My daughter Alisha works as a Respiratory Therapist. She has been on the front line since the nightmare of covid – 19 started. I can’t tell you how many times she called Phil and I in tears, she has lost another patient, or angry that too many had passed over night, or she has just had enough.
Alisha sat down last night and wrote this amazing piece and I wanted to share it with you:
2020 has been a year of many firsts and sadly too many lasts. Our world was thrown into chaos with the introduction of Covid 19. And if you know me you know I’m not one to talk politics or get into the heavy stuff. But as we roll into the holidays in just a few weeks, let me bestow on you a few words for thought. For those of you continuing to proclaim “It is my God-given right to choose whether or not to wear a mask,” for those of you who think that now that the world is opened back up its parties and get-togethers, for those of you who think this is all some made-up conspiracy….think about this…After the football party, big wedding, night out with the gang, everything you eat starts to taste a little funny. You feel run-down, like a hangover but it just won’t go away. You tell yourself it will pass and continue on with your day. Then after a day or two, you take a drink or bite of something you know to be delicious but the flavour eludes you and you can’t taste it at all. Next is the fever, which makes you feel even more tired accompanied by the aches and pains all over your body. You try to take a breath but the air just isn’t flowing like you need it to. Time for the test…that uncomfortable q-tip up the nose to scratch your brain…POSITIVE. But it’s not a cushy quarantine at home for you, admission to the hospital. No visitors allowed to keep you company. Plasma, steroids, medications, oxygen. But as the days pass you still can’t get the air into your lungs. Doctors, nurses, technicians, respiratory therapists, you know them all by name now. They’re the ones at your bedside 12-16 hours+ a day holding your hand, trying to keep you calm and help you get through this. What you don’t see is outside your room. The alarms going off all up and down the hallways, workers who are missing meals to make sure you get yours, medications being delivered that may or may not work, hearts rates going up/coming down, tensions so thick you can cut with a knife. Frustrated because some days, all the knowledge in the world isn’t enough. You’re out of the fight. You can’t breathe and your body is in fight or flight mode. Time for more medicine. First to sleep, then to paralyze, then a piece of plastic down your throat so a machine can breathe for you. All the while not knowing the measures that will be taken to try and save you. All the tubes and lines and drains now coming out of you. Turning your whole body on your stomach to try and help open your lungs more all while connected to more drains and more tubes. Your kidneys shut down, your heart is getting weaker. Still, no family allowed at your bedside to hold your hand just a stranger who sacrifices times with their children, they’re loved ones. Wishing they’d gotten a little more sleep, a little snack before starting the day because they know it may be the only thing they eat till the day is over. Weeks pass. You’re still getting turned, you still breathe through a machine. IV pumps by the plenty. Then that alarm that no one wants to hear. CODE BLUE. Gowns, goggles, gloves, face shields. Someone is pumping on your chest to make your heartbeat all while feeling your ribs break underneath every push. Medications being drawn and pushed to get the electrical activity back in your heart. Sometimes blood and snot coming from every orifice of your body while the people working are dripping with sweat. Minutes feel like hours sometimes. But that’s it. Nothing more can be done. Tensions rise higher, tempers flare, frustration and tears because the ones working on you feel like they could have done more. They feel like they’ve failed. But there’s no time to stop. The alarm two doors down just went off and it’s time to start again. If you’ve taken the time to read this then you know by now that this could be your son, daughter, brother, sister, mother, father… They fought and died alone with strangers who chose to sacrifice their lives to try and save your loved ones. From the doctors who write the orders to the people who clean the blood off the floors after it’s all over. We fight, we cry, we suffer to try and make sure your loved ones don’t have to. So this holiday season before you think “I don’t need to do that,” think about your 80-year-old grandparent, your 60-year-old parent, or your 5-year-old child. Do you want them suffering, struggling for each breath, fighting to stay alive, all because you wouldn’t wear a mask, wash your hands, or stand a little farther away?
Too many people have died already for absolutely nothing.
We don’t need anymore.
END PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT
Cricket Fox's Corner of Australia 