Day 18: Going Home

For appropriate context, you will want to first read these posts: “Eleven Days Ago” , “Day 12”, and “Day 13”.

This afternoon we will be released from the hospital to go home. We just took our Covid tests for clearance. We’ll be changing the confines of a hospital for the confines of our community as the Shanghai lockdown continues, but it will be nice to have a bed again. More importantly, it means that my wife is making progress and that’s why they are comfortable to send us home.

This has been quite an ordeal and I sincerely hope that it’s a once in a lifetime experience, but it’s also come with its own gifts. This will be my focus today.

Eleven Things I’ve Learned

• I can be calm under pressure. This was by far the most intense “emergency” situation that I’ve been in and I did pretty alright.
• A well-placed bedpan is a lifesaver. I’ve come to appreciate the utilitarian beauty of this simple invention.
• My wife is a warrior. Ok, I knew this already, but she upped her rank this time.
• A reasonably good layered look can be achieved by pulling a pony tail over the head (toward the face) and then cutting straight.
• Caregivers are heroes. From the doctors and nurses to the food servers and ayi’s they do their work in the service of others. They are not perfect (just like the rest of us) but they are full of good intentions.
• A terribly broken leg would be a good model for a wonderfully nasty Halloween piñata. This is a million dollar idea, but I don’t have the entrepreneurial sprit to capitalize it myself so feel free to steal it.
• Covid started off as a human tragedy in its own right, but the way governments have responded around the world have compounded the casualties. The west’s loose approach accelerated deaths early in their countries. China’s rigid zero-tolerance policy is accelerating casualties of all kinds now. I can only hope that governments around the world reflect on this experience and learn something for next time.
• An injection in the belly (of anti-clotting medication) should be located approximately three to four finger widths away from the belly button and jabbed quickly at ninety degrees from the skin surface. It is scary but it is doable.
• Meaningfully reflecting on the gifts we receive each day is a powerful anti-depressant.
• Absence can make some of life’s simplest things the greatest pleasures, especially true for bowel movements.
• A good life-partner is a blessing to never be squandered. Enjoy the time you have together, even if its sharing a hospital room. We can’t control the future but we can certainly choose to appreciate the present.

Be well,

Monty

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