Items
Subject is exactly
Healthcare
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2020-07-01Mask Up: Wear This, Not That to Protect Others
A blog post from Banner Health about risks associated with gathering. -
2020-06-22What Long-Term Effects Could COVID-19 Have on Your Lungs?
A blog post from Banner Health about the long-term effects Covid-19 can have on the lungs. -
2020-06-08Social Gatherings and Staying Safe from COVID-19: 5 Questions to Ask Yourself
A blog post from Banner Health about risks associated with gathering. -
2020-06-05Should You Venture In? 4 Coronavirus Safety Questions to Consider
A blog post form Banner Health about safety risks. -
2020-06-04COVID-19 Safety: 5 Questions to Ask Before Heading Outdoors
A blog post from Banner Health discussing guidelines about outside activities. -
2020-05-27Is My Medication Safe? Securing & Disposing of Old Medicine
A blog post from Banner Health on how to safely dispose of and store medications. -
2020-05-18Don’t Let COVID-19 Halt a Well-Child Visit
A blog post from Banner Health discussing the importance of well-child visits, even during COVID restrictions. -
2020-05-15Take Charge of Your Health
A blog post from Banner Health on how to take charge of your own healthcare. -
2020-05-13Is Telehealth the Present and Future of Healthcare?
A blog post from Banner Health discussing the benefits of telehealth visits. -
2021Another Hospital
My mother worked at several hospitals throughout the beginning of the pandemic, as there were nurse shortages. At this particular location, she working in several units including the ICU, outpatient surgery, and distributing vaccines. This is important to me because seeing my mom dressed like this and hearing about how she worked in multiple places any given day put into perspective how dire the situation was and continues to be. -
2020My Mom Working in the COVID ICU
While this is not me, it is still important to me since it is my mom. She has worked in the COVID ICU almost the entire time, and I was really affected by seeing her gowned up like that the first time. Her career during my lifetime has not required so much PPE, so it was a really surreal moment that forced me to really appreciate the extremity of the pandemic and how much danger my mom was in. -
2021-10-01Ironic meme
A friend of mine who is a nurse and cared for people with Covid throughout the pandemic sent this to me after the vaccination was available for 7 months and she was still caring for patients who didn’t believe in the vaccine or who weren’t yet convinced to get it. It speaks to the burnout and frustration on from line workers. -
2021-10-04
They said we were heroes but they treated us like villains
My experience with the covid 19 pandemic was very different from a lot of people’s. Instead of staying home and not going outside, I had to work. I wasn’t a nurse or doctor or even a service industry employee. I did work in health care but registration. I also didn’t work at an ER or hospital. I worked at an urgent care that didn’t treat covid but did test for it. This urgent care was also in the middle of Los Angeles, California. I was doing patient registration in Los Angeles, California, at the peak of the pandemic when one in every three people had covid. Since we were so understaffed and overworked, I easily worked about 60 hours every week for almost a year. Now I’ve worked many jobs throughout my adult life. These include retail during Christmas, a theme park during summer and Halloween haunts, and the graveyard shift at a casino. Out of all those, the worst people and treatment I encountered were from the patients who wanted to be tested for covid 19 when we ran out of tests. We were a private company, and Los Angeles had multiple free test sites available to anyone in the LA area. You didn’t have to even to be a resident or have insurance. But none of that mattered; they were there and wanted to be tested. Even though it was 9 o’clock at night and we ran out of tests over four hours ago. I know I’ll always be able to find an administration or clerical job in health care. I have over ten years of experience in that field. But, after what I went through during covid, I don’t think I will ever work in health care again. Every time someone says health care works are heroes, all I can think is, they have a funny way of showing it. -
2021-02Because I can... thats why...
