Honor Your Healthcare Workers: My COVID-19 Scare

This post digs a bit deeper than my usual ones, but its something I figured I got to do. Not only is it a tribute to essential workers, especially hospital workers, but it also entails my experience with the coronavirus. SPOILER ALERT: I’m fine!

My Mother is an essential worker, she is a nurse for a large hospital in NYC, she understands the risks that come along with being a hospital worker during a pandemic. However, we were not so ready. One day, a few patients on her ward tested positive, and that’s when it all began. At more of a rapid pace than the hospital would like to admit, patients were popping up positive left and right, and sometimes they were kept in the ward. It is not a surprise that sooner or later the virus would transfer from patient to staff. From the patients testing positive to the workers testing positive, it soon became a fear that she would catch the virus too. She came home one night with a fever over 100 degrees, complained of body aches, and we feared the worse.

As big as my family is, we do not all live together. So, at the time of this incident, it was just my aunt who got stuck visiting from our home country, my mom, and me. We still called our family, obviously to let them know to prepare for the possibility that Mommy might have COVID-19. In true Caribbean aunty fashion, by 12pm every sister, brother, cousin, and uncle knew that my mom was unwell. We knew there was a risk, but my mom was cautious; she would change at the door, Lysol her shoes, and wash her clothes. That’s the thing, no one ever thinks it could happen until it does.

We were worried, could we have already been exposed? She booked an appointment to get tested, informed them that she worked in a hospital, and just waited to hear back. Thankfully, she was able to get tested at her job’s location. They said they would rush the results, and we’d hear back tomorrow. 24 hours never felt longer. My mom decided not to quarantine herself from us, it may not have been her smartest decision, but she pays the bills. I, on the other hand, would not take any chances, I was always bad at probability in math, I figured I was better off in my room. So began the 24-hour room quarantine.

Let’s get something straight: I didn’t spend all 24 hours in my room, I like food and bathroom breaks, but I did spend the majority of it there. I always made sure I was AT LEAST 6 feet away from my mom. I left my room to make myself food, showered in a separate bathroom just to be safe, and helped my mom with whatever she needed through FaceTime. It felt kind of odd, we didn’t know what was going to happen not only to her but to all of us. We spent so much time worrying about social distancing and other people where a clear path to the virus lived in our home. Worried was an understatement, I was not prepared to lose my mom because of the fact that healthcare workers are supposed to make do with what they have.

I am thankful every day that the test came back negative, but she goes to work, some of her coworkers still are asked to come in, even before their 14 days are up, and they still risk their lives each night. It’s not like there’s much we can do about it.

COVID-19 has put a strain on all of our day to day lives, but there is no one that it affects more than healthcare workers. There are not enough masks; so employees are expected to reuse masks, work without masks, or make their own. If you look in the news, health care workers everywhere are dying because of the conditions they’re working in. People have quit their jobs because sometimes it comes to the point of ” Do I value my life or my job more” and that is a question no one should ever have to ask themselves. Granted, health care workers are getting free coffee, free breakfast, and free parking, depending on the hospital, but shouldn’t they be offered more?

I don’t care if you go outside and clap for healthcare workers or if you take a more direct approach and donate to hospitals. Just remember that these people have families that they leave each day to protect yours. Stop hoarding masks, gloves, and hand sanitzers and start donating and helping your local hospitals. Health Care Workers are people too.

Social Distancing and buying reasonable amounts of Toilet Paper,

Bri.