Norah. The medical laboratory scientist.
“I’m anxious and stressed as hell.”
Those were the exact words my big sister Norah, a medical laboratory scientist at a Chicago hospital, said when I asked her last week how she was doing. It had been about a month since a drastic shift took place at work due to the rapidly spreading Coronavirus. That’s when the stress set in. It hasn’t let up since.
“I am drinking a lot more. I am not sleeping as well,” Norah said. “My chest is very tight a lot of days from anxiety. I feel worried because there are a lot of things I cannot control right now.”
Norah is the oldest of the three children in my family. She has always been the true “older sister” - calm, cool, collected. But as I spoke with her last week, her distress was palpable.
THE NEW NORMAL
Since the beginning of March, Norah and her colleagues in the medical lab where she works have been increasingly conducting respiratory panels on specimens from patients who could be sick with COVID-19. Demand for these respiratory tests peaks every year in Norah’s lab during flu season, and this year was no different. However, she said there was a noticeable increase when the Coronavirus began spreading in Chicago. Her lab began running respiratory tests nearly nonstop.
“We didn't use to have to designate one person to do that for eight hours all day long,” she said. “Now we do.”
These respirators tests are conducted to rule out if a patient has some other virus, such as the well-known flu, before testing for COVID-19. At first, her lab was only conducting the respiratory test and then sending the specimen to a different lab for a COVID-19 test. Now, Norah said her lab is, in fact, conducting Coronavirus testing.
THE WEIGHT OF WHAT WE DON’T KNOW
Pre-pandemic, Norah would spend her days in the microbiology lab running bacterial cultures on specimens to identify what type of bacteria was making a patient sick or causing an infection. She would test urine, blood or human tissue, for instance.
She isn’t easily rattled. Years ago, she received a full toe as a “specimen” to test in the lab. A full human toe with the toenail and toe hairs still on it. Undeterred, she sliced a bit of tissue off that toe and, using a manual “tissue grinder” (gag), she prepared a sample for testing. Are you grossed out? Norah was, too. A little. But she was mainly excited. Unexpected discoveries like this can be pleasant surprises to her, and it’s why she loves her work.
“No two days are the same,” she said. “Every day is very different. That’s one of the reasons I chose this job. It’s mentally stimulating.”
Surprises used to be exciting. Now, they are scary.
Norah is afraid the work she is doing these days is exposing herself, and therefore her family, to the deadly Coronavirus, which as of today has infected more than 1.9 million people worldwide and killed nearly 120,000. There are many things the medical community still doesn’t understand about the virus and its transmission. Could it possibly be airborne? Are the measures they are taking in her lab not going to be effective, ultimately, in stopping the spread of the virus? Health and medical experts are learning new things every day, leading to new concerns and fears.
“We are an upbeat team and trying to be positive,” Norah said of her and her colleagues. “It’s just weird and different and unlike anything anyone has ever experienced. We are trying to ask what we need to, and we are trying to do the best for our patients and for us.”
RUNNING OUT OF RESOURCES
It’s clear Norah is passionate about patient care. And the unknowns about how that care will be impacted in the coming weeks and months weighs on her. She worries her lab will run out of N95 masks, which are not only required during the Coronavirus outbreak, but are also critical during normal times for the lab to conduct tuberculosis tests. If her lab runs out of N95 masks, they will not be able to test for the disease, which can also be serious and fatal.
“Now more than ever, I want to make sure my patients are safe and are getting the testing they need,” she said.
Norah also confirmed the stories we all hear about medical professionals running low - or completely out of - personal protection equipment are true. When things began ramping up last month, Norah was wearing two pairs of gloves and two medical gowns while in the lab. She has since gone back to wearing only one of each.
Also, while Norah was previously wearing a new N95 mask every shift, she now is wearing a regular surgical procedural mask for as many days in a row as she can, up to a week. She puts the mask on in her car before entering the hospital. She does not take it off until she is back in her car at the end of her shift.
‘WE LIVE AND BREATHE THIS’
As the Coronavirus continues to tighten its grip on the world, Norah has tried to learn as much as she can about it. On her drive to and from work, she listens to NPR and hears the nonstop news coverage about the virus. It is, she admits, consuming her everyday life.
“I think the scientist in me wants to know everything I can know about it,” she said. “I do have moments where I need a break, and I can't have this dragging my day down.”
Norah is finding distractions to the otherwise constant anxiety caused by the Coronavirus pandemic. She has stopped watching so much CNN. Instead, she is rewatching Outlander. And she loves doing sudoku puzzles, especially in bed before she falls asleep.
Despite all her concerns, when Norah describes what life is like at the moment, she keeps going back to the patients. She keeps reiterating the work she does is meant to be helpful during a health crisis. Medical laboratory scientists —also sometimes called microbiologists — study organisms, viruses and bacteria that cause infections and disease. She was trained to be in exactly the situation she is now. But that doesn’t make it less scary.
“As far as what I do, this is it. We live and breathe this, and I love it,” Norah said. “It’s just the stress and unknown weighing on people. It’s not the work. We love the work.”
LEARN MORE ABOUT NORAH…
WHAT IS YOUR INSPIRATION TO KEEP GOING?
“My patients. I really genuinely care about what I do. I want to play my part and do everything I can to help the people going through this who are ill.”
WHAT ARE YOU GRATEFUL FOR AT THIS MOMENT?
“My family, my dogs, my friends and my coworkers. I am here for them, and they are here for me.”
WHAT ARE YOU MOST LOOKING FORWARD TO WHEN THINGS “GET BACK TO NORMAL”?
“I am just looking forward to not being so anxious and being more in control. Also being able to physically see my family and friends.”