With California starting to re-open this summer, I find myself trying to figure how I am supposed to navigate it. In early March, my family (myself, my husband and kids, my parents and brother, and my sister and her husband and kids) started paying a lot more attention to this developing story that was Covid-19. There were a bunch of cruise ships just waiting in the pacific ocean with infected passengers that needed to be treated and California was trying to figure out where to send them. My family made a plan. My parents and sister would stock up on some essential items while they were out running errands– OTC pain relievers, canned goods, toilet paper, dog food, etc for all 3 of our houses just in case down the road we would be quarantined. I wasn’t going into crowded places anymore. It may have sounded extreme but worse case, we figured if nothing more happened, we would be stocked up on items we would use eventually anyway. As it turned out, when the panic buying hit, we were stocked up (we actually used the last roll of our original mega multi-pack of toilet paper last week so my husband finally had to pick some more up.)
My very, real reality is that I am only as safe as the people around me take this pandemic. I am grateful to live in California where our government took action quick and early. The curve was flattened. There is science that backs this up. So now with them saying it is safe to slowly venture out, I am not sure how I handle that. Once again, I find myself in the position of what do I do now, with no real answers? Things are starting to re-open because California feels it’s safe to do so. Does that mean, I start going grocery shopping again, wandering around Target, is it safe for me to go to a drive thru? Even if I wear a mask and gloves, am I protected? Once people stop wearing masks and gloves, do I continue to do so?
I had my Ocrevus infusion at the end of April. Ocrevus is an immunosupressive drug to treat my Multiple Sclerosis. I go twice a year. It blows up my immune system and then I go back six months later for it to be blown up again for the cells that have started to re-grow to be blown up. It means my immune system is very weak. A cold can turn into pneumonia. A scab on my finger takes weeks to heal up. So I ask again, how do I figure out how I re-enter society now that it is supposedly safe to start doing so?
I think for now the only thing I can do now is just wait it out and see what happens as healthy people start to re-emerge; are they getting sick, is there an uptick in cases now? We had plans to go to Hawaii in July. We had to cancel that. My kids are on summer break now. We literally have no plans until they go back (maybe) to school in person in August with many, many changes in place to keep students and staff safe.
So my extroverted, needs human interaction self, will just stay put longer. I honestly thought I’d go crazy this whole time being stuck inside but I really haven’t. There have been hard days. We go for a drive at least once a week and just getting out of the house helps. I’ve been doing alot of deep thinking. I’ve been selling clutter I’ve wanted to sell for awhile, I’ve been organizing things and I started this blog. I’m hopeful I’ll get interaction on here with people going through similar situations. Do you have a game plan for when your state says it’s safe to go back out?
Picture Image: My sweet friend Laurie, dropped off this dish towel she found at Hobby Lobby yesterday. She said she saw it and automatically thought of me. I laughed so hard when I opened it. Because this little piggy, did stay home…since March 12th to be exact.
MSfit Momma 