Western NC Helene donation options (heath, recommended)
No spots and bruising, no storm damage here.
I watched (skimmed) some press conferences Sunday evening - one from a hard hit Tennessee county, one from the NC governor. I now have the cheerful thought of propane tanks floating down the French Broad River.
While the Red Cross is probably a good place to donate, i've run across a few others:
This org https://mountainprojects.org/ was suggested by Blue Ridge Public radio. They have an unrestricted emergency fund that they use for responding to individual needs in normal times. The run some really good projects, it appears. I feel like a smaller monthly donation to the emergency fund might be one way i can address what i suspect with be years long recovery. I keep thinking of drives in the Blue Ridge, and all i see in my mind's eye are the little valleys, flat bottom flood plains, filled with barns and farms, crossroad stores, and lovely little babbling brooks. And there's a reason those flood plains are flat.
The WNC Regional Livestock Center facebook page has folks asking for help. One place that caught my eye is https://www.misfitmountainnc.org/ : "Misfit Mountain is a foster-based animal rescue in the Greater Asheville area helping dogs, cats, pigs, chickens, and small animals find their forever home." They point to another shelter in need: https://www.bwar.org/
Met the hematologist Thursday. He asked whether the fact my platelets were back to normal with last week's blood draw meant we still needed to talk; i handed him the health history i'd written up and affirmed. He went and reviewed my chart and notes; i now realize the photos i sent my doctor were not available to him. We had a good conversation. In theory, as soon as spots show up, i can dash off and get my blood drawn at the clinic ten minutes from my house. He did more blood tests and later in the day i saw my platelets were low -- just a bit below the normal range -- but low nonetheless. I don't know if that will change our planned course of wait-and-see. If my reads of the autoimmune issue are right, it seems that it's initially reactive treatments with steroids to stop having platelets labeled by the immune system for removal.
Felt out of order all day with the morning routine being so disrupted.
After work, distracted by storm watching. I admit to being a bit obsessed by going from browser tab to tab -- the Florida highway information site lets one look through the traffic CCTV cameras. I found one, Cape San Blas road, with a lovely view of waves crashing over the riprap on the road -- and some team out with some mini bulldozer (bobcat) scraping the sand off. Friday, i find i can enjoy the sunrise from there. Other camera show twisted street signs, branches down, standing water, although few are dramatic views into the worst flooding: most of the monitored highways are well inland.
The weekend, i was highly distractable. We also had an expected guest which meant getting presentable and cleaning up from the yard, which meant i was unenthused at the idea of going back out. While the storm eventually pushed away the terrible humidity, i was still going to be a sweaty mess. And the guest never showed, putting Christine into a funk. Turns out a failed text drove that miscommunication.
post-tags: health, recommended
I watched (skimmed) some press conferences Sunday evening - one from a hard hit Tennessee county, one from the NC governor. I now have the cheerful thought of propane tanks floating down the French Broad River.
While the Red Cross is probably a good place to donate, i've run across a few others:
This org https://mountainprojects.org/ was suggested by Blue Ridge Public radio. They have an unrestricted emergency fund that they use for responding to individual needs in normal times. The run some really good projects, it appears. I feel like a smaller monthly donation to the emergency fund might be one way i can address what i suspect with be years long recovery. I keep thinking of drives in the Blue Ridge, and all i see in my mind's eye are the little valleys, flat bottom flood plains, filled with barns and farms, crossroad stores, and lovely little babbling brooks. And there's a reason those flood plains are flat.
The WNC Regional Livestock Center facebook page has folks asking for help. One place that caught my eye is https://www.misfitmountainnc.org/ : "Misfit Mountain is a foster-based animal rescue in the Greater Asheville area helping dogs, cats, pigs, chickens, and small animals find their forever home." They point to another shelter in need: https://www.bwar.org/
Met the hematologist Thursday. He asked whether the fact my platelets were back to normal with last week's blood draw meant we still needed to talk; i handed him the health history i'd written up and affirmed. He went and reviewed my chart and notes; i now realize the photos i sent my doctor were not available to him. We had a good conversation. In theory, as soon as spots show up, i can dash off and get my blood drawn at the clinic ten minutes from my house. He did more blood tests and later in the day i saw my platelets were low -- just a bit below the normal range -- but low nonetheless. I don't know if that will change our planned course of wait-and-see. If my reads of the autoimmune issue are right, it seems that it's initially reactive treatments with steroids to stop having platelets labeled by the immune system for removal.
Felt out of order all day with the morning routine being so disrupted.
After work, distracted by storm watching. I admit to being a bit obsessed by going from browser tab to tab -- the Florida highway information site lets one look through the traffic CCTV cameras. I found one, Cape San Blas road, with a lovely view of waves crashing over the riprap on the road -- and some team out with some mini bulldozer (bobcat) scraping the sand off. Friday, i find i can enjoy the sunrise from there. Other camera show twisted street signs, branches down, standing water, although few are dramatic views into the worst flooding: most of the monitored highways are well inland.
The weekend, i was highly distractable. We also had an expected guest which meant getting presentable and cleaning up from the yard, which meant i was unenthused at the idea of going back out. While the storm eventually pushed away the terrible humidity, i was still going to be a sweaty mess. And the guest never showed, putting Christine into a funk. Turns out a failed text drove that miscommunication.
post-tags: health, recommended