At the beginning of the year, my workplace began offering free Covid vaccines and time from work to get them. I signed up because I know how important it is. Arguments about whether the vaccine should be mandatory aside, I got it because I can, and there are those that can't and this is my way of helping them too. -
2021-10-04How Covid-19 Has Changed My Life
The reflection that I have uploaded is a short summary of the biggest impacts Covid-19 has had on my life. This was the first time I've had the opportunity to share how Covid-19 has affected my life and I hope my experience helps others understand what life was like during these times. This submission is important to me because I want people 50 years from now to be able to read this and know how this pandemic has changed the world and how adaptable humans can become. -
2021-05-30Remembering Society's Humanity
This is a story about being a pregnant person during the pandemic -
2020-05-01Antibody Testing at the University of Arizona
The University of Arizona offered antibody testing in April and May 2020 to a limited number of community members. The goal was to get a better idea of how many people had already been infected with COVID without realizing it. I signed up for the test which was located at the new Arizona football practice field. This was my first time venturing out of the house since everything shut down and it was a surreal experience, being on campus but not seeing anyone walking around. The university is usually full of people with lots of energy. It was also uncomfortable being around people in the testing site because I had avoided being around anyone other than my immediate family since March. -
2020-03-10Goodbye Grandma
This text I wrote is in memory of my grandma, and the horrible and traumatic flashbacks of Covid 19. This experience took a huge toll on me and my family. -
2020-05-01
The start of a pandemic that shock the medical field to its core
I have worked as a NYC paramedic for several years before the pandemic Covid-19 hit the world. As a paramedic, we were trained to deal with most situations that would happen on an emergency basis. We dealt with any situation as simple as a cut on the arm, to as complex as running a mega code on a cardiac arrest patient. When Covid-19 hit NYC, I was unaware of how bad it was going to get. At first, we thought it was a virus that was weaker than influenza, which is something we deal with on a regular basis. At this time, we would get one call a day that was related to Covid-19. I thought that everyone was over exaggerating. Over time, Covid-19 patients became more frequent, and in the matter of a month, it was the only type of call we would get. It was as if every other medical problem that people had went away. But this was because everyone that wasn't infected with Covid-19 was too afraid to go to the hospital. In the month of May 2020, things started to take a turn for the worst. People were starting to get critical on each call, where my partner and I would need to resort to extreme measures like endotracheal Intubation to help them breath. Sometimes, even intubation wouldn’t be enough, and the patient would go into cardiac arrest from the lack of oxygen in the body. It was a very difficult time for me because I felt powerless to stop people from dying to his terrible disease. In June 2020, it got so bad that the hospitals did not have capacity to accept anymore patients that came in. People were put in hallways, next to nursing stations, and hospitals had to dedicate entire floors to Covid-19 patients as they came in. Then another problem started to rear its head. My Co-workers and friends started to get sick. Those of us with families had to also make a choice, either quit their job to protect their families or live apart from them until this was all over. We did not have enough EMT’s and Paramedics to staff the ambulances we had running on any given day. Those of us who were not sick picked up anywhere from 60-90 hours a week. This struggle continues now as well. All over the world, there are not enough emergency services personal to cope with the amount of call volume that we are given each day. Over time we got adjusted to the madness and medicine advanced enough to be able to treat patients so that most did not become critical. Also, the vaccine was made available to the public and things started to get better. I shared my story to show a side of the pandemic most don’t get to experience. It shows how unprepared we were, and how we were able to prevail overtime. I will also include a video to show some insight on the pandemic that was taken with one of the companies I work with. -
2021-08-25
Safer At Home
At the start of the Covid-19 Pandemic, my family and I took every safety precaution we could to keep us safe and healthy from the virus. We wore mask, washed our hands more often than before, sanitized and disinfected our house and even the groceries we brought inside. We quarantined, worked and attended school remotely, limited our visitors in our home and only went out when it was absolutely necessary. This took place in March 2020. For over a year and a half we haven't been sick or in contact with anyone who had tested positive. The beginning of August 2021, my youngest child who is under 12 and not vaccinated returned to school for in person learning. She was excited to see her friends, I was too, but also nervous for her to be in school around many people not knowing if they had or have the virus. For two weeks everything was fine until she woke up one school morning coughing