Seeing as I’ve been working in healthcare now for about 45 years as a pharmacist, toggling between hospital and retail, I think I have some idea as to how healthcare works, and how it should work. Although i embarked in a career in hospital pharmacy management in 1984, I l maintained my love for patient care and helping others. As I’ve gain experiences, I planned blogging about my own personal healthcare expectations and ordeals, hoping to bring to light situations that need evaluation, in hopes that my accounts would hit home with others navigating their own healthcare narrative.
However, before beginning that endeavor, Covid19 hit the stage and has taken over the world. So I have decided to start an account of my own Covid19 perceptions as we traverse this unpredictable journey. Being part of the scientific community (after a fashion), I am part of a group that looks for predictability of patterns to explain theorems. So let me share my story that defies explanation.
Today I received test results from my Covid19 immunity test that I did not show any immunity. That does not make sense. I have been working at a hospital in the center of a Covid19 hotspot right outside NYC. Several of my co workers had tested positive for the virus and were quarantining at home. I even spent an afternoon working along side one of them!…..before masks were mandatory!. (I am in the pharmacy department which is described often an ancillary patient service and, by administration’s standards, didn’t rise to level of requiring masking during the early weeks……..even though I and my colleagues didn’t agree. That has since been rectified.) I have also been going out for essential grocery and home maintenance shopping. And, prior to the “pause”, I was scrambling to get my hair done, pick up my contact lenses, squeezing in doctor’s appointments and the like. I was convinced I had the virus as an asymptomatic. Maybe, maybe not.
What the test result punctuates is that this virus does not follow any patterns. Or maybe my diligence of masking and washing hands and wiping down surfaces I touch was extremely effective. But I was in contact with someone who was infected. Now I’m thinking, maybe she wasn’t infected. Maybe her test was a false positive. There are so many irregularities as this infection begins to affect a larger segment of the population that we in the healthcare arena are frustrated and baffled because we just don’t know why some people get infected and die, and others don’t have symptoms, yet are infected. As time passes, we will know that answer, we make it our mission to figure this out. Until we know more, I will continue to mask to keep others safe, wash my hands and surfaces, and safe home as much as possible. In addition, I will also be getting another immunity test in 2 to 3 weeks as the titers may have just not been significant enough to be detected. Who knows, it may have been a false negative.
As time goes on, we will come back to this topic. We will look at patterns of behavior, both of the virus and human. We will discuss drug treatments, vaccine development, psychological and emotional reactions…..all through my perspective, which may resonate and validate your own feelings during this period of uncertainty. Until next time, #staysafe#stayhome#washyourhands.
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