Letter to My Surgical Team: Please Don’t Kill Me

For all of my breast reduction care team at Samaritan Hospital on Sept. 11, 2023:

Image created by Karistina Lafae using Midjourney and Paint Shop Pro

I am renewing my request for reverse isolation protocols that were reviewed by a bureaucratic team and denied to me last week.

I cannot force anyone to wear an N95 mask, but I can beg you to, for my sake. I will think less of anyone who chooses not to, even if there’s no way of me ever knowing whether you actually did or did not during my surgery. DO NO HARM. Even if you think it’s pointless, wearing an N95 mask could literally save my life or prevent me from becoming more disabled than I already am. So would you kindly choose to mildly inconvenience yourself by wearing an N95 respirator that will prevent the spread of airborne infection instead of a surgical mask that only prevents against droplet transmission? I don’t care if you complain about me later if you go along with my requests now.

I am immunocompromised. I have Sjogren’s disease and am bedbound for 90% of every day. I have never gotten COVID (or any other respiratory infection) since the start of the pandemic, because I have been isolated at home and wearing a high-quality respirator every time I leave the house. Even when doing PT exercises in a humid environment because I am too weak to exercise in regular…