and sneezing. I immediately took her to her doctor and they did a Covid-19 test, but I wouldn't find out the results for 3 days. So I decided to go home, pick up my son because he was also experiencing some symptoms and the three of us went to a facility that did the rapid test. One hour later, I got the results back and my two child had tested positive, I was negative. The calls from contact tracing began non stop. They offered to send us to an isolation hotel and we went. The first night my kids weren't feeling that great, but the next couple of days they started feeling better. While there, I started feeling symptoms. They progressively got worse as my children got better and better. I lost my sense of taste, smell, had a bad cough, headache, etc. I knew for sure that I had the virus. After spending 8 days in the hotel, we went home and I continued to quarantine away from everybody in my home. The next week my daughter returned back to school. After school I decided to go back to the facility to see if I had contracted the virus. The results came back and I was still negative which caught me by surprise. Slowly I got my smell and taste back and the other symptoms went away. My children and I doing much better after that experience. I'm hoping the fact that we took the vaccine helped me and my son to not get as sick as some people have been. But if schools would have remained closed until cases significantly decreased, and children stayed home, my children and I would not have gone through what we did. -
2021-02-21T16:35Laura Larson
Self description: “My name is Laura, and I am in two bands right now. I am in a band called Scrunchies and a band called Kitten Forever. I play guitar, base, drums, and I sing in those two bands. I live in Minneapolis, Minnesota. For work, I work at a community cooperative grocery store, in an administrative position, but one that is community outreach based and have a lot to do with meeting and coordinating with our community partners, a lot of the work that I do is about mutual aid, and helping out the community with the resources that we have available to us. Besides that I am a visual artist, I like to paint, I like to draw, I like to read books, and I live in a little duplex with my partner and our cat Sissy.” Some of the things we spoke about included: - In addition to performing in the bands Scrunchies and Kitten Forever, working for a community grocer and its ties to health activism. - Income and racial disparities in Minnesota. - The fear that comes with being uninsured in the United States. - The national confusion around the values of masking and other safety precautions and the burden placed on individuals to make these decisions in the absence of clear and consistent messaging. - The significance of shutting down music events while keeping sporting events going. - Media representation of event cancelations, freezers of bodies, and overwhelmed hospitals. - Living less than a mile from where George Floyd was murdered and movements to defund the police. - How the ongoing destruction of the earth conditioned the pandemic and the enduring importance of climate change. - Grocery store workers being essential workers who still did not receive vaccination prioritization. - Collective trauma and that fear begets fear. - Making and consuming art as a form of self-care. - How new the internet still is as a technology. Cultural references: Save Our Stages, The Atlantic article “Cancel Everything”. See also: https://scrunchies.bandcamp.com/ https://kittenforever.bandcamp.com -
2021-09-20
KHN: "I Got a 'Mild' Breakthrough Case. Here's What I Wish I'd Known"
I recently got a message from my best friend since middle school telling me that she had tested positive from Covid. She was vaccinated before I was and quarantined more vigilantly during the majority of 2020 than anyone else I knew. Delta variant breakthrough cases are less rare than people believe. Part anecdote part advice The KHN article answers common questions about what to do if you become one of the breakthrough cases of Covid-19 and what this may mean long term. -
2020-03
Recollections from an Oncology Nurse
My mom is an oncology nurse and has worked in the field of nursing for the past 30 years. I recently asked her to talk to me about her experience this past year as a healthcare worker. She recalled the first week in March when things were becoming intense. People were asked to wear face shields and gowns as they were working in an immune-compromised area where the patients had cancer. At the time there was no vaccine. “It was incredibly intense and scary” my mother said. “People were worried about getting Covid from other staff at the hospital and also worried about contracting Covid from the patients.” “I walked into the hospital and there was an incredible underlying anxiety, the feeling of unease was palpable. People did not talk to each other like they normally did - everyone was consumed with the thought of not using each other’s pens, putting gloves on when receiving things from the pharmacy. Things we would never have even thought of before.” She continued, “It was a feeling of both being unsettled and a blind trust you put in your coworkers to be as clean, as responsible and in isolation outside of work as you. The intensity of that feeling was there the moment you walked in. The environment had changed. People were not as happy, communicative, relaxed.” She explained how working in Covid - there was an incredible newness to it - a fear and apprehension. -
2021-03-30
Vaccines Rollin’ Out. Covid’s Over?
