Safer At Home--A Story of 2020 and Life in the Era Covid-19
Hey, y'all!
If anyone is still checking this here blog (don't blame you if you're not--I certainly haven't been!) I thought I'd pop in and say "I'm alive and mostly well."
Lots of news going down. Some of it virus related it. Most of it blessings within the current state of affairs in the world.
Let's dig in!
So, you already know that the novel coronavirus, Covid-19 started hitting the U.S in early March. I'd started hearing about it on the news in the latter part of February as a "if it makes it to the U. S., here's what might happen" situation. To be honest, I didn't really take it all that serious. My naïve little mind just didn't think it would come here. At that point, I don't think the news from Italy had made it's way into my conscience so, you know, ignorance is bliss. Being me, I cracked a few social media jokes about stocking up on supplies (insert silly Instagram photo of the two giant Reese's bars I had in my cupboard) and went on making plans for my upcoming birthday, etc.
On Wednesday, March 11, the first positive test for the virus was reported in Mississippi. I managed to buy some groceries and a single pack of toilet paper--the last pack of the kind I use. Little did I know then, there would not be any toilet paper to be found in stores for two months. I'm SO THANKFUL I found that and had the sense to buy it. I bought it because I was down to my last two rolls, so don't judge me a hoarder, y'all.
Thursday, March 12, the associate dean my unit works under called all of his units in for a meeting on what was happening and how the library and university as a whole may or may not plan on dealing with it. The university administration had already been meeting that week to discuss worst case scenarios and we should know by the next day what was decided and how the library staff would be affected. In the meantime, Mama had become very ill. She'd just started back to work part-time in the library in the middle of February but had been out sick that week with some digestive problems. Basically, everything she ate made her sick and by Friday, March 13, she was badly dehydrated from throwing up and being unable to eat or drink anything for a week. I took Friday off work and took her to the emergency room near the university. They pumped her full of fluids and electrolytes, did a CT scan and sent her home with a "digestive cocktail" which was basically Maalox mixed with lidocaine. She took a couple of doses of that but vomited it all back up...a process she said was twice as painful because the lidocaine burned.
Friday afternoon, the university extended Spring Break a week while plans were put into motion to move all classes online and put all "non-essential" employees on paid administrative leave. The library partially shut down with only the circulation desk and the computer lab remaining open and only those staff and all the library administrators working. Meaning, God paved a way for me to handle what happened next without having to use a single hour of personal or medical leave.
By Monday morning, Mama was dehydrated and miserable again because she was still unable to keep any food or water down. Her stomach and chest felt as though a heavy stone sat on them. It was bad. So I took her to another ER, the one a couple of towns over where she knew a gastrointestinal doctor was on call who could do an upper GI scope...something the other ER was not equipped for. She'd been seeing a gastrointestinal doctor since mid-February because eating had become painful. They wouldn't do any tests, though. Just gave her some medication for IBS, then for acid reflux--neither of which helped. But the ER we went to this time pumped her full of fluids and electrolytes again, inserted a suction tube from her nose down to her stomach to drain off all the excess acid and admitted her to the hospital. By the end of Monday, she was scheduled for the upper GI scope and was resting and doped up on the morphine they'd given her to offset the pain of the insertion of the tube.
Meanwhile, with the threat of the virus suddenly very real we decided that Daddy, with his weak immune system due to leukemia, should remain safely at home. The hospital was in the beginning stages of creating new visitor policies so I was able to spend the night with her. One Tuesday, March 17, the upper GI scope was done and they found a mass had essentially closed up the lower portion of her stomach. At that time, the gastro doc wasn't sure if it was cancer, as he said it didn't resemble any cancer he'd ever seen but because the mass was obstructing her stomach, he took tissue samples for biopsy and surgery was scheduled for the next day to remove that portion of her stomach and reattach it to the upper intestine.
After some thought and prayer, we decided Daddy should be there during the surgery. He was going nuts at home no being there with her. He actually cried while I was on the phone with him Tuesday afternoon. We just prayed a hedge of protection over him. He came early Wednesday morning. They took her back for surgery around noon and he and I talked and prayed and THANK GOD he was with me. While she was in surgery, the gastro doc came in the room and very non-challantly informed us that the biopsy results revealed that it was cancer and a very aggressive kind. I think the words "two year survival rate" was tossed out but my mind and gone blank when the words "is cancer" reached it. Then the doc kinda shrugged and left Daddy and I there alone with this bomb he'd just dropped.
