Submitted by John
\nAdvanced Practitioner Reporting Chest Radiographer<\/p>\n
March 2020. Three-week holiday in Canada visiting my sister on Vancouver Island, what a treat except the signs of a pandemic were brewing as I departed Heathrow.<\/p>\n
As the holiday progressed various shops and facilities were closing down, and one could sense a certain fear throughout the world when observing the news on radio, television and on-line.<\/p>\n
Covid-19 was quickly advancing throughout Europe, so I felt reasonably safe in the outback of Canada.<\/p>\n
My return flight was cancelled, and rearrangements had to be quickly made. I returned a day early to an alien environment of England.<\/p>\n
The fun now started! Having arrived back at home on a sunny Thursday morning, because of being ‘vulnerable’, I was not able to enter the house as my eldest son having demonstrated signs of Covid and was one week into a two-week isolation along with the rest of the household, so I was in effect homeless.<\/p>\n
Hotels and guesthouses were all closed, somebody suggested, can’t you stay with a friend! I was ‘vulnerable’ and having just travelled a third of the way around the world, I\u00a0was at high risk of having caught the virus myself.<\/p>\n
In the back of my mind, I envisaged sleeping in the back of my car or kipping down in a sleeping bag at work, as they say, desperate times, desperate measures. My boss was horrified with these suggestions, so keyboards were tapped and I was given a room at staff accommodation at Worthing to tie me over for the coming week.<\/p>\n
I was jet-lagged, hungry and needing food. Thank goodness for the volunteers providing basic food for NHS workers in the carpark at Worthing hospital. I bought some potatoes, eggs, bread and tinned tomatoes, what a feast! I also got a free two-kilogram bag of coleslaw, which had been donated by one of the local fast-food establishments.<\/p>\n
After several day recovering from my flight, I was back at work in Southlands Hospital in the safety of my own office. There wasn’t any time to waste, and I was straight in helping out behind the front line dealing with what would become a long fraught battle with a world-wide pandemic.<\/p>\n
I worked through the spring and summer of 2020, observing through the media the advancing surges of the Covid pandemic. As the roads were quieter than usual, I decided to cycle to work on certain days as I needed the exercise and of course it’s good for the environment.<\/p>\n
Into November, and I’m told to go home to shield. HR had finally caught up with me and there was no escape. I wasn’t happy as I wanted to stay at my post, but had to go home and isolate.<\/p>\n
It’s now April 2021, three lockdowns later and I’m finally allowed back at work. I’ve been one of the fortunate ones.<\/p>\n
I hope people remain safe and be sensible in the coming months and years and never forget all the individuals who succumbed to the effects of the virus.<\/p>\n
As Captain Tom famously quoted, tomorrow will be a better day!<\/p>\n
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March 2020. Three-week holiday in Canada visiting my sister on Vancouver Island, what a treat except the signs of a pandemic were brewing as I departed Heathrow…..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"featured_media":5001,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_expiration-date-status":"","_expiration-date":0,"_expiration-date-type":"","_expiration-date-categories":[],"_expiration-date-options":[]},"categories":[160,152,144],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n