What a crazy time we are living in right now. I’ve felt a heavy grief coming over me for the past couple days as we have had to make some hard decisions about how we are going to approach this Coronavirus (COVID 19). Today is the last day the kids will see my parents for an undetermined amount of time as we try to distance ourselves in an effort to protect my parents from contracting anything that we may carry. Working in healthcare, and more specifically, being a microbiology tech that is dealing with these specimens on the front lines, it is inevitable that I bring it home to my family. So we made the hard decision to distance ourselves to help stop the spread to those we love that are extremely susceptible to this virus.
Our town is completely out of nearly every basic necessity. Toilet paper, paper towels, napkins, baby wipes, diapers, bread, milk, vast majority of the meat selection, canned goods, frozen goods and more. Nearly completely sold out. Stores are having to close even earlier because there is simply nothing left to be bought. Trucks are coming in with small shipments, only to sell out as soon as the pallet hits the floor. I am thankful that we have enough for now, but it won’t be long before we will need to get more food.
Sylas’ school is one of the many around the nation that closed. He was out all this past week with a two week closure, but I have to pick up a homework packet this afternoon with three additional weeks of homework inside. He may not finish his first grade year. My heart breaks for him when he asks to see his best friend, and I have to tell him that we have to stay home to keep grandma and papa safe and healthy. Boredom is already setting in with all of the kids because we can’t even go outside for the rain.
Javier’s restaurant is slowing down drastically. The waitresses aren’t making any money, and they have turned to curb-side pickup and looking into delivery, or even completely closing until this blows over. We may be down to just my paycheck to support us.
Our hospital is locked down, only the ER entrance is open. Patients are limited to a single visitor and people are being screened at the door for symptoms. If they appear to have the illness, they’re sent to a trailer in the parking lot to be swabbed and sent home. I have to be screened upon entry as well and am buzzed in. I can’t park where I usually do either. The halls are empty and the cafeteria barren. I can’t use my water bottle to fill at the pop machine, instead I have to purchase water. The soup and salad bar is closed, and is instead prepackaged to limit hands touching the utensils as well as the condiments. The American Red Cross is suffering a hit due to the closures of donation drives. We are facing a massive blood shortage on top of the seasonal shortage that always comes in the summer.
And yet, even with all of these abnormalities, my days seem totally the same too. I wake up and go to work every day just like always, and there’s still work to do. I come home to do the dinner bath and bed routine with the kids. I don’t go out much on a regular basis so this seems normal to me. It is a very strange combination of emotions. Sometimes I feel like a zombie apocalypse is about to happen with the sense of urgency that boils up within me, and yet, I feel calm and business-as-usual when doing certain tasks.
I don’t really know what lies ahead, and sometimes it feels a little bit scary, but I’m doing my part to make sure that we all pull through ok.
Wash your hands. Do deep breathing exercises. Take care of yourself. Stay safe out there.
Life Under Construction 
Since you pretty much know you will contract this at some point (although I really hope you won’t!), are you feeling worried about that aspect? Do you feel like you and your family will be ok during the illness? And what (if anything) can you do to lessen the severity?
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I’m not too terribly worried about myself or my kids. As far as we can tell, we are part of the demographic that is lesser affected. I am prepared for it to feel awful, and I also know that I can’t wait it out to seek help when I need it.
Deep breathing exercises, daily multivitamin, vitamin D3, LOTS of water and constantly washing my hands at work are all I can do. We have sufficient supplies and food to last us about a week and we will have to grab some more essentials.
I’ve read that we should avoid elderberry and ibuprofen because of the way they bind on a cellular lever and making the course of the illness worse, so I’ll be trying to avoid those even though I usually load up on elderberry for the whole family. Try not stressing about things too much because that will only bring down your immune system further.
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Thank you so much for this information!! I always load up on elderberry too, so I’ll definitely be avoiding that.
I hadn’t felt much stress around getting sick until yesterday, but I worry so much for my parents. They are older and my mom is still suffering bruised ribs from a horrible virus last month. In fact, it was the worst virus we’ve ever had. It went on for ages and just kept coming back every time we felt the least bit better. My sister ended up hospitalized with pneumonia and pleural effusion (she’s 16), so now I’m super worried about her getting sick again so soon.
Hopefully we can stay healthy but if we get it, I hope it’s mild.
I do feel reassured from what you said. We will keep doing our vitamins and fresh air and water and getting our sleep. We are already hermits during cold and flu season as much as we can be. 😂 But we will definitely drop the elderberry and avoid ibuprofen if anyone gets sick.
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I’ve heard a lot of stories about people having suffered from a severe flu like illness recently. We’re you all tested for influenza?
I sometimes wonder if it hasn’t been here already and some of us have already had it and didn’t know. China didn’t disclose that they had it for quite some time, and I do believe that it came to the US before now. There were no travel vans until just the past few weeks and this virus has been around for months. We will never truly know though, so it’s still best to take all the precautions we can, especially those more susceptible.
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You have a good point. My mom went to the ER and they said she had flu A. But then the pediatrician and the Children’s hospital both tested my sister and she tested negative for flu A and B. 🤷 My husband and I didn’t get tested for flu. So I guess we’ll never know what we had but it was brutal! We assumed it was flu A because of the ER telling mom that’s what she had but since my sister tested negative twice, I’m confused.
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