First time I remember ever actually seeing my daddy cry. I'd heard him on the phone but to see it is a whole 'nother thing. And of course, I was crying and we just sort of talked each other through it. We reminded ourselves and each other how tough Mama is and how many other dire diagnoses she'd overcome. Truly, the woman is a monument to showing just how powerful her faith is in the face of bad odds.
The surgeon called around, 2 or 3 pm, I think to let us know that she was out of surgery and in recovering. He was very upbeat in reporting that he was 90% sure he'd removed all the cancer and it didn't appear to have spread into her pancreas. After talking to him, I felt real hope. It was at that point that I called my sisters and filled them in on the diagnosis.
Due to the virus, they'd both decided it was safest to stay away. It killed them not to be there, but honestly, other than having to make those phone calls to tell them our mother had cancer, I was kinda thankful they weren't there. I think all of us being there would have overwhelmed us all. Daddy and I were able to support each other and control the flow of information in a way that kept Mama safe from speculation and dramatics. Not that either of my sisters are over-dramatic. (cough, cough)
Y'all, seeing her when she came back from surgery was one of the hardest things I've faced as an adult. She was in such a tremendous amount of pain that she was literally shaking. She just kept crying over and over again, "Please, make it stop. Make it stop."
All I could so was just drop to the couch and pray. I prayed so hard for her to find some relief. Daddy was spending the night with her so I left around 5pm to get home to take the dogs outside. I cried and prayed all the way home and as I was letting the dogs out, Daddy texted to tell me the surgeon had been by to check on her and immediately ordered her a morphine drip for the night. They'd initially only ordered a strong Tylenol drip which, honestly, sounds dumb to me. They removed half her stomach! Did they not think that deserved some narcotics???
Anyway, that set my mind at ease that she was no longer in pain and she was able to rest. Daddy didn't get much sleep because, you know, hospital furniture is not the most comfortable and hospitals don't really have a terribly restful atmosphere.
When I got back to the hospital Thursday morning, she was sitting up munching on ice chips. She wasn't bouncing in her bed, but she wasn't really feeling any pain. They'd removed the morphine drip early that morning and returned to the strong Tylenol and she was fine. She still had the tube down her nose to her stomach because they wanted to make certain they'd removed as much of the gunk that had built up in there as possible. She hated that tube. It was painful and made it difficult to get the ice chips into her mouth. Oh, yeah. She didn't get anything but ice chips to eat/drink until the afternoon of the day before we went home.
I stayed with her until she went home. Daddy came back Friday and Sunday and I went home for a few hours Sunday to get some more clothes and check my mail, and give Libby a kiss. She'd been staying at the folk's house during all this. The visitor policies were changing on the daily so that by the weekend, they were only allowing one visitor out of two designated visitors at a time and all visitors were having to submit to a temperature check everytime they came in the hospital doors. The hospital had closed off all entrances/exits except for the ER and everyone was/is being funneled through the outpatient entrance. By the following Monday (my 41st birthday!) the policy only allowed for one designated visitor. Since Mama was relying on me to bring her home in my car (her car was messed up at the time and Daddy's trucks are too hard to get in and out of) I was designated to stay with her until they released her. So Daddy kissed her goodbye Sunday night and I settled in. Thankfully, they were able to remove the suction tube Monday afternoon and she had her first sip of juice which she proclaimed to be the best thing she'd ever tasted. I guess after two or three weeks of not really eating or drinking, anything would have tasted good!
She came home on Tuesday, March 24 and has been recovering at home ever since. She's recovered fairly well. She finally met with an oncologist last week and had a PET scan done last Thursday. Praise God, they didn't find any remaining traces of cancer!!!! She will still have to take a chemo pill for around 8 weeks and will have daily radiation treatments for 5 weeks but if her PET scans remain clear throughout, she'll be fully in remission/cancer free!!!
