Member-only story
COVID vs Cancer
I’m a cancer nurse these days. It’s an undeniable fact of My Life — some of my patients will die. That’s what cancer does. Less of them die than in days of old, and less die right away. Time is the gift we can give when we cannot give a cure.
Nearly every week when I open my computer I am notified electronically that a patient I cared for has transitioned to The Next Thing. For most of them, it is expected. For many of them and their families, it is a blessing to know the suffering has ended. Because we gave them support, time, and a chance earlier in their diagnosis, sometimes there is even peace.
Azrael comes. Politely, knocking. Tip-toeing in amidst family members and hospice nurses.
This week I lost my first patient to the ravages of the pandemic. Not cancer.
One week.
It took seven days to go from life-as-they-knew-it-at-home to a cough and fever to intubated and then dead in an ICU.
It. Was. So. Brutally. Fast.
Azrael came for this patient. Not politely. She did not knock — She blew open the doors and rode in on a fiery chariot. There were no family members in Her way — only battle-hardened ICU nurses who understood the fruitlessness of their fight.
