In times of crisis, we count on first responders, law enforcement, pastors, doctors and nurses to help us pull through tough times.
It is not for the weak of heart to be in the thick of things and run into harm’s way when everyone else is running away.
Our frontline heroes are heeding the call as COVID-19 cases start to multiply in Iowa.
For one local family, the challenge of serving the public in tumultuous times is double.
Janel Thompson, a nurse practitioner at the Janesville Clinic, and her husband, Tony, the sheriff of the Black Hawk County, say they feel called to serve, but as a couple, they have also worked out a routine to keep themselves sane and safe.
Janel, who has worked at the Waverly Health Center since 2003, and at the clinic since it opened four years ago, says she and her husband are open-eyed about the risks each of their jobs carries.
“Both of us are on the front lines and we come home with a similar type of exposure,” Janel said. “It’s the price of job security.”
Like other healthcare workers and the public, Janel is screened when she goes to the Waverly Health Center or to work at the clinic.
At the clinic, new rules are in place to cancel inessential appointments, answer questions over the phone and separate the sick and the healthy patients when they come in.
“We are very, very well prepared for what is yet to come,” Janel said. “Every day, we get new info from the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) and the health department, which is guiding our work.”
Janel said among her many other duties, her role is to keep an even keel while easing fears and providing her patients with accurate information.
“They need to know we are not panicking, and we have a preparedness plan that is evolving every day,” she added.
Tony, who is running for re-election for a fourth term, said he has suspended his campaign for now, while dealing with the emerging crisis.
In his neck of the woods, to minimize contact, about 30 inmates who were in custody for non-felonious offenses have been released from the 270-bed Black Hawk County Jail so far, under new direction from the chief judge Kellyann Lekar and guidance from County Attorney Brian Williams.
But he has had to take on new duties of running the county emergency operations center, which was established recently and continue to maintain daily press conferences.
“I would much rather be chasing bad guys than fighting a virus,” Tony said.
For the Thompsons, even when they physically leave work, they cannot fully untangle mentally.
Hence, they each do their best to, as Tony put it, decompress “mindfully and purposefully.”
“Our fatigue will make us more susceptible in any kind of infection, not just COVID-19,” Janel said. “Everyone like us, who is burning both ends of the candle, needs to take care of themselves.”
Janel said in-house they practice recommended hygiene habits, like handwashing, healthy eating and exercise, and she uses saline as a mouth and nose wash to reduce the load of whatever she may have picked up in daily exposure.
This weekend, she took advantage of the decent weather to do some cleanup in the garden, a task that would have waited for a couple of months in ordinary times.
They have also started to meditate and squeeze in more “snuggle time” than usual, including extra naps on the weekend.
“How we manage our stress, what we put in our bodies, how we cleanse our minds through meditation, these are variables we can control,” Janel said.
She added she feels blessed the Thompson team is united in their calling to serve the public.
“I am proud to have chosen this profession and I feel in times like these, we excel,” she said. “We both feel our competence is a gift we have been given for the purpose of helping others. We have been called to serve.”