As we sat outside on a grey, wet, chilly Christchurch summer's morning, we watched 6 guys unload and erect, 2 trucks full of lockdown fencing. The spinal unit is now completely surrounded by this fencing with 2 little gaps in the fence... just waiting for the final word.
The patients and their family congregated on the inside of the fence, watching as they used the drill to tighten the bolts between each section; one patient commenting that "it is like a prison inside a prison!" Everyone is feeling it.
There was a letter from the Burwood Spinal Unit Management delivered with the lunch trays, advising us all that the Canterbury DHB is preparing for the next stages of the Covid-19 pandemic to keep patients and staff safe. "The current visiting policy of one adult and one child will be more restrictive with patients unable to have visitors unless in exceptional circumstances. Anyone staying in the Tapper and Milner Units (whanau accommodation) needs to vacate as these will be closed."
We were told this was coming. They told us last Thursday (a full week ago) that the DHB was going to make this decision when the community cases got to 10. Today that number was 11. I feel blessed that God gave us this extra time to get used to the next change. Extra time to be together. We return to Palmerston North this weekend, to go back to work and school (somehow), leaving Dee here all by himself. He knows no one. It is a weird feeling that just doesn't sit right... when can we even come back to visit with this huge fence between us?
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