And so ends the 9th week of practising medicine during a pandemic. My hair has not been this long in 20 years nor my face this weary at the end of a week, ever.
What we are going through is very, very difficult.
As you may know, the family physicians in Guelph attend a biweekly Zoom meeting with the lead of the Guelph Family Health Team ( FHT) and the Guelph General Hospital ( GGH). Dr. Jennifer Caspers is the Chief of Staff at the GGH. Her leadership is remarkable. I doubt she remembers but she was my family doctor when I was a student at the University of Guelph 35 years go. Just before I got married, she helped me with a cough that would not let up. Many people are in leadership positions but few are able to lead so well when a crises hits. Her partnership with the executive director of the FHT, Ross Kirkconnell has put Guelph in front in terms of the number of COVID 19 infections in our community. Their combined leadership has saved lives.
Yesterday, one of the doctors asked to speak. She asked us to honour our fallen. Lest we forget. To those who have lost their lives to COVID 19 and to their families. Physicians are an interesting lot. We have learned not to take in the suffering and trauma of our patients. We move on and tuck their suffering somewhere deep. But we all have a strong sense of compassion and responsibility for the well being of others which led us into this difficult profession. That profession does not leave much room for allowing us to deal with the trauma we witness. That can make us cold and dismissive. Ross suggested that if we were not rushing off to our clinics ( which of course, we all were) to give a moment of silence. Not a single person signed off. For one minute we honoured the people whose lives we fight for and for those we have lost.
Lest we forget
I stared into my computer terminal, caught off guard by the poignancy of the moment and I sobbed. I am grateful to each and everyone of my colleagues who chose to hold back, and remember. That is who we are.
I honour all of you.
Gratitude is one of the strongest tools we can use when we are searching for our strength and resilience. We will need that strength as we move into this next phase of the pandemic; the phase of reopening our economies. It is our leaders and our ability to collectively trust in and follow that leadership that have allowed our country to have faired so well during the first 2 months of the COVID 19 pandemic. Our leaders at the federal, provincial and community levels have done an outstanding job. Our medical officers of health have successfully navigated a mine field of ever changing scientific information to put a strategic plan in place that has kept us from catastrophe.
Please continue to follow them during this delicate re-opening. We must not become complacent. As more people head back to work next week, the rest must still stay home and within their social bubbles. We need to continue to remain 6 feet apart in public, wash our hands frequently, wear a cloth mask, and avoid gathering in groups larger than 5. Even the Ontario Medial Association is now recommending the careful use of a cloth mask while in public. We will be practising these social distancing measures for a long time. If we give up, outbreaks of the virus will occur and any loosened restrictions will be reinstated. It is safe to return to work as long as that work place is prepared. There are 60 guidelines they must follow. If we continue to work towards another 2 weeks of a decline in the daily number of new cases of COVID 19, more restrictions will be lessened. I believe that we will be able to blend our bubbles, if we succeed in maintaining these restrictions, for another two weeks.
We have done so well as a country. Be so proud.
Anne-Marie
Please share.
Donations are still pouring in. For those of you who wish to donate to our little COVID relief fund on line, this website is now available:
Choose COVID relief for your donation.
And for local donations: https://www.guelphcf.ca/
Three hundred more cloth masks made their way to First Nation communities near Parry Island. Your in-kind, 'back door' donations are greatly appreciated. They bring much needed energy to a sometimes weary clinical team.
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