Covid Fatigue
As an owner of a private medical practice, the last two and a half years have been a surreal existence in a life of emotional extremes.
At the beginning of the pandemic — -before information, (good or bad), before vaccines and before statistics, I felt like many physicians, doing exactly what we always do. We take care of people, showing little regard for our own personal health and safety. We care for our patients the best we can, in the way we had taken the oath to do. We wore heavy and uncomfortable protective equipment, we knowingly exposed ourselves to patients who were sick without really considering how this could affect us.
As a solo physician and the owner of my own small private practice, I watched Covid take a toll in those early days; mostly a financial burden for me, as we slowed down to almost a complete halt for months. No patients — no income. Things were looking grim. Many practices closed. Many doctors stopped working. I didn’t because I felt that this was going to be temporary. As long as I could pay my staff and see the patients that needed to be seen (people didn’t stop having babies) I felt that I could and I should keep my doors open. We adjusted.
As time went on, we were luckily boosted by loans and grants (with endless paperwork for applications and even…