Meanwhile, I have remained at home on administrative leave, though I have actually been working from home. After I got home and got Mama settled, my supervisor met me at the office and I downloaded all of my files onto my external hard-drive and had been doing the best I can to be productive. It has enabled me to be free to help my parents out with things during this time, though. I've done all the grocery shopping for them, picked up prescriptions, taken Mama to her appointments, picked up take-out when Daddy gets tired of cooking. We've settled into a routine, of sorts.
I have been very strict in staying at home as much as possible, socially distancing and wearing a mask when I have to get groceries/pick up meds. I have seen Sis2 and the kids once just before the shelter-in-place orders went in place in early April. We sat six feet apart on her patio. But because her husband is still having to go into work where they have had confirmed cases of the virus since then, I haven't been back. She and I agreed that it wasn't worth the risk.
I have socially distance visited with WBF three times. We sat six feet apart at a public pond on campus where there wasn't anyone else hanging out.
To be entirely honest with you, this enforced time at home has been a blessing. I LOVE working from home. I love not having to commute to work every day. I have saved a ton of money on gas. I've enjoyed being able to serve my parents. My hermity little introverted heart has been thriving, even as I've prayed for those around me who aren't faring as well.
My heart breaks for those who have lost income, lost their businesses, lost their loved ones. I've had a handful of friends who lost loved ones to non-virus related illnesses and couldn't be with them when they passed and weren't able to have a proper funeral. Life (and death) has been really hard for so may people the past couple of months. It almost makes me feel guilty for my blessings.
Our state has slowly been opening up in the past few weeks, under a "safer at home" order that essentially says our governor would rather us stay home when possible but knows the economy needs an injection. And I just got an email from my supervisor stating that the university and the library would have news within the next couple of days on phasing us back into working on campus. While classes will continue on-line through the summer, our university president has stated that we will have a hybrid of on campus and on-line classes in the fall. Though there's no real end in sight for this virus, life has to resume at some point, I guess. For my parents' sake, I hope I am able to continue to work from home as long as possible.
Anyway, that is all news I have from me--that my addled brain could think of right now, at least. I hope and pray all of you are doing well, staying safe, and behaving wisely for yourself and those around you.
Much love to everyone!
If anyone is still checking this here blog (don't blame you if you're not--I certainly haven't been!) I thought I'd pop in and say "I'm alive and mostly well."
Lots of news going down. Some of it virus related it. Most of it blessings within the current state of affairs in the world.
Let's dig in!
So, you already know that the novel coronavirus, Covid-19 started hitting the U.S in early March. I'd started hearing about it on the news in the latter part of February as a "if it makes it to the U. S., here's what might happen" situation. To be honest, I didn't really take it all that serious. My naïve little mind just didn't think it would come here. At that point, I don't think the news from Italy had made it's way into my conscience so, you know, ignorance is bliss. Being me, I cracked a few social media jokes about stocking up on supplies (insert silly Instagram photo of the two giant Reese's bars I had in my cupboard) and went on making plans for my upcoming birthday, etc.
On Wednesday, March 11, the first positive test for the virus was reported in Mississippi. I managed to buy some groceries and a single pack of toilet paper--the last pack of the kind I use. Little did I know then, there would not be any toilet paper to be found in stores for two months. I'm SO THANKFUL I found that and had the sense to buy it. I bought it because I was down to my last two rolls, so don't judge me a hoarder, y'all.
Thursday, March 12, the associate dean my unit works under called all of his units in for a meeting on what was happening and how the library and university as a whole may or may not plan on dealing with it. The university administration had already been meeting that week to discuss worst case scenarios and we should know by the next day what was decided and how the library staff would be affected. In the meantime, Mama had become very ill. She'd just started back to work part-time in the library in the middle of February but had been out sick that week with some digestive problems. Basically, everything she ate made her sick and by Friday, March 13, she was badly dehydrated from throwing up and being unable to eat or drink anything for a week. I took Friday off work and took her to the emergency room near the university. They pumped her full of fluids and electrolytes, did a CT scan and sent her home with a "digestive cocktail" which was basically Maalox mixed with lidocaine. She took a couple of doses of that but vomited it all back up...a process she said was twice as painful because the lidocaine burned.