The picture that I have chosen for the archive is one of me after getting the vaccine in March of 2021. After receiving the vaccine, I captioned the photo, like many of my optimistic peers, “Covid over.” Since last February of 2020 when the pandemic started, a vaccine was finally being distributed across the country (USA), and a majority of people were ecstatic that quarantining was over. But little did I know, many people would be against taking the vaccine leading to variants of Covid-19 like the Delta variant. This picture was taken six months ago from when this archive was being made, and Covid is still not over because people choose to believe these conspiracy theories of the government putting microchips in the vaccine and other ridiculous things like that. Even with a vaccine that is available to everyone in the United States, the pandemic is still raging on with the Delta variant running rampant in the hospitals which has an even worse effect than the normal strain that was going around from February 2020 to around May of 2021. This picture is just to show how hopeful people get from new technology coming out that can save thousands of lives, but ignorant people choose to convince others what they believe since they are spreading their crazy selfish conspiracies. I was so hopeful of having a normal sophomore year of college, but once again Covid is still present (as of September 14, 2021) putting the elderly at risk and quarantining/putting a hold on people’s lives. -
2021-09-16How I Adapted
Starting a new chapter in your life can always be a little stressful simply because of the new change it brings. Coming from a farming county, I had just begun becoming comfortable moving into a big city during my freshman year of college. Second semester rolled around and out of nowhere COVID-19 immediately impacted my life. My once comfortable lifestyle I have adapted to in the big city changed back to my home where I started online classes. This was quite unusual because I had never taken any online classes and found myself struggling to learn from a screen rather than in-person classes. Weeks went by where I struggled to pay attention and succeed in the “classroom”. Although challenging, I adapted to something unfamiliar in my life and found my niche to succeed in a new environment once again. Adapting to something new can certainly be challenging for people. COVID taught people to adapt to something new in their lives. It brought people together in the community in ways that I had not thought possible. One example of this is when I found out my grandma of 88 years of age became ill with COVID. It was an unfortunate event for my family that took a toll on all of us when we first heard about the news. It became real. Real enough to worry, real enough to take action. Real enough to show the importance of family in times of pain and struggle. Our family had to adapt to my grandmother’s lifestyle for the next couple of months. This meant no big grandma hugs for 5 months until her body recovered from this foreign virus. This took some getting used to as I had not realized the real impact of COVID and perhaps did not see it as dangerous as I thought. Again, I adapted. I adapted to realize that the people around you can make situations like this less painstakingly hard. The comfort and prayers received from family and friends made it comforting to know people cared and were there for me and my family. COVID was something that impacted everyone in different ways. Just remember people listen and people are there. -
2020-03-01
COVID through the eyes of others
Going through the pandemic myself has had a lot of highs and lows. Despite having to be relatively locked down and isolated from most people until vaccinated, I was able to pick up a lot of hobbies and overall just learn a lot more about myself. As I look back, I can't help but think about how this experience has been different for others, with one of these groups being the elderly especially. There's one couple that is friends with my family who are both just over sixty years old and starting from March 2020 has been on complete lockdown. They order their groceries, don't see anyone outside their immediate family, and rarely leave the house. While COVID for me has its positives and negatives, I can't imagine how different the experience has been for them, both out of isolation and fear of getting sick. Thankfully, they have been vaccinated and have extended the bubble of people they see slightly. I just can't get over how while some who are skeptics of the pandemic run around carefree, others are locked away in their homes fearing for their health. -
