My state of mind on the eve of mother's day 2021:
*If your family is not touched by the second wave of Covid-19 in India, consider yourself lucky.
*If you did not need to prioritize which of the six covid-positive family members to attend to at any given time, consider yourself lucky.
*If you did not have to figure out how to transport bedridden/paralyzed family members to the hospital for diagnostics tests, consider yourself lucky.
*If you were in excruciating pain and fatigue from Covid yourself, and you did not have to get up and go on with your day because your parents, spouse, and your kids all are in pain, consider yourself lucky.
*If you did not spend every hour of the night in the fear that you would hear about your parents' blood sugar going low or oxygen getting desaturated, consider yourself lucky.
*If you did not have to call dozens of vendors over several days just to get an oxygen concentrator so your parents can breath, consider yourself lucky.
*If you did not have to don the hat of family's doctor and decide between sending your loved one to the hospital versus giving home care, consider yourself lucky.
*If you do not have the steroid Medrol or blood thinners like Rivaroxaban committed to memory, consider yourself lucky.
*If you did not have to call every hospital in town, and every friend with connections to a politician or a doctor, just to get a hospital bed for your parent, consider yourself lucky.
*If you did not have to beg with hospital staff for hours after you arrive, just to get your critically ill parent into the ICU bed, consider yourself lucky.
*If you did not have to drive half way across the town just to get a medicine for your mom that is originally Rs.400 but marked up to Rs.10,000, consider yourself lucky.
*If you did not miss the consultation with doctor for an update on your mom's condition because you were attending to your dad's oxygen saturation going below 80%, consider yourself lucky.
*If you did not suddenly become the expert at helping your parent breath with proning and other respiratory exercises while waiting for a hospital bed for them, consider yourself lucky.
*If you did not spend your night awake understanding what a low grade ventilator versus NIV means, consider yourself lucky.
*If it has not been five years since you last visited your parents, and you don't find yourself fighting the urge to fly home in the middle of the pandemic right into the warzone, consider yourself lucky.
*If you did not spend the day before mother's day wondering when your mom comes off ventilator, consider yourself EXTREMELY lucky.
My heart's breaking into a million pieces everyday seeing my spouse and family go through this unfathomable situation.
If this is what those with the necessary financial means are facing in the pandemic, what about the common man that has to go out there everyday and work just to make ends meet? Do prayers and thoughts even matter in these moments of absolute horror?
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