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I think that most of us are suffering from Covid Fatigue or even Covid PSTD...I know that I am struggling. I absolutely love my job. I have a fantastic boss, great co-workers, have most of my clients well-trained, I make a good living, have good benefits. Yeah, the 108 mile round-trip commute sucks some time, but if I need a break I can work from home. I also have a fantastic husband (probably should have put him first). He never complains about how much money I spend on yarn or my yearly knitting retreat (he bought me a new suitcase last year so I would have more room for yarn). He's been very supportive of my soap making and hasn't complained about the bottles of FO and jars of Mica on the desk, or the kitchen counter, or the new mold sitting in front of the microwave...next to a slab mold filled with a bunch more stuff.

About a month or so ago, I started hitting the 'snooze' button. Instead of being the first one in the office, I'm usually the last. Instead of occasionally working from home a couple of days a month, it's a couple of day a week. My work is suffering and we're getting ready to enter our busiest season of the year. I want to make soap, but then I walk into the kitchen and my soap cart is constantly covered with all the crap everyone puts on it. By the time I get all cleaned up, I know longer want to make soap. Lather, rinse, repeat. I haven't touch my knitting in over a month, even a simple dishcloth seems too overwhelming. I'm sick to death of "social distancing", "we're all in this together", "Covid-19", "fully vaccinated" and not being able to pick up a breakfast sandwich at Subway because they are out of eggs all the time do to 'supply issues'.

The last I cried all the way home from work. I feel helpless and hopeless. No, not suicidal...just really, really sad. I'm going to call my doctor tomorrow and see about getting a little pharmaceutical assistance.
Hugs to you my friend. LTC RN here. Lost 37 last year and I understand.
 
I can completely relate. I am not even making soap much anymore, even though it really is my release. Been doing some gardening a little. I just get home and I am tired. Not even physically. Mentally tired.

The hospital is miserable. Its not even the covid really. It is the staffing. There are not enough nurses...or any ancillary staff to function.

I went to get a patient from the ER the other day. We have so many new nurses and they are all straight out of school because everybody is leaving. Anyway....this nurse tells me that I must take the pt on a monitor. I know they are short staffed, so I tell her that i will because he was stable, but don't get mad if another tech doesn't do the same. If a patient needs to be on a monitor, then they need a nurse to travel with them...

I get back to the ER and she comes rushing in asking if his sats are ok because he had a lot of drugs before I took him...When I got him to CT scan, the portable monitor was there, the wires were there....nothing was hooked up to the pt. I HOOKED HIM UP when I got to ct. Then she laughed about it.

I got a call from a nurse manager today who was complaining about our travel tech that didn't take something seriously. All I could say was "we need him, its only until Feb 12 and then we are short staffed again, I can't do anything about it. Let it go." She got all high-pitched freak out mode about him taking a patient that was on a cardiac med that he needed a nurse to travel with him. So I told her the story about the nurse that insisted that I take a patient on a monitor. Yeah, we are all in the same boat...

We have had now three patients die in the waiting room because there is no way to monitor them or know that they are out there for something serious. Our entire trauma dept is about to shut down because every single nurse in trauma has already signed contacts for travel jobs.

Guy came in for left sided neck pain and he was triaged as a 4 on the ESI level for a sore throat...he sat there for 6 hours. Later died from cardiac arrest because left neck pain was probably his symptom for a heart attack.

Girl came in yesterday...3 months pregnant. Abdominal pain...we get a lot of this so it was apparently dismissed. Ultrasound said everything was good with the fetus. Smart doctor decided to order a ct scan...complete blockage of the vena cava and portal veins. Such a weird thing. She died i heard. Out in the waiting room too long...but there are just so many people out there.

Everybody keeps saying that they are done, even new nurses, techs, respiratory, etc. I been doing this for 26 years almost but I keep trying to remember why I got into my career. And I keep reminding everybody the same.

Then you have regular stuff to deal with. Our midnight tech was out all week because his mom died. Everybody was pissed that he was out...two years ago the same people would have been like "take all the time you need".

