*Originally published 3/18/20*
These are some pretty uncertain and scary times we are living in. I have so many mixed feelings on everything happening that I have trouble putting it into words—but I will try here.
I first started having mixed feelings about the Coronavirus pandemic when all of the
Coronavirus and Lyme jokes came out. You haven’t seen one? Google it because if I see or hear one more of them I’m going to lose it. Why is it funny to joke about diseases? There is nothing funny about these life-altering and even life-ending illnesses. Please, please, please stop with the jokes.
Now, I’ll be the first to admit that I did not take COVID-19 seriously in the beginning. I thought it was just a glorified cold and could not understand why people were going crazy—I am also the first to admit that I was very, very wrong.
This thing is serious. It may not be manifesting so terribly for some people and for them, it is just like a bad cold. Yet, for others, they are dying and I don’t take that lightly. Everyone kept saying that only the elderly and those with underlying conditions would be impacted and people thought this was fine.
Do the elderly and the sick not matter? Are their lives any less important than others? A life is a life and I believe that all lives matter. The other issue with this “only the old and sick” mindset is that many people don’t know that they are, in fact, sick. Take Lyme for example.
My Lyme was dormant in my system for 10 years before I started showing symptoms. That means that someone could be out walking around right now thinking they are fine, when in reality, they have Lyme disease in their system and if they got COVID-19, the results could be catastrophic.
Many people also don’t know what counts as high risk or immunocompromised too. My parents were supposed to go out the other night but we talked them into staying in and when their friends asked why, my mom pointed to me. When people see me, I look like a healthy 22 year-old—this is the downside of having an invisible illness. I don’t fit the profile of what people think when they say the elderly and immunocompromised are at risk. In fact, the other day we saw a man at the doctor’s office (my last outing before social distancing) and we were talking about what’s going on. When he saw I had gloves on he asked why and I said I am high risk. His words were “but you’re young.” Boy oh boy was my blood boiling! There is no age limit on who is sick and who is not, and there is no age limit on who will get sick and who will not.
COVID-19 is a relatively new virus that we don’t know much about. We have no remedy, we have limited testing and we have limited information. What we do know is that it is spreading at astronomically high rates and we are not equipped to handle what is to come. We cannot stop it, but we can slow it down.
Which leads me to my next point: stay the frick home! Please people! It really is not that difficult—us chronically ill people have been doing this for years. I promise you that you can miss going bar hopping for a few weekends if it means LITERALLY saving lives. And that is what social distancing is doing—saving lives.
I am not even that worried about getting the virus myself—if I can make it through Lyme I can make it through anything. I am worried about being a carrier and potentially giving it to others and causing them harm. The thing with this virus (and not so shockingly, most viruses) is that people are carrying this disease around with them and have no clue. So how do you stop this? You keep the heck away from other people. My doctor told me that “if it is not a necessity, don’t go.” And I love that. Yes, work is a necessity and I understand people have to go to work (my brother is there right now) but the other stuff, it can wait. You don’t need to go over to your friend’s house for wine and Netflix—you can stay at your own homes and Facetime and have wine and Netflix while social distancing.
If you do have to go out for the essential things (like work and the grocery store) please take the proper precautions—act like you live with someone who is high risk. Wear gloves, wash your hands frequently, wipe things down, and if you can, stay six feet apart from others.
Stay home. Watch that show you’ve been meaning to (looking at you Handmaid's Tale). Read some books (I recommend these ). Try that hobby you’ve been meaning to but haven’t had time. I don’t care what you do, just do it at home.
And look, I’m sorry your vacations may get postponed. I’m sorry that your sporting events are gone and I’m sorry that you can only see your friends through the phone but guess what? Welcome to the life of the chronically ill. For years we have been social distancing. We have been unable to enjoy vacations, had to give up the sports we loved, the schools we loved, the people we loved because our illnesses got in the way.
People would often say to me “wow you get to stay home all day and watch Netflix. I wish I was you.” Well, now you are. Hopefully, now you see that it is not all sunshine and rainbows—it is lonely and isolating. Yet, if we are all practicing our own social distancing together, perhaps it’s just a little bit less lonely?
When you make jokes about any illness, it’s belittling to those living with that illness and takes away the severity of the situation. When you put labels on who will and will not get sick, you make people think they are safe when they really aren’t. News flash: most illnesses do not discriminate—they don’t care about your age, race, gender or political party. Do you want to be the person that kills another human being because you just were selfish and had to go out? No.
So, act like you are high risk—or better yet, act like a freaking decent and unselfish human being—and social distance yourself.
We are all in this together (even though we are apart).
Stay safe friends and expect some more blogs soon because what else is a girl to do when she’s in isolation?
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