Beginning of the World Stoppage and Pre COVID invasion was an intense time. It was a time of policy and rule changes happening what felt like every 5 seconds. To PPE or not to PPE. To fight or flight. Silly, dumbfounding rules coming out rapidly while I stood scratching my head, trying to figure out what was happening. Where do I begin, now, of telling the tale?

One of the management nurses, in effort to provide comedic relief, recorded a video of trying to understand the information. It definitely was one of the funniest things I have ever watched. Her husband was a solider stationed overseas, and she was home with her 2 young sons. She stood strong. She and I cried many, many tears together and yet we always seemed to find a way to laugh when there was really nothing to laugh about. I still think about her often. I shall refer to her as Merida. She bravely followed her blind leader into battle. I wish I could post her video.

The saga of PPE, masks and all sorts, hand sanitizer, soap, cleaning products, and let us not forget the toilet paper.

It came down first from the local health department medical director, that every employee must wear face masks. I use the term face masks lightly. The limited supply of surgical face masks was used up very quickly, which led the beehive administrator and I scrambling. We were a rather large beehive that was corporately owned by an extremely large corporation. I will call the corporation, X. X management did not want our beehive staff and residents wearing masks nor any of the other beehives. They wanted us to wait until something made sense. All I knew is that I wasn’t going to tangle with the health department medical director, and since the medical director visited us randomly at least twice a week, we were going to wear masks. Masks were very difficult to come by. Basically, masks as well as everything else the government officials at various levels required us to have, were unobtainable. At one time local volunteers of a community group, churches, family members of staff and residents, made us masks. We wore them proudly, but reluctantly. (If I heard 1 more person say, they could not breathe while wearing one….) We actually would fight over them, and the different designs and styles. Some of them went over the ears, some were held in place with clips, some required them to be tied. My ears hurt for months after we started wearing the masks. I was unaware that was just the beginning of the pain of wearing the masks. At one point, it was decided that the single layered cloth masks were not effective enough, even though we had not been invaded with COVID yet. That is when the real creativity began. Bras had been transformed into masks. We were the cup of the bra over our nose and mouth. A physician began recruiting volunteers to make multi layers home made masks with air condition filters cut down and placed within the masks. What felt like years later, but in all actuality it was probably only a few days, we were told we could no longer wear any hand made mask, and that medical grade masks must be worn at all times. The residents were given the stockpile of handmade masks. The residents were told, if they came out of their rooms, they had to have one of those handmade masks on. The residents were not really allowed out of their rooms, unless it was for specific purposes. The life and activity in the beehive became almost silent.

Corporation X, started to obtain medical grade masks. They stockpiled the masks at their headquarters. They would make weekly rounds and drop off 1-2 boxes of masks. Each box contained 50 masks. The rules were 1 mask per week per staff member. The rare essential health care provider not employed by the beehive that was allowed in, had to furnish their own mask or they could not be permitted into the beehive. Each employee was to put their allowed mask into a ziplock baggie and was to be stored on their dashboard in their car while not on duty. I remember in nursing school, those same masks, we were taught were a one time usage and if they became damp from sneezing, sweating, whatever, they needed to be discarded and replaced with a new one. Now, I was being re-educated, that the prior teaching was wasteful.

In my spare time, my husband and I would scour every local hardware store, trying to obtain anything that remotely be used as PPE. It was dictated that in the event of a single case of COVID, staff had to outfitted with head to toe PPE. Apparently everyone was doing the same hobby as us. I finally was able to obtain swim googles for eye protection; rain suits like the type you wear in a hurricane; and rubber boots. Corporation X did not share if they had any plans for the whole PPE set up, and we did not have anything available at the beehive. So, husband and I made the purchases with our own mo,,,,ney. The staff joked at the fashion show that was provided, but all in all, they thought it was a good plan rather than having nothing. Eventually, corporation X obtained PPE, and the same system and rules for the masks were issued for PPE. It was recommended that staff be issued a full set of PPE, and the PPE be stored in a bag that could be hung on a hook in the hive, when not in use.

