Life in a Nursing Home: A Holiday Adventure in Doors, 25 December 2019

Holidays in a medical facility are depressing. In December, 2019, the skilled nursing facility in which I'm bedridden held a door-decorating contest for staff. Late one night, before Christmas day, while the facility was quiet, I transferred into my wheelchair and drove around the quiet hallways, looking for doors. For just a moment, it was magical, and this is what that 2019 night looked like to me. In December of 2020, after nearly a year of lockdown and deaths in neighboring nursing homes, on 12/24, COVID-19 entered and ripped though the facility within a day. Almost the entire 125 patient population was infected, including me. We were all sealed off in the "red zone" and abandoned by staff, most of whom refused to come to work. By 6 January, I was dying in an ICU. The final death count was 54. Christmas was trauma. The trauma of COVID-19 in nursing homes is something that I haven't seen any adequate discussion of. It hangs heavy, still, among surviving patients and staff, in the facility I'm in. This December, 2021, however, as holiday decorations were attempted again, I noticed that staff had started to talk about it, healthfully...until Omicron hit. As of Christmas day, 2021, ten staff members were infected and isolated, and we as patients left short staffed. It's been a flashback, an acute reminder, for both patients and staff. There were some doors and other decorations this year, with obvious changes in infectious areas of the facility. You can find pictures on my Instagram (my main account, where I usually journal my daily, medical life). If you can help me out of a nursing home and back into a home of my own, please visit my fundraiser. #RareDisease #Genetic #EDS #EhlersDanlosSyndrome #CervicalInstability #ChiariMalformation #AddisonsDisease #AdrenalInsufficiency #MECFS #PosturalOrthostaticTachycardiaSyndrome #Dysautonomia #Gastroparesis #MastCellDisorder #IgGSubclassDeficiency #SjogrensSyndrome #MadelungsDeformity #Spondylosis #Fibromyalgia #ChronicPain #ChronicIllness #Disability #Wheelchair Can you help me, please?❤️: www.gofundme.com/HOPE-for-a-RareDisease-Patient LINK IN INSTAGRAM BIO Amazon wish list❤️: tiny.cc/7tujuz Store❤️: tiny.cc/y7gmuz $15 Free Credit: tiny.cc/qvhluz IG❤️: @rarediseasepatient TW❤️: @rarepatient FB❤️: RareDisease Patient YT❤️: Rare Disease Patient