside, I am thankful to live in this country. Majority dentists are bored to death at home so we start to share around all online courses from marketing to endo. Some courses even give it out for free during this hardship to help other fellows. Kudos to them! You guys rock! I am not filing for unemployment yet and just sitting tight for now, but I will have to by April. I hope that unemployment insurance can at least help me cover my rent and car payment, but I feel like right now there are other people needing it more than me, so I let them file first. Possibly I will not make any difference in the long waiting list but let’s just wait for now. I called all my student loan reps to postpone payment for at least 2 months. Got two of them delaying for 2 months without any interest and the last one (also the biggest one) delaying for 3 months with some interest. I will try to call the car loan rep again tomorrow. I plan to keep paying rent for now with my savings because paying now or paying 10 months from now is almost the same (the end of my rent contract) - the financial prospect doesn’t look that promising yet at the end of the year. The goal now is to preserve as much cash as possible in case this virus will last more than 2 months.

Tonight, the governor issued “Stay-at-home” order. We all knew this would come sooner or later. My mom asked me to come home but I will still stay in my apartment for a while. It’s only 20min away anyway. I facetimed my besties from CU to check on each other. It is a tough time for everybody now but we could still laugh at each other’s jokes just like our CU time. Oh how much I miss my best two years in Colorado!

#Flattenthecurve day 3 blog

We are living in history these days. I miss going to a coffee shop, reading a good book and planning for future. Now I’m sitting in my living room with news about the virus all day long, thinking about how our lives have changed drastically in just a few weeks. Only 3 weeks ago I was having a short vacation in Colorado, a bit concerned about the new situation, got excited about moving into my new apartment “very close to work”. Two weeks moving in, now I’m jobless. I don’t know where you are right now reading this – USA, Vietnam, or Trinidad and Tobago (yea I was amazed looking at 43 countries on the visitor list) – I wish all of you good health and a great time with family.

A brief check on dentistry in the US. I’ve joined several dentists’ groups on facebook: Dental Nachos, Dental Hacks, The business of Dentistry, etc and all of them are calling dentists to stop working for a while. There are a couple of reasons.

 First of all, we create lots of aerosols using handpieces and cavitrons. If one of our patients contract the virus without symptom (incubation period), we will breathe in that virus air in close proximity. WHO says that the virus can linger for 4 hours in the air so the risk of having staff members or other patients breathing in the virus is there. The government issued “social distancing” to reduce of risk of public exposure and we are certainly closer to people’s mouth than 6fts. Therefore, closing dental clinics or limiting to emergencies only is to protect dentists, staff, the community and to stop the spreading.

Secondly, closing clinics will help to reduce the number of PPE we need so our medical colleagues will have more PPE to use. We – dentist and 1 dental assistant - use at least 2 masks, 2 pairs of gloves for each patient (most of the time we use more than that). If the office takes only private insurance, we will see 10 patients a day on average so we will use at least 20 masks, 20 pairs of gloves a day while our medical doctors, nurses and staff have only 1 mask a day each person or even reuse them the next day. If the office also takes Medicaid, the average will be 25-30 patients a day!

  Finally, you may not worry too much about your staff and you consider yourself as a young, healthy person so you will not be affected too much even if you have the virus. The thing is, even young people can be hospitalized. One may not die because of the virus but one will die because of the lack of ventilator. If all the young healthy people go out and about like their normal routine, there will not be enough ventilators for everyone. In Italy, some hospitals have to choose to treat young people and let people from 80 years old and above staying at home waiting to die. You are selfish if you let someone else die so you can have a normal daily routine. Let’s say that you have mild symptoms or even no symptom so you don’t need a ventilator. You can still pass the virus to your loved ones – spouse, children, parents, grandparents – who may not be as healthy as you.

I have read on the internet that this is just a game of social media trying to create fear and make a profit from it. Well, I would rather be overreacting than underreacting and regretting it. I have read all the reasons why dentists still open their clinics with a normal schedule – fillings, crown preps, SRPs and to be honest, I don’t care. I decide for myself what the right thing to do is, and just because someone else does it differently doesn’t mean I will too. There is so much unknown about the situation. It can be the biggest flob ever, who knows! Maybe by the end of the year, it turns out this virus is nothing (let’s hope so). I would say the right thing to do now is be cautious but not panic, do not hoard all food and supply, call friends and family, look inside yourself and learn to live simply.

Meanwhile, if you decide to stay at home for the sake of the community, we can all use this time to learn more about ourselves, finish an overdue project, read a book that we always want to read, find a new hobby, etc. Here is a list of books that are recommended by dentistry gurus that I want to finish (and maybe you can try too):

Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win (New Edition)

Profit first: Transform your business from a Cash-Eating Monster to a Money-Making Machine

The 4 Disciplines of Execution: Achieving Your Wildly Important Goal

Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspires Everyone To Take Action