I keep telling people that this is not going to last forever. It is starting to feel like forever...and its depressing
Aside from the current staffing shortages, Covid has recently been ripping through staff causing even more shortages. The current policy is that staff return to work after a 5 day quarantine. I tested positive week before last and while I might not have been contagious after 5 days, I still felt like crap. But I came back to work on day six because we don't have enough people to go around. Heck, I even pulled extra hours because of the shortage even though I felt horrible. But as you well know, that's just what we do. It's incredibly frustrating to have the ER packed with people with minor complaints clogging up the system and keeping the real emergencies waiting. I swear it was all I could do to keep my patience last week with all of the patients I had to go get from the ER waiting room for whom the ER docs ordered CTA chests because "I tested positive for Covid last week and I still don't feel good." but they're satting 100% on room air.
And last Friday I worked an 11 hour shift with a 7 hour turnaround so 5 hours sleep between shifts. After 4pm there were only 2 CT techs in the hospital - me upstairs and another tech in the ER (who was supposed to leave at 6pm). I was about to get an inpatient for a post tPa Head when they called a Code Stroke upstairs. The neurologist wanted the full deal: CTA head/neck, perfusion study so by the time I was done with that, I was running downstairs to take over for the tech that was leaving since the ER had blown up. When the night shift tech came in at 7pm (when I was leaving) I told her about the post-tPa scan, saying it needed to be done as soon as possible she just rolled her eyes (as is her usual practice).
So I come in to work today and immediately I'm questioned about why I didn't do this post-tPa exam. As it turns out they were just looking for verification to deal with the night shift tech. At first she said she didn't have time to do the scan and then when they looked at the numbers and saw she had over 4 hours of downtime she said that it was ordered on my shift and if I couldn't be bothered to do it then neither could she. REALLY??? But you still question me??
I don't have your 26 years yet - it's 18 for me - but I'm almost done. I'm exhausted physically, mentally, and emotionally. It's hard to keep on keeping on when we have to deal with all of this AND the anger and nastiness from patients for not being able to be everywhere at once. We're doing our best.
 
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Hugs and prayers to all of you dealing with this on the front lines. I wish people would realize that this is the rwal issue with this virus. Yes, the death rate from the virus isn’t very high but it isn’t those who have died putting the burden in the healthcare system. I am 30+ years in laboratory and dealing with back side with testing. We are at full capacity. Luckily, we are also full staff. Not true for many, many labs. Stay brave frontline warriors!
 
I love my older sister and she has a generous heart, but Covid has made her selfish and stupid. Due to an incident about six months after Covid started in which she failed to tell me that she was socializing with friends without masks and distance (she couldn’t understand why I was upset)…I started keeping my distance from her. I had been meaning to stop over the past couple of weeks…glad I didn’t as they are just now starting to recover from Covid.

Their son, who has a place on their property came down with it first, then gave it to his Dad, who then gave to my sister, who then gave it to a friend. So this is where I get really pissed off…she claims they didn’t know it was Covid because they didn’t have any of the usual symptoms…just sore throats***. And with two people sick and a tickle in her throat, she hung out with her friend. When her friend came down sick, she got tested and she called my sister to warn her. And found out that sister and her family already had it. When I mentioned the symptom of Omicron was sore throats, her response was “Whatever. How was I supposed to know?” “You watch the news every night don’t you?”

She then asked me if I had ordered any test kits from the government. I said, “Yes, when they first became available. Just got an email that they will be delivered next week. Why?” “Everyone needs to test before coming to the crafting weekend and mine won’t be here in time so you can give me yours. Let me know when they come in and I’ll come over and picked them up.” “Uh…no you won’t. I’ll be in town next Saturday and will put it in your mail box.”

*** - None of us has had a sore throat since we had our tonsils out 50 years ago.
 
My daughter recently got over covid and i was concerned I might also get it since I was with her all day on her sickest day. I assumed she was feeling off due to being pregnant and under a lot of stress and I didn't even consider it could be covid. Fortunately it has been 2 weeks now and i feel totally fine. Her boyfriend died 3 weeks ago and with all of the people that came to pay their respects, social distancing went out the window and covid was inevitable. We were concerned due to hearing covid can be worse for pregnant women, but she recovered fast and it was relatively mild. Her symptoms were headache and bad body/bone aches and a fever of 101 for one day, then she improved quickly but got an ear infection a couple of days later. She has no lingering symptoms.
 
I’m in full blown menopause & these recent posts are causing my tear factory to kick on. @cerelife sending you some HUGE 🤗 & sure wish I could send you a clone of yourself for a much needed vacation for yourself. @TheGecko Enjoy your craft day & try to resist the temptation to glue your sister to her seat. JK of course. @DKing I am praying for your daughter & am so sorry to hear about the passing of her boyfriend. On a positive note. The attendance numbers & number of students testing + for Covid are definitely better late last week & so he start of this week.
 
