Covid- a very condensed perspective of a physician.
March 2020- 2nd Saturday - I still remember that to be the last Friday where my world was “normal”. Thing 1 and 2 had built a robot and programmed it themselves to do a few tasks. Hubs and I planned a whole day with them at University of Iowa followed by lunch and cupcakes.
Next day our spring break started and we drove to lake of Ozarks in Missouri for a camping trip. I still vividly remember receiving message after message on Sunday from my work about clinic being cancelled. Emergency planning in place, I heard the word N95 for the first time in my life, mask mandate and face shields. Executive sessions back to back discussing work flow, consolidating clinics, closing clinics. Being in a campground with very limited internet, we really didn’t grasp what was happening in the country within span of a weekend. We cut short our trip and returned home.
Hubs being hubs- smart, forward thinking plan B kinda guy, order N95 masks from different manufacturers for us, our partners at work and staff.
We returned to a new way of working and delivering care. I made a list of my most vulnerable patients and started calling them along with my staff. The worst were considered to be patients with bad lung disease like bronchitis, severe asthma, cancers, low immunity patients, uncontrolled diabetic patients. No one knew anything about the disease, everyday a new symptom and a new treatment, symptoms stayed but treatment refuted, leaving us with no options to help. I remember the feeling of helplessness. In my career I have never sent a patient with a fever of 105 home. An acceptable oxygen saturation in a human blood is 95-100%, I had never heard of oxygen levels falling into 60’s 70’s in otherwise healthy people. This just doesn’t happen. We as physicians weren’t trained to tackle this in our outpatient clinics. Hospitals weren’t accepting patients, sending people home- only acceptable reason for admission was requiring intubation. That means- fever, cough, inability to keep anything down- all sent home. No testing was available, took 14 days for results to be delivered. What was the point by then?
Over the next few months, some logical treatment options became available, then the vaccine , then convincing people to get vaccinated, that there is no transmitter in the vaccine to track them. Seriously who comes up with this nonsense?
Through the year, I lost two patients to COVID- both were sick. I take pride in the fact that my team stayed very proactive and called our patients with chronic diseases frequently and kept a close eye on them. I do regret that a very sweet 82 year old patient of mine developed a spot on his ear and didn’t really disclose it to anyone until it became a large incurable lesion. The consequences of delay in seeking care for non covid related illnesses started to become apparent in year 2021. Most older patients had not seen their grandchildren in over a year, this has had a huge detrimental effect on their physical and mental Health. Patients in long term facilities were sequestered and no family was allowed to visit them, leaving them completely isolated.
By March and april 2021 most of my 65+ patients had received the vaccine- either Pfizer or Moderna. I see hope in their eyes of end to this new normal. Hope that they will be okay. Now starts the post covid USA.