No time for brain damage
Has the “fog of late pandemic” hit you? Even if it has, you’re above it.
Things I Think by Gary Tetz
Sleep like your life depends on it
One thing I’ve learned in my mostly unsuccessful lifelong quest to get enough sleep is that nothing helps more than feeling under pressure to do so. So learning in McKnight’s that extra sleep reduced healthcare workers’ risk of getting COVID-19 was just the incentive I needed. Actually, not. Medical research over the past decade or…
Better is better
So, how are you coping, compared to the other pandemics you’ve had to contend with?
Lord of the Rings
After mocking wearers of Apple watches not so long ago, citing an annoying interaction that took place in a nursing home lobby, I finally got one myself. I realize this makes me a hypocrite, and I’m completely okay with that. Like Frodo Baggins before me, I’ve now become obsessed with the rings. If you don’t…
A slippery slope
Should we follow “the Golden Rule” and treat others the way we would want to be treated? In a word, no.
Almost done
“Almost done,” the doctor assured me, as she aimed her laser at my right eye. Then over the next 20 minutes, she said it several more times. By then I knew it was all a cruel deception, meant to distract me from the fact that a white-hot beam of light was pummeling one of my…
Salvation by social media
I always thought it was only good for destroying the world, but now I’m here to boldly predict that social media will ultimately save us. After the horrors we’ve been through these past few years with Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, you probably didn’t see that hypothesis coming. But here’s how it’s going to happen: by…
A beautiful thing to celebrate
This is a good time to focus on something undeniably positive that’s happening in our own profession.
Just a box
It’s just a box. Not that different from the one that will probably show up on your doorstep or mine today, maybe stuffed with holiday gifts or toilet paper. So why am I feeling a little choked up standing here staring at it? This wave of sudden emotion makes no sense. Usually I associate a…
Moment of truth
Now that vaccines really are imminent and long-term care staff and residents look to be first in line, you’re probably holding your breath, desperately longing for an answer to the most important question of all: What does Gary Tetz think I should do? That’s completely normal. I’m what the kids call an influencer, so it…
Paul Revere rides again
Where is Paul Revere when we need him? It seems like he should be racing through every hamlet and long-term care facility in America shrieking, “The vaccine is coming! The vaccine is coming!”
A bear of very little brain
I can’t tell you the peace I feel from setting aside the unknowns of the election and the incomprehensible intricacies of delivering vaccines to long-term care facilities to consider our economic future.
You’ve got a friend
Sometimes I have to stretch to recite something joyful to share from the past week, as is requested at one of our regular work meetings. But this week, the task was easy.
Get up, Bambi
At this point, we dare not muse aloud about what else could possibly go wrong in 2020. It’s no longer about the second shoe dropping. We appear to be dealing with an evil centipede who still has at least 98 more.
What the fires can’t destroy
With a pandemic continuing unabated, and now hurricanes, floods and wildfires ravaging large swaths of the nation, I don’t know how many more apocalyptic horsemen the long-term care profession is slated to face or can withstand.
It’s raining chocolate — hallelujah!
How fondly I remember the old days, pre-2020, when Googling “long-term care news” yielded different results
Waiting for the ice cream truck
There aren’t enough covers to pull over my head anymore.
Finding joy in the grueling now
Finding joy in the difference you make is perhaps all the inspiration any of us needs.
Exhale, with love
How are those masks working out for you? My glasses are as perpetually fogged as a car windshield after prom, and I do enjoy sounding like Charlie Brown’s teacher.
Quoth the Raven
I consider it an ominous omen. Yesterday on my walk, I was attacked by a crow — three times. Or it might have been a raven. I can’t tell the difference.
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