My Doctor husband came home crying yesterday

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The health care workers on the front lines of this are like the fire fighters rushing into the WTC on 9/11. It’s unfathomable how our government is so ill prepared to equip them with what they need. The slowness is inexcusable. What they have gotten is largely the result of donations.

This.
RN who used to work in hospital and worry for my previous coworkers

Other than the VA hospitals does our government run hospitals in this country? Is it not the responsibilities of the hospitals to have supplies for their workers?

We are in a global pandemic. This is a national security situation without any exaggeration. There should be federal and state stockpiles and protocols and these should have been activated months ago.

To the OP and health care workers: thank you for putting your lives on the line.

So I get that the trump administration was downplaying this from the beginning- but were states and hospitals not paying attention at all to what was going on the last few months? Cuomo talks a good talk now but why wasn’t he getting supplies for NY back in January? Lots of blame to go around.

They were. There simply weren’t enough supplies to go around and there is an issue of some hospitals having an abundance and some having a shortage and it’s impossible for hospitals to take care of that inequity on a national level. Not that all hospitals had a great response but hospitals were indeed trying.

As far as Cuomo goes, he probably assumed that the US government and the CDC could respond to health crises the way they had in the past: competently. Everybody was shocked when the CDC dropped the ball on testing and when the US government had stopped maintaining the national reserve of PPE. But he was aware of the dangers the virus could cause back in January and was making an effort to get supplies and work on coordination.

Anyone who assumed Trump and this CDC would handle this competently is a fool.

Be that as it may, hospitals and governors can only do so much. They do not have the capabilities to coordinate a national response.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When I first read this it scared me

But I keep looking at the VA dept of Health website and it says for the state they have 25 hospitalized cases for the state

Then I looked at the wait times for ERs last night and this morning for INOVA - they were under 15 minutes and some reported 0 min wait time this morning. I also checked NYC hospital ER wait times just out curiosity and some too had a list of 15 mins or less. At least they are triaging and assessing people fairly quickly.

I am not making light of the situation and we are social distancing and in fact isolating out of caution but keep in mind that in NOVA we have lots or people who have to use the emergency room to get medical care bc they have no insurance and won’t be turned away. If a person is sick with anything they might panic and go to the ER.

And then procedures to decontaminate between patients is probably more strict and time consuming as is the mental load of calming co workers and patient fears.

I appreciate all the medical professionals who are working at this time but I have also seen this same post as the OP circulating on my FB feed - usually from a friend of a friend - so who knows if this is really someone from the DMV

1- Are you sure these wait times are real?
2 - It can really speed things up to have a sign at the ER garage entrance that says "go home unless [...]" but it doesn't mean that hospitals aren't stashing their dead in refrigerated trucks.

Im a nurse at a hospital in NoVa. Couple of things. The overall number of cases in the ED and hospitals are way down. Why? Because tons of elective procedures have been cancelled and people are staying away from the ED unless they really need it. But the overall number of people coming into ED with respiratory complaints have increased.
The 25 total number of hospitalized cases is utter BS. Our hospital has 3 units+ dedicated just for COVID patients; now lots of these patients are still waiting for results because the turn around time is slow. Testing is Virginia has been pitiful. I don't think we will be anywhere near NYC numbers and I hope for all our sakes social distancing is working.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is how bad things have gotten here, in the DMV. My tough, macho Dr. husband, who I've only seen cry once in our 20 year marriage, is a seasoned Doctor (hospitalist). Therefore he is a hospital-based physician and is/will be working in the hospital with Corona patients.

He came home from work crying yesterday. It scared me. He says things are bad already, he and the staff are being worked to the bone, they are all stressed, no one knows proper protocol for treating these patients and protective gear, mistakes are already being made because staff is confused, morale is low, staff are starting to call out sick with CV, and the CV cases are multiplying. He hears from his colleagues at NYC hospitals about how things are going there now and is terrified.

He's terrified of getting the virus since they are being told to reuse protective gear.

