Monthly Archives: December 2020

1

A Covid Christmas

|


It’s been a rather strange year, so I expected nothing but Christmas to be strange as well. In a way it was because it was the most peaceful amazing Christmas I may have ever had. Orginally we were going to spend the week with Emily. It was the first year ever that I had a week off around Christmas. However as covid numbers began rising and with two covid tests in a week, I decided the wise thing to do would be to stay home. I did not put a tree up this year but did get out my advent add an ornament tree. Allyson faithfully added an ornament every day and placed the angel on top on Christmas Day. One day the ornament was a girl with dark hair. I said oh that’s Emily and Kayla is the angel cause she has blonde hair. Allyson was like thanks a lot mom, I have dark hair too.

This was my seventeenth year of Christmas Angel. When I was sick at the start of it, I realized this is my second favorite two weeks of the year. The only thing better is Big Stuf camp. This years deliveries were very uneventful. I did two families and neither’s doorbell worked. On the second night I did manage to run over a deer that had just been hit by another car. No damage done to mine. My sister wanted Christmas Angel as well but couldn’t afford the gifts. I told her I’d buy them and also wrap as long as she delivered them. As much as I would love to do five or six families there is not enough time in the evening to deliver them all. It never fails the two people I choose always live in opposite directions. I really hope the crazy nightly gifts brightened their day as much as it did mine being stealth and not getting caught.

I will now reveal the best Christmas present of all. Six years ago a friend of mines husband passed away from ALS leaving behind four children. Since then we have talked about me making quilts out of his t-shirts for each of them. This was the year she was finally ready. I was so honored that she asked me to do them for her. Also, that she trusted me with them. We chatted about what she wanted and divided the shirts up and she left me to my creative abilities. She also gave me extra tshirts to use as fillets so every shirt was his. He was a big blues fan so I found blues material for the back. I had a lot of fun putting the quilts together and deciding what would go in the blank spaces. I must give a shout out to those St Louis 250 cakes because the arena cake had the checkerdome on it in a way that I could quilt. Here are all four of them.

On Christmas Eve I received a video of the youngest opening the quilt. His reaction warmed my heart and made me cry at the same time. He recognized all the shirts and was so confused at first at to where it came from. I could tell he loved it and it meant so so much to him. The other three had the same reaction and to me this was the best Christmas present of all. To create something from my heart that gave joy (and a little sadness that their dad is no longer here with them) to four wonderful people.

Mole moral ~ It wouldn’t be Christmas without a crazy gift from Brian. This year it was a scratch off and I didn’t even win. I gave him 100,000 bars so we were even. Often the greatest gifts are not objects.

0

The American Mole Virus

|

It all started a week ago when I woke up with a raging headache. It wasn’t the headache that lasted five weeks and from my neck. It was actually on the opposite side of my head. It was a Saturday and I had to go in at seven for a case so I thought I will take Alleve and sinus medicine and I would be fine. Wrong answer. I’m really not even sure how I made it to work but I had no business driving. I had to call a co-worker and she agreed to cover my case and call. I could not drive home so I thought if I laid down for a bit I could. So I parked myself in one of our before surgery rooms and laid down. It gave me nice flashbacks to the headache on Women’s Health when the charge would have to watch my patients the last hour and I gave report in an empty room laying down. It’s no wonder I ended up in the hospital for a week. Anyway after about two hours I realized I wasn’t driving home anytime soon so I called Brian to pick me up.

I then proceeded to puke so I dug out my four year old zofran and after two doses at least I was no longer nauseated or vomiting but my head was still killing me. That evening Brian put his famous deer jerky on the dehydrator and I went to bed. When I woke up the next morning I realized I could not smell the jerky. Normally it wakes me up in the middle of the night because it is so strong. I seriously thought he forgot to turn it on and actually checked. If I got right on top of it and inhaled deeply I could barely smell it. I then drank the only coffee I had at home which is mocha which I hate and it really tasted ok. It was then I realized I needed to call the employee covid hotline for advice. After a virtual visit I received and email saying I needed to be tested. The girl on the phone said I could go to total access urgent care today or wait and go to one of our testing sites on Monday. I waited until Monday.

I was tested back in May when I threw one of my neck headaches at work and had to leave at 11am. It was only one of two times i have left in the middle of the shift. The other time was when my sister called me at 8am to say her husband had a massive stroke and my co-workers made me clock out and go to the hospital. Anyway that test was horrid. I thought I was going to come out of the chair and I stopped myself from grabbing the girls arm. It all made sense as to why most of the patients when I did that to them (same stick as a respiratory panel) they wanted to punch me. I was better prepared this time and sat on my hands. The gal that did it was super nice. It was a drive up tent and they have little building with some heat but they all wear coats so I knew they were freezing.

My test results were back the next day and negative but my symptoms still yelled covid so the hotline said reach out to your primary and call us back at 6:30 am and we will let you know if you can work at 7. So my primary does a tele visit and says you really should have been positive but you are weird and hard to diagnose. So he puts in for another test on Thursday and tells me to stay off of work. In the meantime the employee health nurse for my hospital is unavailable this week with limited voice mail access. So I will be dealing with the covid hotline for the rest of the week.

So back to the testing site and it’s the same girl. I asked her how she got stuck with this job. She says she applied for it. I told her I wouldn’t mind swabbing people all day but the weather is horrible. She agreed and said once the testing sites are done she will have a clinic job. I have decided that sometime in the next couple weeks I’m bringing them hot chocolate and maybe some donuts or something.

So my second test was negative as well and I call the covid hotline back. They are beyond wishy washy but tell me I can return to work Monday if I don’t have a fever. Advised me not to take anything for a headache on Sunday so I don’t mask a fever. Also told me to contact my primary about my headache. So I sent him a message through Mychart and told him what they said. I said over the counter medication is keeping this headache under control so I am not sure what you are supposed to do but good luck. I actually do not have a headache as I type this so maybe I’m at the end of this mole virus.

I am going to get the vaccine on Monday. They started giving it out this past Thursday. This may have indeed been covid and I am one of these weirdos that test negative. It may be something else. All I know is I never want to feel this bad again and if a shot can prevent that, sign me up. I also want to see my father and my in-laws again. This isolation has been horrible for them.

Mole Moral~ If I ever need an NG tube please use my left nostril because the covid test was way more tolerable in the left than the right.