Wednesday, January 19, 2022

Perpetual Pandemic

 "Count to three, please and wait for the cleaning stuff to dry, otherwise it stings."

I remember. And this looks a good one where you said the invisible vein is.  

Another pokie day.  Another infusion.  Another hospital visit.  Another day in the life of Emily on her SIOD journey.  Another day in the life of this perpetual pandemic.  Another day in the life that we are all too familiar with the precautions even pre-pandemic.

Hopkins Md states: Although being fully vaccinated greatly reduces your chance of catching or spreading the coronavirus, it doesn’t eliminate it entirely. If you are infected with the coronavirus and do not know it, a mask is very good at keeping your respiratory droplets and particles from infecting others. If you haven’t yet received your COVID-19 vaccine, wearing a mask can also help prevent germs that come from another person’s respiratory droplets from getting into your nose and mouth.

Since the coronavirus can spread through droplets and particles released into the air by speaking, singing, coughing or sneezing, masks are still a good idea in crowded indoor public places that contain a mixture of vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals.

Wearing a mask is still recommended in health care settings and other places where people around you may have risk factors for severe consequences of COVID-19. These include people over age 65 and those living with heart disease, diabetes, obesity, chronic lung disease, immunity problems or cancer.

These people being referred to our our children with SIOD who have a suppressed immune system and multi system disorders that can include renal failure, stroke and infection.  Our Emily receives IVIG every 3 weeks to try and provide some sort of protection and immunity for short windows of time.

Furthermore, Mayo Clinic provides this information: Face masks combined with other preventive measures, such as getting vaccinated, frequent hand-washing and physical distancing, can help slow the spread of the virus that causes COVID-19.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends masks for the general public. If you’re fully vaccinated and are in an area with a high number of new COVID-19 cases, the CDC recommends wearing a mask indoors in public and outdoors in crowded areas or when you are in close contact with unvaccinated people. People who haven’t been fully vaccinated should wear face masks indoors and outdoors where there is a high risk of COVID-19 transmission, such as crowded events or large gatherings.

The CDC says that you should wear the most protective mask possible that you'll wear regularly and that fits. Respirators such as nonsurgical N95s give the most protection. KN95s and medical masks provide the next highest level of protection. Cloth masks provide less protection. The CDC says that surgical N95 masks should be reserved for health care providers.

 Our family has been washing hands, wearing surgical masks and keeping our distance ever since Emily was born.  She entered this world emergently 8 weeks early and by age 4 had a kidney transplant from her dad and began battling one of two bouts with lymphoma cancer over the next few years.  Our personal pandemic began long before the world joined us a few years ago.

Today as we entered Children's Specialty Clinic a new sign was posted in regards to masks: Cloth masks are no longer acceptable. An adult surgical mask and children's surgical masks are provided for everyone's protection.  We are happy to oblige.  We want to keep everyone as safe as possible, including the team of people who do their best each day to care for our child.  Emily and I switched out of our specialty made cloth masks into the surgical masks and proceed to the elevator to our 3rd floor infusion center where we are greeted with the same warm hearts and kind eyes ready to provide care over the next 5-6 hours for our warrior princess.

1,2,3, little poke.  
"breath.  she's got it honey.  now they are drawing labs."
Emily, you have got to be my favorite patient to come and start an iv.  I know that sounds weird, but you hold still, are fun to talk to and tell us what you need every time. 
"Thank you", whispers the sweet subtle sounds of our  SIOD warrior princess.