another night on call

 it's 5 am.  was on call again last night.  so now i'll be off for another 6 days. a new cat tent arrived this week and Ivy got her head stuck inside. she was able to extricate herself though...she looked a bit sad in this shot....i had just woke up.

 Covi Kitty shown above  enjoying a tennis ball...that just means he is a total fit in with the fur family

 there was only one day i didn't walk the dogs...they got a bit wild the next day.  the kitten adds to my need to get the dogs out and walked.  makes life bearable for them if i do wear out the dogs a bit.

 we have hit the dog park a few times and North Bivouac.  just find times and areas where there are few people. 

 everyone is getting along mostly.  they can lay near each other most of the time without too much craziness. Ivy does get rambunctious but that is Ivy and Miss Breezy Chatterbug hisses at times at the kitten.  she seems a bit jealous when the kitten gets attention from myself or the dogs.

 this brazen kitten even just lays between the dogs on the couch.

 i've had to move the feeding station for the kitten as the last 24 hours the dogs have figured out they can get up there. 

 i only worked 1 1/2of my shifts this week. the first night i ended up with door duty. probably came too close to a few + covids as i screened at the doors.  mostly we are checking workers for temperatures. that night was lovely though.  no charting.  no actual touching of patients.  wore mask all night.  i guess they are now going to more mask wearing for all. i always have a little cough so i have been wearing a cough all week.  i guess now some city's states are encouraging face coverings in public.

 places like Sinapore and Hong Kong have been through epidemics before.  it seems like their citizens just went into epidemic mode. broke out their masks, social distancing, staying in...they didn't need to be asked to do these things.  here, folks do not take well to being told by government what to do.  not that our government did anything.  this administration is a huge fail on this pandemic.  they have been so far off the curve and continue to do next to nothing though they have in the past weeks finally admitted this isn't a hoax or conspiracy, sadly, many of his followers have no made the turn. 

 several GOP state governors have been complete idiots and just done the misinformation/lie campaign in their states, putting their own citizens at greater risk for getting this and dying from it.  i've not been a big fan of our governor but i will give him credit for acting on this much sooner than many others.  it is appreciated and at this time our numbers have been staying fairly controlled. 

 for sure more rule out cases coming through the hospital now than last i worked and the covid rule out rooms are more plentiful than last i worked.  things change fast.

 our nations death count was around 900 a few weeks ago and now it's nearing 6000 and no doubt will hit 10,000 before the weekend is up.  there are horror stories in the big cities of lack of equipment. many healthcare workers are getting this as well as police and first responders. deaths are happening in younger patients.  at first i think everyone just saw this impacting elderly and those with pre-existing conditions. that doesn't always seem to be the case.   suspect many of the elderly have taken heed to the warnings and have been staying inside to ride this out. 

 so much changes every day.  my entire routine for work has really changed.  i did work ER for half a shift.  the volume of patients coming in has decreased.  i will take on calls when i can. just stay out of it as long as i can.  limit my own exposure.

 at least at work though you are with a team, working together, stressed and anxious together.  i worked with a few nurses who are pretty green nurses.  starting their career with a pandemic. my experience is needed. 

 the night i worked the door an ER nurse commented about me being there...something about why would they have one of the best nurses in the hospital working the door.  i joked back that i was having issues getting the infrared thermometer to work....clearly, not the best nurse there. haha.

 every week more and more rooms are transitioned into these make shift negative flow rooms. looks a bit ghetto but i guess it's functional.

 i have emptied my work bag deciding what is minimally necessary to take with me.  i have some ppe stored in there. i have taken to wearing a head covering now...as have many others.  i wear my mask all shift. i know i drink much less water.  the less you touch your mask the better.  they want you to use the same mask all shift and perhaps into the next shift.  the n 95 masks are locked up. 

 i wash my hands a great deal and don't touch my face.  goggles of course, i have a face shield given to me by a co-worker and a home made mask with filter inserts.  may just double up.  the "rules" are to not wear masks not supplied by the hospital but i think the management knows they can't stop it and they seem to just look the other way.

 i am wearing my old xtra tuffs so i can clean easier and leaving those outside.  i strip and put all my clothes into the washer immediately, clean off all the stuff from my pockets as well as any door handles, switches...i may have touched coming inside. i put on a robe i put out the night before, hit the shower and then the robe goes in the wash as well....it takes a long hot shower before i feel i am clean.

 home does feel safe though. 

 Covi Cat seems hungry so i have taken to feeding him more.  he needs it i think...right now he seems to need attention.

 the governor or Mayor of New York contacted the Anchorage Mayor looking for vents. it's going to get desperate there.  hard decisions will be made.  who gets the vents, who doesn't.  my brother is in Boston, which is also ramping up in cases.  the ems are being told to not code people on calls...if they aren't breathing and don't have a pulse, they are told to leave the patient there, do nothing. 

