‘We were called to this profession.’ Cut off from son, Lexington nurse fights pandemic.
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Bringing the Fight
Get to know some of the heroes among us leading the effort to combat COVID-19 in a special section published by the Lexington Herald-Leader and Kentucky.com. Read about them in the May 3, 2020, edition of the newspaper or click below to read the stories published online so far.
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When Katie Rahenkamp’s son Everett turns 3 years old on June 1, chances are the two won’t get to exchange a happy birthday hug.
Nor share a slice of cake, nor engage in any birthday party games.
Katie, 31, is on the front lines fighting the coronavirus pandemic. A nurse in the intensive care unit at Baptist Health in Lexington, she’s been self-quarantined at home along with her husband, Sam Doss, since mid-March while Everett has been living with Katie’s parents.
“It’s been hard, but also good for my mental health,” Katie said of the separation from Everett. “I was really anxious when all of this started. Especially working in the ICU, I had to make a difficult decision. But it was good for me because I was worried about bringing the virus home with me and then giving it to my child. So it gave me peace of mind not having him here exposed to that, knowing that he’s safe with my parents and they’re all able to stay home.”
Katie was born and raised in Lexington. She graduated from Paul Laurence Dunbar High School and earned a sociology degree from the University of Kentucky, then earned nursing degrees from Midway College and Eastern Kentucky University. She plans to pursue a master’s degree in nursing from Northern Kentucky University beginning this summer through virtual classes.
In a bit of fortuitous timing, Katie’s mother, Karen Rahenkamp, retired from her career as a neonatal intensive care unit nurse in January. That freed her up to take over as Everett’s around-the-clock caretaker with help from her husband, Everett’s grandfather Paul.
“She said she retired at the perfect time. I told her ‘definitely,’ Katie said. “She was willing to let him stay with her for as long as I needed him to.”
Under these new circumstances the family’s bedtime routine with Everett looks quite a bit different.
“We’ve been doing FaceTime with him every night. We read him bedtime stories and say his good-night prayers,” Katie said. “He loves anything to do with trucks. So we’ve been reading ‘Where Do Diggers Sleep at Night’ and ‘Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site.’ Anything to do with digging and trucks. That’s his absolute favorite.
“Also, my parents text us regularly throughout the day with pictures of him and the activities they’re doing, so I’m very thankful for technology right now.”
For his part, Everett seems to have adjusted pretty well.
“He loves being over there with his grandparents. I think he probably likes being over there more than he likes being here because he gets to do whatever he wants,” Katie said. “It’s the perfect age for this to be going on with him because he knows a little bit but has no idea about the real implications of everything that’s going on.
“He watches (Kentucky Governor) Andy Beshear with my parents every night, so he talks about the coronavirus. He has no idea what he’s talking about but he always asks me if I take care of sick people.”
Taking care of sick people is a bit of a tradition in Katie’s family.
“Both of my brothers and their wives are in health care in some capacity, so we’ve all been facing the front lines. My parents, even though they get to stay home, they’re nervous wrecks about all of us. We’re all in this together, and my parents are freaking out.
“Hopefully we’ll all have a big celebration together when this is all over, which hopefully will be sooner rather than later.”
‘Our new normal’
Katie was enjoying one of her favorite hobbies, traveling, right before the world was hurled into a state of upheaval.
“I’d actually been on a trip to New York and Philadelphia at the very beginning of March, so when New York started having their first cases people were talking about it,” Katie said. “Right when I first came back to work was when they started doing preparedness stuff for us.”
Katie and her co-workers were shown training videos from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to prepare for the influx of COVID-19 patients. It wasn’t long before she and Sam had to send Everett away.
“I started self-quarantining the day after St. Patrick’s Day. I told my parents I would keep Everett until I took care of my first COVID-positive patient, then the next day I went to work and started taking care of those patients,” Katie said. “Everybody was thinking that this was just a common cold or the flu and that this really wasn’t that serious. I remember my first patient when we told them they were getting tested for the coronavirus their attitude changed completely. I think that until it happens to you, you don’t really think about the seriousness of it.”
