A fb post from a nurse I'm friends with in CT.

[femmedem]

Last edited Fri Mar 20, 2020, 08:44 AM - Edit history (1)

"Tonight I cried. I don’t cry. I yell. I yell louder. I laugh. I dance. I sing. I don’t cry. I cried because I became a nurse to care for people. To make wounds heal and teach patients how to manage their disease. I love reconciling medications and teaching patients how to live their best lives with chronic diseases. I wash my hands and then I wash my hands. I love infection control. I wash my hands before I go into my nurses bag. I wash my hands when I take off a wound dressing and then I wash my hands again before I put a new dressing on. I went to nursing school to heal.

Tonight I cried because I am so fearful I am not healing. And the answer to this fear is so simple. Let me wear a mask and gown into every patient I care for. The scientists tell us 4 out of 5 patients in China contracted the corona virus from someone who did not know they were infected. We are told to act like you have the virus. Everyone with any sense of decency is staying home and staying 6 feet away from anyone. I am going from patient to patient and now that school is out and people are not working I am going from roomful of family to roomful of family. I am 1 to 2 feet away from a lot of people all day long. I take a blood pressure, listen to lungs and hearts, assess feet and skin, perform wound care, change an ostomy or just sit and talk. All of this very close to very fragile and vulnerable patients. All of this with no mask or gown.

Tonight I cried because I don’t think I am healing anymore. I am not flattening the curve. I cried because I want a mask and a gown!!! Damn it. Now I am angry. No nurse or Home Health Aide in home care should feel like this.

I will wear my pink bandana tomorrow or the mask my sister is sewing for me and I will be a really good nurse but there will be tears in my eyes, eyes that don’t often cry, because I am scared. Because I care. Because I love my patients."


This nurse is also running for state senate and chairs her local Democratic Town Committee. She's a shero.

Edited to add: This is by Martha Marx. I didn't want to share her name until I'd gotten her permission. https://www.martha2020.com/

[BigmanPigman]

1. Aren't there 12 million masks sitting in some warehouse

that tRump hasn't released yet? I know that vets and dentists are being asked for their supplies and restaurants are donating gloves. Why won't the fucking moron do something? He turns down offers of supplies and then he does nothing to provide more. He is all talk/lies and NO ACTION!

[Raster]

12. He. Doesn't. Know. How. To. Do. Anything...

...tRump* has been managed, rescued, bailed out, and assisted his entire life. His "successful business" personae is a fake, a construct, a manufactured ILLUSION. tRump*, plain and simple, is a fraud. And now...

#TrumpIsAPublicHealthMenace #TrumpIsANationalSecurityThreat #TrumpIsTheVirus

[mucifer]

2. I wonder about this, too. I am a hospice nurse. We can only wear paper masks if

a patient or someone in the family is symptomatic. Even then the CDC says we can reuse our paper masks. So because we have so few that is our company policy.

Our governor Pritzker yesterday approved reimbursement for telemedicine for public and private insurance. I am hoping now that means we will be able to do most of our visits though skype or facetime. But, I haven't heard from our company yet.

[Scarsdale]

4. Governor Pritzker is a good man.

He cares for people. Unlike the large orange turd in the WH, who is searching for someone to blame for this disaster. What amazes me is how supposedly educated people stand on camera with him, acting as though what he says is NORMAL. He is a bloody fool, spewing pure garbage, trying to look presidential.

[Nature Man]

16. I'd vote for him for president!

[Scarsdale]

21. He is REAL.

He is a multimillionaire, but still remembers where he came from. He woiuld be GREAT for this country, as president.

[duforsure]

5. Every governor needs to act right now, since trump is worthless,

Close all schools for the year, employ anyone to make Masks and any other critically needed supplies at once in these shut down schools. They also need to get temperature guns manufactured at once, and in every state, and ventilators. Then supply all medical people with the tools they need by watching their temps very closely like they've done elsewhere with great success.Then make sure all critical area people are carefully watched and protected, including making guidelines for all restaurants serving take out be temperature monitored hourly with strict guidelines and closing of their businesses if they don't. All food producers and their delivery people also need protections , and be watched before not after they spread the virus. Police , Fire , and first response line people need to be watched over hourly also until the threat is gone. I go sleepless at night knowing these brave people are now being expected to work without safe protective supplies , and trump and the gop don't have their backs in a crisis like this. I also have relatives and people I know who work in the medical field , and it is so sad they have been ignored , and put into this position . This should have never gotten to this point but this president refused to do his job, and these people are paying a price for it. It makes me sad and angry too. We deserve the truth and much better, but that'll never happen until trump is ousted.

[Python boot]

6. N95 particle mask

A construction-grade N95 mask will work better than a bandana. Why aren't hospitals using them?

[3Hotdogs]

7. Because there aren't enough of themto meet the demand surge.

[AllyCat]

8. All gone. Hardware stores all sold out.

[Ilsa]

13. Trump wants people and companies to DONATE their goods,

and I have no problem with making sacrifices like that. But it does piss me off that laborers are asked to donate, but the Rs are profiteers and want their buddies in big business to profit as well.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

17. Idiots are hoarding them just like they do food and toilet paper.

Around half of our nation are selfish, self-centered fear-driven assholes......

[Tipperary]

20. Yep, even some here on du are doing that.

Shame.

[Duppers]

19. Please read ...

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142451058

Then OhioChick's threads on this subject. Doctors, nurses, medical staff are in desperate need of protective supplies.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100213126793

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100213118078

[Chakaconcarne]

9. Some hospitals have taken to sewing their own.

[femmedem]

15. This nurse's sister is now sewing face masks for her and others. Instructions here:

&fbclid=IwAR1i0YtZOETcxor86Hl3zYSly9OM0Ccb5jyME-OyYGKPJTAsY5_g3xWY8Ek&app=desktop

But I'm neither a sewer nor a health care worker so I don't know how effective this is. But it's got to be better than a bandana.

[McCamy Taylor]

10. I am in health care and I want a burka with a face shield

[robbob]

11. I have sleep apnea and use a CPAP mask at night.

I bought one of those machines which cleans the mask by using ozone to kill bacteria and viruses. Up to 99% of them, or so they claim. I wonder if they could use the same kind of technology to clean hospital masks? Because reusing a mask after you have been in contact with an infected patient is just asking to spread the virus to others.

[Drahthaardogs]

14. I have three or four dust masks in the shop

Not N95, just dust masks I use when sweeping the floor. If I have to use them for this, I plan on deconning them with my ozone generator.

Why are they NOT using ozone generators. Very effective, fast, and nothing gets wet.

[llmart]

18. We can't manufacture masks, gowns, gloves in massive quantities quickly...

but we sure can manufacture guns, ammo and tanks (tanks, for Christ sake) in massive quantities all year, every year. We can also have an extremely bloated defense industry, but god forbid we should have the foresight to prepare for a health crisis.

I remember after 9/11 Dubya flailed around too, but he and his henchmen had no idea what steps to take immediately so he told us all to go shopping. By the next day there was a massive display of red, white and blue women's panties in the stores among other things for sale. Then the administration went straight to work at figuring out a way to sell an Iraq war to the public to avenge his Daddy's failed attempt at war.

Americans are also to blame for being so gullible as to pick these godawful "leaders".