 MLB uniform makers have shifted to making masks, Hockey equipment maker has shifted to making shields. people are stepping up for sure.  of course, some big corporations are still more interested in profits over American lives and sending ppe and other needed items to other nations willing to pay more for product.  greed is the way with our capitalist system some times.  it's only as decent as the people running it.  sadly, far too many in our nation are filled with selfishness and greed.  you hope that a situation like this brings out the best, but these situations also bring out the worst.

 there will be more good than bad, but there is bad. 

 this crisis is showing how terrible our healthcare system is.  folks are losing jobs and therefore insurance due to a virus.  proving our healthcare shouldn't be so tied into jobs. the government who collects our tax dollars has opted to sit back and do little, leaving state governments to do a hit and miss job of trying to get supplies, which becomes a bidding war with other states and the federal government. 

 masks that a few weeks ago i would have been written up for using more than once are now being used over and over for days and then dropped in a bin for possible sanitation/sterilization and reuse.

 i feel let down by the system that i have worked in for decades.  all the nit picking and rules we have followed for decades are just being tossed out because our nation was ill prepared for this pandemic.  sadly, this stupid administration took out our pandemic task force...they refused to listen to anything the Obama administration had to offer as advice because of their complete and absolute hatred of him...they still tell themselves it had nothing to do with his race...sorry but bull.  it had everything to do with his race. they delayed taking this seriously, instead claiming it was a hoax or a conspiracy meant to take out this idiot they treat like some golden cow.  it was just a few weeks ago that the iitoo was screaming these exact claims to yet another rally. 

 still those idiots stand at a podium, too close to each other, touching the podium, not cleaning between speakers for their daily briefings.  the iitoo refused to allow any Dems to be present for the signing of a relief bill, which they fought against any provisions that actually helped the citizens...as they wanted to mostly help the corporations. those fools stood shoulder to shoulder at the signing and then the iitoo handed each of them a pen that he touched and then handed to them.  why aren't they sick?  why haven't they all gotten this?

 early February the administration was given alarms, but ignored them.  this is not new information.  an idiot governor in the south said yesterday that he just found out people can pass along this virus without having symptoms...they have learned from their fool leader to just lie and pass along misinformation.  since many are getting their "news" from propaganda sources like fox and the limbaugh/alex jones types...they are not taking any of this serious. 

 the petty fool in the white house has also made it clear that if anyone wants anything from him they must stroke his ego and fawn all over him.  they must say that his leadership is key in everything.  he is the most pathetic "leader" we have ever had as a nation, at least in modern history.  we need a leader at the helm not a vindictive and petty child. sadly, that is what we have though.

 a nuclear submarine has over 100 cases.  the captain of that ship has been trying to get help getting the boat docked and getting those with covid off the ship...he has been fired i hear because this information got out.  he is a hero in my mind and the usual iitoo has once again proven that he is absolutely not supportive of the military despite the bull that comes from his mouth.  at work one co-worker had tears in her eyes as she told us her son is on that ship and she is clearly worried and had not been able to get information.  last i heard the ship was brought into Guam. those are tight quarters and a disease like this will spread quickly

 the CDC continues to shrink back the protective wear guidelines to match the lack of equipment.  we are aware of the ruse.  we are being lied to , we are being put at risk.  we know it.

 some across the nation have been fired for speaking out about it.  fired for wearing masks at work, fired for wearing their own protective gear when they find they are not getting protection from their work places.

 we spend a great deal of training time making sure we wear proper ppe...then in a crisis...well we are supposed to abandon the training and rules from a few weeks ago. 

 it is nice not having all the visitors.  many hospitals will have to make life and death decisions.  they had to in Italy....at some point you can't risk exposure with codes of those who have little to no chance of survival.  when you have limited vents you have to make decisions about who gets the vent and who doesn't

 the GOP, who screamed about death panels if we got universal health care seem quite willing to just allow mass deaths in order to save corporations.  money is, as it always was, more of a priority of the GOP than the human lives.  their bull has been outed repeatedly through these last 3 years of trump.  it was all a smoke screen...they don't actually care about citizens of this nation, they don't actually care about the sanctity of life, it's all about the bottom line, corporations over human life. 

 there are a few cruise ships out there, off Florida trying to land.  can't really believe people were still getting on these ships in early to mid March.  many have been taking advantage of the plane deals as well.  travel needs to stop until this is under control...again many just don't take it seriously. 

 look at that sweet face...

 shoes still move around at my place.  i think that is usually Tusker.  thankfully, at this point they generally aren't destroyed.

 this is the disgusting thing seen around the hospitals. i guess there are reports of ways to sanitize/sterilize masks for re-use..these were made to be one time use items.  just a totally disgusting idea..not to mention if a few of those masks come from covid + rooms does that leave open the possibility of the covid virus wafting out of there are masks are dropped in? 

 it can live on surfaces longer than originally thought.  i just find it gross and demoralizing to staff. 

 better head to bed again.  thankful for: A.  health so far.  B. co-workers and other healthcare folks who can relate to what we are feeling.  C. another week of work has ended.