@lilypaws I am sorry that you are in pain and having to wait for your surgery. I too am waiting, but for a much smaller procedure. However, as a Minnesota resident, and mother of an city ER nurse on the front lines, I understand the need to wait. Neither Minnesota nor Iowa (nor any other state) meets the national guidelines to "wait for 14 full days in decline of new cases, new hospitalizations, ICU utilization and deaths" so I support our governor's more conservative approach.
Please understand that our nurses and other healthcare workers are still in "make do" status with personal protective equipment. The Minnesota Nurses Association is needing to accept donations from the public of N95 respirator masks and face shields to equip the front-line nurses, which is utterly ridiculous! There is still a severe shortage of gowns, head covers and most other protective equipment. Outside of the hospitals, this equipment is being replaced with homemade masks and not much else in the way of PPE in our hard-hit assisted living and nursing home facilities and among home care workers. Not to mention testing supplies and capacity still being far below what is needed to understand where we are with this virus.
In addition, the hospitals must function as though every single patient and worker may have Covid-19, so extraordinary use of PPE is needed in presurgery, OR and recovery as well.
So it is in their (and our) best interest to reserve PPE for critical needs.
Again, sorry for your pain, I do hope for relief soon
Sue