As an American living so many thousands of miles and oceans apart that it was a concern in the back of my head, but felt it's in China how can it make its way to me? Then in February there was a burst of cases in Italy. My husband, kids and I were planning on a March Spring Break trip to Portugal. The thought that the virus had made its way to Europe was a bit unsettling. Looking at a map, Portugal is several countries away from Italy, so we should be okay - right? Northern Italy was invaded by the virus to the point that hospitals ran out of room and proper equipment to treat patients, forcing medical professionals to decide which patients were "worth" treating/saving.
I was tracking the data to determine where Portugal was with cases. Up until about 3 weeks before we were set to depart for Portugal, Portugal was Covid-19 free. When Portugal recorded its first cases of the virus, that put an end to our trip. We cancelled (or better stated indefinitely postponed) our trip. The risk was beginning to outweigh the benefit, especially given at this point in time no one really understood the virus and the medical havoc it caused. We just knew people were dying; and a lot of people were becoming ill.
The first U.S. case was not far behind with a cluster on a Japanese cruise ship, a cluster in the State of Washington and New York City. New York City was riddled with cases to the point, physicians and nurses were called in from other States to assist with care.
Since no one could reassure us that my son, who has Noonan Syndrome and all the medical issues it comes with, would be okay if he contracted the virus. I was getting very concerned that going to Portugal would be a tough situation given we don't speak the language and I have no idea how their healthcare system is and countries were beginning to shutdown limiting people in and out. Collectively as a family we decided to cancel the trip in March with the intent to reschedule when living with a pandemic is over. To say the decision was hard to swallow would be an understatement. Telling your son who has celiac that he can't have the McDonald's french fries he was so looking forward to (Portugal's McDonald's fry their french fries in a separate frier where most other countries do not), hit like a ton of bricks to the heart. Not to mention we all needed a vacation in the worst way.
Come mid-March, the kids were told to gather their belongings at school as they were going to learn remotely. My company and my husband's firm both moved to remote working with only essential visits to our offices. The thought was this was going to be a couple of weeks, maybe a couple of months tops. Today, I'm still working remotely (going into the offices for essential reasons) and my husband is still home working and it's been over 4 months with a minimum of 2-3 more months of remote working. My kids will go back to school, but it will be much different than what they are used to and they will be required to wear masks all day.
Since mid-March we have spent most of our time taking miles upon miles of walks. It took us until June to begin ordering food for carry out. My husband was the lone person in my house going into public to shop for groceries and other essential items with shopping runs as early in the day as possible. Coming home stripping down and taking a shower. I would wipe down all the items requiring refrigeration or freezing and place them in their respective places. We left food sitting in the car for days because the information on how long the virus stayed on surfaces was all over the place.
As our state began loosening the lockdown, we slowly have allowed ourselves to explore home improvement stores. We allowed ourselves to get together with others but only for social distancing visits. And with all shopping excursions, masks have been worn and hand washing to the point of sore dry skin.
We wear masks whenever we know we will be near people and where we know we will not be able to social distance 6-9 feet apart.
This lifestyle has been exhausting, especially for a person like myself who has high anxiety to begin with.
Today, the Covid-19 numbers continue to climb at a rapid pace with no decrease in sight.
Somehow, this pandemic became political. It was unfortunate that the timing of the pandemic happens to be around the United States next presidential election. I often wonder, if the president had not had to worry about re-election, maybe he would have gone about things in a much more safe and well calculated manner. Maybe if he didn't have to worry about the economy tanking or the unemployment rates climbing, he would have thought about the big picture instead of worrying about re-election.
The heated debates over everything revolving around the pandemic is mind-numbing at times, if not extremely exhausting. You begin to see true colors of people. I'm not without sin. I have opinions, many of them are strong. I make it a point more often than not to listen/hear the other side, mostly because I don't like to be wrong and look foolish, and not necessarily because I think someone is right and I am wrong. People I have respected in the past, I am now questioning our friendships/relationships. I'm finding so many to be selfish in their interests and actions. As they say, it take a crisis to truly know who your friends and foe are.
As a person with a biomedical engineering background, the science/medical part of this virus scares me. It has a mind of it's own and it manifests its medical evils in so many different ways. We all thought that the old, medically compromised were at risk. It is not the case. Medical professionals are finding young folks with no underlying medical issues are also at risk. And it's like a crap-shoot too, no rhyme or reason why some are affected so badly while others fair much better. One thing that is for sure, is we have no idea what the long term effects will be with those who have gotten the virus and made it to the otherside unscaved. I guess time will tell.
The whole debate of wearing masks is the silliest in my humble opinion. If you get a good one that fits you well, they are not so bad. Not ideal to wear one in 90F+ degree heat and high humidity - but I certainly would take this over being intubated and stuck to a ventilator for days/weeks. Or finding I had a stroke from a blood clot and I will need countless hours of physical/occupational/speech therapy to be a fraction of myself again. Or needing kidney dialysis for the rest of my life.
The other thing that I feel no one truly has considered is how financially crippling the medical costs can be with this pandemic on it's victims and their families. Let's say you are one of the unlucky ones that after trying everything else, the doctors determine the ventilator is your last resort. That alone is unsettling because it means you have at best 50/50 chance of fighting the virus and getting better. So you are intubated, hooked up to the ventilator and you are on it for 14 days (which seems to be the minimum time one spends on it). Based on first hand costs of a family member being on a ventilator for 2-days prior to being taken off to die peacefully, the cost was approximately $50,000 USD for a single day. Multiply this by 14 days and you are looking at $700,000 USD. Let's say you have relatively decent insurance like I do. After meeting my deductible, I'm still required to pay 20% of the cost of my hospitalization, including the use of the ventilator. The cost of just the ventilator under my plan would require me to pay $140,000 USD. Now mind you, this is just the ventilator, this doesn't include the ICU room, hospital charges, physicians, medicines, lab work, etc. You see where this is going???
If we all did our part by wearing a mask in public, especially where there are others around and you cannot keep 9 feet between you and the other person, and in indoors for sure - the $12.00 USD mask (x 7 days and in my case x 4 people = $336.00 USD) may be the best money spent!
My hope is that my family and I make it to the otherside of the pandemic without the virus. That a vaccination can be developed to allow for immunity, even if it's only good for 12 months. I am okay with doing my part annually getting the flu shot, I have no issues with adding a Covid-19 shot to my shot list.
I wish you well. Please be smart about what you do every day. Although I am not scared of dying, it doesn't mean I don't want to be around to watch my kids grow-up and have their own kids and so on. If we all do our part, we will make it to the otherside.
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