I remember when the pandemic started, everyone was afraid. Afraid of the unknown. I get it. The CDC knew nothing about this strain of Coronavirus and people panicked.
There was no toilet paper in the stores for quite some time. I was lucky that I had picked up a pack of 12 at least two weeks prior and still hadn’t yet opened it yet (it’s just my husband and I and my daughter who’s still in diapers).
Then the food was cleared from the shelves like people hadn’t been to the store in months. There were people that couldn’t find formula for their babies. Baby wipes and diapers were sparse. It was crazy. I was lucky to be breastfeeding my child, and the thought of breastfeeding the whole family actually crossed my mind.
I work as a nurse at an allergy and asthma clinic. We travel to different parts of the state, different days of the week.
We never stopped working. We were there for our patients.
While some clinics closed by government orders, we were considered essential and we stayed open. We kept those asthma patients that were at high risk of having asthma attacks out of the emergency rooms where COVID-19 was being tested and treated.
What did I do differently? Did I stop breastfeeding because I was afraid I would pass COVID-19 to my baby? First, there wasn’t a lot that I did do differently when I came home from work. I still stripped my clothes before coming into the house. I still washed my hands and put my shoes up.
I didn’t stop breastfeeding. Breast milk is one of the most amazing things the female body can make. Scientists themselves can’t even replicate it. It is packed with antibodies that help fight viruses you come into contact with on the daily.
So really, I was helping myself and my daughter by continuing to breastfeed. I can also say that she has only been sick once with a cold the entire year, which was before COVID-19 became a pandemic and even before it made it into the US.
Being a nurse in a pandemic is actually kind of exhausting.
I’ve learned that not everyone knows how to wash their hands regularly, nor do they know the correct way to wash them.
I’ve learned that not everyone knows how to wear a mask the right way and at the right time.
I’ve learned that people think if you wear gloves on your hands, you’re protecting yourself.
I beg to differ.
Gloves are single use only. You cannot wear them everywhere and touch everything with the same pair. The same pair that you touched your phone, door handle, the can of soup you picked up at the store, and then the pin pad when you pay for said can of soup with.
Really what is supposed to happen is you touch your phone with your gloves, take those gloves off, wash your hands, put new gloves on. Touch the door handle, take those gloves off, wash your hands put new gloves on.
Six months later, I’m seeing improvement in the community. I’m seeing people wear their masks the right way. They stopped wearing gloves everywhere they went, or at least not the same pair.
At the end of the day, I go home to my husband and my one-, going on 13-year-old, cook dinner, and enjoy the night and do it all over the next day and I wouldn’t change a single thing.
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About the Author
Jessica Deel
I'm Jessica Deel, born in Amherst, OH, right outside of Cleveland, and raised in Taylorsville, KY, right outside of Louisville. I met my husband at EKU while doing some prerequisites for nursing school I then went back home to Taylorsville. We dated while I was in nursing school at the community college there and got my LPN in 2017. We got married in 2018 and had our first baby in 2019. We are currently in Richmond, KY.