Friday afternoon, the university extended Spring Break a week while plans were put into motion to move all classes online and put all "non-essential" employees on paid administrative leave. The library partially shut down with only the circulation desk and the computer lab remaining open and only those staff and all the library administrators working. Meaning, God paved a way for me to handle what happened next without having to use a single hour of personal or medical leave.
By Monday morning, Mama was dehydrated and miserable again because she was still unable to keep any food or water down. Her stomach and chest felt as though a heavy stone sat on them. It was bad. So I took her to another ER, the one a couple of towns over where she knew a gastrointestinal doctor was on call who could do an upper GI scope...something the other ER was not equipped for. She'd been seeing a gastrointestinal doctor since mid-February because eating had become painful. They wouldn't do any tests, though. Just gave her some medication for IBS, then for acid reflux--neither of which helped. But the ER we went to this time pumped her full of fluids and electrolytes again, inserted a suction tube from her nose down to her stomach to drain off all the excess acid and admitted her to the hospital. By the end of Monday, she was scheduled for the upper GI scope and was resting and doped up on the morphine they'd given her to offset the pain of the insertion of the tube.
Meanwhile, with the threat of the virus suddenly very real we decided that Daddy, with his weak immune system due to leukemia, should remain safely at home. The hospital was in the beginning stages of creating new visitor policies so I was able to spend the night with her. One Tuesday, March 17, the upper GI scope was done and they found a mass had essentially closed up the lower portion of her stomach. At that time, the gastro doc wasn't sure if it was cancer, as he said it didn't resemble any cancer he'd ever seen but because the mass was obstructing her stomach, he took tissue samples for biopsy and surgery was scheduled for the next day to remove that portion of her stomach and reattach it to the upper intestine.
After some thought and prayer, we decided Daddy should be there during the surgery. He was going nuts at home no being there with her. He actually cried while I was on the phone with him Tuesday afternoon. We just prayed a hedge of protection over him. He came early Wednesday morning. They took her back for surgery around noon and he and I talked and prayed and THANK GOD he was with me. While she was in surgery, the gastro doc came in the room and very non-challantly informed us that the biopsy results revealed that it was cancer and a very aggressive kind. I think the words "two year survival rate" was tossed out but my mind and gone blank when the words "is cancer" reached it. Then the doc kinda shrugged and left Daddy and I there alone with this bomb he'd just dropped.
First time I remember ever actually seeing my daddy cry. I'd heard him on the phone but to see it is a whole 'nother thing. And of course, I was crying and we just sort of talked each other through it. We reminded ourselves and each other how tough Mama is and how many other dire diagnoses she'd overcome. Truly, the woman is a monument to showing just how powerful her faith is in the face of bad odds.
The surgeon called around, 2 or 3 pm, I think to let us know that she was out of surgery and in recovering. He was very upbeat in reporting that he was 90% sure he'd removed all the cancer and it didn't appear to have spread into her pancreas. After talking to him, I felt real hope. It was at that point that I called my sisters and filled them in on the diagnosis.
Due to the virus, they'd both decided it was safest to stay away. It killed them not to be there, but honestly, other than having to make those phone calls to tell them our mother had cancer, I was kinda thankful they weren't there. I think all of us being there would have overwhelmed us all. Daddy and I were able to support each other and control the flow of information in a way that kept Mama safe from speculation and dramatics. Not that either of my sisters are over-dramatic. (cough, cough)
Y'all, seeing her when she came back from surgery was one of the hardest things I've faced as an adult. She was in such a tremendous amount of pain that she was literally shaking. She just kept crying over and over again, "Please, make it stop. Make it stop."
All I could so was just drop to the couch and pray. I prayed so hard for her to find some relief. Daddy was spending the night with her so I left around 5pm to get home to take the dogs outside. I cried and prayed all the way home and as I was letting the dogs out, Daddy texted to tell me the surgeon had been by to check on her and immediately ordered her a morphine drip for the night. They'd initially only ordered a strong Tylenol drip which, honestly, sounds dumb to me. They removed half her stomach! Did they not think that deserved some narcotics???
Anyway, that set my mind at ease that she was no longer in pain and she was able to rest. Daddy didn't get much sleep because, you know, hospital furniture is not the most comfortable and hospitals don't really have a terribly restful atmosphere.
