Resiliency
By Shawn Thomas
It’s hard to believe that it’s been about two years since COVID-19 led to lockdowns around the world. So, what happened in those two years? A lot.
Work
Before the pandemic and to this day, I work as an epidemiologist. Two years ago, the average person would assume that I either work on the epidermis, which is a layer of the skin (what a dermatologist does), or work with bugs (what an entomologist does). Today, I believe a lot more people now know what an epidemiologist does, which is related to studying the causes and spread of disease within a population. We are disease detectives, interested in the who, what, where, when, why, and how of disease and other health conditions. Many people think we only work on infectious diseases like COVID-19 or influenza, but we work on all types of conditions, including chronic ones such as diabetes or heart disease. In my case, my specialty is with opioids and drug overdose.
In a nutshell, opioids are pain relievers. If you had a surgery or struggled with chronic pain, you may have been prescribed opioids. The problem with opioids is that they have addictive properties, and there is a chance that people may become dependent on them and/or misuse them. You may have heard about the opioid epidemic in the media, which has been a problem the past two decades in our country. I won’t get too much into what led to the opioid epidemic, but there is a miniseries called Dopesick that explores America’s struggles during the early days of the epidemic, which still continues today (regarding the miniseries, keep in mind it is a dramatization and not a completely accurate account). The opioid epidemic has evolved beyond just misuse of prescription opioids, and now includes illegal substances such as heroin, and the even more dangerous synthetic (man-made) opioids.
Back to what I do. I look at a lot of data. I look daily at hospital records for people who had an overdose, which can happen to anyone. I also look at data on people who died by drug overdose, which is when someone takes too much of a substance and their body cannot handle it. It can get tough and challenging at times to work in this space. Reading reports of youth and young adults who take just a small amount and never wake up again…it’s tragic. Upon closer inspection, these particular cases had a synthetic opioid called fentanyl in their system. Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that’s primary purpose was for pharmaceutical use, such as for pain management for people who have cancer - but has since made its way into the illegal drug market as a way to make drugs more potent and more addictive. It’s been a game changer in the opioid epidemic. You might have a high tolerance, but just a small amount of fentanyl the size of the tip of a pencil lead is enough to end someone’s life. Since the beginning of the century, drug overdose deaths have continued to increase, and in 2020, we saw the worst year for drug overdose deaths in over 20 years.
Death
While on the topic of death, I’m one of the many who had a relative pass away during the COVID-19 pandemic. It was my uncle in 2020. Growing up, he was my closest uncle. He would visit us from time to time, and take my brother and I out to the arcade or out to eat. When I grew older, and got busier, I didn’t see him as often. He eventually got on social media and friended me, and that was how we kept in contact. He would always try to make conversation on Facebook, and I wouldn’t reciprocate, keeping things very brief and giving the impression I didn’t want to continue further. Even so, he would always check on me when I was in college. He never forgot to wish me a happy birthday, even though I usually forgot to wish him one. When he was institutionalized, I never heard from him again. A few years later, COVID happened, and next thing I hear is that he has it and isn’t doing well. I never get a chance to speak with him, and only get updates from family. I keep telling myself he will be fine, and when he recovers, I will try to call him. I hear that his condition is worsening. I prayed that he would recover, and I made myself a promise that I would go see him when restrictions are lifted. However, he doesn’t recover and he passes away. His Facebook account has been deactivated, but I still have the messages we sent to each other since 2013. I screenshotted them, and look at them from time to time. I regret not cherishing him, especially when he would always call me his favorite nephew. One of the things I remember whenever I rode with him in his truck to the arcade is he would always talk about how things were like growing up with my dad when they were younger. And since I was the oldest, he would always ask me one question: if I had a girlfriend. I would always tell him I was too busy for one.
