Our brains weren’t designed to listen under stress

If we don't get it right, communication can fail when it matters most and it has to do with the way that people process information in the brain. People can experience “auditory exclusion” when their brain switches to stress mode and directs brain power away from their ears to their eyes.

I wish I could write a prescription for this. Whether working with patients, disaster victims or corporate executives, I have found this to be one of the most important tools to becoming unstoppable. We must guard our thoughts and be very careful what we focus on. Not only can no one ever take our thoughts away from us, but we are the ones that get to choose what we believe. In this wonderful Ted-x presentation by Edith Eva Eger, her inner beauty shines brightly and it has the power to transform the unthinkable. It is well worth your time and may just transform your day.

Years ago, we used to look up to heroes. Kids would say, “When I grow up, I want to be like that!” Heroes were positive role models that had qualities that our society valued. Somewhere along the line, a tectonic shift had a tremendous impact on our nation. We’ve turned and faced the other way and the consequences have been devastating.

Ordinary folks like you and me can make a tremendous difference in the world. Sometimes we kick back and say, "What could I do?" I'm not just talking about big, international disasters. I'm talking about how you live your life, how you approach your work, how you relate to those around you. Everyday we face two questions:

Made me smile. I suspect it will make you smile as well.

The resilience of the Filipino people is simply amazing. Beaten and bruised they still find it in themselves to smile and welcome folks to their communities.

How is it that these kids have more joy, despite their tremendous loss, than many of us as we drag ourselves into work facing "another Monday"?

Following Typhoon Yolanda, some people rallied and made a tremendous difference. Andrew Co was one of these folks. A well connected businessman, he put the full weight of his resources to work and make a tremendous impact. Listen as Mr. Co shares his heart.

This is an amazing story of heroism, courage and guts. Mayor Alfred Romualdez risked his life to get the city of Tacloban back on its feet. He describes first-hand the power of this record setting typhoon and how it destroyed his homes. Listen in to see what he did, how escaped and how he rescued his family. It is a great example of being fulling engaged and making a difference.

Today was a strange day. I started feeling a bit sick yesterday. I spent most of the night wishing I had a sit-down toilet. I’m a big fan of Pepto Bismol. It really isn’t fun to sleep under a mosquito net when you have to keep getting up. The worst thing is when you think you're ready to go back to bed, you climb back under the net, get the net repositioned and stretch back out for a good night sleep and then, nope, I have to crawl out from under the net and tiptoe across the room so I don’t wake the rest of the team as I go back to the bathroom which is now leaking from a panel in the ceiling despite the fact that it isn’t raining outside.

On the ground in Tacloban, Philippines following Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan). We are now based out of RTR Hospital and working with a tremendous group of folks from around the world. This is an amazing relief effort.

Out in the middle of nowhere and our bus couldn't go any further. So...we just set up clinic in the middle of what used to be a coconut farm. One of the first people that we met was Maryann and she could speak English! She volunteered to serve as my interpreter. You won't believe her story.

Today is Thanksgiving! It really doesn’t feel like it. Usually, at home I’m up early and starting my day long relationship with a couple of turkeys. Today, most likely, we are going to have MREs (Military Meals Ready to Eat) and maybe some special freeze-dried desserts from REI. In a storage, simplistic way, I was looking forward to it. And… I was thankful. After all, it is Thanksgiving. There are so many things that I take for granted: Toilets that you can sit on and that you don’t have to flush with a bucket, water the comes out of the faucet that you can drink, Internet access, a bed, a shower with hot or cold water (that you can drink if you want to), sleeping without a mosquito net to get tangled in, and more. Yep, I’m thankful alright. Number one, I have a roof. Number two, it doesn’t leak.

I spent my 31st wedding anniversary apart from my lovely wife, Debbie. In fact, we were 6,642 miles apart. I was in Tacloban in the Philippines and she was at home in Bremerton, WA. It's actually more confusing than that since I started celebrating it a day before her due to the time zone shift. So, in reality, I missed her a ton on our anniversary which lasted more than a day and a half.

First thing this morning, Kelly (the IMC Logistics Specialist) and I headed over to the EVMRC (Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center) so I could introduce him to the Department of Health logistics folks. They were so well organized that despite working without any lights, they had inventoried all of their supplies and put it in an Excel spreadsheet. That may seem like to big deal but the supplies were in individual bottles overflowing from cardboard boxes stacked all around the dark rooms. The counts had to be done by flashlight even during the daytime.

First thing this morning I was able to take a shower. My freshly washed clothes were sort of dry. However, even after bathing and putting on "fresh" clothes, I still smell like a wet goat. The team from Stanford and our two new team mates, Michelle La Vina and Sharron Tissel arrived today. The Stanford folks headed down south to the house that was our original site. It was great to add Michelle and Sharron to our team! They even brought more protein bars and snacks! Ah, the simple things in life.

Yesterday, I did laundry by hand and hung it up. Today it is still wet. We were packing up today to go to Tacloban. By the way, if you are travelling, the best way to pack is to roll your clothes and put them in baggies. You never know when you might be crossing a river or if your laundry won't dry. While we waited for the truck to come back and transport us, we played "bocce" with marbles in the parking area. I really enjoy the guys that I'm deployed with. I couldn't ask for a better team. They are eager to serve and they put others first. I felt a little bad beating them in marble bocce, but not much.

Today was a day filled with emotion. We loaded the mini-truck with supplies for both teams and then we all piled into the other truck which is covered and has two barely padded benches that face each other. The first part of the trip was fairly easy. We drove to the municipality of Pastrana. We then met the Municipal Health Officer and he dispatched his nurse Vilma, RN. Their ambulance went in front of us and blared announcements that we were having clinic. We had police on motorcycles with assault rifles escorting us in front and behind.

We hit the ground running and had a wonderfully productive day. Our team split into two mobile teams for clinic. Dr. Rob, JB and I left early and visited two different municipalities. The first stop was the Degami Municipality. Municipalities are rated according to their affluence on a 1-6 scale with 1 being the most affluent. Degami is a category 3. They have 65 barangays (villages) 16 of which are in the mountains. There are about 35,000 people which make up about 7,000 families. After the typhoon, they had an influx of an additional 2,000 families (mostly made up of women and children) that came from either the coast or the mountains. There was a severe flash flood that was caused by water coming down out of the mountains.

Our voyage took significantly longer than we were told it would. It ended up being about 20 hours from Cebu to Tacloban. It was a ship crowded with people, there were several other relief teams from around the Philippines. There was a team of newly graduated doctors from a school in the Philippines. They hadn't done their internships or residencies yet but they were passionate about helping. We enjoyed getting to know them.

The other team left this morning for Guiain so we loaded their supplies and got them off to the airport first thing. The area that they are going to has been very underserved. When they got to the airport, they found out that the military is servicing all their planes today so all the flights had been cancelled. So the team decided to stick around for a while and just "go with the flow". After about a hour and a half, a flight became available for them as long as they didn't exceed 600 pounds of supplies. Their total supplies came to 558 pounds! God opened the door and they were on their way.

After about 17 hours in the air, we are now at the Cebu Base Camp. We have an outstanding team of guys. All four of the other guys are paramedics. I am the only physician on this team. Ian Tully is from Whidby Island, Gary Howe is from Tacoma, Dan Livengood and Rob Watson are both from the Portland area. The whole team is very experienced in international disasters so this is going to be great.