Update Mid Crisis · 7:50am Apr 13th, 2020
It feels like every drive is Sunday at one in the morning. Kinda feels funny, eight months ago, I had only just gotten my license. Now I drive a borrowed car with a letter from work taped to my dash stating the fact I am an essential worker.
I've known for probably eight years something big would take place this year. I've believed firmly this year would shape me and mark the true beginning of my ministry. Studying to be an nurse's aid last fall unnerved me. And my name being placed on the registry of two states in December and January marked in my mind and spirit the fate for myself, and my roll in the coming storm.
I'd assumed I'd be offered a place in a missions group heading off to someplace different. I had completed my passport entry and had plans to travel to Europe not many days from this point. I never expected the mission field to find me where I was.
I am not on the front lines. But people I know, love, trust, and have been trained by... are. I'm not a front lines worker, but every day I suit up, scrub everything I own down, spraying it with disinfectant, checking my own temperature before I leave the house and wonder... pray really... I'm not going to bring this with me to MY people.
My drive to work, as I've said is lonely. I turn on my Bluetooth speaker and tell Seri to play some artist or another. This helps me get to work on the long thirty-five-minute drive. Somedays I actually pass cars. I can count on one hand most days the people I pass on the way to work. I'm not leaving early anymore. There is nowhere to go besides work. And the places that are open, I wouldn't dream of going to during the time of day MOST people would be raiding the stores.
Sometimes I would stop and get a shake or mocha... now I fear to pick up something deadly from my favorite restaurants only to take it with me to work. This, of course, makes me worry about my own parents. My father works for McDonald's... there are nothing more front lines for catching this than from a drive-through window. We can transfer this virus by talking! And even now I'm not seeing facemasks on workers of many fast food stops.
I was talking to an emergency room nurse I know working out of Shreveport, not many days ago did she intubate an otherwise healthy, late-twenties young woman... who was simply unlucky enough to catch this virus. Two days prior had she walked in with a sore throat and fever... what if that had been Glitter?
I pull in to work and find a place to park. It's easy now, we have no visitors. And our staff has been slashed as any not-essential, or recreational employees have been re-assigned... or fired. Employees ar even parking in the visitor only parking places.
I slip one of my five cloth medical masks over my face before unlocking my car and getting out. After gathering my stuff, I head inside. Here too the mark of the virus is still heavy. Where I used to do homework, and fill out paperwork an employee sits with a thermometer, a survey, and a bottle of hand sanitizer. I hold my breath as the tech takes my temp, re-takes it, then takes it a third time for good measure. I'm always a little high I'm a hot head and my car is hot. By the time I've filled out the paperwork I'm normally back to 78 but I always worry that this day I'd have to go home...
Work itself has changed as well. My people sit in the lobby on x's most days. The few who are allowed out of their rooms. We do have days this isn't even allowed. Every single one of my people has a mask on. I smile and stride through signing with some and talking to others. As their aid, and their only source of outside entertainment or information... I have to set the mood... but there are ones who know this weighs heavily on me. They can see the pain behind my mask.
I put down my stuff in the break room, finish filling my pockets with supplies, then clock in. I'm always ten minutes early hitting the time clock. Now I begin. Once getting my larger supplies that don't fit in my pockets, or supplies I've run out of from the nurse's station I sign-in formally and set to work. Most days I have already been informed of at least five tasks that I have to do before I have even signed in. And now I have the inevitable "HELP! NURSE" being shouted down the hall by one of my more special peeps who can never find their call light. All this I have to handle.
And I have an easy hall.
Every day is an adventure. I keep the tone light cracking jokes and trading stories with all of my residents. But I'm very aware of each of their weaknesses, and the very likelihood of their demise if, and when this finally strikes my building.
As I go through my first rounds, I spend extra time with my few hospices which I care for. Brushing hair, fixing beds, re-filling drinks and otherwise ensuring they don't feel the weight of the situation.
One of my beds were empty yesterday. Terror filled me as I made a hasty trek to the nurse's station... As of this moment, they're fine, but after a trip to the hospital for a different issue, they've been sent to our isolation floor to prevent the real, and very possible threat of them having been exposed during their visit. This floor is yet another new creation mid-crisis.
Another change is the mood and the number of people out of their beds. With no events besides new worksheets and puzzles, fewer and fewer are even bothering to get up. This too scares me. I know the statistics say the more active you are, the less of a threat the virus is. Today, everyone got up during a severe weather warning. But for many, this has been the first time they've left their rooms in a month.
We need more masks. Many masks are filthy; having been used many days in a row. All of mine have either their names on it, or specially made for them so unique to them so I can identify who they go to. This is a preventative measure since we do have kleptomaniacs and now masks are essential for leaving their rooms, masks are now on the list of things being stolen.
All meals are now in their rooms. No more are the dining rooms filled with laughter and stories....
I ramble too long and am pushing the boundaries of what I'm allowed to say in a public setting. Beyond this, few things have changed. I still have times I'm supposed to have people to bed. I still have showers to give, and skin reports to turn into the nurse. I still have to take care of every day to day need of every single one of my 6-13 people.
