I had to pull myself out of bed this morning. I think I actually went back to bed and slept an extra hour. I never do that. I am fatigued. The day started at 8 am with a biweekly meeting led by the Guelph Family Health Team. These meetings give COVID 19 updates to the family physicians in Guelph. Imagine, all of your family doctors meeting twice weekly to make sure that all hands are on deck during this pandemic.
By 1 pm, I was pretty much done. Not unexpected given the extra work load and the new intensity that COVID 19 brings to our jobs. Then the self-talk starts. " Come on, you can do it. Just a few more prescription renewals, one more form, 8 more patients, a couple of injections. Piece of cake. You've got this". Low energy is tough.
And then the flood started. Of course, it's the back door. No fewer than 1200 masks came through that door today. There were more donations of funds. I opened the door to a lovely woman whose hands were full. One hundred masks, a bag of scrub tops and...wait for it, a bag of sixty N95 masks. Lord only knows where you are getting these from. This bag had just arrived in the mail one hour before it was handed to me at the back door. Do you know how precious these are?
This group is responsible for 1600 cloth masks. Today, I used some of your donated funds to purchase the material to have 400 more made. So, that's it. We reached the goal of 2,000 masks. Each member of the Six Nations community will have a cloth mask. We did this in just over a week. Bag after bag of cloth masks, beautifully made, came through that door today wiping out all the fatigue and bringing in new and fresh energy. I kept clutching my chest. I was just bursting with joy. During a global pandemic, you bring joy. Can you see the magic in that? Joy is the opposite of what we should be experiencing and yet, there it is. The ability to be more than content when it seems like all might be lost is a gift, and it is one that we can give to each other.
My heart was happy and my lap was happy.
A brief look overseas:
Lesotho opened up yesterday. They have been in lockdown for the last 2 months. Pretty difficult when your only income comes from that market stall that stayed open from dawn til dusk. Lock down in the developing world leads to starvation for many. People in Lesotho can now gather in small groups but they must wear a mask. That presents another challenge. Where do the masks come from? Thankfully, one of Bracelet of Hope's board members, Gord Riddle, was in Lesotho in early March. He was able to get 2500 surgical masks shipped into the country. Our foster kids and foster parents and the entire community of people we work with will now have masks.
Thanks Gord!
In our community, hospitals have been given the green light to get elective surgeries back on track. To do so, each hospital needs a 30 day supply of PPE for their staff. Thus the singing heart when sixty N 95's found there way to my door. You have no idea how precious this is. Support your local hospitals folks. They need Personal Protective Equipment before those gallbladders can be removed and those hips can be replaced.
Slow and steady wins the race. The number of new COVID 19 cases is now doubling at the very slow rate of every 26 days!
Yet another drug used to fight viruses is showing promise in the treatment of severe COVID 19.
It is becoming more difficult to test thousands of people a day because so few are developing upper respiratory tract symptoms. We are not spreading any viruses including COVID 19. Our lock down continues to show us brilliant results.
But our time at home is not over yet. Stay the course folks. Let the scientists and leaders do their work. We can all just keep working together to save lives in so many miraculous ways.
Enjoy this beautiful evening.
Anne-Marie
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