4 - Stories from a Pandemic: Air
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What does Emily Silverman say about the uneven spread of the pandemic?
You're listening to The Nocturnous Stories from a Pandemic. I'm Emily Silverman. One of the interesting things about a pandemic is that it doesn't distribute itself evenly. There are hot spots and cold spots, and these change over time. And yet, the diary entries that you're sending us still tie together really well each week. I just got off a five-day stretch in the hospital on our COVID service, where I faced a lot of the same challenges that you've all described in your audio diaries. Figuring out how to provide care at a distance, suppressing the chronic fear and anxiety that comes with being exposed to this virus, and finding my rhythm as I don and I doff my PPE. But for the past few days, one of the things that's really kept me going is excitement about sharing this episode with you.
I'm really proud of this episode, which features voices from all corners of the country, including a veterinarian and a hospital chaplain. It's called air.
New York City, Friday evening, April 10th. This is how we salute the uh health workers and how we make it through our day.
This is Holy Week and Passover and uh it's been quite a journey for me myself. Today I was able to see several patients finally after several days of being on the phone with IT, uh with symptoms of cough, fever, chest pain. uh nasal congestion, sinusitis and triage them and help them stay away from uh going to any other more challenged areas. I'm new at this particular clinic so going through all kinds of different emotions from being grateful for my attending and the other nurse practitioner and at times feeling wow they might lay me off because I'm new and I'm not seeing as many patients. Um or then the other side of the fear is wow they're gonna send me to uh the ICU, the ER, because they've been talking about redeploying employees and just not having that training and that experience to really be able to be of help there, I don't think.
So between feeling impotent and helpless and useless to then feeling nervous and scared about uh you know, what is the future, it's probably like how most of us feel. The most helpful is two things every day. One is I listen now to the New York Governor Como and his daily talk 'cause I feel he's a voice of sanity and really helps me stay grounded. Um the other part is at seven o'clock each night now me and my neighbors we all go out on to the our balconies. Ring bells, hit pots, you know, and sort of have this ri evening ritual like a lot of other New Yorkers i on their block and in their apartments and houses and salute the healthcare workers. Every night the Empire State Building is lit up in red, it's a pumping heart.
Um it h those things help with the solidarity. I was able today uh to watch a little bit of the Good Friday service that they have at Saint John the Divine and um that was moving and gave sustenance. I pray for everybody every day and uh through maybe our suffering now is making us more sensitive and more aware for all the suffering we've been creating for so many other species with our species centric uh consumption. And I hope and pray that this uh wake up call is gonna help us live in a way that's more sustainable for everyone. That is my hope. And I'm trying to figure out How can I contribute to make that happen? And to me I feel as a healthcare professional that's what we all should be thinking about as we go through this difficult time right now with our patients.
How can we all contribute to really changing this way that's not sustainable? So that's my prayer and my hope.
This is Susan from Baltimore. Today is Sunday, April twelfth. It is a holiday for everyone to some degree or another. Um today for many is Easter. For me of course it's Passover. And Ramadan also begins soon for those that celebrate that. It's been a very challenging few days. I was going to be rotating out to working from home. First day of that was this past Wednesday. That was most interesting. I have never worked from home before. Telemedicine to me as to so many other primary care providers is a new thing.
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