Custom Search

Friday, March 20, 2020

The problem with blogging...

By the time I get around to putting all my wayward thoughts together, the entire world has changed!
I started and erased this post half a dozen times already, but I have a quiet minute now to collect myself and put up some updates. So here goes!

COVID19
Here in NOLA we're a hot spot, no doubt thanks to Mardi Gras, which brought travelers, germs, and crowds together for weeks. But at this point, most of the country has adopted the restrictions that were so stringent to me a few days ago. Our community is doing its best, but in addition to a very rapid transmission rate, we are financially hurting. This crisis will truly cripple New Orleans: we rely heavily on tourism and the service industry. Everything New Orleans is famous for is banned now!

How I've modified work:
jeans day every day! 
How we're working: I am still at work, in fact I'm busy. Most of my week was spent trying to convince insurance companies to pay for costly oral chemotherapy. With our hospitals treating COVID19 patients, they're no longer safe places for high-risk cancer patients, and our goal was to discharge them on oral treatments that most closely match their current chemotherapy. A lot of this was off-label, and I had to work hard to get our patients covered. This is all new territory, so insurance companies don't have guidelines in place for when a patient has to be treated at home because they're immunocompromised and our hospital has COVID19 positive patients. Nor are we sure we're even making the best choices for these patients. I admire how much faith they have in us, and how creative the healthcare team has been in making sure these most-vulnerable patients are safe and treated!
David is working from home four out of five workdays, and the baby is still at daycare, which has stayed open to serve healthcare workers.
Still getting super sweaty in the park
(it has been in the 80's here)

How we're worshiping: Our church will livestream Sunday's service. Bible study was via Zoom, and church is posting daily prayers and liturgy on Youtube. It's not the same, but I admit the Zoom was not bad at all! A little hard to converse, but we made it work!

How we're socializing: Besides social media, we are:
Spending more time on the porch. Our house is raised, so we're well over 6 feet from any passers-by!
Using FaceTime. I never got into FaceTime, usually because I am driving when I call people, but I like the extra humanity it provides right now.
Checking in more often. Everyone feels isolated, so I am making sure to call or text friends more often than normal.
I plan to also arrange for a neighborhood porch dinner - we can all socialize over dinner from somewhat afar. Our houses are close enough together to make this work!

How we're running: The only thing that has changed is the lack of group workout. We are too large of a group to be legal! I definitely miss that, but I do love still having the park available to get my running in. Actually, the park is packed lately. Maybe we will all be more fit when this is all under control!

I hope you and your family stay safe and healthy through this crisis, and that you have the emotional support you need to stay sane. Be well!


4 comments:

  1. I’ve been thinking about you and wondering how you are doing during this crisis! I am WFH indefinitely. Phil still goes in since it’s hard for him to trade for his company’s mutual funds from a small laptop computer. He stays home when I have conference calls. Paul’s daycare is still open but my rheumatologist told me to keep Paul home to lower my chances of getting COVID since I am immune suppressed from my RA drugs. These are tough times for sure and I worry one of us will lose our job as the asset management industry was already suffering before this happened. But this is why we live so conservatively and save so much so we will be ok if that happens.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I work in medical research, and how to make sure our patients still get their investigational medications has been challenging, to say the least. Most of my studies are on advanced cancers, so these are patients that are really on their last chance. I'm glad I already work from home, although work is harder to do with my two new "coworkers" (age 6 and 7)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. YES! I have also been conscripted into the investigational drug side and have been trying to get drug delivered to alternate locations etc. Very challenging! Thanks for your hard work!

      Delete
  3. What a crazy time this is. You are managing so much with a job that you still commute to, a new baby, and also running. I really hope the New Orleans can recover sooner rather than later and I have you in my thoughts.

    ReplyDelete