Hospital update

This season of life will go down as one we remember.

Big events in our life we remember.

• Space shuttle Challenger explosion
• Hurricane Andrew
• 911

I remember where I was for each of these. COVID-19 will be one that my grandchildren learn about. And I want to be prepared to remember and teach them.

And so I write.

This Blog has been going since 2005. It will keep going until the day I die if possible. 

It's hugely important to me. 

This season is hard.

Honestly it has caused us to really look at ER medicine. Can my husband do this for the long haul? 

Originally we thought this would be the field he retired in. 

Now? 

We wonder.

It's harddddd. 

This week has been especially hard. Our Abigail has gone down with a fever, body aches, lethargy. Is it COVID? Perhaps. Perhaps not. She got tested. We've been quarantining like no one's business so it feels improbable that she'd get sick and no one else in our quarantine group (grandparents, Kotynski's and Jacob) would be sick. 

But who knows? 

In addition, a physician went down sick last night. This hasn't happened yet at their tiny hospital. We knew it was only a matter of time. Probable COVID but of course, you have to assume it is until proven otherwise. So this meant a shuffling of shifts. John has to work three nights in a row instead of two. He's already doing an extra shift this month. He's already on fumes. 

If this doc goes down for weeks? 

Then what?

I spoke with my friend Michelle and our friend Christo. They are docs in big Emergency Rooms (Dallas and Duke). They can "absorb" the insanity as long as it is a reasonable amount of sanity. 

Little hospitals have no absorption ability. They don't have a doc standing ready on "jeopardy call" (prepared to go in if someone gets sick or is overrun at work.) There is no "calling in sick" for John and his colleagues. They just do NOT do it. John has worked two different times hooked up to an IV for dehydration and a migraine. They just keep chugging.

Until COVID. 

If a doc gets what is assumed to be COVID, they must be removed from the rotation. 

A few weeks ago, we were told that if anyone in John's family was diagnosed positive, he'd have to be out of work 24 days. Thank goodness someone amended that to exclude front-line workers. That would be an absolute nightmare right now.

This is all-consuming for us right now. I pray it won't always be. But we expect that it might for some time. 

We have so many people praying for us. 

Keep praying.