Mostly Apolitical Thread for Discussing/Venting our Rational/Irrational COVID-19 Fears and Experiences in 2020

skyped w my mum & dad today, feel a bit less on edge

i had voiced concerns to her via email last week, asked her & dad to take extra precautions now more than ever, as mum is immuno-compromised from rheumatoid arthritis & my dad has a lung problem

their town is not yet had any reported cases but it’s close - there’s reported 1 case now in the nearest city an hour away. being rural helps a tiny bit. but people are busing from suburban areas to stock up at rural supermarkets (!) & i dont think their town will stay untainted for long.

anyway I was so proud of mum. she told me tonight that she cancelled a concert outing to the next town over with a friend - friend (who is 80) laid into Mum for being “bloody stupid” & no-one in their town or the next is sick & that mum was overreacting -but Mum stood her ground & told her friend she was being ignorant :D

So apparently they are happily staying home & self isolating as much as they can, gardening & picking apples & reading & cooking - happy as clams under the circumstances. <3

Aw, that’s really brave of your mom, in those circumstances.

Good point made by my wife re:hoarding. Supply of common staples, like bread and eggs and milk and the like, should remain stable, because these are things people usually do not buy in large amounts for storage, anyway. They don't keep; people consume them as they get them, and that consumption rate will not change. If you hoard, say, bananas, you will have bad bananas. But stuff like toilet paper, it's something you *can* hoard, if you want to. It never goes bad.

― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 17 March 2020 02:15 (two hours ago) link

xpost: super brave!! especially bc that friend in particular is quite the bully

My mom is in her late 70s and fighting cancer, and cancelled plans to visit Sunday. It would have been just a 90 minute train ride, but she’s playing it safe. Her granddaughter just started crawling and I could tell it killed her not being able to come see in person.
We did a Skype call instead and the kiddo put on a show for her at least. Will try and do a few more during the week.

friend was urging people not to shame others who went out for a bit because they needed to "get it out of their system".

i agree insofar as I don't think in this instance shaming will help anything and everybody's stressed and we can all benefit from being kinder (lol at me saying this, but hey). and because we are often presuming the context.

buuuuuuut, on the other hand, logic like "people are telling me I shouldn't, but I needed to get out of the house" and then going to a semi-crowded bar, doesn't really fly right now. we're past that point. the virus doesn't care about our needs.

I am not fronting like I didn't go out last week (though I'm locked in for the long haul now). I am also not interested in tearing people down at the moment. nor am I seeking to demonize people who left their house - I had to replenish groceries today.

just realizing we can't treat this like cheating on a diet anymore. no "well, I shouldn't, but I deserve this" oi....:(

Straight up yelled at one of my housemates today. I said, "So I'm thinking it's time to stop going to other people's houses/having other people over here, because everything tells us we have to do as much as possible to lock down," and he was like, "Is that based on something? Because that's not what I'm seeing." Normally I would have been patient but I guess my nerves are frayed because I said, "No. You're wrong. And for the last two weeks I have been right about everything and I'm sick of being argued with." Then I apologized for being aggro, but it's getting increasingly hard not to be.

earlier today i did something similar. we were supposed to have a couple friends over and i decided that would not be a good idea. we both agreed, there wasn't an argument or anything like that. but it was a weird, formal dividing line. i felt weird before, and weirder since.

i've also been thinking about people that aren't so lucky to have an easy home to convert into a work from home fortress. i may have to exit this thread soon because i expect the most important lasting effects of coronavirus to be dependent on the political response. some people are about to get reaaaaaally fucked, and the way all of our governments respond makes a big difference. i'm a natural cynic but i actually see a lot of hope in the way that people are thinking about each other at this time - i hope that we are all wiling to stand up each other when it really counts, soon

i mean, i understand trying to keep the personal experiences here and the "political" response elsewhere, but i have a hard time separating the two, personally

remember sleep? that was cool

completely sucks if you can't sleep, and it is taking me ages to doze off, but once you get there it is *amazing* being able to forget the world for just those few brief hours, so beautiful

except a few nights ago when i had horrible dreams, but now my brain is just too tired for that

Unusually for me sleeping isn’t a problem. I guess I’m so stressed out by everything that at the end of the day I can drop off more quickly than I did before when I’d lie in bed fretting about what is now the most trivial of problems.

Woke up at 2.30 am and haven’t been able to get back to sleep. Reached fuck-it o’clock about an hour ago when the sleep failed to take me so after breakfast I’m up and out for a walk to see how ghost-town it is in Central London (and to give my local café some business).

very jealous of the toto washlet owner ott

maybe it's just california, but I'm having a hard time finding tofu. we are all eating tofu and driving less, which is nice.

small pieces of utopia chopped up and sprinkled over the top of this huge bowl of nightmare shitworld

Slept properly and without any kind of help (booze included) for the first time in days last night. I'm putting this down to not looking at my phone - certainly not at the news - after 8pm or so.

Definitely considering doing that, doubt I'll be able to achieve it though. Not checking phone is up there with not touching face in the difficulty stakes

"Things will chill on the supplies.in shops front."

Yes, but then for the next few weeks at least, going to the shop gets dicier each day in terms of getting or spreading the virus.

And I know I don't especially want to find I have milk for two days and can't leave the house for 14, even though I've been organised for the more essential stuff for a while.

Which of course are the sorts of things a lot of people will be thinking about.

