Electric Cost Monitoring

Young Girl Worries About Her Grandmother

Jenny, 10 years old, is sitting in her 3rd period class in Philadelphia not paying attention to the lesson. She is distracted—worried about her 72 year-old grandmother, Sybil.Sybil is diabetic and takes medications for blood pressure and heart disease. It has been a record hot May and Sybil has been complaining of the heat.Last night was particularly hot. A power outage for the past three days means they cannot run their air conditioner; it was really hot in the apartment.Sybil was acting odd this morning – confused and somewhat listless. The power is still not on, and it is even hotter today.Jenny is worried, trying to decide if she should tell the teacher and ask to go home. The news last night talked about the heatwave and what people should do.If anything happens to Sybil, Jenny doesn’t know what she would do – no other relatives live nearby; all her friends are here.

Expectant Mother Worries About Her Baby

Mrs. Reyes is pregnant, has been ill for two months, and her physician can’t seem to figure out what is causing her symptoms.The Minneapolis summer has been beautiful, warmer and wetter than she remembers as a kid. She is proud of her garden and has been spending the warm evenings trying to keep ahead of the weeds.Mosquitoes seem to be even worse than usual, a constant menace in her garden. Her symptoms started a few days after receiving multiple bites one evening.Mrs. Reyes had a high fever that lasted a few days, with nausea and a rash. She thought it was summer flu. But then she started feeling extremely tired with incapacitating pain in her knees, elbows, and other joints. Yesterday, the pain became so severe that she couldn’t stand straight.She is worried that whatever she has will affect her unborn child. Her doctor has never seen anyone with her symptoms and diagnosed her with arthritis, but that is not consistent with her other symptoms.Finally, at her insistence, her doctor contacts the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where he learns that her symptoms are consistent with chikungunya fever.There have been occasional outbreaks of chikungunya since it was introduced in the US in 2010, but mostly along the Gulf coast. Aedes mosquitoes carry this viral disease, but Minneapolis was thought to be too far north.The CDC started a review of medical records in Minneapolis, conducted a seroprevalence survey, and discovered there had been several hundred cases of chikungunya. All of those that came to medical attention were misdiagnosed.

Little Leaguer Worries About His Asthma

Johnny is 13 and lives in Los Angeles. He is a scrappy first baseman on his little league team and likes playing ball better than anything else in the world.What Johnny doesn’t like is that high pollen and poor air quality exacerbate his asthma. He has to make sure he takes his inhaler to his practices and games, and has had to take a puff between innings during some recent games.Today’s game is really important with a playoff seed on the line. Johnny’s been looking forward to the playoffs all year and wants to help his team win more than anything else.But the unusually hot weather and clear skies have caused a high ozone day, and the increased rain last year means there is more pollen than usual.The game is tied 3-3 in the fifth inning and Johnny’s on deck with 2 runners on. The team needs a hit from their clutch first baseman.But Johnny can’t breathe even after several puffs from his inhaler. His coach stops the game and calls for an ambulance to take Johnny to the emergency room.