With late April, came so many text threads among different family members. My dad was hospitalized with COVID, and my sisters, mom, and I were trying to keep everyone updated. We had a system down where my mom would call my sisters or me after talking to one of Dad's doctors and we would act as scribe, writing down what Mom told us. I felt like a translator then, trying to include everything she told me, but also explaining the update so that my non-medical family members could understand. Those days felt exhausting, but I was so intensely grateful to have the support of so many cousins, aunts, and uncles, and friends. These days made me realize the preciousness of every word/update from provider to family members. On my Sub-I months later, I made sure to end most days with calls to the family members of my patients, knowing how much these updates could potentially ease their worries.
One of the many notes in my phone from that time, ready to be copied and pasted into a text thread:
Here is a summary from what my mom just told me on the phone. Mom, please feel free to add stuff in here. At 10:40, Dr. L called to get Mom's insight into what was going on leading up to the hospitalization and to get a report of the events of the past few days (Mom filled her in about the past several days: intense fatigue, trouble sleeping, confusion). At the end of the narration, Dr. L said it was very helpful and made sense with what she had observed. Dad exhibited difficulty in adequately reporting what was going on. It was difficult for him to answer questions. He was jumping from idea to idea and agitated. She thinks he is showing signs of delirium. He really wants to go home and doesn’t want to stay another night. If he attempts to leave, she would have to make a judgment in that moment (based on what’s going on then) to see if he has the mental capacity to make that decision. At this point, my mom is serving as his health care proxy. His sodium level is currently 128, slowly coming up. He got a liter of fluid yesterday. He also got levaquin (an antibiotic) but they are planning to discontinue it because there is no sign of bacterial pneumonia. They still need to get at the etiology of the low sodium (they are thinking either 1. Not eating much recently, 2. SIADH). Dr. L is going to call J to touch base with him. Mom asked for advice about what she should say to Dad if he calls. Dr. L said try to de-escalate, saying something like the doctors are concerned because you’re COVID positive and these are the crunch days in the progression of the disease so they want to keep a close eye on you. She said she would call back this evening and tomorrow. Then Dad calls Mom around 11:05. He was agitated and said he wanted to go home. Mom said that Dr. L is talking with J about a game plan, told him the COVID crunch time line.