THREE WEEKS

June 22, 2020.

Three weeks ago, there were hopes that the number of Covid-19 cases was declining and that we might be past the peak. Cities were starting to open up. Then George Floyd was murdered in Minneapolis and the whole world turned around. Instead of news about Covid-19 cases, we heard reports about demonstrations all over the world, and there were many articles and opinions about police brutality, racial injustice, and economic inequality. There was a also a third major event, important only to me: I got a new knee.

The total knee joint replacement had originally been scheduled for April 1. But in mid-March, the surgeon phoned and said he'd get back to me in mid-May. Since hospitals were too busy with Covid-19 cases, elective surgeries were on hold. In mid-May he rescheduled the surgery for June 3. It's not my aim to go into all the details of my hosptial stay and recovery. It's enough to say that the surgery was sucessful, and my recovery is on track. But Covid-19 did affect a few aspects of my experience and are relative to the subject of this blog.

I had already completed lab tests and gotten the OK from my primary care physician before the cancellation. So I needed to do that over again. I also needed to have a Covid-19 test, a nasal swab, two days before surgery, self-isolating from then until cheking into the hospital. The swab was done in the parking lot of the hospital, through the open winodw of my car. The nurse asked me lower my mask to uncover my nose, but to leave the mask on my mouth. I thought I might sneeze when the swab went up my nose, but instead, I coughed violently. The poke up my left nostril was high and sharp and cause a brief spike of pain. But there was no blood and there were no immediate after-effects.

Eleven days later, while recovering from the surgery, I began to smell something in the room; a heavy, oppressive perfumed smell. It took awhile to figure out that it was a phantom odor in my left nostril. As the odor grew stronger and more unpleasnt, it affected my sleep. The second day it began to lighten, and by the third day it was like the thin aroma of very cheap perfume. After that it became fainter and fainter, appearing only now and then, and finally disappeared for good (I hope.)

I can't say for sure that the phantom odor was caused by the swab test, and I haven't heard of other people who have been affected in this way. But a very small injury from the nasal poke is the most obvious explanation I have.

The nursing care at the hospital was good, but the nurses were rushed. The surgeon greeted me briefly when I checked in, then I never saw him again. He was reputedly doing six knee replacements that day at the rate of two hours each. I was told that two operating rooms were fully staffed and prepared for him. He'd walk into the first, do the surgery, leave the room, decontaminate, then walk into the second room for the next surgery. Other staff people were doing the prep and the clean up. He was probably trying to clear the back-log created during the ban on elective surgeries. There were a few glitches about my meds that might have been avoided if the surgeon or the nurses had had the time to talk with me.  And there were aspets of my comfort that could have been improved if staff had not been rushed into a one-size-fits-all routine.

I'm really complaining about trivial things here, knowing that I live in a bubble of economic privilege. While I was tossing and turning in my own soft bed, covered by my warm down comforter, I thought about homeless people who sleep in snatches while sitting up on all-night buses, or who try to find a place to lie down on hard ground without a blanket. I wondered how many people who start out with mild psychological problems become rageingly insane from lack of sleep, or who resort to drugs to dull the effects of sleeplessness, cold, and hunger. And many people don't have the money to pay for medical care; they can only suffer and hope they recover. Many don’t.

Let's hope that the pandemic and the demonstrations for equal justice will highlight these inequalities. We have a mandate to provide basic needs like medical care, housing, and food to everyone.