to this...
The week of March 15-21st was Indiana University's Spring Break. It is also Spring Break for the Bloomington schools. I have always worked this week because I don't live in Bloomington and my kids attended another school system so our Spring Break was always later. That being so, I worked on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.
Working in the ED that week was a bit maddening in that the "plan" seemed to change almost hour by hour. In Bloomington the first plan was to park an RV in the parking lot and screen all walking and talking symptomatic patients in there, so as to not contaminate the rest of the ED. A nurse would go in there fully gowned, gloved and masked and the provider would "see" the patient over an iPad, like Facetiming the patient. That lasted a couple days, then they figured out the RV couldn't be adequately sanitized. Next there were special rooms. The requirement for protective gear kept changing. The screening criteria kept changing. It was mentally tiring just trying to keep up with the "plan." We decided on March 14th to restrict visitors from the ED. Gone were the days of me running errands after work in my scrubs. I drove straight home and showered before doing anything else. My husband gave me the stink eye every time I coughed or breathed a little funny.
I'm not sure what the kids really did that week. I'm pretty sure G slept most of the week. I know she had been physically exhausted for weeks and weeks. In fact, while she was home for Christmas, she actually went to see her doctor because she was so physically exhausted. She had every blood test under the sun but everything came back normal. For J, it was her Spring Break. She has two jobs so she continued to work and I'm sure she hung out with her friends.
I was off the weekend of March 21-22 when I heard rumors that the governor was going to "close" the state with a stay at home order. All week at work I had heard people talking about going to Costco and Walmart and seeing people with carts loaded with toilet paper...and soft drinks...and beer. One of my co-workers saw a woman clear the shelf of Little Debbie snacks. Being the perpetual couponer/bargain shopper, I had plenty of toilet paper and other dry goods at home. I think the main reason I went to the store that weekend was I wanted to make sure my kids had enough contact lens solution and we needed some fresh veggies and milk. I think the only thing I needed that I couldn't find at Meijer were coffee filters. I honestly never looked in the cleaning product or toilet paper aisles, nor did I look for meat. My husband was also out running his errands so I had him pick up coffee filters at Walmart. He told me Walmart was "crazy" - shoppers everywhere with carts loaded to overflowing. Really? That was not my experience at Meijer.
On March 23rd Governor Holcomb issued a stay at home order, effective at the end of the day on Tuesday March 24th. J got a letter from both her employers on Monday stating she was an essential worker. The initial order was set to expire on April 6th. Since then it was extended to April 30th, then extended again to May 15th.
At this point in March life had not really changed much for me. I still went to work. My husband is retired. My kids are at home like they are on vacation. What was going on around us was alarming though. The Diamond Princess was not an isolated cruise ship incident. Now there were cruise ships stranded all over the world. My employer issued an indefinite work travel ban. Now the warning stories were coming out of New York City.
New York City saw an astronomical rise in Covid cases the third week in March. Now the warning stories of "this could be your town" were coming from there. The stories were also from otherwise healthy healthcare workers who had contracted the virus and nearly died. It was evident being young and healthy was not necessarily going to spare you. New York City hit home. My mother got her PhD from New York University. She lived there for several years while I was in college to get her degree. She lived in the same Jackson Heights neighborhood in Queens that was now the epicenter of death. G lived in Manhattan for 6 weeks in the summer of 2018. She loves that city. It is a short bus ride away from Philadelphia and she has friends who live and train there. With a population density of over 2700 people per square mile, the virus spread like wildfire.
March 26th. We became #1. The United States now has the most Covid-19 cases in the world. Watching the virus consume New York City was like watching a train wreck in slow motion. It's horrifying yet you can't stop reading the news stories... seeing the refrigerated trucks... the field hospitals. Cases in Indiana were rising too. The biggest problem with trying to document cases in Indiana though is the lack of tests. I remember the first email I received from the Indiana State Department of Health about the availability of tests. I can't remember the date but I think it was in early March? It said we had 900 tests available statewide. Obviously we've gotten more since then but still, I think our numbers early on were artificially low due to lack of available testing.
We have sheltered in place for over a month now. As I stated in my previous post (HERE), I am fortunate. My life has not changed much as I still physically leave the house to go to work, same as always. Our income has not changed as my husband was already retired. I don't need to worry about home schooling my children because they are grown.
I worry about my children though. G is technically a junior in high school and went to school online anyway so that has not changed. She does her classes in her own time, same as always. She was scheduled to take three AP tests in May and that has moved to an online open book format. She took her SAT in October and was signed up to retake it in June, simply to try and get a higher score, and that has been canceled. My worry with her is her future. She's a ballet dancer. She had been training at least 6 hours a day, every day. You can't replicate that at home. Her entire career is in limbo. She had been accepted into summer programs with the Charlotte Ballet and Ballet Met but was waiting to hear from Jacob's Pillow and was going to audition with the Nashville Ballet. Jacob's Pillow is canceled and none of the other programs know if they will continue. My heart goes out to all the kids, because they are kids, that are trying to land a company position in dance right now. No one has a job. Even those that got a contract this year, the contract probably is not worth the paper it's written on. There are no jobs.
I think J has had the hardest time of all of us. She is a social being. She hates being alone. She lived with four other girls in her house in Bloomington. Most of her roommates have gone home. She is staying with us most of the time although she works in Bloomington. Indiana University did not reopen for physical classes. Everything has moved online for the rest of the semester. She is struggling with learning online. She needs to be able to talk to her professors. She misses her friends. She is bored at home. Some days she's like a three year old, wanting me to play with her. G and I have always been solitary beings. It's easy for us to occupy our time reading, exercising, crafting... alone. Not her. I have played more board games and completed more puzzles with her than I have in, well, the last decade. Admittedly, I'd rather be crocheting alone listening to a podcast, but I have been telling myself to embrace this opportunity to spend time with my family.
The kids were already grown and gone. We were empty nesters. Now they have come back. When they were here it was a non-stop schedule of dance classes, cheer, football and basketball games and other extra-curriculars. Now all we have is time. We never know when our time will end. I am doing my best to make it meaningful.
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