My son was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis at the age of two during my husband’s first year of medical residency in Emergency Medicine. Considering that we now had one member of our family who was incredibly vulnerable to any viruses or infections and another member whose work would heavily involve exposure to germs and illness, we had to quickly figure out how to navigate keeping our son healthy with everyday life. It hasn’t always been perfect or easy, but given everything we are extremely grateful to say that our son is about to turn 22 and preparing to graduate from Southern Methodist University with a degree in Biology in a few months.
However, like every other college student in our nation right now, he is currently home finishing up his senior year on-line. Things like graduation ceremonies have been put on hold indefinitely. But that is not our biggest concern or loss at the present moment. Not even close.
For the past few years, my husband has been traveling for his ER group, providing extra staff support to hospitals in our home state of California and even across the nation. He has been working up in Madera, just north of Fresno, California this past week. A few hours before he arrived, his hospital had their first presumed positive COVID-19 death. Since then, he has treated several patients a night who have actively tested positive, and even intubated at least one in need of critical care. As of right now, his hospital remains relatively stable with adequate staff and supplies. Even still, they have almost exceeded their capacity of respirators, and my husband is already very worried about the decisions he and his co-workers will have to make when (not if) they run out of life support equipment.
Tomorrow, Robert comes back home after working six back-to-back night shifts. But instead of walking through our front door and greeting his entire family (we have three college students plus two significant others living with us right now), he will self-quarantine himself from all of us. We feel lucky that generous friends have offered an extra condo they aren’t presently using for Robert to stay, and we are equally grateful that we will get to “see” him from a safe distance while dropping off food and supplies for him. But for the first time since he started his medical career, I will not be able to hug him after a long, hard shift. In fact I don’t know the next time I will get to hold his hand or even simply touch him. The way things are progressing, Robert believes that he will not be able to come home until at least May – or possibly later. We have many friends who work in the ER and they are taking similar precautions by living in basements, guest rooms, and garages to protect their families. These healthcare workers are working long, grueling hours and literally sacrificing everything – their health, their safety, and even their lives! Yet the thing they fear the most is exposing the people they love to the same dangers they face every day at work. It must be said that while he is primarily concerned about us, we are extremely concerned about him. On behalf of my family and all the family members of our brave doctors, nurses, techs, and first responders on the front lines, please stay home so my husband can do the same.
His family misses him very much.
#stayhome