The gravity of the situation quickly hit home for Katie.
“I was surprised at the amount of emotion I had taking care of an actual coronavirus patient at first,” she said. “But now it’s become our new normal. All of our patients either have the coronavirus or we’re waiting for a test to come back to rule it out. That’s our new normal, so going into those rooms you have a heightened sense of emotion. You just have a constant level of anxiety.
“The difficulty is that patients aren’t able to have their family members at their side. Everybody is nervous and on-edge and it’s hard for them not to have that support system with them, so we try to give them that support. We have three new iPads in our unit and we’re trying to get family members to FaceTime with us and their family member so that they can see how they’re doing.”
Clearly, the pandemic is taking a mental toll on health care workers.
“It’s been hard because you’re so used to your routine then suddenly everything changes. I’ll go through waves of being really sad and depressed and not want to get out of bed when I’m off work,” Katie said. “Other days you just power through and try to keep things positive. But we’re all human and us health care workers aren’t immune to anxiety and depression.”
Katie said Baptist Health is taking steps to help staff members deal with the psychological impact of their work.
“There’s actually a nurse in our unit that’s started a support group where we can meet virtually to talk about issues because people don’t fully understand what we’re going through. So it’s nice to have a support group of people that you can talk and not feel judged,” she said. “The hospital is going to provide us with a mental health nurse practitioner so that we can set up meetings and talk about problems that we’re facing right now. Because none of us have been through a pandemic before or seen anything of this magnitude.”
Asked what she’d like the public to know about what health care workers are going through, Katie said, “I think that it’s important for the public to know that we were called to this profession to take care of the sick. We want people to try and stay healthy, stay at home, don’t go in groups,” she said. “Because when we see others talk about this not being a real illness or not thinking that it’s going to affect them it feels deeply personal.”
‘It gives me pride’
Sam Doss is an engineer-in-training with the Roberts Group engineering and architectural firm in Lexington. He’s been working from home during the outbreak and he and Katie are finding new ways to stay entertained during their quarantine.
“We go on a lot of walks now. And we’re trying to keep busy by doing stuff around the house and yard work. We’ve actually been watching all of the Marvel movies in chronological order,” Katie said. “We exercise regularly. We’ve been going on walks when we get up, then after lunch and then after dinner, multiple times a day. And then organizing and reorganizing things in the house. In all the drawers, everything is perfectly folded and everything is really, really clean.”
In addition to Everett’s third birthday, Katie and Sam will celebrate their six-year wedding anniversary in June. Sam said they’ve given each other strength during trying times.
“We’ve definitely grown closer in a lot of ways,” Sam said. “It’s hard to not see Everett, but if there’s one positive it’s that we’re quarantined together as opposed to being by ourselves.”
Sam said he’s not surprised that Katie is rising to the moment during the pandemic.
“She’s always been a very caring person. She always thinks of other people and she’s not afraid to take on challenges,” he said. “Being in the ICU she deals with the sickest of the sick. I couldn’t imagine the stuff she’s seen and had to go through. I think how strong of a person she is really shines through.”
Katie knows there are many more hard days ahead, but she’s looking forward to traveling again once the crisis ends.
“My husband and I this past November went to Carmel, California, for vacation and it was wonderful ... I really want to go to Banff, Canada, and see Lake Louise. It’s beautiful there,” she said. “I just want to sit and look at nature and relax and not have to deal with the stresses of life.”
Sam is also looking forward to a return to normalcy. But in the meantime, he’s gained an even greater appreciation for his wife’s work. And he’s grateful for the support she’s being shown by her community.
“I’ve been really impressed with how the community of Lexington and Kentucky have really shown their appreciation for the health care workers. It makes me feel good that she’s being supported not just by her family but the community,” Sam said. “It gives me pride that my wife’s a nurse and she’s doing everything she can to help and putting her own life and safety at risk to help others.”
This story was originally published May 3, 2020 at 8:37 AM.
