Pandemic

Here's my daughter Madeline, wearing a mask before it was cool! To be honest, I have purposely never posted a picture of Madeline in a mask because I think it makes her seem like a sick person, and she's not a sick person. But now we all know that healthy people can wear masks too, and that it's even hip and cool to do it, so here is a picture of my healthy person, who also has a chronic lung disease, wearing a mask. (And a screaming baby who is now almost two and thankfully doesn't come to clinic appointments anymore, because we all know a screaming toddler is worse than a screaming baby when you're in a public setting.)

This picture was taken in July 2018 at one of Madeline's quarterly CF clinic appointments. She has to routinely wear a mask at her appointments, and so do any other CF patients in the building. People with CF have to stay at least 6 feet away from each other because they can spread germs that are dangerous for others with CF. Also social distancing before it was cool! We always try to stay far far far away from anyone who seems to be waiting near the pulmonary area, even though it would be nice to strike up a conversation with someone in a similar situation. Not worth it.

At the CF clinic, the rooms are completely cleaned between patients, and all of the care providers have to wear fresh gowns. At each appointment, I am usually looking at 6-8 highly educated, well-paid people all gowned up to discuss my daughter's health. That is a lot of attention focused on one little girl. When she was in the hospital in January for surgery, anyone who came into her room had to wear a fresh gown and gloves, whether it was the nurse coming in 20 times or a cleaning person or a 6-person crew of doctors. That's a lot of PPE to make sure that they don't spread germs from one patient to another.

And in our regular life, there is lots of hand washing and sanitizing and bowing out of family gatherings or other fun events when we know someone is sick. All the good stuff that's cool to do now! Lots of hoping that other people will stay home when they're sick so that Madeline can go to church and school and parties without picking up an illness that will, in the short term, make her miserable and cause her to take antibiotics and add 2+ hours a day to her already long treatments. Or that will, in the long term, cause potential lung damage that can literally take years off of her life.

So. It's April. Usually I post a few things about CF awareness in April, but I think we're all pretty tired of medical stuff right now so I'll refrain after this post. I just wanted to say that if you're really tired of staying home (like me!) and you need a little motivation, just look at this picture for a second. Why are we doing this? For people like Madeline. She's a healthy little girl, but she's also HIGH RISK for COVID-19 and any other respiratory ailment that comes her way. High risk enough that all of those highly educated, well-paid professionals gown up multiple times a year to focus completely on her health.

Thank you for staying home to protect Madeline, and all the thousands of other people who are also high risk. We can do this! (And maybe some of those hand-washing habits and staying-home-when-you're-sick habits will stick! That would be really cool.)