Transcript
Jake Blair: We wanted to do this interview, for one, to give us a better picture of [COVID-19] as a church family. And then two, to better know how to serve, pray, and love the people in our church family who are seeing this thing.
Mark, what's it been like for you? Paint a picture for us of what your day looks like.
Mark Humphrey: So for me, I'm an outpatient family medicine doctor. I'm taking care of patients mostly in the outpatient setting, majority of the time, and then I do a little bit of inpatient work. So a couple of weeks ago, I did a some time in the hospital right before a lot of the a lot of the coronavirus issues came up but there were at least a few folks in the hospital where I worked that did have coronavirus, but then I shifted back to the outpatient setting and so while I don't interact with people that are known to have coronavirus on a day to day basis or currently we are still having that fear of a person walking in the door either hasn't told us the complete truth about all their symptoms, or that they are not feeling well and we need to evaluate them to see if they have coronavirus.
And so for me, I'm dealing with anxiety . Am I going to, you know, get sick, or am I going to bring home the illness on my clothing back to my family, and be the one that makes them sick? And, you know, things I have to deal with as I'm a medical leader within our office. And so as the medical director of our practice, I need to everyday look through all the different leadership notes from the folks above me and to put together the things that I need to bring to my team so that they can feel confident in what we're doing for the day. And the past week, week and a half we've seen about a 40% reduction in people coming into the office, probably even greater than that because people are doing what they're supposed to be doing. They're staying home.
But that also means we've got to change how we take care of people and change very rapidly. And so along with the health systems in the area, deploying virtual programs and online platforms for folks to get care if they're worried about coronavirus, we're deploying telephone visits and video visits to help take care of people's everyday problems like diabetes, hypertension, heart disease and things like that. Our office is trying to think, “Okay, if our patients do get sick, we want them to have their regular illnesses be as best controlled as possible so that then they will have a better hopefully outcome if they get coronavirus.” So that's what we're thinking now. So my day starts at the house, it's kind of quiet in the morning because my kids aren't going to school and so they sleep in and I can usually get up and be out the door. But then I'm on my way where usually the mornings are full of hustle and bustle. So it's a little bit quiet.
And then we lead off with time at work huddling with the teams and say, “Okay, here's what we're doing for the day.” And then I spend time putting out fires a lot, answering questions, how are we doing things differently, listening to team members, about their anxieties, trying to calm their anxieties, and then I get on the phone or get on the video cam, sort of like what we're doing now and talk to people about their current conditions.
And then go home and try to be a dad and a husband and, and do all that over again. In some ways, I feel like we're kind of in the movie Groundhog Day. And just as over and over again, you have to really be thinking hard about what day the week it is.
For me, I'm blessed that in the medical world, I'm not having to work most weekends, so I get to reset on the weekends. But, but yeah, there's a lot of anxiety at least in the beginning of this. And then I feel like I've appreciated the things that Midtown has done to stay connected and have the opportunity to recenter and realize God is in control and then bring that to my colleagues at work.
So those things are going on in the frontlines in my office. Next week, I'll be back in the hospital. And so I'll see, you know, what is it like there when there's more patients who actually had coronavirus? And then I know a lot of my colleagues are already serving those patients, and even know that some of the other folks in our church are on the frontlines taking care of those patients day in and day out.
Jake: You were mentioning anxiety. How would you describe your colleagues who are also experiencing this right now in our city, would you say anxiety seems to be the overwhelming consensus going on?
Mark: I think that's definitely true. In the medical profession, we are used to having a fair amount of control. We're able to do interventions to control people's health, whether it's from diabetes to having heart attacks to having pneumonia from a bacterial cause we know how to take care of things and be in control. And while things are fairly well controlled right now with coronavirus, there's just a lot of preparation going on for when it could get out of control. And even in the midst of the control, there's a lot of unknown about this illness and a lot of anxiety. “Am I putting on my mask correctly? Am I taking it off correctly? am I wearing the right kind of protective equipment to go into a patient's room to make sure that we don't get ill ourselves?” So there's a lot of that control that we lose, and then that creates anxiety.
Jake: What do we need to know about this virus? It feels like I hear rumors constantly every single day and at a certain point, it's just hard to keep track of any of it. And I know that part of what makes this such a scary thing is no one really knows exactly how this all works, and when it will all end, but from your expertise, what do we need to know and paint a picture for us as to what we're dealing with here?
Mark: So I think that the hard thing is this illness on the surface is a lot like the flu, but the difference is, no one's had this before. And so while if you look at the flu each year, it kills people each year. People get sick, but there's enough people in the community that had that strain of flu before that it doesn't get too bad. The problem is, no one's had this strain of coronavirus. And from what we can tell currently is its actually more severe than flu, especially for people who have chronic conditions and are over the age of 60. So, the biggest issue is the fact that no one's had this strain of coronavirus before.
As for things you need to do, our public officials or public health officials are doing a good job. I think we actually need to listen. I think actually staying home, being out of crowded spaces as much as possible. When you're going to the store, be direct, and get the things you need. Get out. Don't take the whole family with you and try to limit the number of people going in and out.
They've today started saying maybe it'd be a good idea to wear a mask when you're going to be in those congregate settings. That wouldn't necessarily be a bad idea right now. What we're seeing as far as numbers, the hard thing is that the test is taking a little while to come back. And so these numbers are probably more representative of what things were a week ago, or a week and a half ago. And with so all the measures we're trying to make now are reacting to those numbers from a week and a half ago word actuality is probably more illness out there than we know.