My daughter recently got over covid and i was concerned I might also get it since I was with her all day on her sickest day. I assumed she was feeling off due to being pregnant and under a lot of stress and I didn't even consider it could be covid. Fortunately it has been 2 weeks now and i feel totally fine. Her boyfriend died 3 weeks ago and with all of the people that came to pay their respects, social distancing went out the window and covid was inevitable. We were concerned due to hearing covid can be worse for pregnant women, but she recovered fast and it was relatively mild. Her symptoms were headache and bad body/bone aches and a fever of 101 for one day, then she improved quickly but got an ear infection a couple of days later. She has no lingering symptoms.

@DKing, there's so much in your post! I've been wondering how things were going with you; you've been on my mind off and on for the past couple of weeks. First, congratulations on the upcoming addition to your family. When is the baby due? I hope all continues to go well with the pregnancy and that the little one will be surrounded with all the love and joy it needs (I know it will!). Second, I'm glad your daughter is recovering. A couple of the girls I work with have just gone through it and both were sick for a good two weeks (they work in our production shop, not in the sales center where I work, thankfully); one of them started with an ear infection and it progressed from there.

I'm so sorry to hear about your daughter's boyfriend. How hard that must be for your daughter! Seeing that baby will bring it home day after day and I'm sure it will be bittersweet for her and for you. I will keep you and your family in my thoughts and prayers and if you ever want to meet for coffee again, let me know.
 
@DKing, there's so much in your post! I've been wondering how things were going with you; you've been on my mind off and on for the past couple of weeks. First, congratulations on the upcoming addition to your family. When is the baby due? I hope all continues to go well with the pregnancy and that the little one will be surrounded with all the love and joy it needs (I know it will!). Second, I'm glad your daughter is recovering. A couple of the girls I work with have just gone through it and both were sick for a good two weeks (they work in our production shop, not in the sales center where I work, thankfully); one of them started with an ear infection and it progressed from there.

I'm so sorry to hear about your daughter's boyfriend. How hard that must be for your daughter! Seeing that baby will bring it home day after day and I'm sure it will be bittersweet for her and for you. I will keep you and your family in my thoughts and prayers and if you ever want to meet for coffee again, let me know.
It has been one wave after another with stressful events in our family (including parents and siblings) for the last half year, that the world is starting to feel quite ominous. I keep wondering what is next. I really hope that the tide starts turning in our favor now because we are due some happy times. The good thing is, Britt is doing fine health wise now. She had an ultrasound a few days ago and baby is progressing normally so far, so she is excited. She brought Matt's best friend to the ultrasound, which I think is as close as she could feel to Matt being there with her. The first week for her was extremely hard, but she is finding her feet again and adjusting to life without him as best as she can. I think it helps that she does have the baby coming as she feels as she hasn't lost Matt completely. They have a very strong community of friends, plus ours and his family, so I think she will be fine but it won't be the same experience for her as she was expecting. I am sure she will have some very hard days during this pregnancy when he isn't there for all the little things. She has never been really sure about her feelings of what comes after someone passes, but she had some really strong "signs" that gave her hope he is out there somewhere and trying to let her know he was alright. That has brought her some comfort, so I am glad for that.
Baby is due at the end of August to beginning of September. It is still very new really. I think they had only known for a couple of weeks that Britt was pregnant and they were nervously excited.
We should most definitely get together for coffee again soon. I am going away next weekend for a few days to sleep in a tent on a frozen lake, but after that I am free pretty much anytime. :)
 
