November 10-November 22  ?Another Shut Down due to COVID?

The gift that keeps on giving. Not the kind of gift we were looking forward to at Thanksgiving. But Maryland's number of positive COVID patients has shot up. We were at the 3.0 positivity rate and below, but it is now at 6.0 and seems to be rising. And the crazy thing is, not sure what people have been doing different. This is a crazy virus. Maryland has not really opened up the state that much over the summer. People stayed mostly outside, including eating at restaurants. There were no limits on the numbers of people allowed into the stores like early Spring, except Trader Joes, but most shopping experiences seemed spread out. Stores keep people spread out while standing in line to check out. There are still cleansers available at entry ways to wipe down grocery carts. Although I keep hand sanitizer in my car. Schools stayed virtual,  including sporting events. All big events were cancelled including festivals and fairs. And most everyone wears a mask in Maryland when they are in public places. And especially in the nursing home where I work-we have been following CDC guidelines of using PPE since March. But when we had a wound care MD come into our facility with a positive diagnosis, it seemed to start spreading like wildfire among our residents as well as some staff members. Currently 2 out of 3 Physical Therapists are out with COVID. So glad the new management company cut back our staff. We have 1 PT in the building that just started to replace our therapist that left for the Philippines. I missed several days of work because I was feeling ill. I tested negative for COVID when I was finally allowed to return to work. I had an upset stomach, stuffy head and headache. Normal cold/flu symptoms but also COVID symptoms. So I had to stay out of work for 4 days after the onset of my first symptoms and then have a COVID test when I went back after I was feeling better. Except they did not have any COVID tests in the facility when I was ready to return. So I had to take an extra day off. I prefer to take the time off without pay since I don't have much paid time off. My fellow OT's have started having the same symptoms, but so far have tested negative for COVID. However, one OT visited with her son that tested positive for COVID, so she had to take extra time off to quarantine. It's hard to keep up! Because of the rise in the state, Maryland demands nursing home staff and residents be tested twice a week. And since our facility has such widespread COVID diagnoses, over 30 residents now, we are basically treating everyone like they have COVID and wearing N95 masks in the building with each patient on isolation precautions. It is very frustrating as you come to work each day not knowing what the new guidelines will be, or who is sick or who went out to the hospital. And as the pharmaceutical companies roll out the new vaccines, I will probably be the first of those to get it since I work in a nursing home. Little nervous about getting it, but also it will be a big relief not to have to worry about bringing home the virus to family and friends. 

Fortunately there does not seem to be any issues in my mom's facility. Thank God. Her facility is actually the best one in the county. Pretty much if you have serious medical problems, it is almost impossible to fight off COVID it seems. The residents in all facilities have had to return to isolation precautions, remaining in their apartments or rooms. With the cold weather, outdoor visits with residents were just getting set up indoors. I was going to schedule an indoor visit with mom starting the 1st of November, but they had to stop all visits, indoor and out. When our numbers were low, they were able to eat in the dining room all spread out and participate in BINGO and exercise groups, also spread out. But now they have to go back to their rooms. I try to send in magazines for mom to help keep her busy. She does have a working television in her apartment at least. Hard to think of things to keep her active since she really needs some supervision and guidance to participate in activities. At least with her memory loss, she lives in the moment, so she probably does not realize how much time has gone by or what she may be missing. Small blessings. Being locked in your room, especially when you have dementia is not necessarily a good thing. Residents don't get the attention they need  and we have seen secondary issues occurring, like falls and fractures, weakness and depression, limited medical appointments with some sadly leading to more loss of life. I know the holidays are going to be tough, but we all try to support one another. 

And even though November started off pretty rough during election week. and seems to be dragging on, I still had plenty to celebrate as we rolled into mid November, starting with my birthday. Although I did not get my Birthday wish as far as the election was concerned, I must say I had a very enjoyable weekend Birthday celebration with the family even though it landed on Friday the 13th!!  Allison came over after I got off work and brought me dinner!  Tom bought me breakfast from Starbucks before work and picked up a chocolate mousse birthday cake from a new bakery he and Allison discovered near her apartment. After dinner and a viewing of Disney's weekly Mandalorian, we Skyped Scott so he could "share" my birthday cake while I opened my presents. Tom picked up some great gifts including a new silver charm bracelet I wanted with a small Eiffel Tower charm from my trip to Paris with Allison after she graduated from high school. I also got a few more masks, a carrying case for my cell phone and a new glass cover, some Disney socks. my yearly wall calendar and some Scottish Elderflower flavored gin(Tom got my hooked when he brought some back from one of his work trips to Scotland). Allison picked me up a reusable cold pack for my aches and pains after a long day at work. And Scott picked me up some cute State of Michigan earrings I spotted while shopping in Kalamazoo. I say I had an enjoyable weekend celebrating my birthday. I was scheduled to work, but since the COVID virus spread we had a lot less patients to treat. We also had one of our OT staff return to work since we had been so very busy the last few months when COVID numbers were down. So now we have more staff and less work. However, it is good to have reserve staff since as I mentioned some of us tested positive for COVID, or have been around family or friends that tested positive and cannot return to work until they complete a 14 day quarantine. So actually not having to work Saturday was a great Birthday gift. It gave me extra time to do yard work! Even though I had finished raking up all the leaves in our street the weekend before, all the rest of the leaves from the maple trees alongside the road fell on the yard. Even Tom admitted there were too many to mow, so he and I raked them all into the street for pick up. I started picking them up while Tom cut the grass. He also had to replace a few large fence posts in our backyard that have been rotting out and starting to lean. I also took some time to paint a small bookshelf I picked up in the neighborhood for Scott's room. He has a pile of school books from Western that I thought needed a home. So I had to clean it, put down some primer, sand it and paint it twice, along with a cork board I also picked up from the neighborhood "curbside" shopping. And it is getting tougher to get things done outside now with the shorter daylight. I decided to spruce up my fall flowers and replant the mums. I also had to trim back my butterfly bush and summer flowers. But during the week,  Cookie and I have had to take a few flashlight walks in the dark, but only when the weather is mild. We still get spooked sometimes from the night time creatures roaming the neighborhood. Like our fox population that love to "scream". Sounds like someone is being killed-very eerie. 

