Corona virus may have found its way to my house. My cousin, a widow, who has lived with us for the last 5 years, is employed in one of the "critical jobs". She came home yesterday with symptoms, including a cough and fever, and is being tested as I write this. We won't know the result for several days. In the mean time, she is going to be "self-quarantined" in her room and the adjacent bathroom (which obviously the remainder of the household will avoid). Frankly, I am terrified for my son, who has asthma, so is high risk. I even suggested sending him to stay at a relative's house until we know, but my wife won't hear of it.
Louis I'm terrified for you. Back in January my wife was diagnosed with Stage 2 Breast Cancer (triple negative) and in a month it went from a walnut to mandarin orange to the size of a Haas Avocado and by February she was on her first chemo treatment that will last 20 weeks, surgery after that then radiation until fall. The news was devastating to the family. I don't know anything about cancer, but what I do know now is that her white blood cell count is 1.4...we normally have 11K to 17K on an everyday basis. So, suffice to say she has zero immunity and the stress of keeping our house completely sterile is a daily task. Basically, a cough of any sort could kill her, let alone this COVID business.
We started taking precautions the first week of February when we flew to LV for a convention and wore masks and gloves on the plane. The looks we received were astonishing as people muttered under breath expletives of how dumb or stupid we were. But, what they didn't understand was the severity of her condition and we were taking those precautions BEFORE chemo. When we got to LV there were ten of thousands of Chinese folks there for the Chinese New Year and at that time my wife was making a big deal out of some sort of "flu" out of China. Call it intuition but the seriousness of her tone caught my attention and we steered clear of the Asian folks not out xenophobia, but out of caution that we didn't know if the visitors were actually from China or elsewhere. In the years past we met Asian folks from China, Vietnam and other Asian countries who celebrated the New Year in February and had many a good times with the visitors.
Looking back, we did the best we could...on the plane that is and when the virus started heating up we waiting in horror for 14 days to pass by to make sure we didn't pick anything up in LV. Fortunately, we didn't but it spurred a series of protocols in our house that stand to this day and here are a couple:
-NOBODY is allowed inside the house.
-If one of us leaves for shopping etc, upon entry vigorous hand washing, if not a shower afterwards. Plus, there is sanitizer stationed at each house entry.
-We leave delivered packages out for a night or spray with disinfectant when retrieved
-The house is "deep cleaned" every other day. Deep as in disinfectant spray and we happen to have Hospital Virus killer spray.
-Groceries are stocked and I spent three freaking days waiting in line to get TP to last a couple of months
-When any of us leaves and goes into a store for food...black nitrile gloves and masks are worn. Plus, sanitizer in the car. You wash put sanitizer on nitrile gloves and wash your hands with them on too...to keep them sanitized.
-NEVER let your vehicle go past half a tank
-Maintain the proper attitude: Love, laugh, forgive, put pettiness in your pocket and try not to be the "old man"
The bottom line Louis is that we took this serious from day one and that is not to say that other people didn't either. But, we took the precautions for just regular sicknesses because of her immunity status, not knowing that they would be a precursor for the COVID protocols. So, in a sense we had a head start as a family just to protect mamma. Now, like you we are just as terrified for not just for her, but every body in our house. Meaning the stress and seriousness of this virus is on top of everyones mind. If the kids have (or had) to go back to school, the wife is going to move to the basement and I cannot have contact with them as I am the first degree contact with her. In fact, we were getting ready to move her downstairs the weekend before school was cancelled and that was right after spring break. Fortunately we have not had to do that yet. Right now it is a military operation to take her to her chemo appointments and sadly I cannot enter the clinic to be with her because the clinic has strict protocols they put in place because ALL of their patients are there for chemo. It is absolutely nerve racking taking her and probably the single most stressful day of the week.
Back in January I reached out to a couple of members here on the forum and told them I would be signing off for a while to take care of her and that was about two months ago. Now, that we have some normalcy in our schedule with chemo I am able to participate here and bring info and the funny. This forum has been a respite for me to cope with the chaos and I have some other things I do to keep my mind off the cancer business. But, I will tell you that since January our life has been turned upside down and now--if you compound that by the current situation--it is almost unbearable. I honesty think I have aged a few years since January 8th when we found out about the cancer and all I can tell you is to be disciplined in your efforts to protect your sons health...heck everyones health and think...think about EVERYTHING you can do to plan and prepare for ANYTHING that might come your way. Honestly, I was catatonic for about two days when I found out my wife had breast cancer, then I snapped out of it and the mission became clear: PROTECT THE WIFE. Now, as I have said before OUR mission is clear: SAVE LIVES. It is as salient as that.
I pray for you Louis, I pray for you boy and your family. Take the terror and turn it into team work to protect your house Louis and do it now!
You need anything message me.
John from Texas
