Working, Covid, Family ... An Update

I decided perhaps I'd drop in to say hello.

I don't know if anyone still has this blog in their dashboard or not, but this one is mostly for me anyway, so that's ok if no one reads it.

Where Have I Been!

Norton's Downtown and 

Norton's Children's Hospital

I haven't been keeping up with any of my favorite bloggers/J-Landers since the chaos started -- well, since before it was chaos; back when it was just a weird virus that was picking up speed. My favorite bloggers are all on Facebook, so I've been able to see that they are all okay. But I think I might drop in on a few in the next few days.

Working two hospitals for a while...

I've been busy. Busy and distracted, and not really in the mood to write. When all of this started I had just begun helping out at two locations of one of the largest hospitals in Louisville in addition to my duties at my own hospital in Jeffersonville, so I was

This was at Clark Memorial Health,

 but I had my Norton's scrubs on, so 

this was either a day that I had

worked at Norton's and then had to

run to Clark to screen as well for

some reason, or I had some type of

admin. that I needed to do. Looking

at my bangs, it must have been a long,

hot, sweaty day. This was the one 

and only time I was given the duckbill

style mask to wear.

already too busy for blogging. Then it got worse. With the virus came short staffing (due to childcare issues, and not usually due to sickness), so I was working even more than I'd expected to be. There were two of us covering the large hospital, and two of us covering my home hospital, because the older and more experienced of my staff there retired at the end of March. And the one working with me at the large hospital was also one of two covering HER smaller, home hospital. So we were all pretty worn out. Babies don't take a break because of a virus, and we have to have staff onsite every day of the year. We were, on some days, one screener doing 26 babies a day. 

But that's over now. By the end of April the Louisville hospital had their coverage trained and in place, and I was back home -- just in time for us to change the type of equipment we used, so there was a lot of extra time at the hospital getting that set up and training my other screener. (I, thankfully, was trained at the Louisville hospital and had been able to get some experience on it.)  I've kind of had a breather the past few weeks, just in time to begin training a new screener to replace the lady who retired.

1) Nope, I was wrong, 'cause here I am in Clark scrubs wearing a duckbill. 2) The pic in the middle shows another long, hot day at Norton's. You can tell by the hair, and I can see stress and tiredness in my eyes. (There were pics that showed this more, but I'm not sharing them here 'cause I look awful lol) And this is just from MY relatively easy job. But you know, even in the units that weren't frontline, you could slice the stress and tension in the air. Tension from the unknown, from nurses who were working longer than normal shifts or more days in the week than usual, who were covering for nurses who were loaned out or voluntarily working in isolated units or the ED or were traveling to harder hit areas to help out, and even nurses who weren't going home to their families because they had a high-risk relative at home. And you know what? Masks are HOT to wear all day long. And that alone causes stress and fatigue. 3) Me showing off one of my ear savers. My daughter has made me some really cute ones that I'm going to have to take pics of. At Clark they've been giving us KN95 masks recently, and those things really DO make my ears hurt. I'll have to get a pic of that sometime.

Modeling a few different mask styles...

The pics above were taken partly because it was such a novelty to have to wear a procedure mask all day every day, that I wanted to document the different types, and partly because my family wanted to see me in them lol. But when I look at them like this it makes me feel a bit guilty because at least I'm not having to wear full PPE (although occasionally I DO have to -- minus the face shield -- for patients who are in isolation for some reason other than COVID-19), and I have friends who are doctors and nurses on the frontline who wear full PPE every day. 


Covid...

As for the virus, it is NOT slowing down. There are some new spikes, undoubtedly due to a combination of opening the economy too soon in some places -- or, more probably, many people not following the guidelines -- and the large gatherings for Memorial Day and the protests. Hopefully the places that are seeing the spike have had time to get more resources in place and can handle any surge that is coming.

Almost every day that I work we discharge a patient that has been in the ICU with the virus. That is great, but it means that we still have patients in the ICU with the virus. I've had to bring back as outpatients three babies in the past month because the mother was Covid + when she gave birth, so we couldn't screen the baby at that time. I think that will be an ongoing thing even after there is a vaccine or more natural immunity. We may change and not bring the babies back as outpatients, but we'll see more moms testing positive.

And anyone telling you that hospitals are getting PAID and not losing any money, let me set them straight. Healthcare facilities are LOSING money by the millions. The recent  allowing of non-emergency medical procedures has not gained all of that loss back yet. There will be more layoffs and temporary wage cuts and there will be shutdowns of medical facilities in the coming months.

Protests and Tension...

I am not going to write about riots or protests or anything political; at least not in a conventional way. I might share a comforting message, a message of what comforts ME or helps me get through the day, but I'm not going to share an opinion on the stupidity and hate that is going on all around us. Well, other than that it IS stupid and there IS so much hate.  

How's the family?

Thomas was working out of town when the virus took off, so for a while there he couldn't come home semi-regularly like he had been. But we were glad that he was able to keep working, and I was so busy and worn out it didn't matter. He has been home for some weeks now, though.

My 96-year-old mother and the three sisters who live with/near/care for her are all healthy and well -- the oldest sister is 72 and has serious underlying health issues, so she and our mother do not go anywhere. The other sisters do the shopping and running errands. And there is a funny story or two to share there at a later date. My other two sisters are also well -- one of them with some health issues but with a husband who is very high-risk, so they too stay home for the most part. All of my sisters are in their 60s or 70s except for one who will be 60 this year.

All of our children are doing well. Eler Beth and her husband are laid off from work (they worked for his dad's company -- had just started when all of this started. It is something Eler Beth can do on a part-time basis, so it works with her illness), but they are able to get unemployment. Andrew and his wife have continued to work through the whole thing.

Zooming...

We have our Sunday and mid-week worship services via Zoom. There was a bit of a learning curve for some, especially some of the older ones, and that provided some light comic relief, but everyone is used to it now and we really enjoy it. It is great to see everyone and get to visit before and after our meetings and to participate as usual, just via video. 

Thomas has had one doctor's appointment by teleconference. At work, where we use Teams and often do teleconferencing, we recently had a Zoom meeting with the state audiologist for her annual "visit". The others involved only called in though, so it was only the audiologist and I on video, looking at each other during the whole thing lol.  

Well, that's me a bit caught up. I might be in the mood to write more this weekend. 

Hope any reading this are well and safe!

~~ Lori