The next morning Helen went into work with renewed energy to face whatever the day threw at her. John went into the office too. Today they were going to be looking for spaces where they could provide drop-in support alongside the chaplains, so he would be spending the morning scoping out venues. His gut feeling was that the canteens were going to be the best places as well as the Chapel. In the afternoon he was going to be picking up self-referrals for their online staff support offer. There was beginning to be a trickle coming through. He also wanted to check in with some old colleagues on Paediatrics to see how it was up there. To be honest it was only a few days into the lockdown but things did not seem as catastrophic as they could have been. Medical elderly were being hit fairly hard with a lot of deaths, as was the infectious diseases ward. Hearing that these areas were struggling was giving him some ideas about how they could provide support.
Halfway through the day he had a phonecall from Sanjay, he was coughing. Oh no John thought. “John, I am not coming into work, I feel really ill. I think I might have it, my temperature is up, and I keep coughing.” John was really concerned as Sanjay sounded dreadful. “Oh no Sanjay, you don’t sound well at all. Is Rupal with you? Is she OK?”
“Yes she is at home, and seems to be ok, the girls both seem to be ok too.” “That’s good Sanjay, it sounds like you need to get to bed and rest. Do you want me to speak to Amanda, or have you spoken to her?”
Still coughing Sanjay replies “Yes I rang her before I rang you. I am just worried because we were together all day the other day so I just want to let you know so you can just be vigilant for any symptoms.”
“Thank you, Sanjay, you are such a lovely man, I will be vigilant. You take care and let Rupal fuss you.”
“Will do mate, speak soon, bye.”
“Take care mate.”
John ended the call and got back to his computer looking through the referrals. This meant he was going to be really busy picking up Sanjay’s work. He knew it was selfish to think that, but he wouldn’t be sharing those thoughts with anyone other than Helen this evening. He phone started ringing again, it was Amanda, no doubt to give him the news and ask him to take on more work.
That was exactly what Amanda wanted, plus she wanted him to to start looking at how we could offer some leadership development training online that would support leaders with what they were facing. He saw there was no referrals that he needed to pick up so he spent the rest of the afternoon starting to plan this. He would also enlist the help of Phillipa who worked with Sanjay.
As the afternoon went on he started to feel hot. He said to himself he was being overly dramatic. Then he started to cough, a dry irritating cough. Bollocks he thought, bollocks! The best thing he could do was pack up his laptop and set off home. He rung Amanda first, to let her know what he was doing but reassured her that he was feeling ok so could continue to work from home. He then thought about Helen. He knew that it might be wise for Helen to move back to her own house, so she wouldn’t get it. But then again she might have it already. The only thing he could do was let her know and give her a choice. Tobey could stay with him, he rarely spent longer than a few minutes in his presence. They had separate bathrooms so it could be manageable. To be fair Helen could stay as she could use the spare bedroom and he could work in his bedroom. That would mean he would have to stay in there. It might be best if Helen went back to her house. But then what if he got poorly, who would look after Tobey. He could go back to Angie, but he would resist that, plus Angie is working in ICU and that might not be wise. This is a fucking nightmare.
He rung Helen on his drive home, he was coughing so much that she guessed what was wrong when she picked up. “Oh no John, how are you feeling?”
“Warm and irritated but not unwell. The question is what are you going to do. Shall we separate again to make sure you don’t get it?”
“I could have it already, plus what if you get poorly, who is going to care for you and look after Tobey. No I will just move into the spare room to reduce the risks of catching it.”
“I am so happy you said that. I will take my office stuff out of there when I get home. See you this evening, I love you.”
“See you later my love, don’t over do it.” Helen wasn’t convinced he would be working from home. She had heard from people who had already had it, and most of them were too poorly to do anything, even those with a mild illness. She was so glad that she had not been asked to go to ICU in the end. She had always thought it was a stupid idea, with her being the most senior nurse in the diabetes team. Saying that, her team was severely depleted and how would the service run if she got sick, especially this early on in the crisis when they are trying to set everything up. Helen decided there was nothing she could do about that right now. She was feeling well now, so lets just get cracking with what she needed to do.
After hanging up with Helen, John called Tobey. “Hi Tobes.” He exclaimed trying to suppress a cough.
“Are you alright Dad? You don’t normally ring during the day.” Tobey was bemused and a little worried why his Dad was ringing him.
“I am OK…” he couldn’t suppress the cough any longer. It took him a minute to stop, before he could start talking again. Tobey filled the gap.
“Have you got it?”
“Yeah I think I might have. I am on my way home now. I am going to try to keep out of your way to try to reduce your exposure. So when I come in don’t come and greet me, not that your normally do, but just in case stay in your room.”
“No worries, do you want me to cook tea? Or is Helen coming back here?”
“Bless you, no Helen will be home later. Unless you want to do something of course, but there is no expectation. I will be in, in a second, just pulling on to the drive.”
“Ok, speak to you in a sec.”
Later that evening John started to feel quite ill. His cough was getting worse and his temperature was up. It ached all over and could not get comfortable. He didn’t want to eat anything, the persistent coughing made him feel sick. He slept fitfully all night.
Connected Coaching 