Hand sanitizer was also in short supply, and the availability to buy more was even more bleak than PPE. The rule of it having to be at least 70% alcohol made it tougher. One day, while the state surveyors were at the beehive for some sort of investigation, we had a few drops of the liquid nectar left. If we ran out, and the state noticed, corporation X would face severe fines, facility administrator could face losing his/her license. Panic ensued in the administrator and me. The administrator started calling everywhere including manufacturing plants of alcohol sanitizer. I asked the state, what if we used the equivalent proof of liquor. The state agreed to the liquor to be used as hand sanitizer. As I was arranging for a staff member to head to the local liquor store to buy as many bottles possible of the appropriate liquor, the staff and residents began to plan the use of the liquor. I don’t believe they planned to really use it for what it was going to be bought for. In fact, I remember hearing one nurse say, if 70% kills it on our hands, I bet if we drank 10ml every hour, it would keep us from getting COVID. Luckily, the facility administrator was able to make a deal with a manufacturer of the liquid gold for a decent price. It was bought in 50 gallon barrels. We purchased 4 of them. Hand sanitizer was no longer an issue. The staff and residents were thoroughly disappointed.

Bleach is one cleaning item that most nursing home beehives are usually limited in being allowed to clean with. Not during any part of the pandemic was that any longer true. In fact, it was highly encouraged that we clean every surface with it. And I mean every surface, except for the residents. I am quite sure there was not an employee, who did not have every single work clothing item they owned covered with bleach stains. It was like a new fashion trend.

Toilet paper. Corporation X did not allow for Angel Soft, Charmin, or nice toilet paper, to be purchased with their funds. Usually the single ply, or the 3 ply was purchased. It is a sad day, when one steals the beehives toilet paper supply from the locked storage unit outside. Creativity was essential during these times for sure.

Other crazy rules followed. No one was allowed to leave the facility for lunch nor could one bring their lunch. We could eat out of the hive kitchen or use Door Dash. Door Dash made a lot of deliveries those days. Maybe corporation X owned Door Dash too. It was not long before the residents started getting Door Dash deliveries too.

One day corporation X, issued passes to the staff. It was a signed letter that we were supposed to keep in our cars, in case we got stopped by the police, and asked why we were out and about. I did not hear of that happening to anyone. However I thoroughly enjoyed my commute to work. The roads were empty.

The residents were not really allowed to leave the facility unless it was deemed life and death, like dialysis. However even when that was lifted some, most physician offices, did not want to see nursing home residents. They were scared that the nursing home residents would bring them COVID. We would try to give the residents time in the outdoor sun. They had to wear a mask, be at least 6 feet apart. No outsiders anywhere near the residents. The residents were not allowed any face to face contact with any outsider. They could have visits virtually or thru closed glass pane windows. The only human contact the residents could have is with the staff. Beehive resident activities were another interesting thing. They could see, touch talk to their roommate, but no other contact could occur between residents. BINGO games had to performed delicately. There was not any communal dining. The residents were still allowed smoke breaks with lots of rules. After a little bit, most residents quit getting out of bed. No one was going anywhere or really doing anything. We did hold vehicle parades and anything else we thought we could get a way with. We did our best.

One time, during a resident’s window visit with her family, the family somehow got the window opened and they only had the window screen between them. Our facility social worker, who I will call Patience, walked by and saw what was happening. She approached the resident, and the family thru the window screen, and told them that we had to close the window, and that she was sorry for having to interrupt their visit but it is the rules. Patience barely touched the window, and the window pane fell, right onto the resident’s fingers. It was truly an unfortunate accident. The resident was not injured. But, I will never forget the pain it caused Patience nor the heart break it caused the resident. The resident just wanted to see her family. I referred to the social worker as Patience because she had the sweetest spirit. She was so kind to everyone and she exhibited a level of patience that I could never acquire. After the window was examined by maintenance, the window latch did not catch, and it had to be replaced. The window would have never fallen, if the rules for lock down had never been put in place to begin with.

Another silly aspect of the lockdown, I still cannot wrap my head around is why did stores have limited hours? Why is Wal-Mart not open 24 hours? How did limiting store hours make anything safer?