Hurricane Sandy Recovery, and more yeast infections. Some photos of tree damage in my town. 

Today is Monday November 5th. Hurricane Sandy came through here exactly one week ago. Power came back at my house about 36 hours ago, and electrical power came to my office about 24 hours ago. This morning we went in to the office and restarted our business equipment. The phone system has completely lost it's mind. The programming is gone. This means that every phone in the office rings for every call. My staff was extremely busy all day taking phone calls and arranging  new schedules. And they did it with our malfunctioning phone system. It sounds funny, but the fax machine started to answer every call. I am sure that was frustrating to callers who were answered by a fax tone. We unplugged the fax and forwarded those calls to a Lifeline fax server. And when we tried to send faxes, the receiving fax machine was putting our fax machine on hold, complete with music. Our fax machine does not need, or even like, music, so that obviously blew up our communications systems. Once, when I got tired of the phones ringing nonstop in the exam room, I pulled the phone off the wall and unplugged it. I think I moved much too fast. Besides alarming my patient, I banged my head into the corner of the cabinet by the phone. Ouch. That hurt. But I had a good laugh about it. Probably everyone's phone and fax system is deprogrammed by now.  If it wasn't so serious it would be funny. Today, I had a women who needed to know a vaginal biopsy report to decide if she was going to have a C Section or not. But the lab couldn't get the test done, so now we have to decide without that information. That's kind of stressful. We will take good care of her anyway, and I think she will be satisfied with what we have done.

I think Halloween is cancelled now. It was rescheduled by Governor Christie, if you can believe that. First to Saturday, then to today, Monday. This, despite Halloween not being any kind of official holiday. But, since the streets are full of fallen trees, fallen power lines, piles of leaves, and piles of branches, there is just nowhere safe for the kids to go around trick or treating.

Most of my town is still without power, and the gas lines are still very long. Most of the gas stations are closed due to either running out of gas, or no electric. I called the Governor myself and was utterly surprised when a women answered the phone. I asked her to relay a message to the Governor that I thought the gas stations should get generators. Now, everyone must realize that Generators are dangerous machines. Our military has a spate of soldiers who died in war zones because of improperly wired generators. The press uses the term "faulty wiring". Faulty wiring means that electricity flows were it doesn't belong. Generators are only safe if they are operated within codes. That means that "electrical ground" is grounded, and "electrical neutral" is "bonded". If that is so, and connections are secure, than there is no danger. So, I asked the Governor to make sure that every local code official inspects the gas station generators, but not deny it due to permits. The other generator safety factor is that the generator must not "backfeed" into the power mains. If it does that, then there will be dangerous electricity where the power company thinks there isn't, and power line workers can get hurt, or worse. Worse, when the electrical mains come back, the generator cannot fight the strength of the power company, and the generator burns up in a ball of fire, especially including the gas tank on top of the generator. In an emergency, the best way to safely prevent backfeeding, is to pull the electrical meter. This completely prevents backfeeding. But, pulling the meter is illegal. I urged Governor Christie to explicity alllow pulling the meter at gas stations, by qualified electricians, so generators can be hooked up safely.  Pulling the meter reduces the electricians job to just a few minutes. We know that generators are scary dangerous. We in Jersey know that. But, here in New Jersey, we are facing a killing freeze tonight, and many folks have no power. And many folks cannot get gas due to the lines (lines are called queues in other countries). Something has to be done. It is my belief that the legal electrical codes need to be modified to suit the emergency. Pulling the meter is a no brainer, and allows safe electrical supply to Gas Stations.  The Gas Stations need to get electricity, and to start pumping gas. If generators are properly operated, then they do their function very safely. The electrical code officials are the best troops on the front lines of getting everyone the gas they need.

I don't see any gas stations on generators around here, with the one exception being the gas station that is owned by the mayor. That one has a nice generator hooked up, and at least our town can get gas there. But, there is still a giant line of waiting people queued up. I am sure that the mayor had no problem with proper hookup, or with the towns electrical inspector.

So, it is my opinion that getting the gas stations on generators is a priority. Moreover  it is an easy job for an electrician. It will save lives and prevent misery over the next few days.

Unbelievably, we have a Nor'Easter coming in two days. These storms are "winter hurricanes" centered out over the Atlantic Ocean, which blow strong winds and rain inland. Usually there is a lot of wind damage and power lines down. We only get one every few years. It will only add to the misery, especially to those without power. I hope no more lives are lost.

I have lent my generator out to a local family without power. I hope it helps them, and it keeps their pipes from freezing.

What was the most common Gyne problem I saw in the office today? Yeast Infections. True to form, on Halloween and Easter, there were a ton of yeast infections. I carried my bottle of diflucan around in the office. And handed them out. I think the yeasts were worse than usual today. It is possible that the stress of the hurricane is worsening the situation, but it seems to me there is something more. My theory is that all of the veggies were gone from the grocery store and the peoples fridges, so people were compensating with lower quality food, with more carbos. Obviously that would include Halloween candy. But it would also include donuts, chips, and other junk food. Personally, I bought a box of donuts and brought it home, and no  one at home complained there were too many donuts. How could I resist? The store had them out at the front. And everyone was stressed. The donuts were great.

I have a stack of photos of the tree damage done a week ago. There were trees snapped off at the trunk, and uprooted, some onto cars and houses. I have heard of no one in my town getting directly hurt by the hurricane.

Here are some of my photos. They are all within a two minute drive of my house:

The above tree snapped off at the main trunk.

This tree was uprooted and fell over next to a stop sign. The stop sign was turned upside down by the winds.  That root ball is 7 feet tall.

This big healthy tree was snapped off. 

This tree was uprooted and landed on the car in the background. The car has a tarp on it. 

These folks got a car smashed, and their house. 

1, A power line in the foreground 2. A Gen running in the garage! They are lucky to outlive this severe generator error. I informed a fireman around the corner, but he said he could do nothing. This is a lethal error. Never run a combustion engine inside, ever.  

This is a nice Honda Accord smashed by a tree. Obviously the driver would have died if it hit with him in it. 

This uprooted tree barely missed the house. 

This area was spared, but look at the power lines. Buried power lines look better and are safer. 

A different view of an undamaged lot. 

Another undamaged Wyckoff lot? look in the back yard. A tree is down there. 

This nice Mercedes Benz sacrificed itself to save the driveway. Obviously passengers in that car would have been killed. Look at the size of that tree trunk. It is as wide as the Mercedes. Only a part of the tree fell. it was a twin oak, or maybe a triplet oak. 

This is a short 30 minute line just for gas cans, for generators. Notice the police keeping the peace? They all did a really great job. They came around, asking questions, and making sure everyone was ok. The guy behind me in this line had a tree branch come through his roof. The branch penetrated his bed where his legs would have been, had he been sleeping there. Thankfully, he wasn't in bed. But if he was in bed, he was ignoring the towns advice to stay on lower floors. To my knowledge, no one in my town got hurt in an upstairs room of their house. And there were no floods. 

That's it for today, 

Thanks, 

Doctor John Marcus 

Ob/Gyn 

Ridgewood NJ 07450 

Office number 201-447-0077 

Blog is at doctorjohnmarcus.blogspot.com 

I corrected a few typos on November 10th. My editor must have been taking a break.