Monthly Archives: March 2020

Day 1: COVID19

Woke up in the morning after a late night staying up reading articles after articles.

First thing I noticed when I stepped out of the house was how clear the sky was, How fresh the air was, and how peaceful the darkness was.

There was such a weird feeling. I really did not want to go to work. I kept updating my email to see if there was any new news from the University. My husband saw that I was thinking so much, and took a morning moment to kiss me. I almost cried. Just what if today’s the first day that the emergency room goes crazy, or that a family member tries to break in into the hospital to see their loved one, or that it comes to find out that the patients we’ve been waiting to test are positive? Which means that a multitude of us have just been exposed to COVID19.

My mind kept running during the entire drive. just a couple of days ago, the governors of California announced how gatherings of 250 and more should be avoided. Then yesterday, trump announces the countries emergency to prevent further spreading of the virus. It was later in the afternoon that I started to realize how much we needed to prepare. The schools were going to be close for almost an entire month. The southwestern community college, our teacher had announced that we would have online classes as of March 16 until the end of the month. Now, I’m not sure if that’s going to last even longer.

After work yesterday, my husband and I went to the store and picked up a few more supplies – there was hardly anything left. Not even canned goods. We ended up getting chili and some refried beans and SpaghettiOs. We did find some tissue boxes and some cough drops and some medicine that could be helpful during this time. It’s crazy how everything is getting sold at the store.Most stores restock every two weeks especially the grocery stores. I typically don’t shop until mid week, but now with the stores running out of items, I bought as much as I possibly could.

Today, there were no new news about things running out has lessened. There showing how roads are now starting to fall off the shelves. It was a bit funny, only because I barely eat bread nowadays. I did notice that a lot of the baby items have disappeared to. And that worries me and the Mom‘s and the Dad‘s little children. I’m glad that my niece and my own kids don’t wear diapers anymore. Then, I thought about the elderly. I hope that they are OK. All this ran through my mind throughout the day. And all of my coworkers especially in the unit talked about the situation.

When I came in, the two patients that were intubated to the ICU were tested positive for COVID 19. A couple of my colleagues were present during the assisted code blue. I am worried that a lot of us have been exposed to the virus. I’m counting the days to see if I am showing any symptoms. Today would be day one.

I was in the same unit I was in for the past few days. Today would be my third day in that unit. There were a couple of concerns of a patient that could have been a ruled out for the virus, the patient was intubated and the dropleft precautions were removed.

It was nerve-racking, because a lot of people didn’t know whether they should wear a mask or not. I continue to wear a mask. Not only was this patient not yet ruled out of coronavirus, simply because he didn’t have a mask. But also because I was a therapist who is up, clothes, and personal with the patient.

Didn’t really get to find out if the patient was positive or not. But by the end of the shift, we got report that the hospital was limiting I’m putting regulation on visitors. It was hard to hear that. Mid shift, one of my patients just kept crying while another family member in another patient’s room was asking multiple questions, limitations, as tears dropped from their eyes.

Holding my feelings throughout the whole entire shift was like trying not to cough. I didn’t want to tension. But when report team, I had to tell the next therapist how the patients and their families were doing. Not everyone was updated, or reads their email right before work, and so with this news, I shed a tear. Daisy said, “You have such a good heart, Michelle.”

I want my tears away, And went home. It was just the beginning.

I stayed within the unit. All my other coworkers, we’re in the other unit taking care of the two positive sick ventilated patients. There was no need for me to be in that unit, so to prevent any spread of the disease, I made sure I wash my hands all day, and one mask, and prevented touching other things that I shouldn’t be touching. It was mentally challenging. Even eating was hard to think about.