So I finally had to quit scooping up leaves from the street when it got too dark. On Sunday I was hoping Tom, Allison and I could go out to lunch for my birthday. I wanted to eat outside, and it was supposed to rain early in the evening. Plus as I mentioned, it gets dark early and cold too now. So we decided to go out for lunch. But most of the places in our area that we wanted to eat at with outdoor dining didn't open until 2pm or you couldn't make reservations. So I thought it would be nice to drive out to Frederick(about a 30 min drive) with Allison this time and have lunch at the same brewery Tom and I visited on my electric bike hunt. Turns out it was a great decision. First Allison and I  started the morning  out with a trip to the nail salon for a much needed mani-pedi after tv mass before heading out to Frederick. The weather was a bit chilly with clouds and a few sprinkles which kept the crowds down at least. We got a table right away on the roadside in front of the restaurant and we were able to bring Cookie too! She had a great time visiting all the people and everyone wanted to pet her of course. I had a fabulous dish-lobster and old bay grilled cheese on brioche bread with a fried egg and hollandaise sauce on top . Allison had a personal pizza and Tom opted for a breakfast burrito. All very tasty. Afterwards we walked along the street and did some window shopping. Allison bought some loose tea and some pumpkin whoopee pies for all of us for dessert, and Tom and I stopped into a distillery to try their whiskey and gin(more gin for me to take home!). We also strolled along their river walk which I would imagine is a lot of fun for open air dining and concerts in the summer. Overall a very nice afternoon and fun checking out all the different stores. We'll definitely have to go back during non COVID times to really explore the rest of the town. They also have a cool civil war medical museum there which I have not found anyone to go with me yet, but I'd like to check it out. I've heard interesting things about it. 

I've also continued my monthly Girl Scout camporee meetings online. Our group is still hoping to hold the event next May 2021. We have been planning several scenarios though depending on the virus like having a one day event spread out rather than an overnight. Or if we can have an overnight, having all the girls in tents instead of cabins spread out. Activities are pretty much the same as well as the food, but we discussed making everything separate and sanitized. At least most of the activities would be held outdoors. And for the most part we have the whole event planned out, just not the process. At this time of the year I would also be participating in Holiday GS choir events starting with parades! Not this year. 

And keeping up with the COVID schedule, the Universities have started to shut down due to increased level of COVID. At least some have switched to just online, but others have told families to come pick up their kids at the last moment. Western University planned on sending the kids home before Thanksgiving break. We got a refund for leaving the dorm early. Some kids obviously can't leave or won't leave if they live in an apartment or just commute to school. But all classes are online anyway. We planned on picking Scott up on the 20th when the dorms shut down. He is not finished with his semester however. He still has classes online until Dec 18th, but the professors were busy trying to get all the projects done that needed to be completed while the kids were still officially on campus. Especially his lab work. But things were still not completely set in stone. He had several lab projects that were supposed to be turned in on Friday the 20th, but they cancelled all in person sessions, so he had to drop off his projects and let the professors run the experiments on their own and hope for the best. Such is school in COVID days. So Tom flew up to Grand Rapids on Thursday and Scott picked him up at the airport and dropped him off at the hotel. On Friday Tom borrowed Scott's car to run some shopping errands, including picking up a coconut cream pie for Scott's Birthday  from Traverse City Pie Company. And some Vernors for me from Meijers while Scott was taking an online quiz in the morning. When he finished, he packed up his computer and dirty clothes and the two headed to Dayton Ohio for the night. They decided to take a side trip and visit our friend John D on Saturday morning. They all met for breakfast and a stroll through the Dayton Air and Space museum before Tom and Scott headed home. I was happy to take Friday off from work which gave me plenty of time to make up Scott's bed, scrub out his bathtub and do the grocery shopping for Thanksgiving dinner since I worked on Saturday instead. So very happy to have Scott home, even if it was because of COVID!

Happy Veterans Day! Special thoughts go out to my mom's cousin in law, Joe Petraitis who passed away this week at 94 in Nokomis Florida and served in the Navy.