In my last post, " A Parade" I attempted to embed a video of the song "Brave". I spent a couple hours trying to to figure it out, but was unsuccessful. This morning after my overnight airway shift, I called my 26 year old daughter to enlist her help. She got the video embedded in about five minutes. So it's there now. For complete disclosure, my oldest son set this website up for me, so grateful. This would not be surprising to the people that know me. What would be surprising to them, is that I was able to attach pictures and other videos on my own. What do you expect, I'm a BOOMER!
So yesterday before I started my shift at 7pm, I went by the front desk of my hotel with some laundry in the supplied laundry bag thinking I could drop it off. They said they were no longer providing laundry services during this pandemic. I said ok, no big deal just a few t-shirts, socks, underwear and brought the bag back to my room before I left for my shift. When I returned to my room this morning, my clothing was laundered, folded and on my bed with a note from the housekeeper that had overheard me asking about laundry services. The note said, " I hope you don't mind, I took your things back to my house and washed them". People are nice.
My white cloud continued last night during my overnight airway shift. Only two pages over the PA system for intubations. There had been seven in the previous shift. The first was a 38 year old woman in respiratory distress, with oxygen saturations in the 70% range, ( normal would be over 95%). She had arrived in the ER earlier in the day with shortness of breath. The nurse told me the patient had tested negative for COVID-19. The second was a 52 year old man, again respiratory distress, test not back. For me, anyone in respiratory distress is COVID.
So typically these patients are on wards two to a room. There is no such thing as a private room in the hospital anymore. When I enter these rooms to intubate a patient, in my spacesuit, I see the fear in the eyes of the roommates. I imagine they are thinking, "Is that me later today or tomorrow"? No one knows, this virus can attack so quickly, going from relatively mild symptoms to critical respiratory compromise in hours. For now I leave the airway team and transition to providing care for people that are already on a ventilator, fighting for their lives. I'll tell you about that after my ICU shift tomorrow. That's all for now. Stay safe, stay at home if possible, practice social distancing, and where a mask if in public.
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