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Life's Ponderings: What if There's another Pandemic?
- Christine "Liz" LaRue
- May 3
- 5 min read
I am reposting this pandemic scenario I went through with my father. At the time, The Orange Faced Bully had not muscled up resources for a pandemic he found out about 5 months before. His ineptness causes 1.6 million people to die of Covid 19 without the resources set in place by previous Presidential administrations. Here we are again with Orange-Faced Idiot firing the majority of scientists that test for bird flu and Covid 19 both of which continue to change as we speak. We will not be prepared for bird flu - we aren't prepared for the growing epidemic of measles or tuberculosis today. The Orange Bully has instructed his government not to release any info on changes in bird flu or COVID-19 metamorphosing in new variants. What an idiot! - Christine Liz Larue
Life'
Let me tell you the nightmare I have been wrapped up in since my father went into the hospital on Monday, April 13. He went in for a leg infection and a high fever. Since the, he has also picked up the coronavirus. He was unable to eat well due to nausea for 4 days, most likely due to not having enough food in him to handle the medication he was given to fight his immune syndrome. Finally, on Thursday, he got meds to settle his nausea, and he was able to communicate to me he needed ginger ale, jello, and crackers while the hospital was sending him full meals, which he couldn't eat yet. My conversations with him have been spotty between him being exhausted and battling all of this...for a 94-year-old.
On Sunday, I got a call from a Filipino nurse who informed me that tho my father still had a high fever, the doctor of the day was going to discharge him and asked when I could be there to pick him up. I went ballistic. Ain't no way I would stand for that, knowing my father couldn't begin to care for himself, with an active COVID-19 diagnosis, a fever, and me, a 65-year-old with pre-existing conditions myself! They would have two bodies here. The nurse didn't understand why I couldn't go someplace else to stay and let my father come home and stay by himself! I told her, "Can he feed himself? Can he go to the bathroom without assistance?" She said no. So I maintained, how could she even suggest that he stay at home by himself plus expose me to COVID-19?? She suggested that I stay in our family's garage. I can't print here what went through my mind to say for fear I'd be in FB jail for a month!!!! I bit my tongue cuz I didn't want to jeopardize anything with this crazy nurse but told her..."No way can you discharge my father WITHOUT A DISCHARGE PLAN PUT TOGETHER BY THE MEDICAL SOCIAL WORKER...ON A DAMN SUNDAY AFTERNOON!"
I know I'm yelling here on FB, but I delivered that as tersely as I could. I told her NO. UNACCEPTABLE. Have the social worker call me on Monday to see what my father's needs are. On Monday, I left two messages on the social worker's phone about this situation and to call me.
Today. On Tuesday, I got a call from the social worker, who was stunned to know that through all of this, no doctor had talked to me and that my father was potentially going to be discharged on a Sunday with a high fever. She agreed that was totally unacceptable. We had a very good talk about my father's needs, which yet have to be fully assessed with my help. My father is most likely depressed and upset about not being able to talk or be allowed to sit up in bed to test himself out. I told the social worker that I was a retired medical social worker and my father was a retired University Dean. (Yes, I threw both of those facts out ON PURPOSE.) Our talk was good and solid, with hope for an investigation of options for my father.
Meanwhile, I have gone emotionally from feeling whipped and dragged out with worry, feeling totally stuck, to being charged with working to clean and reconfigure my house for whatever is to come. Thank goodness for my neighbors who have brought care packages to my front stoop friends who have called to check on me, shore me up, and prevent me from falling into depression myself.
The battle is real.
They ain't reporting this kinda bullshit on the news. You don't hear about a family's daily struggle for a loved one. All you hear about is stupid #45 and the stupid Republicans who couldn't fold up a paper bag with instructions on it and a gun placed to their heads. Their idiocy and fucked up performance, and piss-poor planning have exacerbated this. But Republicans historically have never been able to plan well for the average citizen, only the damn 1%, with MAGA supporters being as dense as fucking lemmings running over a cliff.
This is what my world has been like - pulling myself up out of the more to become angry enough to unstick myself and put one foot in front of the other.
Thank goodness for the world of social workers. Y'all just don't know how hard a job social work can be.
Thank you for your continued support of me and my father and the many others like us who are dealing with this crisis while trying to hold onto our own humanity at the same time. It would be sooo easy just to cuss out any of these players to make one feel better and absolve oneself of all the pent-up anger and frustration. To the MAGA supporters who want to go back to work with no support medically...well, social Darwinism will take care of all of you stupid MFs. I feel sorry for what your families and communities will go through as you bring new waves of this virus to people who are at risk with no conscientious, logical support from our federal government. It just isn't and will not be there. Hopefully, you have governors with some brains to help out. #45 and the Republicans are intent on killing us all with ineptitude.
Artist Bio
Christine “Liz” LaRue is a clay artist and illustrationist. She is known for her intricately textured figurative sculptures and emotionally illustrative drawings. Chicago-born, though also raised in Utah and Idaho, Ms. LaRue is of Creole/Cuban descent. Her art has been influenced by her Afro-Latino heritage. Ms. LaRue’s interests have been in pre-Columbian art of the Olmec, Maya of Mexico, Nazca, and Moche face pots of Peru. This also includes the bronze sculptures of the Ife of Nigeria and the Tā Moko tattoo art of the Maōri.
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