Wes Brown: Replacing Parts
Being Together While We’re Apart
Because we all miss our Fondren family, here are our Sequester Stories—a series of stories and photos by Fondren folks sharing what our “pandemic lives” are about.
Wes Brown
When the State of Mississippi sent all employees home in mid-March due to the pandemic, I had just learned that I needed total hip replacement surgery. Obviously, that was put on hold because it was considered elective surgery.
As part of the Information Technology staff at my state agency, I was given the task of getting laptop computers prepared for “telework” conditions. This required that I continue to go into the office every day and distribute laptops to the employees.
I continued to work at the office which involved a great deal of moving about. At this point my hip was not a problem and I began to have thoughts of not having the surgery.
Around the middle of April, my hip decided otherwise. The pain was unbearable. The time had come to take action.
The doctor was called, appointments were made, and plans were put in place to replace the hip. The ban on elective surgery had been lifted.
It was right about this time that my truck decided it also needed some joints replaced. I was hoping to replace some shocks and be done with it. This was not to be the case. It seems that Jackson’s infrastructure had taken its toll and it had suffered extensive front-end damage.
So now both my truck and I were down. I began the process of insurance claims and renting a car. A few weeks later, I put my truck in the shop and myself in the hospital to have the surgery. All turned out well for the truck and me. However, we both remain sequestered for another four to six weeks.
