Just when I thought things couldn't get any worse, 9 months after my last post, the world is now dealing with a highly contagious respiratory virus that kills people by smothering them in mucus until they can't breathe and their heart and other organs give out. The coronavirus known as COVID 19 made it's appearance in Wuhan China in December of 2019, and by late February of 2020 had begun its reign of terror across the USA.
Of course it started here in Washington state, in a Kirkland nursing home in March when seniors began dying in droves, and their doctors and nurses became infected and died along with them.
Soon the CDC and Dr Fauci (the White House infectious disease expert) started calling for states to shut everything down, as in places like Italy, where people congregate and share space (and breath) every day, the death toll skyrocketed. Hospitals in Italy and China became overwhelmed, as did hospitals and nursing homes in New York and Seattle and other major population centers.
People were told that they needed to wash their hands, stay 6 feet away from others and wear a mask. Toilet paper and other supplies, especially personal protection gear, were in short supply as people began hoarding and buying everything in stores out of fear.
Inevitably our leadership (Trump, the fascist POTUS) denied that COVID 19 was a problem, and created more fake news and falsehoods that drove gullible conservatives to do stupid things like eschew masks because they read the POTUS's position as the whole virus was just the flu and was a conspiracy by the left to cause problems for the republican incumbent (this isn't true, of course, but there are a lot of idiots out there who will believe anything that Trump says, though he's a known liar and con man).
Our state governor, a democrat who believes in science and experts like Dr Fauci and the CDC, decided to shut down schools, businesses, libraries, local government and administration, etc, while mandating that everyone quarantine at home with family and not go out for any but the most necessary items, like food or medication.
That was in March, and I've not been out of the house except to go to St Elizabeth's Hospital for my Remicade biosimilar infusion once a month, since then.
For an extrovert who loves to talk and have tea and discussions with friends at local cafes, it has been a rough four months.
However, for someone who has had asthma and allergies (and thus weak lungs that are prone to pneumonia and respiratory infections of all types) and a weak immune system due to medication for Crohns disease, I know that getting this coronavirus could be fatal, and that is not how I want to leave this earth.
I've still got a lot of living to do, and I'd like to at least make it to my 60th birthday in December.
So for now I'm a bookish hermit, and I've been reading up a storm and blogging my reviews on Butterflybooks.blogspot.com. I've also been streaming shows on my computer, binge watching Netflix and Amazon Prime programs, as well as CBS All Access, Apple TV and Disney + .
I do Zoom video conferences on my computer for my library book group once a month, and I listen to podcasts when I'm not watching shows on regular network channels with my husband.
I keep in touch with my doctors via computer video chats as well, and I also have weekly phone calls with my mom and my best friend Jenny Zappala.
All of this helps keep my spirits up and I remain cautiously optimistic, though every time my husband or son drives to the grocery store or to a restaurant to pick up some take out meals, I fear that their masks and handwashing won't be enough, and they'll bring the killer virus home to me, and that will be that.
I have nightmares about drowning in my own mucus on a ventilator almost every night.
I've gained 60 pounds in the past year, and if you're not aware, doctors and other medical professionals often have an inherent bias against fat people. So if it came to reserving medication for a lithe 30 year old or me, guess which woman would get the goods? They certainly would take my weight as a detractor from who is more deserving of a chance at recovery...because fat women over the age of 40 are going to die soon anyway, right? (WRONG, but it's exhausting to try and educate medical professionals about bias and the reality that BMI was created not by medical professionals but by statisticians based on faulty samples decades ago. It is not an honest indicator of health).
Yet, fingers crossed, we are closer to a vaccine for coronavirus every day, and some are saying it could be here as soon as December or early 2021.
So I just have to hang in there for another 6 months or so, and I might be home free.
Fingers crossed.
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