The Longest Year Part II

 

More random vacation photos

Part two of the longest year recap. By this point, I had made it past Chili's accident but I still didn't really have any answers on why she was not really sound.

The laboratory was encountering shortages on a daily basis. Microbiologists grow bacteria on various agar plates (think petri dishes with special bacteria food). A lot of these are manufactured in specialty locations and ended up on month long back-orders. Bacteria can be picky and so on a daily basis, I made decisions on how to best serve the hospital and make sure critical results and testing could still be performed.

Sterile pipettes ended up on back-order since the increase in testing worldwide demanded sterile pipettes. Makes sense, but sterile pipettes are used everyday in other applications. Chlamydia and Gonorrhea testing supplies became unavailable since production facilities were focused solely on the COVID situation, which fair enough, except the rest of the world doesn't stop turning just for one disease. In many circumstances, STI testing isn't critical, but sometimes it is (as in for pregnant moms). Another chance to be nimble, greatly restrict testing, and once again, I became the gatekeeper of testing for the hospital. (I'm pretty sure there are a number of physicians and nurses out there that have my name on a dartboard somewhere for how many times I told them "no".)

My area did reach critical capacity once in the summer and I held my heart in my throat. Fortunately, hospitals in the area were shifting patients around to ensure critical care needs were met, but having every single room in a hospital filled made me wonder if we were going to become the next NYC.

My blood culture instrument reached maximum capacity. This had never happened before. What on Earth was going on in my life?

I gained twenty pounds. Not at all what I intended and a bit mortifying, but I am sure it was probably a few too many rum and cokes in the evening so I could finally sleep each night.

I decided to move barns so that I could see my horses on the way home from work. I didn't have the energy to drive an hour each way to and from work, then another 25 minutes out to the barn when I wanted to spend time with the horses.

In addition, the new barn provided a bit more specialized care so as things continued to unravel, I was at least certain my horses were alive.

I attempted to take some time to myself and socially distance at a horse show. Chili still wasn't sound, so I handled a few horses in hand for a friend and rode this cute Fjord under saddle.

He may have bucked once too in a different class, but we won both classes

Unfortunately, during this show, my new barn owner called. This was the beginning of my experience with presumed Potomac Horse Fever

Hospitals have to undergo inspections to retain accreditation and the same is for laboratories. During this time with Donni's illness was the same time my laboratory was inspected. My barn owner was amazing since my horse had daily IV antibiotics, fluids, and bloodwork being done while I was in an office with multiple inspectors pouring through every piece of paperwork imaginable from years prior.

I came through the inspection with flying colors and so did Donni.

Headed into fall, I ended up bringing Chili to the university and we finally had some advanced imaging done. A hock injection later and she was able to be put back into full work.

By October, I was exhausted. My husband and I booked a cabin for a middle of nowhere escape in my state and we left for a week, complete with our princess (also known as the poodle) in tow.

Doesn't she look like a princess?

We spent a week just hiking various trails and seeing waterfalls. It was just plain bizarre and I spent way too much of my time still checking work emails and worrying about if my coworkers were surviving.

October had another dramatic twist and Donni choked. She has choked before and her grain is wetted down, however, who knows what happened that time. The choke itself was fairly easy to clear, but she ended up aspirating and developing pneumonia. This is why after a horse chokes, I am always so fixated on taking a horse's temperature the following few days. If it spikes, it's probably pneumonia!

So for the second time in less than six months, Donni faced dire odds. Her bloodwork was actually more abysmal than her bout with PHF. An ultrasound wasn't promising either, but her attitude was still bright and she was eating. Most days, I was able to administer the IV antibiotics myself which made it still an extraordinarily expensive, but less than daily vet call level care of expense. She made it through once again.

What a tough, expensive animal.

Work life continued on. The situation in my state was still precarious. Then finally, the numbers began to relax just enough that we could start to catch up on work. I implemented more testing in the laboratory so I now had four analyzers capable of running COVID testing and had a system sent to send the majority of non-critical tests up to my sister laboratory an hour away, where a massive analyzer could run about 1200 specimens a day.

So much paperwork and things to catch up on. The administrative desk I used to sit at is still covered in papers from last winter. The projects I had intended to begin to implement still shelved in folders off to the side.

My day to day desk is my "work bench", where I actually work up cultures and the routine important testing in a hospital. I attend often five or more virtual meetings a week, while working and reading plates at the same time. Administrative days seem like a thing of the past. The new normal is keep soldiering on, no matter what. Finish the most critical projects and find alternatives when something else is now back-ordered or discontinued. Answer the always ringing phones.

Christmas Eve I received my first vaccine. The end of the year was marked by death of several family members close to my coworkers, but fortunately, my laboratory remained standing. My anxiety was always elevated as we are close knit and some things are so intricately tied into my job that it would be hard to be quarantined or worse--ill and unable to assist.

And now here were are almost at the end of March. It's been more than a year since I've seen a positive influenza in my laboratory. COVID is still a very daily thing, but the numbers have declined along with the frequent deaths.

The political games still drag on and the moral is often low. I have had other employees in the hospital, clearly with a poor understanding of laboratory testing in general, ask how I can change influenza results to positive COVID ones instead. How did I end up being the villain in a field where I have given up so much this year to help others. I am faceless. People in a hospital will never know who I am or my contribution or the long hours I have spent trying to make sure they make it home to their families.

If only they realized that the reimbursement for COVID testing is a fraction of what private insurance pays for influenza testing. I follow the science and the answers. I have no expectation of what I will find. Social media is often difficult. I can no longer expend energy on trying to correct people or even educate those who don't care to hear on how testing actually occurs in a laboratory.

I am hopeful that 2021 will continue to be better. I am tired. My coworkers are tired. But I have finally realized that while I put my life on hold and gave up much of my good energy, health, and resources to supporting my work in 2020, 2021 is the year that I need to find myself again.

It truly was the longest year.