2020-09-16Vanderbilt Covid Testing
This photo is a screenshot of an email that I received during the Fall 2020 semester at Vanderbilt University. Throughout the semester, I received many emails that looked exactly like that one. The email is proof of a negative Covid test result, which every Vanderbilt student had to receive each week during the fall semester in order to remain living in their dorm. If a student tested positive, they would be taken from their dorm into quarantine housing. For some context, in March of 2020, all Vanderbilt students were sent home early due to the coronavirus. From March onward through the summer, Vanderbilt students worried about their fate as students. Would we be allowed to return to Nashville in the fall? Would we be subjected to more online “college”, trapped in our childhood bedrooms? This anxiety physically ate away at me, keeping me in a constant state of unease. When we finally heard that we would be coming back to campus, it felt as though an immense, invisible weight had been released from my shoulders. We were told, however, that there would be restrictions to college life. At that moment, I did not care an ounce. I would happily take any variation of college, as long as I would be able to live on campus. One of my major stressors entering that year was that we would be kicked off campus a second time. Callous students loudly proclaimed that this was inevitable, there would be no way that we would last this upcoming year. Comments like this brought the anxiety right back to the pit of my stomach. As a student who was going to be living on campus, what would I do if I was kicked off? Where would I go? I did not even want to think about that as a possibility. But that was the energy that charged the air at Vanderbilt that year: there was a fear and a deep distrust that Vanderbilt would stay open. One of the key differences between this year and other years at Vanderbilt was the weekly Covid testing (In the spring semester, the Covid testing was twice weekly). Students were required to enroll in times in their schedule when they would trek over to the Rec, or the large gym on campus, to spit in a tube. At the beginning of the year, I would go with my friends during our allotted time. We soon learned, however, that it did not really matter when you went, as long as went sometime during the week. While this was in some ways comical, to walk into the Rec center, with pop music blaring, and spit alongside your college peers, there was something stressful about it as well. It was like constantly turning yourself in; if you did have the misfortune of having Covid, you had willingly given yourself over for the school to come and take you away. Especially at the beginning, fear of Covid was rampant. Even if you felt fine, a scratchy throat may seem like your doom. At the beginning of the semester especially, waiting for the emailed results felt like eternity. And we all knew what would happen to people who tested positive, or those unfortunate enough to be contact traced: they were shipped off in a golf cart for everyone to see, and were banished from the rest of campus. But this was worth it, all of it was worth it for us. The stress of getting tested and the fear of being quarantined was a miniscule price to pay for being able to be on campus, with our friends. It was an escape from our summers of restriction. Or at least, it was for me. And for that, I give Vanderbilt tremendous credit for opening and following through successfully with the covid-testing of all the students each week. -
2020-04-19St. Joesph's Patient Observations
This is a post that my Mom shared on Facebook while she was in St. Joseph's in Cheektowaga for Covid 19 care. My mom discusses her observations as a Covid patient in a Covid hospital in April of 2020. -
2020-11-10"Those who died during COVID-19 outbreak at Holyoke Soldiers' Home honored with virtual tribute"
This MassLive article reports on a coalition attempting to memorialize the veterans at the Holyoke Soldiers' Home in Holyoke, Massachusetts, who had died throughout the pandemic, most of them as a result of contracting COVID-19. -
2020-10-06"Staffing concerns predated coronavirus outbreak at Holyoke Soldiers' Home
This MassLive article reports on a pre-existing staffing shortage at the Holyoke Soldiers' Home in Holyoke, Massachusetts, that influenced the gravity of the COVID-19 outbreak in the facility. -
2020-05-10Staying Safe as COVID-19 Restrictions Ease
A blog post from Banner Health about staying safe as restrictions ease. -
2020-05-08Fevers at Every Age
