…you are doubled over with pain intense enough to send you to the Emergency Room, distended, nauseated, and feverish. The Triage Nurse sends you back to a room where you are whisked away for a c-t scan, blood labs and x-rays, and then you wait. The pain continues and by now, you are begging for pain meds. The first physician who stops in to see you tells you they are awaiting all of the results, but it appears you will have a surgical consult. On, no! Surgery? But this intractable pain is so persistent, so throbbing, that you will do anything. The surgeon walks in, tells you that you have a blockage that will not resolve itself, and surgery is the only treatment he would recommend.
You awaken with an ostomy that may or may not be temporary, but you are in your late 70’s, so who knows? As soon as possible, you are dismissed from the hospital, but before that, you are visited by a Wound and Ostomy Nurse who tells you that this is your one chance to learn what you have to do to take care of your appliance at home. In a fear-induced fog, you watch her do some things with a bag (pouch) and donut-shaped rubbery material, etc., and she is gone. She has left you a few bags to take home. Your ray of hope is that there will be a Visiting Nurse who will offer guidance when she comes to your home. You leave, not having learned at all how to even empty your pouch, what to do in the toilet, how to prevent yourself from awakening with your bed soaked because you didn’t know to empty throughout the night.
Now consider all of this, and think about the added fear that this is happening amidst the Corona Virus pandemic! My apologies for being so graphic, but this is the reality that hit me two days ago…a woman had this very experience, and in addition to all I have described, has an infection in her incision that requires intervention. But fears of exposure to Covid-19 have taken control of her.
What do we do when we are in such a crisis, at this critical time in history? Avoidance has the potential to be just as dangerous as the virus. Decision-making may not be as clearly cut as at other times. Weighing the options doesn’t guarantee the right outcome.
I am rooting for all of us to look back at any decision we make at this moment in time. We are all doing the best we can with the limited knowledge we have. We are not comfortable being reactive, instead of proactive, but that seems to be our posture right now. Please take care in every way, every day. All of us depend upon each other to do that very thing…the only thing we know will help!