As a doctor who should be on the front lines dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic, I have quite an unusual experience dealing with it; I have not been working at all for the past 2 weeks, and for this week as well.
Since February, an outbreak of conjunctivitis has been running its course throughout the family (including the infant twins), and earlier on it was bad enough with the other family members such that some were getting pseudomembranes and needing more invasive interventions by the ophthalmology team. It was realistically only a matter of time before I would be the one affected; you can’t quarantine your underage family members away.
And luckily or unluckily it was my turn 2 weeks ago. Interestingly despite the known contagiousness (and the potential disaster that would happen if the whole hospital got infected from me), I was not relieved until the afternoon. Let the story of how that came to be remain a backstory. My first son and I would not be the last people infected; that would be my 3rd child (the one with chronic lung disease), who just started showing symptoms yesterday.
Anyways, since I was first exiled, I have decided to stay in Melaka instead of Kuala Lumpur with my family. And since then I’ve gone to the ophthalmology department here twice. The first time my eyes were still pretty badly infected and there was no doubt that I was not fit to work. Two days ago I went again to the clinic. From afar the eyes looked good; but my vision was a bit blurry in one eye and on the slit lamp there were still problems in my eyes. So despite the fact that colleagues are stretched thin, I’m still kept away from work for another week.
Since the start of my sick leave, I’ve become a full time house husband, dealing with sending the kids to the nursery, school, etc. And now that this week is a school holiday anyway (on top of the COVID-19 induced partial shutdown), I’m also caring for the older kids at home. Luckily the nursery is still open for the twins, as the pressure is on them to continue; how are the mother healthcare workers going to work if no one is going to care for their children?
I did not have any opportunity to go to the gym for this period of time, even if I wanted to disregard the contagiousness of my eyes. Initially they hurt too much anyway. I could not tolerate any head down position; forget straining as that would probably pop inflamed vessels in my eyes. Now that the pain has subsided, gyms are now on an enforced shutdown. And the current climate in Melaka is literally inhospitable for physical activity; even at night the house here is too hot and humid (I’m barely getting enough sleep). With my baseline heat intolerance, there were times when I had to go into the car at night so that I could sit still without sweating.
The good thing about this personal ordeal is that I get a rare chance to be with the family for an extended period. This has also given me an opportunity to spend time on other side projects (like finally updating this blog. I wonder if when I return to work, would I need to self-quarantine myself away from my family for a very long time knowing that I’ve 1 child with chronic lung disease and 2 young twins.
Oh the mental conflict that I’m sure is present in every healthcare worker parent.
