🇨🇦 Family doc in AB spewing squid ink and settling kitty cats. Not using my real name because the #shantrums are real. #BlockedByShandro.
Dec 18, 2020 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Today was my last day doing emergency coverage at another LTC site on COVID outbreak. I will be moving on once again, this time to one of the hospital COVID units. I have helped at several DSLs on outbreak and also continued my regular clinical work. 1/
After all the trauma in the last few weeks, it was nice to finish on a high note today, as we get to do every time we wrap it up at another outbreak site: writing in patient charts “Discontinue COVID pathway—deemed recovered.” 2/
Dec 9, 2020 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
I went to see a COVID+ resident at another outbreak site and asked how she was doing. “I am so lonely. I have no one to talk to.” After I finished examining her, she begged me, “Please don’t leave, I’m so lonely.” 1/
Normally these folks socialize in the facilities’ dining halls and activity areas, visit with families and friends, paint and make music and play cards, and live full and happy lives. They are loved and cherished. 2/
Dec 6, 2020 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Normally, I’m a frickin’ ray of sunshine whose positive outlook on life borders on annoying, but doing emergency coverage at LTCs on COVID outbreak has left me crying uncontrollably every day. My brief moments of numbness are a welcome respite. 1/
The suddenness and severity of illness, the shock and grief from families and staff, and the sheer number of deaths I see has left me overwhelmed and traumatized. We are exhausted, short-staffed, and under-resourced. 2/
Nov 8, 2020 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
I am remembering my last shift, how my patient looked and sounded near the end of her life, unconscious, breathing laboured, the phone projecting the voices of her family as they watched her through the window. 1/
I was the solitary faceless stranger in mask, shield, gown, and gloves, who held her hand and soothed her as she lay dying. I have been working at the long-term centres hit by COVID. 2/
May 23, 2020 • 7 tweets • 4 min read
#abpoli: A thread. Imagine your boss, who has been harassing and intimidating you for months, suddenly rips up your contract. 1/#abdocs4patients
He then makes huge cuts to your pay, and when he occasionally gives back a small part of what he took away, he lies and boasts about how he is giving you the most generous incentives in the country. 2/ #abdocs4patients