A blog post from Banner Health about fevers, including fevers associated with Covid-19. -
2020-05-017 Health Insurance Questions, Answered
A blog post from Banner Health about Medical Insurance. -
2020-04-27What to Know About the COVID-19 Antibody Test
A blog post from Banner Health about the antibody test available for Covid-19. -
2020-04-24Caring for Persons with Alzheimer’s Disease Amid the COVID-19 Crisis
A blog post from Banner Health on how to care for someone with Alzheimer's Disease during the pandmeic. -
2020-04-21What to Know About Valley Fever During the COVID-19 Pandemic
A blog post from Banner Health on the risks of Valley Fever and the chances of coming down with both Valley Fever and Covid-19. -
2020-04-18Keeping Parents and Grandparents Safe While Social Distancing
A blog post from Banner Health on how to keep elderly family members safe -
2020-10-20
"Bennett Walsh resigns as Holyoke Soldiers' Home superintendent; suit over firing dropped"
This MassLive article reports on Holyoke Soldiers' Home superintendent Bennett Walsh's decision to drop a law suit after Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker had him fired in light of the facility's poor response to the pandemic. -
2020-09-13"Plight of Holyoke Soldiers' Home residents, families becomes political flashpoint in state Senate race"
This MassLive news article discusses how a state senate candidate was using the poor response to the pandemic at the Holyoke Soldiers' Home during his opponent's term in office to gain popularity for himself. -
2020-06-25"Holyoke Soldiers' Home investigation: 6 takeaways from Mark Pearlstein report on coronavirus outbreak"
This article comes from MassLive and reports on the major takeaways from a report that documents where the Holyoke Soldiers' Home in Holyoke, Massachusetts, failed in its COVID-19 response. -
2020-04-28"Coronavirus at Holyoke Soldiers' Home: 2 more veterans die in worst outbreak at health care facility nationwide
This article, published by MassLive, reports on the rising death count among residents at the Holyoke Soldiers' Home in Holyoke, Massachusetts. Nearly three-quarters of the residents had contracted COVID-19, and about one-third had died from it. The title is evocative of the scale of the tragedy. -
2020-04-20"Coronavirus at Holyoke Soldiers' Home: Flags to fly at half-staff after at least 52 veterans die of COVID-19
This article, produced by MassLive, reports on Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker's decision to have flags flown at half-mast at the Holyoke Soldiers' Home in Holyoke, Massachusetts, to commemorate the veterans who had died at the facility from COVID-19. -
2020-04-06"Coronavirus: Holyoke Soldiers Home residents struggle with relocation as one-third of residents infected with COVID-19
This article produced by MassLive reports on the efforts to relocate residents from the Holyoke Soldiers' Home in Holyoke, Massachusetts, to Holyoke Medical Center in attempt to mitigate the spread of the virus after 76 of the 210 residents had already tested positive. The article also discusses the continued investigation into the COVID-19 situation at the home. -
2020-04-03"Coronavirus: Western Massachusetts legislators call for 2nd investigation into Holyoke Soldiers' Home COVID-19 Deaths"
This article published by MassLive reports on local legislatures' desire to issue a second investigation into the COVID-19 response at the Holyoke Soldiers' Home in Holyoke, Massachusetts, in light of the number of deaths among residents and the number of cases among residents and staff. -
2020-03-31"Coronavirus: Holyoke Soldiers' Home superintendent placed on leave, at least 5 residents die from COVID-19"
This article published by MassLive.com reports on the suspension of the superintendent of the Holyoke Soldiers' Home in Holyoke, Massachusetts, after several residents died and numerous other residents and staff members tested positive. -
2020-03-31"Coronavirus: 'We were just shocked' to learn of Holyoke Soldiers' Home deaths, Mayor Alex Morse says"
This article describes Holyoke mayor Alex Morse's reaction when he found out about the magnitude of the COVID-19 situation at the Holyoke Soldiers' Home. -
2020-03-12
"Coronavirus in Massachusetts: Soldiers' Home in Holyoke limits visiting hours, screens visitors"
This article appeared on MassLive on March 12, 2020. It discusses the safety precautions that went into effect at the Holyoke Soldiers' Home in Holyoke, Massachusetts. The article acts as context for the tragedy that would unfold at the home within the first few months of the pandemic. -
2021-03-21
Covid Testing