This situation is terrible, folks. The doctors are at the point where many of them are freaking out.

I have never seen my husband so stressed. I've never been so stressed/depressed in my life.

Sorry for being brutally honest but I don’t feel sorry for you or your doc husband. This is part of the territory of what he signed up for. For the future this crisis will
Separate those who really have a passion fir sacrificing to save lives vs choosing a career for the sole purpose of
Stable earnings, job security, and status. I know plenty of healthcare workers who are crying now, wondering why
They chose such a dangerous career.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is how bad things have gotten here, in the DMV. My tough, macho Dr. husband, who I've only seen cry once in our 20 year marriage, is a seasoned Doctor (hospitalist). Therefore he is a hospital-based physician and is/will be working in the hospital with Corona patients.

He came home from work crying yesterday. It scared me. He says things are bad already, he and the staff are being worked to the bone, they are all stressed, no one knows proper protocol for treating these patients and protective gear, mistakes are already being made because staff is confused, morale is low, staff are starting to call out sick with CV, and the CV cases are multiplying. He hears from his colleagues at NYC hospitals about how things are going there now and is terrified.

He's terrified of getting the virus since they are being told to reuse protective gear.

This situation is terrible, folks. The doctors are at the point where many of them are freaking out.

I have never seen my husband so stressed. I've never been so stressed/depressed in my life.

Sorry for being brutally honest but I don’t feel sorry for you or your doc husband. This is part of the territory of what he signed up for. For the future this crisis will
Separate those who really have a passion fir sacrificing to save lives vs choosing a career for the sole purpose of
Stable earnings, job security, and status. I know plenty of healthcare workers who are crying now, wondering why
They chose such a dangerous career.

Docs are happy to make the big money when times are good.... this is the downside of the risk taken. Unless they too want to be like businesspeople....privatize the profit and socialize the loss.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is how bad things have gotten here, in the DMV. My tough, macho Dr. husband, who I've only seen cry once in our 20 year marriage, is a seasoned Doctor (hospitalist). Therefore he is a hospital-based physician and is/will be working in the hospital with Corona patients.

He came home from work crying yesterday. It scared me. He says things are bad already, he and the staff are being worked to the bone, they are all stressed, no one knows proper protocol for treating these patients and protective gear, mistakes are already being made because staff is confused, morale is low, staff are starting to call out sick with CV, and the CV cases are multiplying. He hears from his colleagues at NYC hospitals about how things are going there now and is terrified.

He's terrified of getting the virus since they are being told to reuse protective gear.

This situation is terrible, folks. The doctors are at the point where many of them are freaking out.

I have never seen my husband so stressed. I've never been so stressed/depressed in my life.

Sorry for being brutally honest but I don’t feel sorry for you or your doc husband. This is part of the territory of what he signed up for. For the future this crisis will
Separate those who really have a passion fir sacrificing to save lives vs choosing a career for the sole purpose of
Stable earnings, job security, and status. I know plenty of healthcare workers who are crying now, wondering why
They chose such a dangerous career.

You have to be a real dumb shit to not understand that there is a difference between taking care of patients when you have the proper gear vs taking care of patients with homemade stuff since your hospital has run of out gear.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is how bad things have gotten here, in the DMV. My tough, macho Dr. husband, who I've only seen cry once in our 20 year marriage, is a seasoned Doctor (hospitalist). Therefore he is a hospital-based physician and is/will be working in the hospital with Corona patients.

He came home from work crying yesterday. It scared me. He says things are bad already, he and the staff are being worked to the bone, they are all stressed, no one knows proper protocol for treating these patients and protective gear, mistakes are already being made because staff is confused, morale is low, staff are starting to call out sick with CV, and the CV cases are multiplying. He hears from his colleagues at NYC hospitals about how things are going there now and is terrified.

He's terrified of getting the virus since they are being told to reuse protective gear.

This situation is terrible, folks. The doctors are at the point where many of them are freaking out.

I have never seen my husband so stressed. I've never been so stressed/depressed in my life.

