Where to begin? Covid-19 how you have changed our lives, our daily patterns, our interactions and our livelihoods. When this all began, as the only medical person in my large Hispanic family they all started asking me how bad it was. I won’t lie I said “I’m hearing it’s similar to the flu, don’t panic”. But as we heard more about it on the news, saw how bad it was in Italy, then the northwestern part other US, NYC, and then the closures began the fear set in. The fear of unknown. Fear that as healthcare professionals we don’t know if we are being exposed, for there are asymptomatic patients. Fear of will I take this home to my family? Did I wipe everything down enough? Overthinking, stressing and lastly anger. Anger? Anger because after a month of the general population doing so good with social distancing they are ready to go back to normal. People wake up, there won’t be a normal until there is a vaccine or we have more definitive information on this virus.
I am going to share how I as an ER nurse ended up as a pt being tested for this monster. I was sick for a couple of weeks, when I began to get worse. I honestly thought pneumonia, the doctors who I’ve worked with for years and trust were convinced I had Covid. So as I sat in a negative pressure room waiting to see if they would test me coughing up a lung my fiancé was next door waiting as well. As bad as I felt all I kept think about was my parents who I still live with. Had I exposed them? Could they survive if they had it? I had to quarantine with my fiancé until we received our results. Thank god they were negative. But it was a wake up call. How serious we need to continue to take this virus even if the state opens back up. How when my family calls and says “hey the governor might open Texas, so we’re good?” I say no!! We’re not good! I could get into lack of PPE, how I have to wear a yellow surgical mask till it busts, how N95s are now reusable, how things nurses are doing now to stay safe against this virus with the few supplies they have would have gotten them fired a few months ago. Oh wait did I just touch on it?
I’ll end with this; stay safe, love one another, and pray we all come out on the other side of this one day together.
Denise, RN
1 reply on “The other side”
Facts friend. I too have fears of infecting my family. I have troubling thoughts of what Rona might do to the people I love. I’ve cried at the thought of my daughter being left without parents. Everyone feels invincible. That won’t happen to us, right? Wrong! We should keep taking measures to remain safe. Thanks for sharing.