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#loveinthetimeofcovid19
Love in the Time of COVID-19
Sarah Stumbar ~
COVID-19 changes everything--even, or especially, love. It demands that we love differently, and in new ways. For me, this is what #loveinthetimeofcovid19 looks like.
My husband, Lunan, and I are both doctors. Lunan, a urologist, is completing his final year of training in New York City, and I am a family-physician educator at a medical school in Miami.
We are living separately this year--one of the many sacrifices we've made in pursuing our medical training over the past twelve years. Since August, he and I been traveling back and forth to see each other two or three times per month. Now we're not sure when we'll be together again--and for us, that has been the most painful and personal part of the daily reality of COVID-19.
I love being a family physician and caring for my patients, but the mobile health center where I work was shut down this week as we transitioned to telehealth. Without personal protective equipment, we couldn't safely care for our patients within our clinic's tight confines.
Not What I Expected
Samantha Hammond ~
As I struggled my way through nursing school, I never expected my first job as a nurse to feel like this; I was too busy dreaming of the day when I could hold the title of Registered Nurse.
I never expected to come home crying. I never expected that, at times, I'd mumble the words "I hate my job." I never expected many of the challenges I face daily--but here I am, six weeks into my first hospital job, fighting to make it. Here I am, figuring out what it means to be a nurse, learning what to expect.
It is early afternoon, and I have just finished administering my last midday medication. I emerge from the patient's room to find that five call bells are buzzing; there is no other nurse or aide in sight. I begin to wonder if everyone is purposely disappearing in order to test the new kid.
Put to the Test
Roberta Turner ~
I'm a primary-care doctor in Washington state. I was recently confronted with a ticklish and painful situation.
Here are the facts and the sequence of events:
On a recent Wednesday morning, I saw a forty-five-year-old woman in my office for an earache. She told me that a member of her church had been diagnosed with coronavirus, and that many schools in the area were being closed because of possible exposure. Later that day I started to receive emails and phone calls from families in my practice, giving more information about this situation.
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Encounters
Encounters, our latest feature: Patients talk about their healthcare experiences and share stories about their lives outside the doctor's office. Popular Tags
Latest Comments
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Love in the Time of COVID-19
Sarah this a wonderful portrait of a healer. Your writing revealed the layers of love that a call to ... -
Mortality and Morbidity Conference
Really nice poem. Thanks for sharing. -
Love in the Time of COVID-19
Thanks for this beautiful and REAL post. Thanks for your love and your courage, and your caring ...
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