Fortunate

I am from New Orleans. This year, because my wife had never seen it before, we went to Mardi Gras. We didn’t go for the final weekend- instead we went to the weekend before. It turns out that the Wuhan virus was spread in New Orleans during that time frame. My brother, his wife and daughter, my uncle, his wife and daughter, my wife, and I were all there celebrating the holiday. Not one of us has gotten sick.

TSA ridiculousness

My son left this morning for Manhattan. He approached the security checkpoint where there were no passengers there. He even streamed it live, he was the only person there who was not a TSA agent. He approached the first line, the agent waved him forward and scanned his ticket.

She promptly told him that her line was only for TSA precheck, and made him move over to the next line. He laughed, thinking he was being messed with. Nope, she made him leave and go through the other (empty) queue. When he got to the front, the same agent scanned his ticket again and sent him on to the searches.

This is what government employees do- they follow procedure without applying a single coherent thought.

Karma?

My wife was being required to physically go in to work on certain days, even though she is capable of working from home. Even after the stay at home order, some employees were being forced to come in. That all came to a halt this morning. The administrator who was forcing everyone to come in tested positive for COVID-19.

It’s hard to feel sorry for someone who brought it on themselves, especially while they were forcing others into harm’s way.

Supply status

Way back on March 1, I had been hearing about this virus and it sounded like something we should be aware of, so we headed to Sam’s club to fill the supply closets.

So what I decided to do is prepare my household for the possibility of widespread travel bans and quarantines. We went to the big box store today and upped our semi-perishable stores. I added 40 pounds of meat to the freezer, along with other supplies: toilet paper, canned vegetables, cleaning supplies, feminine hygiene products, and more. I now have on hand enough food for three weeks before I have to dip into the freeze dried foods. Other than that, I cannot think of anything I am missing or in need of. 

Since March 13, I have not gone to the store for anything. We have only left the house five times in the past three weeks, with the exception of my wife being required to work (that has come to a halt).

I thought we had three weeks’ food. Turns out I was WAY off. One of my freezers is still 90% full, the other 75% full. We are out of fresh produce and have switched to canned and frozen, but other than that are in good shape. We are eating a varied diet, but since neither of us likes canned vegetables, I am finding ways to disguise it. For example, last night’s dinner looked like this:

Shrimp creole
One chopped onion (fresh), one chopped green pepper (frozen), one 32 ounce can of tomato sauce, 1/2 pound frozen jumbo shrimp, 4 tablespoons butter, spices, one cup of rice.

We can probably do this for at least another month. I still have steak, hamburger, a turkey, chicken, sausage, a ham, fish, shrimp, oysters, scallops, bacon, pork chops, and more in my freezer. Over 100 pounds of meat. We may run out of vegetables, but we won’t starve. After that, I have freeze drieds.

I may go out for vegetables. There is a farmer’s market nearby. I may use a mask and chance it, but that decision is a couple of weeks away.

More worry, but with pride

My son began his career as a paramedic firefighter. When he was 20 years old, he had a cathartic experience: He had a patient die due to a rare condition that he had never heard of. He swore that day that he would never lose another patient because of something he didn’t know.  He became taking as many classes as he could.

Within 6 months, he became certified in Critical Care. Another year, and he was an RN as well as a medic. He quit firefighting and began doing flight nursing, transporting patients all over the world. Two years later, he earned his BSN. By his 25th birthday he began working in the ED and within a year was the charge nurse for his shift in the ED.

Then he got serious.

He got board certified in trauma nursing AND critical care. The first in the county to do both. He was the nurse in charge of trauma nursing for a level 2 trauma center, while at the same time being put in charge of training for his hospital. All before he was 30, supervising and training people who were decades older.

Now 32, he is a Nurse Practitioner specializing in Emergency Medicine. The medics and nurses love him because he remembers where he came from- he isn’t some kid right out of college, he knows what it is like to do their jobs.

The doctors respect him because emergency medicine is what he knows best. There are procedures that he has taught that many of them have only read about in text books.

The shift he is on has a doctor and a PA who specialize in family medicine, and they defer true emergencies like intubations or cardiac arrest to him.

That is where the worry comes in. Because of this, he is highly sought after for viral pneumonia, meaning that he will soon be headed to New York City to help with the crisis. I worry for him, even while he looks forward to making a difference.

Voluntold

I have been getting emails for the past two weeks, looking for more people with medical qualifications. Right now, they are trying to get people to volunteer by offering cash. I called and asked, and the reason why there is so much money is that people with critical care and ventilator experience are needed to work all of these new ventilators the government is buying. Now they are discovering that the have more patients than ventilators, and more ventilators than people who know how to use them.
My sources tell me that it will soon be involuntary- either “volunteer” or lose your medical license.

Worry

My wife and I have been cut off from the outside world and isolated from outsiders for over two weeks now, so I feel like we are safe from infection.

My inlaws finally heeded our advice and have begun to stay home, even though they had been refusing to do so. They called here to demand that we give them some of our supplies because they didn’t listen to our advice a month ago when we told them to buy things like sanitizer and N-95 masks. When my wife told them that we had no masks to spare for them, we got the line: “You would think at a time like this, you would worry about your parents and take care of them.” We were- we told you a month ago to buy that stuff and stop going out to social clubs. You wouldn’t listen. All I could spare for them was half a dozen surgical masks. I tried explaining to her that the masks I have won’t fit her anyway.

My son called this morning to tell me that the medical group he works for is heeding the nationwide call for medical personnel, and he is being sent to NYC to support the hospitals that are losing people due to infection. He is getting hazard pay that is about triple what he usually makes, but that seems like small potatoes for the risk being taken.

He also told me that medical people are being attacked if seen in public wearing any sort of clothing that identifies them as medical workers. Apparently people are afraid that the doctors and nurses are infected.

About the Navy

When I was in the Navy, I was the supervisor of a work center that was tasked with keeping a large amount of equipment working- including the ship’s fire pumps. The motor on one had gone bad and needed to be sent off for repair. This motor weighed over 800 pounds and needed to be pulled out for repair. The problem was that it needed to be lifted from the machinery room to the second deck- a vertical distance of about 80 feet. We set up a chain hoist. During the lift, the hoist rig separated and sent the entire load crashing 20 feet to the bottom. In the process, it removed 3 fingers from the left hand of one of my subordinates. The safety review that followed faulted the supervisor (me) for not using a certified rigger to do supervising the lift.

A month later, a second fire pump motor failed. When we were told to get it repaired, I pointed out that I still didn’t have a rigger. They told me to do the lift anyway. When we went to do it as ordered. the padeye available had a tag on it, stating that it was rated for a working load of 800 pounds. The motor, chain hoist, and associated equipment weighed in at 1100 pounds. I told the engineer that we could not get the lift done until we had better equipment and a stronger padeye installed. An hour later, a Chief showed up and put a new label on the padeye that read “Working load 1200 pounds” and then told us to do the lift anyhow.

This is why I tend to support Captain Crozier. The military is full of career ticket punchers who care more about their own careers than they do the lives of their subordinates. That is also why I don’t believe the people who say that cops or military will refuse orders to seize guns from citizens. They care more about their careers than they do your rights.