04/15/2023
Last fall, the reflection on 2.5 years of intense travels through the COVID pandemic started with my publisher dropping a manuscript on my lap from material I had apparently already written on my practice blog. I was shocked. I was even more shocked at how accurate the observations I had made about this plague were at the time they were written.
If you are/were one of the healer/warriors alongside me who ran into the midst of the COVID plague and you too are starting to come to terms with the damage it did to you, then this book may be how you too start to come back to life. If you're were a patient or a lay person who lost others to the plague, this book will give you the insight to know what those who fought for you or your family. Those of us who survived, did not walk off the battlefield without the wounds and now scars on our souls from the battles. Some were unable to walk off the battlefield and gave their life so that we might return your loved ones to you or you to your loved ones.
If you know people who are the above, then consider purchasing a copy for yourself, and then your person. It's much shorter than the page count as for reasons as yet unrevealed, it has a copy of the CDC's COVID timeline and a glossary of terms in the back. It's a quick read. It is real. It is raw.
It's unlikely there is another physician with the broad spectrum of experience destroying this plague virus. The spectrum runs from ordering the COVID tests for sniffles to holding patients' hands while they took their last breath in the ICU. In the middle of that was the >3500 monoclonal antibody infusions in my clinic. My wife describes it as a field hospital. It nearly killed her too. We witnessed the miraculous, repeatedly. We endured the pain. The volume of the stories for each person who blessed us to fight for their lives is immeasurable. There are babies that are alive because we treated the mothers. Some knew they were pregnant. Some didn't know they were pregnant yet, because they were only 5 weeks.
Sharing that we published a book about it all was something that has been difficult. There is so much contained in the pages of this book that has grown and shaped my entire world view and life. It's a bizarre process to realize that the physicians and surgeons of field hospitals are often as wounded in their souls as their patients' visible damage. There was so much trauma they endure in the fight for the lives of those who sometimes were nearly carried through the door. I am only starting to sincerely and honestly process it all. The healing process for the healer is complicated. It is unlikely coincidental that my wife and I were both baptized and confirmed into the Catholic Church on April 8, 2023 (7 days before writing this post).
Perhaps starting the next phase of my family and my healing is starting to share the story that has already been written while we live the chapters of future projects.
It's time to start healing out of this plague. If you yourself blessed us with your life, or you know others who did, please consider purchasing a copy and reading it. It would help me to know that the healing that started for me in publishing this project didn't stop with me and the relatively few who have read it thus far.
The title, Alive Again, came to my wife and me at the same moment while listening to a Matt Maher song with the same name. We were driving home from the clinic, and we had just had a meeting with our publisher Gary, and we were given the task to come up with a title. The content of the chapters a...