Sorry for being brutally honest but I don’t feel sorry for you or your doc husband. This is part of the territory of what he signed up for. For the future this crisis will
Separate those who really have a passion fir sacrificing to save lives vs choosing a career for the sole purpose of
Stable earnings, job security, and status. I know plenty of healthcare workers who are crying now, wondering why
They chose such a dangerous career.

Since when is healthcare professional considered a dangerous career???? You sound like you’re talking about somebody choosing to go to the front line in a war.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is how bad things have gotten here, in the DMV. My tough, macho Dr. husband, who I've only seen cry once in our 20 year marriage, is a seasoned Doctor (hospitalist). Therefore he is a hospital-based physician and is/will be working in the hospital with Corona patients.

He came home from work crying yesterday. It scared me. He says things are bad already, he and the staff are being worked to the bone, they are all stressed, no one knows proper protocol for treating these patients and protective gear, mistakes are already being made because staff is confused, morale is low, staff are starting to call out sick with CV, and the CV cases are multiplying. He hears from his colleagues at NYC hospitals about how things are going there now and is terrified.

He's terrified of getting the virus since they are being told to reuse protective gear.

This situation is terrible, folks. The doctors are at the point where many of them are freaking out.

I have never seen my husband so stressed. I've never been so stressed/depressed in my life.

WOW!

Sorry for being brutally honest but I don’t feel sorry for you or your doc husband. This is part of the territory of what he signed up for. For the future this crisis will
Separate those who really have a passion fir sacrificing to save lives vs choosing a career for the sole purpose of
Stable earnings, job security, and status. I know plenty of healthcare workers who are crying now, wondering why
They chose such a dangerous career.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is how bad things have gotten here, in the DMV. My tough, macho Dr. husband, who I've only seen cry once in our 20 year marriage, is a seasoned Doctor (hospitalist). Therefore he is a hospital-based physician and is/will be working in the hospital with Corona patients.

He came home from work crying yesterday. It scared me. He says things are bad already, he and the staff are being worked to the bone, they are all stressed, no one knows proper protocol for treating these patients and protective gear, mistakes are already being made because staff is confused, morale is low, staff are starting to call out sick with CV, and the CV cases are multiplying. He hears from his colleagues at NYC hospitals about how things are going there now and is terrified.

He's terrified of getting the virus since they are being told to reuse protective gear.

This situation is terrible, folks. The doctors are at the point where many of them are freaking out.

I have never seen my husband so stressed. I've never been so stressed/depressed in my life.

Sorry for being brutally honest but I don’t feel sorry for you or your doc husband. This is part of the territory of what he signed up for. For the future this crisis will
Separate those who really have a passion fir sacrificing to save lives vs choosing a career for the sole purpose of
Stable earnings, job security, and status. I know plenty of healthcare workers who are crying now, wondering why
They chose such a dangerous career.

Docs are happy to make the big money when times are good.... this is the downside of the risk taken. Unless they too want to be like businesspeople....privatize the profit and socialize the loss.

“When times are good.” What do you mean? When, before now, were times not good? Should doctors and nurses have considered a global pandemic during a time when the US government happened to be totally unprepared to deal with it as part of their career decision?

I mean can we not just be bummed that those who chose to care for others are dying? Who worked for a decade to be prepared to save lives? Isn’t that just a little sad?

[Anonymous]

Many doctors and nurses are being furloughed because the hospitals are so quiet due to all elective treatment being cancelled.

A good family friend is a dermatologist in New Hampshire and he was getting training to learn how to incubate a patient (something he last did in medical school 20 years ago) and now it looks like he'll never need to do anything because NH's revised numbers show a peak of 32 deaths in the entire state from the virus. I imagine he's quite glad in part because incubating someone is very high risk and dangerous and causes problems of its own beyond the virus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is how bad things have gotten here, in the DMV. My tough, macho Dr. husband, who I've only seen cry once in our 20 year marriage, is a seasoned Doctor (hospitalist). Therefore he is a hospital-based physician and is/will be working in the hospital with Corona patients.

