Touched

This morning I learned that one of my patients who was seen in the respiratory clinic last Thursday, had been touched by the virus,  turning positive for COVID-19.  By the time I called him this morning, he was doing much better, thankfully.  He had been feeling pretty horrible for two weeks and finally got checked out. To his credit, he had stayed at home and has not ventured out.  He is not sure how he got it but was around someone who was asymptomatic that had been living in China for 2-3 months this winter. 

I was told today that at least one projection has Missouri not peaking with COVID related deaths until mid to late May.  There is good news and bad news to that projection.  The good is that if it is delayed that long, we have probably done a good job of flattening the curve. This bodes well for the medical establishment to be able to meet the demands of those who do get sick.  The bad news is if we are one of the last states to surge, how much equipment is going to be left for us to use to protect ourselves?  Hopefully by then some of the American manufacturers will be putting out masks, gloves, gowns, sanitizer, etc. 

Today was a great day to do some wood carving.  I showed a picture of this to my grandson and asked him if he could tell what it was.  He first thought it was a lamb.  Today after I had done more on it he said, “It is a GOAT!”  Argh! It is not a goat.  Looking at it again, I have to admit that his large floppy ears look more like horns than ears so I’ll need to work on those.  What do you think it is?

I also made some good progress on our bunk bed project, getting the frame hung on the wall.  I was most pleased that when putting in the anchoring deck screws, I found all three of the studs that I was looking for.  We doctors do something called percussing to see if someone has fluid in their chest cavity.  We tap on the back of the chest and if it is not a hollow sound but rather a dull thud, that can tell how much fluid there is.  I used the same technique on the dry wall and then also used my not so reliable stud finder. Today was a good day, no unnecessary holes. 

 The highlight of my day was watching the broadcast of our general church leaders with my family.  This is a big year for us since it has been 200 years since the first prophet of the church in modern times, Joseph Smith, received a visitation from God the Father and His son, Jesus Christ.  That visitation from the Savior was a key theme. as well as accessing the healing power of his atonement in order to bind up our wounds and deal with our sorrows. The concluding speaker was our current prophet, Russel M. Nelson. He bestowed an apostolic blessing on us all, granting to us peace in these troubled times, a blessing of health and healing according to God’s will and the ability and desire to repent each and every day. Both Gina and I were incredibly touched by the power that came with his words.  It was a blessing that we feel we desperately need.