COVID-19 is not a surgical disease, and as a surgery resident, I am therefore not on the frontlines. Not yet at least, should I be called to step up in the coming weeks, that could easily change. But for now, I'm not caring for any of our cases. I am being affected in other ways.
This week, ACS/ABS called for all elective surgery cases to be cancelled for the next 6 weeks. This does not include emergency, trauma, or cancer surgeries. Cancelling elective cases will limit unnecessary inpatients leaving as much space in our hospitals for new coronavirus cases as possible. It will also limit OR personnel, anesthesia, surgical and nursing personnel required to be in the hospital on any given day. We, as a residency, have shifted to a weekend-type rounding schedule for the forseeable future. Being on my cardiac elective, I did not immediately feel the effect of this change. But throughout the week, we have worked our way through all of the inpatient cases that had been pending. Each day I found myself heading home earlier than the day before. In fact, today was the first day that I did not have any cases myself. My only job today was to remove a patient's chest tube, and once done... I left the hospital again.
Walking through the hospital, you can get an eerie sense of calm before the storm. There's no visitors, decreased ORs running, no clinics open. Our cases are tucked away in the COVID ward or behind doors in our ICUs. Today Gov. Cuomo, announced New York to be on lock-down starting this Sunday. The cities' hospitals already can't handle the cases, and as he explained, we can't increase number of ICU beds and ventilators therefore lock-down is attempting to affect which factors are in our power to alter. Time will tell. In the meantime, waiting for the overflow to start affecting us here at Westchester.
There's an incredible shortage of personal protective equipment, an issue I know is not isolated to just Westchester. We have to sign our life away to get a mask... and then don't get another one for a week. We instead are issued a brown paper bag to keep our PPE in for reuse. In Mexico, most of our PPE was reusable. Masks and gowns were sterilized and reused. I wonder how long it'll be before we have to use alternate options. In the meantime, there's a fair amount of memes being circulated. For example...
I am trying to keep myself motivated as possible. I have frequently desired the energy and time to be able to go for a run on a daily basis. And now.... I would rather be back operating again. They have set up drive through testing in my parking lot just behind my building. Realized what it was as I weaved through traffic cones and appreciated the rows of police cars and officers there to keep order. Not awkward at all... I adjusted my route and now run around. I am very thankful that I can still go to work, that I will still receive a paycheck. But I feel very unuseful. I'm not on the frontlines. Could be called upon if needed, but right now, I'm stuck in the reserves. I have a couple of calls this coming week, so expect to feel better being able to help in that way.
Much Love.
No comments:
Post a Comment