Covid-19 Diary Entry 2: 5 Things I Never Realized I Was Thankful For

Because of my lung condition, my doctor has ordered me to stay at home since getting COVID-19 would be exceptionally bad for me and my medication makes me more likely to get it if I'm exposed to it. It's nothing new for me to stay at home all the time, I did it recently for almost a year and a half while I was unemployed. But this time is different. It's so easy to overlook the simple things when they are there all the time. So here are five things I never realized I was thankful for.

1) The Ability to Go Where I Want, When I Want

I used to be able to just get up and go whenever I wanted to. Forget something I need for making dinner? Hop in the car and go pick it up at the store. Bored? Drive to the bookstore or the mall and wander around. I had gotten into the habit of going to a local park on the way back from seeing my therapist and walking their 1/4 mile trail. But I can't do that now. Sure, I've been stuck at home in the past when I was sick or when I didn't have a car but there were still times I was able to get up and just go somewhere.

2) Being Best Friends With My Mom

I can't imagine what people who don't get along well with their family are going through being cooped up with them. I'm so fortunate that my Mom is also my Best Friend. We have no trouble spending time together and we've even found new things to do together while we're stuck at home. The stress of dealing with the uncertainty caused by this pandemic is definitely taking its toll on us but we're here for each other in any way we can be. We've even gotten better at communicating what we're feeling.

3) Internet Access

Without access to the Internet, I wouldn't be able to work from home and as a result, I wouldn't be getting paid. The internet has also been a great asset for me because it gives me access to all kinds of media to help distract me from what's going on. I've gotten into a daily routine of watching Unus Annus and Markiplier on YouTube every day and it has helped me to keep smiling when I'm having a worse day than usual. The internet has also enabled Mom and me to order our groceries for pick up so that she doesn't have to spend as much time inside stores.

4) My New Job

There are so many people right now who are unable to work because of the restrictions that are currently in place to help slow the spread of COVID-19. Hell, my own Mom is one of them. I was so excited when I got my job working for Hershey as a Sensory Panelist because it felt good to be working again. I had no way of knowing that not even halfway into my training everything would change and I would have to stay at home again. I am so fortunate that the company has retained the family outlook that it was founded with. I'm able to work from home and keep earning a paycheck in a time when so many others can't and I don't know that that would be true with any of my previous jobs.

5) My Cats

It is amazing the difference those to fuzzballs make in my life! Fred and Daphne seem to know that something is wrong and they know just when Mom or I need extra kitty cuddles. Whether it's Fred hopping up in the chair with me and curling up in my lap or Daphne asking to be picked up and held by Mom in the bathroom (commode cuddles, lol) they're always there right when we need them the most. I can tell that they're a bit scared too because of things being different and I do my best to be there for them too.

Covid-19 Diary Entry 1

I've been putting off doing this because I keep hoping that this whole thing would blow over quickly. It's become painfully obvious that we're in this for the long haul.

On March 6th, 2020 Governor Tom Wolf declared a disaster emergency in the state of Pennsylvania, where I live, regarding the rapidly spreading novel coronavirus (COVID-19). A stay-at-home order was issued for a few initial counties (Allegheny, Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Monroe, Montgomery, and Philadelphia) and it was supposed to be in effect from March 19th to April 6th. Today is April 12th and the entire state is now under orders to stay at home through April 30th.

Social distancing is now a common part of the world vocabulary along with pandemic, quarantine, asymptomatic, and personal protective equipment (PPE).

Many people are following the directions issued by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) but, as always in life, there are those who choose to ignore the severity of the situation and refuse to follow these directions. Some are having so-called Corona Parties with their friends where they all get together to drink Corona and hang out.

Spring Break has come and gone and a frightening number of college kids carried on with their plans as if they had not a care in the world. Young people in the prime of their life feel like they are invincible. I remember feeling the same way at that age. They aren't worried about themselves because they're young and healthy and fit, but they forget the other people in their lives who aren't so fortunate. The elderly, the very young, people with weakened immune systems or pre-existing lung issues are especially at risk and all it takes is for one asymptomatic Spring Breaker to come into contact with them to spread the disease.

And it's deadly. So much more deadly than was initially reported even by our President at the beginning of the outbreak in the United States. As of about 9 PM ET Sunday April 12th, there have been 114,090 deaths worldwide, 22,071 of those are in the United States, and 507 of those are in Pennsylvania. People are dying and there are still people out there who refuse to acknowledge how serious this situation is.

So many people are out of work now because they weren't working for a life-sustaining business. People who are still employed are terrified of any cough or sniffle from a coworker if they aren't amongst the percentage of workers who are able to work from home. Unemployment has been expanded and many people already on assistance will be receiving additional assistance to make up for the loss of work.

One positive thing to come from all the folks working from home is that people with disabilities who should have been working from home all along now have proof that many jobs that were previously thought to be impossible to do from home actually are possible. Reasonable accommodations for those folks should be easier to get once the world goes back to business as usual.

But really, we'll never be able to go back to the way things were before the outbreak. There's been too much fear, too much loss, too much change for that to ever happen. The world will have to learn to live with its "new normal", something people with chronic illnesses have tried to make other people understand for years.

If it weren't for the internet to help keep people connected in so many different ways people's mental health would definitely be suffering worse than it is. Social butterflies are forced to stay at home, people with anxiety are grappling with the uncertainty of the world around them, people with depression have to fight that feeling of helplessness and hopelessness, and we all have to find ways to cope with the seemingly unending miasma of fear that surrounds the globe.

When this all started I had just started training for my new job as a Sensory Panelist for The Hershey Company. Because Hershey makes a food product (confections) they are considered a life-sustaining business and are still operating. Much to my surprise the sensory panelists are considered essential personnel and are still working. The company is taking great steps to ensure the continued health of its employees and many of us are working from home. It's been strange trying to learn about my new position without the ability to see, taste, or smell. But I'm grateful that I'm still being paid even though my formal training is on hold for the time being.

They've been saying on the news that we're starting to "flatten the curve", meaning the rate of infection is leveling off. That's good news, but the ramp-up has been so great that there's no real way of knowing for sure when those numbers will start to decrease steadily. Some parts of the world have already been through the worst of it and have come out on the other side battered, weary, but still functional.

As the wave of the outbreak has moved from East to West there has been so much loss and change in an effort to slow it down. Some efforts have worked better than others. Only history will be able to tell if it was enough in the long run.