When I got back to the hospital Thursday morning, she was sitting up munching on ice chips. She wasn't bouncing in her bed, but she wasn't really feeling any pain. They'd removed the morphine drip early that morning and returned to the strong Tylenol and she was fine. She still had the tube down her nose to her stomach because they wanted to make certain they'd removed as much of the gunk that had built up in there as possible. She hated that tube. It was painful and made it difficult to get the ice chips into her mouth. Oh, yeah. She didn't get anything but ice chips to eat/drink until the afternoon of the day before we went home.
I stayed with her until she went home. Daddy came back Friday and Sunday and I went home for a few hours Sunday to get some more clothes and check my mail, and give Libby a kiss. She'd been staying at the folk's house during all this. The visitor policies were changing on the daily so that by the weekend, they were only allowing one visitor out of two designated visitors at a time and all visitors were having to submit to a temperature check everytime they came in the hospital doors. The hospital had closed off all entrances/exits except for the ER and everyone was/is being funneled through the outpatient entrance. By the following Monday (my 41st birthday!) the policy only allowed for one designated visitor. Since Mama was relying on me to bring her home in my car (her car was messed up at the time and Daddy's trucks are too hard to get in and out of) I was designated to stay with her until they released her. So Daddy kissed her goodbye Sunday night and I settled in. Thankfully, they were able to remove the suction tube Monday afternoon and she had her first sip of juice which she proclaimed to be the best thing she'd ever tasted. I guess after two or three weeks of not really eating or drinking, anything would have tasted good!
She came home on Tuesday, March 24 and has been recovering at home ever since. She's recovered fairly well. She finally met with an oncologist last week and had a PET scan done last Thursday. Praise God, they didn't find any remaining traces of cancer!!!! She will still have to take a chemo pill for around 8 weeks and will have daily radiation treatments for 5 weeks but if her PET scans remain clear throughout, she'll be fully in remission/cancer free!!!
Meanwhile, I have remained at home on administrative leave, though I have actually been working from home. After I got home and got Mama settled, my supervisor met me at the office and I downloaded all of my files onto my external hard-drive and had been doing the best I can to be productive. It has enabled me to be free to help my parents out with things during this time, though. I've done all the grocery shopping for them, picked up prescriptions, taken Mama to her appointments, picked up take-out when Daddy gets tired of cooking. We've settled into a routine, of sorts.
I have been very strict in staying at home as much as possible, socially distancing and wearing a mask when I have to get groceries/pick up meds. I have seen Sis2 and the kids once just before the shelter-in-place orders went in place in early April. We sat six feet apart on her patio. But because her husband is still having to go into work where they have had confirmed cases of the virus since then, I haven't been back. She and I agreed that it wasn't worth the risk.
I have socially distance visited with WBF three times. We sat six feet apart at a public pond on campus where there wasn't anyone else hanging out.
To be entirely honest with you, this enforced time at home has been a blessing. I LOVE working from home. I love not having to commute to work every day. I have saved a ton of money on gas. I've enjoyed being able to serve my parents. My hermity little introverted heart has been thriving, even as I've prayed for those around me who aren't faring as well.
My heart breaks for those who have lost income, lost their businesses, lost their loved ones. I've had a handful of friends who lost loved ones to non-virus related illnesses and couldn't be with them when they passed and weren't able to have a proper funeral. Life (and death) has been really hard for so may people the past couple of months. It almost makes me feel guilty for my blessings.
Our state has slowly been opening up in the past few weeks, under a "safer at home" order that essentially says our governor would rather us stay home when possible but knows the economy needs an injection. And I just got an email from my supervisor stating that the university and the library would have news within the next couple of days on phasing us back into working on campus. While classes will continue on-line through the summer, our university president has stated that we will have a hybrid of on campus and on-line classes in the fall. Though there's no real end in sight for this virus, life has to resume at some point, I guess. For my parents' sake, I hope I am able to continue to work from home as long as possible.
Anyway, that is all news I have from me--that my addled brain could think of right now, at least. I hope and pray all of you are doing well, staying safe, and behaving wisely for yourself and those around you.
Much love to everyone!
Comments
Aunt B