So these next few weeks are actually going to be key markers to see how bad the transmission is and did these social distancing efforts actually work. What I've been told and read is that they're looking at the peak in South Carolina to be somewhere towards the end of April maybe the 27th 28th of April.
That means that that's gonna be the max number of cases and DHEC is said that somewhere around 8,000 people in South Carolina will have coronavirus by that time. That sounds like a large number but also compared to the size of population that's not horrible compared to other places in the country.
Again, leaders from the whole system have done analysis and worked with DHEC and looked to ask, “Okay, how many hospital beds do we have? How many ICU beds do we have? How many ventilators do we have?” And so under current projections, they think they will have enough hospital beds. But depending on severity of illness, there is some worry about enough ICU beds and enough ventilators. And so we really are trying to do our best right now for those that have chronic conditions. Those are over age 60, that they are getting those chronic conditions as controlled as possible. And then those folks are the ones that need to stay inside, you just stay away from other people as much as possible, limiting the number of interactions they have tightening their circle of people. Now, of course, we want interactions virtually, we don't want people to be socially isolated. But physical contact really needs to decrease especially these next two to three weeks. But the peak just means that that's gonna be the max amount, and that we will gradually still have people over that a few weeks after that. They'll have the issue.
And then we're also just studying around the world to see is this going be a one wave incident or and we'll be done like SARS a few years ago, or we'll have a reprieve in the summer and things in the fall, we'll come back, and we'll have to try something like this again.
Jake: When you say the peak at the end of April, that is assuming all of us are doing our job to socially distance?
Mark: Yeah, actually, if socially distancing works, that means that we're actually gonna be pushing the peak out further in time. And so it'll take longer for people to bump into each other to actually get the illness. So if we're doing a great job, and continue to be a little bit more physically distant from each other, it might push the peak further in April or maybe slightly into May, and that actually is an okay thing.
So that's not actually a bad thing if we can push the peak of it all because that means that we're slowing the rate of transmission. And that will allow folks to, if they're going to get ill, then we have the supplies at the hospitals to take care of them. Yeah.
Jake: How can we best serve you guys and love for y'all and pray for you guys? I know for me, control is a big issue with me as well. And I see everything that's going on and I just can't help but feel just totally helpless in all of this. And so I'm having to be reminded constantly: Prayer is how we acknowledge we are helpless in more ways than one and we have to take it to the Lord. So along with how can we pray for you, are there things specifically that our church family can be doing?
Mark: The first thing is, stay home and encourage your neighbors to stay home. If you've got folks that like to tailgate or something on your street, be kind, but ask them to disperse or if this confrontation has to occur, call the police. You don't need to get into a fight with anyone but encourage folks that they actually socially distance from each other.
I think the other thing is to think of ways you can help our families, because one of the things that occurs is that we're at work all the time. We're really focusing on our patients while we're there, and our families are having to sort of pick up the burden at home. So if you can think of ways that you can reach out and love on the families of healthcare workers would be super helpful because there's a lot of anxiety about if we will bring the illness home to our families.
For example, Kim is able to now work from home, but she's still supposed to be working, yet with four kids trying to do e-learning is a challenge. And then also, they're a little bit bored, and they're needing things to do. And so what’s been helpful is a LifeGroup member, Jonathan, who's come over in the afternoons, (we try to keep the number of people who come over very small), but he comes over and will play with the kids go for bike rides and things like that, that help take that off of, of Kim and I.
So look for ways whether it's dropping off some food, whatever it might be to help out families.
And so the other thing I was mentioning was sending messages, whether that's virtual through Facebook, GroupMe, text. I even love physical mail. We got a letter from one of the college students who used to help babysit our kids during LifeGroup, who now because of coronavirus can't come help, but she wrote a physical letter to us and mailed it and that was really cool. That meant a lot. So those kinds of things would be great as well.
Jake: To end our time would love to pray for you and to pray for everything that's going on. Like I said, so many of us feel so helpless and out of control. And we're reminded, this is why we pray to God.
Mark: Some of the things I was mentioning for prayer requests, particularly for those doctors who are working in the hospitals, if this gets potentially impactful as they might predict, they're gonna be some of our family members within Midtown. We're going to be having to talk to patients about patients, families that say, “Okay, we don't have a ventilator for your loved one,” and help them work through that. They're going to have to potentially work with families that are saying goodbye, or actually work with patients who are dying, but families can't be there because they're isolated. Those are sort of the people that we want to be lifting up and situations we want to lift up in the weeks to come.
Jake: Jesus, we acknowledge that you are in control, that you are sovereign, that when this pandemic struck, not too long ago, you were not caught off guard by that. And we're also reminded that you love us and that you tell us our eternity is secure. And so Jesus, we ask more than anything that we fix our eyes on you that we put our hope in you. In all of this as we are getting our control stripped away from us, that we acknowledge that ultimately you're the one that's in control. God, I thank you for Mark and all of the people that are in our church family and throughout the world who are in the medical profession right now on the front lines with this seeing it day in and day out. For the people who are fighting hard right now, to figure out a cure for this. Jesus, we lift all of that up to you. We pray that a cure can be found soon. We pray that you'd be with the doctors and the medical professionals who are having to deal with some really hard decisions, who are having to be with people and patients when they are feeling so lonely. Jesus, I thank you that so many of those people are in our church family who love you are your hands and feet right now to the sick and the dying. Jesus be with them and comfort them so that they can be with others and comfort others with what they are going through. Jesus we are praying for the day that the pandemic would end that we could be together again as a church family that we can gather together and hug one another. In the meantime, we cling to you so desperately in all of this. We trust you. We love you. In your name we pray. Amen.
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