Love
That brings me to my next topic, love. I got engaged on March 13, 2021, to an amazing, beautiful, intelligent, funny, and caring young woman named Reema. My fiancée and I joined the millions of people planning to have a wedding in 2022. We have spent this past year planning a wedding and a honeymoon that we hope will be safe later this year. We both work in public health and have been together for over four years. During the pandemic, we spent even more time together with each other. We try to push each other to be the very best people we can be in all facets of life. We are both runners and tried our best to stay consistent with it over the past two years, but it was always difficult finding a safe place to run that was not populated. We made a commitment to each other to run more often together, and are currently training for a half marathon (her first, my fifth). She has also been my biggest supporter in my pursuit for knowledge.
Knowledge
The pandemic also made it easier to receive and provide knowledge. I started my Ph.D. right before the pandemic began, and given all my other duties, it would not be possible to finish it in a reasonable amount of time without the transition to a virtual world. It hasn’t been all smooth sailing, however. Things never go as planned when it comes to pushing the limits of current understanding on relevant topics. There will be issues with projects after almost finishing them; endless amounts of reading, writing, revising, and analyzing; feelings that you are not good enough. I love to learn, and this pursuit of knowledge has been more draining than rewarding as of late. It isn’t for everybody, and I continuously find myself questioning if it is all worth it. Even so, what I desire most is to contribute knowledge to the field of public health and work toward improving population health.
I also joined the millions of other educators forced to teach over Zoom and recently have started in-person teaching back up again. I teach the students at the University of Nevada, Reno, School of Medicine. They are a brilliant bunch, and you definitely need to be on your toes when teaching them. The topic I teach is epidemiology and biostatistics. It isn’t the most exciting topic (a lot of math), but these topics are something I am passionate about. They have also gained more importance since there is an inherent need to make sure students are prepared to read those long scientific journal articles and be able to make recommendations. Although my students will be primarily doing patient care, they will be constantly reading, and they need to be equipped with the knowledge and tools to be able to identify limitations in and make their own conclusions of those scientific articles, before recommending specific care to their patients.
Resiliency
I wanted to leave you with one event that inspired a strong sense of resilience in me. It was spring break when I was in middle school and my family and I were taking a trip since we all had time off. My family got one row of three seats together, and since I was the oldest, I got an aisle seat with an older couple I didn’t know. This was before iPods were as big as they were now, so typically we would just read something or talk to the people next to us. The man next to me was reading a book, and when the beverage service started, he put his book down, and started talking to me. I learned he was a retired physician who was visiting his grandchildren on the east coast. I asked him about the book he was reading, which was called Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff…and It’s All Small Stuff by Richard Carlson. He told me it was a book that changed his life, and he wished that he had such a book around when he was younger.
I talked to him about the book more and it interested me. He let me read a chapter of the book just to see how it was and I liked it. When I got back from my trip, I ordered the book and read it. Since then, I’ve read the book half a dozen times. One of the most important lessons comes from chapter 16: Will this matter a year from now? We tend to get worked up about things in the moment, focusing so much of our energy on things that when we look back at them, weren’t as important as we thought. How this works is imagine whatever circumstance you are dealing with currently, and ask yourself if this will matter a year from now. For example, one day, say you get in an argument with a roommate or a spouse about forgetting to throw out the trash. You argue and yell, and then go to work, and it throws off your entire day as well as theirs. You get home and you’re still not on talking terms, and the trash is still there. Will this matter a year from now? Obviously not. It isn’t worth devoting so much energy into something so trivial.
Although we are going on year three of the pandemic, we shouldn’t let the small things take over our life. That is just one of the 100 simple ways to keep the little things we experience from taking over our lives. There will be ups and downs, but the most important thing is how we react to things that make us uncomfortable. It’s important to not sweat the small stuff because our time is limited and we should spend our time on focusing on what truly matters, those we care about the most. We are all going through things, and it usually won’t be present on the surface. That’s why it is important to show empathy to everyone, even if they show some attitude, since they may just be having a bad day.
Photo by Brin Reynolds.
Shawn Thomas is an opioid epidemiologist; instructor at the University of Nevada, Reno, School of Medicine; President of the Nevada Public Health Association; a runner; and human being. He holds a Master’s in Public Health with a focus on epidemiology and is finishing up his Ph.D. studies.
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