I have been looking at less news these last few days, it all seems much of a muchness right now. Real life is more novel.

Or more to the point, broccoli. Can you get scurvy in two weeks?

Paracetamol thing was freaking me out because you have to gobble them like smarties when you have just a boring cold but I noticed Boots still has them even if supermarkets don't.

I only have cocodomol but fuck it I can deal with a wee codeine addiction if necessary why not. Tbh I honest I almost never medicate a cold.

I’ve been stockpiling paracetamol for years by default because I never have any on me so when a headache comes upon me I buy a new packet from the shop each time, which then goes in the drawer with the others as soon as I get home 🥴

The Lancet was actively linking the situation in Italy with the fact that so many people took ibuprofen for their symptoms and did subsequent tests to suggest it made the virus multiply more aggressively. In the event of getting ill I'm terrified of using almost any drug but paracetamol seems to be OK?

within its usual limits paracetamol is fine

I have a sore throat this evening. No fever though, let’s see what it’s like in the morning.

If I have got the vid then I have typhoid Maried it around town, prepping for lockdown. I’m a lot more worried about that than being sick.

I've had a sore throat for ten days, it's not one of the prime symptoms and i'm not dead yet. still time though!

I've been feeling shit since September tbh. One cold after another. Same every winter.

Ibuprofen thing seems strange (isn’t it an anti inflammatory and covid kills people by inflammation?) but as it happens we have about a million paracetamols anyway as they’re the only painkiller that really works on me.

dumb thing is that i've been increasingly careful about avoiding people / washing my hands etc for the past two weeks and yet i've still caught a cold from somewhere. probably nothing to do with the schools being open though

HSE in Ireland says the ibuprofen thing isn’t true
https://www.hse.ie/eng/services/news/media/pressrel/advice-about-anti-inflammatory-medication-and-covid-19.html

Trying, unsuccessfully, to persuade my dad to seriously isolate. He’s not that old (65) but he only has one lung. He just went to get the bus and go to dundee.

"continue to take any medication you were already taking, unless you are told not to by a healthcare professional"

Phrasing it like this is still kind of ambiguous. The question is, is it a good idea to start taking it without medical advice, not whether you should stop if you are already taking Ibuprofen.

HSE in Ireland says the ibuprofen thing isn’t true

Hope so as have about 30 boxes of ibuprofen in the house and only 2 of paracetamol

(there's been a massive shortage of ibuprofen the last six months or so and i need it for a running injury so have been stocking up when available)

You can't give it away over here tbh.

I have a totally baseless fear that many of the "healthy young people" who contract it and recover without hospitalization could suffer permanent impairment of lung function.

I have no valid scientific reason for my suspicion; it's just something my paranoid mind cooked up from a combination of Murphy's Law, worries about my friend who has it (he's doing better btw), and a cruel desire to see some karmic punishment for the "so what, it's not going to kill me" people.

By this afternoon, I will have been ensconced in our building for 96 hours straight. We're surprisingly doing well so far. Psychologically, I mean. I've decided not to go vote today. I've weighed the various feelings of irresponsibility gnawing at me and decided that the irresponsibility of the state government (or whoever decided in the midst of this not to delay the primary) will take the brunt. WFH yesterday was a pain but doable and I'm super grateful that I have that opportunity and I will try to keep that in mind when I start my second day of WFH in a few minutes

I read a piece earlier that said that a small number of recovered patients in Hong Kong have been left with weakened lung capacity (something like 20% -30%) but seemed to imply that cardiovascular exercises should see them improve over time xps

Sorry, that's 20-30% reduction in lung capacity, not 20-30% of recovered patients

last night weight watchers zumba club still going on at local social club, local rugby club's kiddie team training as normal in the park, pubs full of boozers no doubt sharing airborne droplets of pissed up saliva. Yet panic buying has started in local Co-op and Onestop so it isn't like they aren't aware there is some silent and imperceptible fire raging right now that is going to kill high numbers of people. The complacency and ignorance is pretty shocking.

xp I saw something that suggested the lung scarring was like that in bronchitis but would pass with time

calz, every single shop I’ve been to Maltesers are sold out alongside toilet roll and hand wash! Clear mob mentality or people think “fuck it, if I’m going to die/be locked down for months I want my Maltesers dammit”

the missus just got 3 bottles of Dettol quite expensive hand gel that arrived from India via E-bay and they are absolutely tiny - I swear they won't last long - only 30 ml per bottle, she's been skanked!

Just listened to an interview with an American in Italy (professor, age 73) who is under the nationwide home lockdown... which, I hope, the US will be doing in a month or less. Groceries wrapped in plastic left at the door. Sobering.

The 'limited' activity I engaged in yesterday -- small grocery store visit, ATM, buying new kitchen lights, post office -- offered a dozen opportunities for exposure. At least.

I'm going for chemo Friday, at a clinic where nearly all the patients are older than I am. I foresee most of them getting the virus and many of them dying. I'm afraid to be THERE. I think I'll have to make a decision after that. Because I am alone here, moving in with my sister's family in Connecticut, where I can be INSIDE ALL THE TIME, is starting to feel inevitable.

based on my extensive studies of my own heart rate the only over-the-counter chocolate with more caffeine packed into it than maltesers is lindor balls

(sorry morbs that was a bit of a callously shallow xpost on my part)

Oh lindorpaws

good luck morbs, hope you can get everything in place so you can move in with your sister