Regina couple with cystic fibrosis ‘frustrated’ with province’s handling of COVID-19 pandemic

Cassandra and Dillon Bumpus have been in isolation since March 2020 resulting from their life-long and incurable analysis of cystic fibrosis, and so they say the continuing pandemic is taking a big toll on their lives.

Cassandra had a double lung transplant surgical procedure in November 2016 at a hospital in Edmonton.

The operation was her solely shot for survival after the illness had deteriorated her lungs and now she is taken into account to be immunosuppressed.

“A part of the drug regiment is a few completely different immunosuppression medication. Principally, they only actually suppress your immune system,” Cassandra mentioned.

“One thing like a typical chilly may very well be actually detrimental and will have a whole lot of detrimental results and may very well be sufficient that you find yourself in hospital.”

Cassandra mentioned her delicate state of well being made her rather more cautious and extra cognizant of the necessity to practise correct hand hygiene even earlier than the pandemic, together with retaining her distance from members of the family in the event that they’re sick.

It’s a truth of life when you’ve got a genetic lung situation, she mentioned. “I’ve been … dwelling that means my entire life with cystic fibrosis.”

Cassandra mentioned that with the transplant surgical procedure, the added immunosuppression medication, and the persevering with pandemic, her state of excessive alert for potential viruses and micro organism has solely been heightened.

Her husband Dillion is also immunocompromised. Contemplating the excessive variety of COVID-19 hospitalizations and ICU admissions that Saskatchewan continues to be experiencing, she mentioned they each stay further vigilant, regardless of being double-vaccinated.

“So it does really feel … just a little bit like we’re being held hostage in our house by people who find themselves unvaccinated and Premier (Scott) Moe, whose inaction is sort of irritating — and that’s placing it, I might say, properly.”

In the case of staying secure, Cassandra mentioned the docs who carried out the transplant surgical procedure suggested her to behave as if she is just not vaccinated as a way to be much more cautious and shield herself towards COVID-19 and its evolving strains.

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Like well being consultants within the province, Dillon and Cassandra mentioned they advocate for extra restrictions, equivalent to a restrict on gathering sizes and increasing the masks and proof of vaccination coverage.

They mentioned this might assist alleviate the super beating on their psychological well being.

“It’s been severely impacted or deteriorated. For myself, it’s nearly completely, if not completely, because of the precautions we’ve to take and the isolation we’re dwelling in,” Dillon mentioned.

Dillon mentioned wait occasions to see psychological well being consultants and different specialists for his or her cystic fibrosis proceed to be extended due to the pandemic. That, in flip, provides to their cycle of angst, Cassandra mentioned.

“I’ve spent a whole lot of time of my life within the hospital and so I’ve come to have an amazing respect for nurses and docs and different well being care professionals and the work that they do.”

“Now I’m on the age the place I’ve associates who’re nurses and it’s very, very disheartening to see the best way that (they), and actually all well being care staff, are being handled on this province by the federal government,” Cassandra added.

“Any time I speak to associates who’re in well being care, it’s simply very arduous to listen to what they’re going by way of, and it feels just a little bit hopeless,” she mentioned. “I don’t know what to do to kind of assist them as a result of I really feel just like the premier isn’t listening.”

Along with dwelling with cystic fibrosis, Cassandra mentioned she’s been having digestive points that she hasn’t been capable of resolve over the previous 12 months and a half.

Cystic fibrosis impacts not simply the lungs, however many different issues, and a kind of is the digestive system, she defined.

“Over the course of the transplant, I’ve been having digestive points which have triggered fairly a little bit of issues. I’ve misplaced about 30 kilos over the course of the pandemic, and it’s simply been irritating to attempt to take care of it from house with speaking to docs over the telephone and having digital appointments,” Cassandra mentioned.

She mentioned she fears having to go to the hospital or ending up within the emergency division throughout the pandemic. That causes her to really feel extra stressed, she mentioned.

On high of that, she mentioned she’s anxious about having to achieve again all the weight she has misplaced as a way to get more healthy. She mentioned she continuously wonders how she is going to do it when she feels caught in despair.

Obstacles like these are inflicting her and her husband to lose a whole lot of sleep and peace of thoughts.

“It’s simply impacted my every day vitality stage and stuff like that after which, in fact, my husband worries about me and my household worries about me,” Cassandra mentioned.

“I discover that the pandemic has simply exacerbated a number of the points that I feel we have already got within the province by way of well being care and accessibility to well being care.”