Painting Through the Pandemic: A Lifeline in Linseed Oil

MedPageToday

Working on the frontlines during the pandemic was akin to emotional whiplash. The days on service in the ICU were chaotic and relentless, and I barely had time to meet my most basic physiologic needs, let alone emotionally process the horrors I was seeing play out in front of me. Twelve hours would pass in what simultaneously felt like an instant and eternity, and I’d leave the hospital, pry open the back doors of a largely empty CTA bus (aimed at protecting the drivers, that was the recommended method of boarding the city buses in Chicago during the height of the COVID pandemic) to take a socially distanced seat among the other essential workers, many of them also donning the accoutrement of careers in healthcare. Once home, I’d remove my clothes at the door and hop directly in the shower, seeing the concern on my (now ex-) husband’s face.

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