I was going on vacation out of country and I needed a negative covid test. I went to one of the drive up rapid testing sites provided by a local healthcare facility. Since the lines for testing had grown so much they had this testing site at a local golf course. They needed a lot of space to be able to accommodate everyone and have less of a traffic jam. I had gotten a few tests since the beginning of covid but this one definitely hurt the most. It only took thirty minutes for my results. Luckily it was negative. -
2021-06The never-ending covid testing
There was an incoming case that started to disseminate from my hometown's airport and the adjacent subway line. I lived nearby the airport, so I was inside the "high-risk grid" of this incident. I received countless calls from the community center forcing me to do the covid testing, and I was also asked to do the test at a specific center far away from my home. The photo I'm sharing is taken at 10 pm traveling to the testing point after work. I had to line up for 3 hours in a burning summer night. It is definitely memorable. -
-0021-08-31
Anger, Frustration, and Hope
In December of 2020 my family went to Florida to pick up our eldest daughter. All but one of us tried to be diligent in wearing masks, distancing and reducing the risks as much as possible. Yet despite that a week later, on Christmas day, my husband started feeling tired and slept most of the day. That was as bad as it got for him. The following Monday we were all feeling ill and I was in the car line being tested, it was positive. On New Years Eve I went to the hospital by ambulance with my oxygen levels in the low 80's. I couldn't say goodbye to my four kids (two in college and two in high school) because I didn't want it to be a final goodbye. I spent ten days in the hospital. Thankfully the constant oxygen, medications and antibody therapies did their job and I didn't need to be intubated. However, the virus wreaked havok on my body. My eyes hurt and would not focus, my body and joints ached, my focus and cognitive function was shot. I struggled to find balance and felt like I weighted a thousand pounds (heavy, oppressive weight). I struggled for breath yet the oxygen took its toll as well leaving painful ulcers in my nasal cavity and after two months of oxygen, a hole in my sceptum. My sugar levels were dangerously high and difficult to regulate and I shifted from a daily pill to needing four shots of insulin a day. It has been eight months and my body still has not returned to any sense of normalcy. I still struggle with controlling my sugar levels. My cognitive recovery has been slow and things that would take an hour in the past now take three or four (like reading and analysing text). I struggle with exercise as my lungs still have not healed. Even walking up a flight of stairs leaves me in tears as I struggle for breath and feel like I'm drowning. I have to divy up my workable time because my body will only do so much before it gives out. I struggle with odd symptoms. I struggle to sleep and struggle to stay awake. I also struggle with depression and self worth. I now feel like a burden. No, I am not suicidal, but I would be lying if I didn't admit that there are so many times when I feel like my family (my spouse in truth), would be better off without this new version of me. They don't understand why I can't do what I did before and doesn't believe in COVID or vaccines or wearing a mask. It's all media propoganda meant to promote a socialist agenda. I only got this sick because I was overweight and had diabetes before COVID. It cuts like a knife when you hear things like that and when it feels like someone doesn't care enough to want to do what they can to protect the ones they say they love. Maybe that's my biggest takeaway from all of this. It's redefining who I am and how I percieve the people around me. The people I thought loved me the most, who I loved the most. It's opened my eyes to the divisions and the anger that run deeper than just the pandemic. But I've also seen the depth of human compassion and love. Friends who made sure my kids had food and whatever else they needed when they were quarantined. The staff at the hospital who ran themselves ragged caring for patients. My nurse practitioner who has been on this journey with me the past eight months and worked diligently to help me recover. The students I've worked with who adapted and were more accepting and flexible in all of this mess than their parents, as they learned new ways of learning. It gives me hope that while there is bad in this world, there is so much good.