Aside from the current staffing shortages, Covid has recently been ripping through staff causing even more shortages. The current policy is that staff return to work after a 5 day quarantine. I tested positive week before last and while I might not have been contagious after 5 days, I still felt like crap. But I came back to work on day six because we don't have enough people to go around. Heck, I even pulled extra hours because of the shortage even though I felt horrible. But as you well know, that's just what we do. It's incredibly frustrating to have the ER packed with people with minor complaints clogging up the system and keeping the real emergencies waiting. I swear it was all I could do to keep my patience last week with all of the patients I had to go get from the ER waiting room for whom the ER docs ordered CTA chests because "I tested positive for Covid last week and I still don't feel good." but they're satting 100% on room air.
And last Friday I worked an 11 hour shift with a 7 hour turnaround so 5 hours sleep between shifts. After 4pm there were only 2 CT techs in the hospital - me upstairs and another tech in the ER (who was supposed to leave at 6pm). I was about to get an inpatient for a post tPa Head when they called a Code Stroke upstairs. The neurologist wanted the full deal: CTA head/neck, perfusion study so by the time I was done with that, I was running downstairs to take over for the tech that was leaving since the ER had blown up. When the night shift tech came in at 7pm (when I was leaving) I told her about the post-tPa scan, saying it needed to be done as soon as possible she just rolled her eyes (as is her usual practice).
So I come in to work today and immediately I'm questioned about why I didn't do this post-tPa exam. As it turns out they were just looking for verification to deal with the night shift tech. At first she said she didn't have time to do the scan and then when they looked at the numbers and saw she had over 4 hours of downtime she said that it was ordered on my shift and if I couldn't be bothered to do it then neither could she. REALLY??? But you still question me??
I don't have your 26 years yet - it's 18 for me - but I'm almost done. I'm exhausted physically, mentally, and emotionally. It's hard to keep on keeping on when we have to deal with all of this AND the anger and nastiness from patients for not being able to be everywhere at once. We're doing our best.
It is because of you & people like you that we are still in a better off place than we could have been due to the Pandemic.
I can't help you with your challenges, but, know that we really appreciate people like you. I live in an entirely different continent, but thank you from the bottom of my heart for helping save lives ❤️💕🤗
 
I work in a field with a lot of acronyms, and I heard a new one yesterday: PARD

pandemic adaptive response disorder

It is considered highly contagious, long-lasting, and ranges from mild to severe. Best antidotes are reported to be:

• sunshine for at least 30 mins per day,
• gentle exercise,
• uplifting music,
• calming spiritual practices, and
• limited exposure to news reports (every three days max, only scan headlines for 10 minutes)
 
Just off the phone with my sister…she had just gotten up as she had to go the the ER in the wee hours. Gall Bladder attack. And she tested positive for Covid. And then proceeded to argue with me about the test results because she didn’t have a fever and you can’t have Covid without a fever. She knows this because every time she had seen her doctors, it’s the first question they ask. I told her, not every has a high fever or realizes that they have a fever. “Well, THEY should tell you that.” SIGH…they do, but apparently you only hear what you want to hear.

Then she starts whining about not being able to see the surgeon until the 22nd…providing she tests negative, Asked me if I got my kits and when I said I had, she said she would send hubby over and I said no…I have to go to town tomorrow and will drop it off in the mailbox. “Can’t you drop it off on the front porch.” No, the mailbox is a close as I plan to get to your Typhoid Mary household. And don’t use it until a couple of days before your appointment.

And then there was more whining about having to wait…they only gave her a few pain pills. I told her to have hubby get a few large bottles of Mylanta or Pepto Bismol and as soon as she felt the first twinge of something like heartburn, to take a shot.,,that it helps. And I told her to quit whining about having to wait a couple of weeks…I had to wait four months since I was pregnant and was buying Costco-size bottles of that stuff!

On a good note, son and future DIL set a date for the wedding.
 
My sister-in-law is extremely ill with Covid. She has a fever, pneumonia, blood clots on her lungs, and low SAT levels. But after five days in the hospital, this morning they sent her home with some meds, telling her it would be months of slow recovery and potentially meds for life.

Her husband *only* has flu symptoms, but I'm not sure why they think he can care for her while he is quite ill with the Covid fever and cough. They both have underlying health issues that put them at higher risk for complications and poor outcomes.

I truly don't understand the thinking behind the care she has received. With *normal* (non-Covid) pneumonia, she would have remained hospitalized for monitoring and treatment. The hospital is not overwhelmed with patients, so it's not like they need the bed for something more urgent.

She is my husband's only sibling, and their parents are deceased. It's hard to know whether to get on a plane, or wait it out for a bit and pray that she recovers.
 
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Personally if I was able, I would go there to help them out for a couple of weeks.
Unfortunately, my husband has a lot of health issues, including Parkinson's Disease, lupus, and several other autoimmune conditions. He's still ambulatory around the house, but traveling even on a vacation is very, very hard on him. Once we'd get there, he'd not be in any physical shape to help them. I'd love to go so I could cook and clean for them, but I am just back from two weeks of vacation. My office would be hammered if I left again right now, even for a few days.

Most of all, his sister is horrified at the idea that we might catch Covid from them if we came. We've both had it 2x, and aren't really that concerned on that point, but they are saying, "Don't come!" Thankfully, they do have church friends nearby who are caring for them.

But .... it's still very hard to be so far away. This one of those times that I'd really like to be retired so we'd be free to go as needed.
 
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