Most days I finish my work and head home five-to fifteen minuets past the time I should be getting off, but I'm getting better and finding ways to allow for more efficient time management.
Finally, I head home. One store is still allowing essential workers to come in past curfew and shop before heading home. Since they're also stocking, I find this time a great opportunity to get first pick one what's being put on the shelves.
Now I head home. I'm living on my own now, renting a small apartment. I cook, clean, prep for the next day, and study before going to bed.
I am not on the front lines, but still, I'm being stopped by people outside of work and thanked for doing my part to help with the pandemic. I pray for the CNA's who are taking care of the victims. I'm glad right now I'm not in a hospital setting, I doubt I could handle it. We change diapers, give baths, feed, and dress our patients like one would a child.
Now, I sit here and almost fall asleep as I finish this up. I've bee accepted into the nursing program. I feel right now it's too late for me to do any good. I should have done this two years ago But still, I study from home and skype into class as I finish my pre-recs for RN as I finish the paperwork for my LVN I'm starting in the fall.
Yes, I knew 2020 wasn't going to be the best year. I knew we were prime for a pandemic... but knowing a test is coming is not the same as actually taking a test.
Cowgirl Out.
Oh hey, welcome back !
My youngest sister is a Registered Nurse. She goes between the old main state hospital and the newly built one.
My mother is a retired RN.
One thing we've noticed between you guys in the USA and we here in Australia is the use of Iodine. American medical workers don't seem to use it as we do.
As you are a medic, you will know how Iodine had been called the most potent virucide on the planet in countless medical journals since the Spanish Flu.
Lab tests have proven that Iodine kills every coronavirus since coronaviruses were discovered in 1963.
In 2011 a joint American and Japanese study showed how Iodine killed SARS (the 2003 coronavirus) to "below detectable levels" in both clean and dirty criteria.
You know Lugol's Iodine?
The formulation made in the 1800's?
Well we are taking 12.5mg a day orally.
My mother takes more than that, for an existing condition.
Another American Journal in 1996 showed that a daily dose above 3mg was enough to saturate the thyroid, leaving the excess Iodine to essentially overflow through the body and provide viral resistance.
These are all peer-reviewed studies. You can find them on pubMed or university library subscriptions. This is medical fact.
And the beauty about the aqueous Lugol's Iodine preparation is that it can be inhaled without harm. The Iodine moves through the musous linings in the sinuses and into the lungs, which is where covid-19 does its work.
Hence, there is a substantial lower amount of fear in our health workers. We are taking the most potent anti-viral substance and can take it in large quantities. The daily recommended dose by the WHO is 200 micrograms. But in times of need, Australia and New Zealand have protocols for a daily dose of up to 200 milligrams. That's 1000x the dose the WHO publishes for the prevention of goiter, etc...
There is defense. No need for so much fear.
We don't know why the mainstream media fails to mention Iodine as a proven killer of SARS, Ebola, MERS. Which are all coronaviruses.
But in medical circles, we know.
Stay safe, don't fear, and welcome back
5241587
Actually, I didn't know about that med. I'm a Nurse's aid, not a Med aid. I'm starting nursing school in the fall. I know there's hope. But I also know we are low staffed, not taking enough precautions, and dealing with people that if and when they catch it, it's going to tear through our facility. I'm also in a town that is treating this like some foreign thing that's not going to arrive any time soon... except it has and now we are hit pretty hard in a very small town. (hard considering population and hospital size.) I'm not like others who are buying out TP at the store. I'm staying smart... but I'm concerned, and every death hits me hard. I know that we are very prepared compared to china, but it is still what it is. We'll get through this, but in what shape, I don't know. I'm lucky to be in the medical field. But the economy, in general, is going to feel this for a long time.
5242125
Well seeing as though you didn't know about it, I suggest looking up the Iodine Protocol.
But unlike Vitamin C which can be given in megadoses and the worst you'll get is diarrhoea, Iodine requires a protocol as it is very potent.
On reading the protocol, you will find that a good Selenium intake (200 micrograms for most people) and a complete B vitamin intake is essential.
Also if it was unclear, what I was trying to do is to show you that there is less to be fearful about. I see a lot of people fretting and believing that nothing can be done once the virus has been caught. And for essential healthcare workers that is an awful mindset to have.
Yes the economy will be in tatters, but our sanity doesn't need to fall apart too.
Covid-19 is big and scary, but like all viruses this boogeyman has the same inherent weaknesses.
That's why more hospitals have been using good old Vitamin C as treatment. In an article by the New York Post, the American doctors called it "not a sexy drug".
Meaning, it's not a medicine that is patented and therefore less profitable which is why pharmacology recommends others like anti-malaria drugs.
You can find the article online. China has been using Vitamin C since January. I believe USA started in late February to early March. Korea earlier than that.
As believed by The SEO Valley, those feelings of despair, guilt, and worry are brought on by the aging process. And the period of time known as a midlife crisis is a time in a person's life when they attempt to come to grips with the idea that half of their lives have already passed. During this time, people report feeling more youthful.