Checking in after six weeks of lockdown
Six weeks of lockdown. I can’t quite believe it has been that long already. Yet sometimes I struggle to remember life before lockdown. How long does it feel to you? I’ve been thinking today about our individual and community perception of time. For some people, this time at home will have been almost unbearably tough. We’ve asked many of our patients to follow shielding guidance. We’ve not done it lightly. We appreciate just how big an ask that is; a really big ask to keep you safe.
Here, we have been lucky. We have our health and our jobs. We’ve had all the kids here the last 3 weeks. The energy (and noise!) generated by 4 teenage kids and a 2 year old border collie is quite something. At times the kids have been feral; nocturnal beasts. But they’ve also been huge fun. It’s sadly quiet now they’ve gone. Our families are scattered but they are safe and regular video chats have kept them close. With mum in London, my sister in NY, my father with many COVID risk factors and my grandmother in a care home it is a huge relief that everyone is safe.
Following the rules for us has been simple enough. The university is shut but I’ve mostly moved back to my NHS office anyway. I’m quite sad about this as I was just embarking on a huge new chapter of my professional career. But the ability to adapt and be flexible and to feel like I can contribute - that’s a gift. Plus I can ride my bike to and from work every day; 10km along the water of Leith in each direction. With the kids here, I’ve taken the opportunity to work from home a lot too. Naomi works in IT and remote working had been her norm prior to lockdown. Wasn’t it good when the sun was shining?
Working patterns have changed and I think a lot has changed for the better. We have virtualised all our meetings where we could. We did it early and it has worked really well. Dare I say communication in the team is better than before? Now a typical day is 8.30am unit zoom, 10am IBD huddle, 12pm research group stand-up. We run flare clinics at 1pm every day. Keeping regular time slots for meetings and keeping them short is a revelation. In IT they’ve done this for years. For the rest of us this is the opportunity to learn and change. And it has been a huge success – working closely with our specialist nurses, pharmacists and dieticians we’ve managed to respond rapidly to flaring patients and avert many admissions. We sit in the flare clinic together – socially distanced with masks – and minimise those frustrating delays from decision to screening to counselling to start. The nurses have done a tremendous job manning the patient helpline – at its peak it was running 4x usual capacity! The morning huddle allows us to make a lot of quick treatment decisions and determine who needs to be seen where and when.
What about the rest of the time? Well for me it has been very different from the 2 months I thought I was going to have. My carbon footprint is the best it’s been in quite a while! Instead I’ve spent a lot of time these last 2 months focused on producing guidance on the management of IBD during COVID-19. Leading a UK-wide group through this has been a successful and rewarding exercise – we managed to publish our guidance first via the BSG website and then in our trade journal GUT in record time. That meant that IBD units across the country and internationally could use our guidance as a reference point.
It also gave me a real sense of focus and purpose. The group continues to function providing advice, camaraderie and good humour throughout.
Recently though I’ve struggled for focus somewhat. I suspect lots of people have. When you’re thinking so hard on everything COVID, all other activities seem less important. They’re not of course. But yeah, focus sometimes has been really tough. Some days I’ve felt pretty flat, other days angry; sleep is often disrupted. I was thinking the other day it’s a bit like a grieving process, only all the different emotional stages are muddled up and come out rather scattergun. You don’t know which is up for that day until you wake in the morning. Ah today I’m going to be angry at the world’s leaders for letting this happen. Nope, today you’re going to be sad. And some days, just a bit meh.
Today was a NHS public holiday in Scotland. I took the opportunity to work from home. The weather got better and better through the day. This evening Naomi and I rode into the Pentland Hills from our back door. It was glorious. We are so very lucky. If only we had Rex with us. The poor boy is on strict rest following a video consultation with the vet. Once he’s better and lockdown is lifted we can all move on to our new normal. I know what I want to spend my time doing next – bringing hope. Because I think we all need some hope right now, that things can and will get better. And that some things will emerge even better than we dared hope.