Storyteller: McKenzie Hurd
Lori is 50 years old who lives in Auburn, Michigan with her husband, and two daughters. She is a registered nurse at Great Lakes Bay Surgery and Endoscopy Center in Midland, Michigan. Lori’s responsibility is to interview patients for their health history, obtain any necessary cardiac clearances, and perform patient education total and partial replacement patients. She is also able to work in pre and post areas which involves obtaining vitals signs, starting PIVs, and give any necessary medications. She first heard about COVID-19 in February 2020 on the news but didn’t think at the time that COVID-19 would have a big impact on her life. Now she has to wear a mask everywhere she goes. Lori’s daily life changed greatly. She washes her hands and uses hand sanitizer more often. When the first shutdown happened, she didn’t travel as often and tried to make fewer trips to the grocery store. It was difficult to obtain toilet paper and cleaning supplies for her family. Lori wasn’t able to work as many hours as I normally would have and wasn’t able to see friends and family. She also wasn’t able to use her cabin as often as she would have liked.
The things Lori has gained from COVID-19 was the ability to spend more quality time with her family. She was also granted three stimulus checks. COVID-19 has reminded her to have good hand hygiene. Lori also lost many things from COVID-19 including freedom to go anywhere anytime she wants, income, the ability to travel to another country, and seeing friends and family on a regular basis. Now that it’s been over a year since COVID-19 has entered the United States, Lori has realized that it’s hard to breathe through a mask while wearing all day long but she has seen some interesting versions of face masks that people wear. The pandemic has taught Lori to not take anything for granted in life.
MIPandemicStory 