This is Sharan. She is a pharmacist on the Internal Medicine ward.
“My normal routine is to wake up at 6 AM, get my kids ready, drop them off at daycare, and be five minutes late for 8 AM rounds. There are usually multiple newly admitted patients with complex medication histories which require my attention. Plus all of the other gossip to catch up on.
These days, I wake up later. My in-laws watch my kids for the day. I leave at 7:30 AM. There is no traffic. I am at my desk before 8 AM. I wear scrubs now.
I don’t personally go into patient rooms anymore. Instead, I call them on the phone and tell them that I am not personally coming in to see them so I can save the personal protective equipment for my colleagues.
When I drive home, I call ahead to ask what is the safest way to sneak into the house. I need to throw my clothes in the laundry, and shower as soon as possible. If the kids hear me, they won’t let me up the stairs without swarming me for hugs. My arrival home coincides with the start of dinner and some Peppa Pig.
The evening adult chatter brings up more questions that I never anticipated needing to address with my 4 year old…what’s coronavirus, what happens when people die, why can’t we hug others?
My husband is also a healthcare worker. He will play the same game when he gets home. We are fortunate that we have stocked up on Costco laundry detergent.
It’s strange, we used to worry about what infections our kids would bring home next from daycare. Now we are terrified of what we might bring home from the hospital.
The world is a very strange place these days.”
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