NANCY,62, San Jose, California
Nancy is 62 years old and works as a physical therapist with people living with rare diseases. She also has two herself. Nancy lives with complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS2) from a nerve injury to her foot and ankle, as well as with a genetic condition called BRCA2, a cancer gene that leaves her susceptible to many different kinds of cancer. Most people associate it with breast cancer. She will soon have to undergo prophylactic surgery to reduce her chances of having cancer. Additionally, asthma puts her at high risk of COVID-19.
In her video, Nancy speaks about the challenges of being considered high-risk, but still having to go out to care for other family members that are also at risk.
COVID-19 Video Transcript
I am going out because I need to shop for my family. I have a daughter with an autoimmune disease, and I have two elderly parents in their 90s. I need to do the shopping for the family because we don’t want them out in the community. These are things I wouldn’t normally do as I would have the help of other people to do the shopping. So I am almost on the reverse that I am out in the community doing things I don’t normally do.
Coping
Well, I am a helper by nature. I get great happiness out of helping other people, which is why I became a physical therapist. So I am very happy that I am able to help my family and keep them safe, because they are the most precious people in my life and in my world. So being able to help them gives me that need that I have to help others.
Understand
Being 62, I am in the demographics that is deemed high risk. I also have asthma, so that’s another high risk. It’s very frustrating to me to see other people thinking that their agenda is more important than the world’s agenda. I see many people out playing basketball, hiking together in groups of five or six people. And I wish that they would more appreciate the fact that I can’t work because they are out spreading the virus. And because they are spreading the virus, my patients can’t get help. And it’s just like a domino effect. If we would all just self-isolate to the best of our abilities and take other people into account, everyone would be much better much sooner.
