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Collected Item: “Anthony Reed Oral History, 2022/07/30”

Title

Anthony Reed

Who conducted the interview? List all names, separated by comma.

Kit Heintzman

Who was interviewed? List all names, separated by commas.

Anthony Reed

Email Address(es) for all interviewers. Separated by comma.

kheintzman@gmail.com

Use one-word hashtags (separated by commas) to describe your oral history. For example: Where did it originate? How does this object make you feel? How does this object relate to the pandemic?

#adoption, #blogging, #Christmas, #COVID+, #essentialworker, #family, #fatherhood, #gratitude, #GuatemalanAmerican, #hugs, #immunocompromised, #masking, #mindset, #PPE, #publishing, #resilience, #selfhelp, #smiles, #transplant, #vaccination, #Virginia, #writer #kidneytrails #insperation #selfdevolpment

What is the format of your recording?

Audio

In what ZIP code is the primary residence of the interviewee? (enter 5-digit ZIP code; for example, 00544 or 94305)? In what city/town/village does the interviewee live? In what country does the interviewee live? All comma-separated.

USA, Virginia

What is the gender of the interviewee? Be sure to allow interviewees to self-identify their gender in the pre-interview or interview. *Do not assign a gender identity to interviewees.*

Male, He/ Him

What is the age of the interviewee?

25 to 34

How does the interviewee describe their race or ethnicity? Be sure to allow interviewees to self-identify their race/ethnicity in the pre-interview or interview. *Do not assign a racial or ethnic identity to interviewees.*

American Indian

Describe the oral history.

Some of the things we discussed include:
- Maintaining a positive mindset.
- Having had a stroke at 18, going on dialysis, and entering the medical field as a healthcare professional and public speaker.
- Having a familiarity with how one’s body responds to illness.
- Comparisons between experiences of safety precautions during the pandemic and safety precautions as a former transplant recipient: masking and isolating; people’s reactions to mask wearing pre-pandemic.
- Early stages of pandemic denial.
- Having speaking engagements canceled in 2020.
- Beginning a blogging during the pandemic, Kidney Trails; that blog evolving into a publishing company.
- Leaving the house as an essential worker and seeing the roads empty; safety precautions upon returning home; considerations of family safety.
- Seeing coworkers struggle with the pandemic; PPE shortages.
- Changing safety precautions at work.
- Getting sick with a workplace COVID outbreak in late 2020; family getting sick.
- Having access to other healthcare professionals and lab workers who interpreted evolving scientific knowledge.
- Wife giving birth to their third child during the pandemic.
- Raising kids with little memory of pre-pandemic life.
- Finding good things to hold onto.
- Vaccination.
- Deepening appreciation for friends, family, and time.
- Celebrating Christmas Eve dinner with parents.
- Learning gratitude from experience: having been adopted and immigrating to the USA as a young boy.
- The mental impact of COVID.
- Embracing life’s lessons.

Other cultural references: Zig Ziglar, Jim Rohn, Les Brown, Tony Robbins

See also: https://kidneytrails.com

On what date did you record this oral history?

2022-07-30
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