He came home from work crying yesterday. It scared me. He says things are bad already, he and the staff are being worked to the bone, they are all stressed, no one knows proper protocol for treating these patients and protective gear, mistakes are already being made because staff is confused, morale is low, staff are starting to call out sick with CV, and the CV cases are multiplying. He hears from his colleagues at NYC hospitals about how things are going there now and is terrified.

He's terrified of getting the virus since they are being told to reuse protective gear.

This situation is terrible, folks. The doctors are at the point where many of them are freaking out.

I have never seen my husband so stressed. I've never been so stressed/depressed in my life.

Sorry for being brutally honest but I don’t feel sorry for you or your doc husband. This is part of the territory of what he signed up for. For the future this crisis will
Separate those who really have a passion fir sacrificing to save lives vs choosing a career for the sole purpose of
Stable earnings, job security, and status. I know plenty of healthcare workers who are crying now, wondering why
They chose such a dangerous career.

Nurse here. I have to be brutally honest with you; F off. This is what he signed up for? GTFO. None of us signed up for this. Long hours, missing holidays, stress, helping people? Ok, yeah sure. Not having proper equipment? Nah, we did not sign up for that. I am compassionate but not a martyr. Health care providers are dying out of sheer incompetence from the government. By making health care providers out to be martyrs, people like you, the government, and hospital administrators get to wash their hands of culpability. You want health care workers to stop whining about it? Give us the right PPE. You would never send a soldier to war with a broom stick and tell him/her that he/she knew what they were signing up for.

[Anonymous]

+1 !!!!

[Anonymous]

New poster here. While the PP was perhaps a bit harsh I do tend to see his POV. Working conditions for many are not always ideal and some things go with the territory as they say. No system is designed for peak load and it is impractical to do do so and those impacted by the peak load in this case, be it the hospital workers, patients, EMS, police, grocery store clerks, etc ALL suffer. I don’t see the grocery clerks complaining much....I doubt they signed up for this. So yes...please stop the whine or quit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Which state does he work? I take it things are much worse than the number of positive tests show?

This is my guess. Testing isn't being done fast enough so number of cases is artificially low, but critical patients are swamping the hospitals, even here.

I'm an ER nurse in another state. The tests are lagging far behind the number of patients we're seeing. The CDC guidelines ask for reported symptoms, but not lab tests or radiology results. So we can have a patient with bilateral pneumonia, low lymphocytes, and dry cough (which fits the clinical profile of COVID19) but no fever and the state/CDC will say "don't test." We're seeing an abnormally large number of pneumonia cases, but we're being told not to test them.

The tests are also inaccurate. We had a family group with the same symptoms, sick as dogs. Only the father tested positive out of four people. Mom and 2 kids were not positive.

[Anonymous]

let me just say that we had a family member die from covid-19 complications. Although he was elderly and in poor health, he received excellent, compassionate care from both the overworked nursing staff, doctors, and ultimately the palliative care team. I was really aware that although they are slammed and rightly worried about the significant risks to their own health, they were doing their jobs with incredible professionalism. I have a hard time imagining what i would do if I were a medical professional on the front lines right now--exposing myself and my family to risk, but also knowing that I was needed for others.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:New poster here. While the PP was perhaps a bit harsh I do tend to see his POV. Working conditions for many are not always ideal and some things go with the territory as they say. No system is designed for peak load and it is impractical to do do so and those impacted by the peak load in this case, be it the hospital workers, patients, EMS, police, grocery store clerks, etc ALL suffer. I don’t see the grocery clerks complaining much....I doubt they signed up for this. So yes...please stop the whine or quit.

you don't see other people complaining? There have been strikes/sit outs/people posting online in other professions. My guess is that the people asking others not to complain are at home sitting on their butts working from the safety of their homes. Also-nurses, RTs, and doctors working directly with COVID patients are at higher risk than the other professions due to repeat exposure and exposure during certain procedures (codes, respiratory treatments).