To my healthcare/vet care workers and allied healthcare friends and family: I know it's a rough time, but when you're tired and frustrated, try not to forget your patients and their families are still scared and it's still your duty to be stronger than they are. The last few weeks I've sat in the parking lot of animal and human clinics and watched fellow patients and families sitting and crying in their cars while they waited for their turn or news. I've sat in my car and cried too. Yesterday I had a tech yelling at me because she said it wasn't fair she was overworked and needed a break when I brought Michigan in to be euthanized... and then she curtly demanded my credit card information. And in the last weeks I've called my own doctors and had front desk or billing people (usually already frustrating to deal with) extra frustrated about billing for phone calls and their work overload.
I remember once being on call as an ophthalmology resident and being 8 months pregnant and having taken a fall and having had to go get an emergency ultrasound, and when I got back to the ER there was an angry father there pacing around who'd been waiting 20 minutes with a kid who'd had headaches for a month (?) (It was migraine). I was grouchy and sick and I took care of her but the father complained to my chief that I wasn't sufficiently nice to them. And although he was so scary the nurses wanted to call security, he was right. I couldn't let my own crap show through while I took care of his daughter even if the he was awful and the circumstances were awful and I was exhausted... because she was scared and it was my job to let her lean on me. I think about her a lot, even all these years later.
I know right now folks are calling the med teams "heroes" but don't let it go to your head. You are doing what you've always done, putting aside your own misery and safety to take care of other people. A year from now they'll all forget what you sacrificed but you'll still be there; you won't get credit for having worked long hours or taking over sick co-worker responsibilities...
What they will remember is whether you were kind to them when they were frightened or angry, or what you said when you told them their loved one had passed, or how you comforted them when they were suffering.
Those little moments are what the job really is; don't let them slide.
Rest in Peace, Michigan. You were the sweetest of your brothers. Peanut misses you and your brothers Petey, Tiktok and Willis today, on what is your second birthday, May 5.
