Nostalgia, Shame, and Unforseen Expenses Create the Perfect Storm

It started with the realization that i could neither afford to buy groceries at the mom and pop grocery i worked at nor the chain grocery i used to work at. If i missed the produce warehouse on wednesdays between 10 and 5:30 i didnt eat for the week because my budget was 15 to …

Saying Goodbye

I was having a little trouble coming to terms with the fact that i would no longer be a healthcare practitioner; that helping people regain their independence and functionality was no longer my job. I still had a few days left before the end of my notice. For a few more days there would still …

A New Direction

i quit my job recently. I handed in my two weeks notice. Truthfully, i did it early in the morning, before i could change my mind. It was a strange experience for me because i enjoyed my boss and my team. I enjoyed my patients. I will say this: in every profession or career field …

Insomnia

My colleagues began discussing the emergence of anxiety disorders during the pandemic. Nurses who were used to operating inside of life or death situations for ten minute periods, doing everything possible to revive or maintain a patient until the EMTs took over found themselves in the same type of situation but extended for months on …

Adopt a Nursing Home

In the past month i had watched the majority of my favorite patients die. I had watched colleagues complain of shortness of breath, chest pain, and headache. I had fought my battle with my own 7 weeks of symptoms. I had been run from, glared at, and chased out of stores with people shouting at …

My Sister the Seamstress

I had four n95 masks in my possession. I was reusing them and would have to do so until september when the ones i’d bought on back-order were set to arrive. During hot sunny days i locked them in the car and parked in the sun to sterilize them with heat. During overcast days i …

Depression

I have always been the type of person that’s good in a crisis situation. I have a very analytical mind. Things are very black and white for me all the time, so too in a crisis. Its usually pretty clear to me what needs to be done and what needs to be prioritized in the …

An Earnest Effort

In the beginning i didn’t make any preparations for the arrival of Covid-19. I remember telling a friend, “If the apocalypse comes, i trust that God will just take me when he’s ready, because the thing is…at some point, i’m going to need a dentist, and a dentist i am not. I don’t want to …

March 9

March 9. I was on my way to town, headed to the health foods grocery store to pick up some immune support items. I started to feel short of breath. It felt like regular tree pollen allergies while i was sitting there in the car so i didn’t think anything of it. By the time …

Impulse Buy of the Century

I first began hearing about Covid-19 in february. In the beginning, it was this thing that was only in china and then italy. There wasn’t a sense of panic at that time. We didn’t have a widespread belief that it was coming here. But then, they brought all these americans with covid-19 from china over …