catmag

Probably standing in the empty Nightingale hospitals (which we can’t use without staff btw - good luck finding more nurses) None of us have been routinely tested. Only eligible if we have Covid symptoms. When I left work yesterday morning our ITU was full. Not all the patients were ventilated, some were on high flow oxygen but are extremely sick. I took a patient from theatre to a Covid ward and took up their last bed, although we still have some capacity on other wards. I don’t ever want to have to work up there - it was absolutely grim 🙁 I don’t really have the emotional energy to get into any debates/conversations on here but this thread is always interesting reading. I find the only way to get through life in general is to avoid the whole thing as much as possible (news/debates/social media/general aresholery) on the days I don’t have to deal with it 12hrs at a time, 4 nights per week. Meant to be annual leave next week but as per my last 4 planned weeks off, I’m working some of it. Last had a full week off in January and will be taking the full week I’ve got booked off in December (not Christmas or New Year though because all A/L is cancelled for then) On the plus side, at least I’m not fucking homeschooling this time! 😆

Yes we’ve learned a lot from the first wave and it seems to be showing given current patient outcomes. No, we don’t have any more ventilators. The first time around we stopped all routine surgery and used the vents that would’ve been in those theatres but we’re currently still running routine surgery so they’re in use. And the elderly are still by far making up the greatest number of admissions although we are seeing younger patients presenting in greater numbers than last time. We’re still run into the ground and have large numbers of medical and nursing staff either testing positive themselves or being asked to isolate having been in contact with positive patients or family members. It’s taking a massive toll on staff physical and mental health. 7 months in and I’ve personally never been tested, nor have many of my colleagues so we could be spreading it all over the place.

I’m absolutely not school-bashing - they’re doing absolutely everything they can. Positive cases are inevitable and we just have to accept that. The alternative of going back to home-schooling would genuinely tip me over the edge and I’ve got a child who would get himself up in the morning and crack on with schoolwork without being hassled.

The bairn started secondary school a couple of weeks ago. Within 3 days we were notified that 3 6th formers had tested positive and the whole of 6th form had to isolate whilst they waited on guidance from PHE which they couldn’t get because it was the weekend. A few days later one of the kids in J’s year tested positive. The guidance was for kids that had been in his immediate contact to isolate for 2 weeks but the rest of the year could come in. Siblings of the isolating kids were still instructed to come in as normal. It’s a shitshow. Icing on the cake was when the bairn came back from his dad with symptoms. I was pretty convinced it was a heavy cold but also shitting myself. I also had to break the news that his/our lovely cat had died over that weekend and spent the next couple of hours consoling him while he covered me in tears and snot while I literally held my breath as much as possible. Ended up getting him a test through work which was negative. My second thought, after the relief, was the thought that if I ended up catching the fucking thing via school after intubating Covid-+ve patients for 6 months then I’d be raging.

We should’ve still gone for that coffee on Monday. You’re definitely not on your own.

I’m on nightshift number 4 tonight. We’ve spent every night helping out in Covid ITU as there’s not enough staff overnight given they’re proning the ventilated patients and they need fully turning onto their fronts every few hours. I woke up at teatime today and had 3 messages on my phone which all basically said “Please don’t listen to today’s government briefing” Now I know why. Sanctimonious bitch.

Renton - I can’t speak for anyone’s experience but my own. The patients I’ve been to intubate have been absolutely exhausted to the point that they are desperate for some respite. They’ve been conscious and consenting and I feel like I’ve been more terrified than they are. I haven’t posted much on this until today but I’ve been dipping in and out and reading bits here and there. This whole thing can become all-consuming and I know that personally given what I’m dealing with at work I need to actively avoid news, social media and forums for good periods of time otherwise I lose perspective and start to feel panic-stricken. Genuine question @Renton but do you think you would benefit from a break from the 24/7 nature of all this? It’s not healthy for any of us 🙁

I’m no expert. I can’t dig out the right graphs, or forecasts, or numbers, or theories, or projections or possibilities. I can just give you the reality of the day-to-day. Where patients are people and not statistics.

As the person standing next to you as you’re anaesthetised, I can assure you that in the case of Covid you’re just grateful that someone else is going to do your breathing for you. I’m yet to see ‘terror’ so would be grateful if you’d calm the fuck down and stop presuming things based on no experience whatsoever.

Yep, we did. In Washington

Who knows? You can predict precisely nowt with this thing 🙁

Just a thought aswell. If he’s been on a general Covid ward then it’s likely to be a 15:1 patient to nurse ratio. ITU gets him 1:1 care. Or it did until this past couple of weeks.. And they can do fancy tests like ABG’s (arterial blood gases) to check his respiratory function based on the levels of CO2 in his blood, thus being able to detect further deterioration far more quickly than if he was ward-based. If the ABG results show rapidly deteriorating resp function then ventilation will be required whilst the docs try to correct everything with the patient under anaesthesia. And I can guarantee that every nurse the Tories have shafted for years will do absolutely everything they can for him. As they should.

Not necessarily, there’s 2 levels to Intensive Care, the lower level being High Dependency (HDU) I imagine they’d have taken him there long before his condition became critical as they would with a Muggle but worrying news nonetheless 🙁

Uh-oh... 🙁

Bloody kills me when Gemmill is right 😆

Thanks ❤️ We’re all winging it and shifting ourselves in case we get it. I’ve got a couple of nights off and a bottle of red ready to be opened.

They just work faster and are more effective as they’re infused straight into the blood without having to be digested by the stomach. Plus there are some super-strong IV antibiotics that just don’t come in tablet form.

It’s not fun but it’s manageable for now. We had a run of patients deteriorating and needing intubation for ventilation last weekend (I did 2 in one night and there was 2 the next shift) and I thought that was going to be the start of the madness but it eased off in ITU although general admissions are ramping up. We’ve since had a couple we’ve managed to wean off the ventilator and more that have died. We’re now treating any patient that comes to surgery as Covid positive which means full PPE and protocol. It’s like walking into the lion’s den every night not knowing what you’ll be facing. The worst thing so far was hearing a relative screaming at my colleague down the phone when he was told he couldn’t visit his dying mother. She was called a heartless bitch and various other things and he threatened to kick his way into the department. I totally get it but it’s heartbreaking and mentally and emotionally exhausting.

More likely he’s been admitted for 02 therapy and chest x-rays. IV antibiotics if he’s got pneumonia. The majority of ventilated patients at our place are patients that were initially admitted with unmanageable symptoms and then deteriorated later.

Probably delays in reporting deaths to PHE by the hospitals due to operational pressures/reduced admin staff etc.

They do. Poor attempt to confuse everyone and get a cheap laugh cos it makes no odds anyway and nobody knows what day it is. MF - the only way to get hand sanitizer round our way at the mo is to summon the underground dealers of Gateshead and promise them the contents of the Controlled Drug cupboard. Normally I’d say it’s the best night of the year to be at work but..

Public Service Announcement

I mean, what’s not to like?!

Hopefully this will all be taken into consideration and they’ll have a transition period. This whole thing is really tough on kids in general when they’re trying to make sense of it and the parents are trying not to panic themselves. Given that I live with Sheldon from TBBT, he’s pretty chilled about the whole thing and regularly asks for updates from work which I think is helpful for him to process things.

It’s like living with an 11-yr old, wise, Yoda-creature. He’s awesome, thanks 😊 I’m just gutted that it looks like yesterday was his last day at primary school and none of them were really prepared for it to end like that.