Coronavirus Update: December 23, 2021

Let me start by saying that this is not the holiday newsletter I originally wrote. The original one was cheery and upbeat and, really funny.

I can’t send that one because last night, as I sat down to do one final edit, I had literally just splashed cold water on my face and wiped miles of mascara off my cheeks. There was a healthy 2 finger rocks glass to my left, and a pile of buttery Christmas cookies on my right.

So, you ask, why the tears and bourbon and sugary treats?

While I am so glad to have all three of my kids under my roof, surrounded by their piles of inexplicably damp laundry, I am also tapped out. As in TAPPED. OUT.

Just when we thought CoVID-19 was behind us, along came Omicron. It came on with such speed and fury that I had already written the aforementioned cheery version of this letter.

Our phones have not stopped ringing in days. We are booked and double booked. We are so short on appointments, in fact, that my scheduled Christmas vacation has turned into several days of seeing sick patients.

It was enough when my team was “just” exhausted, but now they are exhausted AND coming down with CoVID. This means the healthy among us are coming in early, staying late, and running like lunatics from CoVID test to flu test to booster vaccine and back again.

So last night, it had suddenly hit me that we were doing it all again — thus the tears, bourbon, and sugary treats.

But, as the bourbon warmed my soul from the inside, my heart rate slowed down, and I heard the tinkle of Hadley’s gorgeous giggle in the next room. And then, the truth materialized.

THE GOOD NEWS

Yes. People are sick. BUT, for the most part, they are only a LITTLE sick. They are clamoring for appointments not because they are short of breath, need oxygen, or are at risk of hospitalization. The vast majority simply want reassurance before they head out for the holiday.

Yes. The phones are ringing off the hook. But, it is not people calling grief-stricken over sickened loved ones on their death beds that they are not able to visit. They are calling to ask about things like the validity of at-home tests and whether they can get their booster shot in our office.

Yes. We are testing positive for CoVID, BUT we are NOT nearly as sick with CoVID as our friends and colleagues who had it last year at this time.