By: Revanche

Living in the time of pandemic: COVID-19 (218)

August 5, 2024

Year 4 of COVID in the Bay Area.

Year 5, Day 124: A Twitter thread about Hayao Miyazaki’s favorite children’s books made me realize I’ve never read Mary Norton’s The Borrowers. I’ve put it on hold at the library but am very confused why I had to enter my email address to place it when I was logged in. That’s new and weird.

I’m still walking around like I’m missing a limb without Sera (or Seamus, or Doggle). It’s hard to breathe in that brief second when I remember that I’m coming home to the dogshaped holes in my life, not to my beloved furry feets. It’s getting better but sometimes it’s like a gut punch.

My dog stand-in (the garden) surprised me today. I forgot that I’d transferred the non-germinating green beans into Potato Bag 2, sort of giving up on them. It looked like the next generation of potato plants were starting up nicely but on closer inspection, three of them look like they’re actually green bean plants! Probably. We’ll give it two more weeks to see what they look more like. Turns out set it and forget it isn’t just for my investments.

Year 5, Day 125: The ridiculously high wastewater levels in California have prompted me to review our protection layers. We have nasal sprays (Nasitrol, iota-carageenan is the ingredient that apparently matters). There are some very early studies suggesting that a combination of H1 and H2 antihistamines (loratidine or cetizirine + famotidine) may also be protective against infection (or perhaps it’s protective against severe illness). I’ve got both in plenty already for their prescribed use so why not take them regularly for both that and possible increased COVID protection? We obviously still mask but it’s imperfect protection during the summer when we’ve got sunblock on and our faces get sweaty, and sometimes we have to unmask to eat where other people are.

So, layers. We’re boosted. We’re masking. We have nasal spray and we’ll have prophylactic OTC meds to help mitigate if we do get infected. We can’t avoid all humanity, despite my preferences, there are summer fairs and carnivals that kids would like to experience, so we are layering our protections in hopes of continuing to stave off COVID long term. May the one breach with Smol Acrobat be the only one. I’m really worried about the cumulative effects of COVID for the kids. My life is already pretty hellish with chronic pain, fatigue and PEM. I only wish all this on terrible people who need to stop hurting people. I don’t want my kids to get it but the data suggests that the more infections they experience, the higher the probability they’ll get Long COVID. So. Layers for the summer (and every season)!

Year 5, Day 126: Did I ever go outside today? Other than taking the kids out and getting them loaded up in the car to send them off for their days, I don’t think I did. It’s been that kind of day. Week. Month. I WAS doing better at going out daily for a walk but I need to get back on that.

Another disgruntled humph, my throat has been sore for multiple weeks. The antivirals aren’t budging it. I’ve got a theory that this is stress induced because I have no other symptoms, no one is catching anything from me, and my body has a history of overreacting to the least little thing. I’ve been managing the pain with cycles of acetaminophen and ibuprofen. Thank goodness those work enough so I can still eat and drink with moderate discomfort. I remember a bout earlier this year when they couldn’t even do that much.

Also? I’m melting. I used to handle heat well. Even humid heat. I didn’t LIKE it but I could deal. Now the temp ticks up 10-15 degrees and I’m the Wicked Witch of the West. MELTING!

I did submit a large Costco order for our August Lakota family, and conducted a massive clearing out of a disorganized snack drawer dumping snacks circa 2014-2022. Fresh snacks!

Year 5, Day 127: This is my designated errands day. PiC has been taking JB to work with him most non-camp days to give me a chance to get through work so I’ve taken today to hang with them and DO ALL THE THINGS. We have to hit the dentist, library, dry cleaner, Staples, and post office. Can we do this all and also finish the laundry? Let’s find out!

Conclusion: We were only able to go to the dentist and Staples. We were late getting out the door so we didn’t collect the library books, the dry cleaner went out of business (!) and the post office just felt like too much effort after we struck out at the dry cleaner. So we went home and I did a TON of organizing and cleaning. That was satisfying.

I’m mentally chewing on First Gen American’s comment at Nicole and Maggie: My uncle did give annual gifts to his kids and they were unemployed or underemployed most of their lives. It ended in the worst way. (One kid stealing from parents when he didn’t want to share remaining inheritance with sibling). It ruined those kids. I may help with some big expenses like grandkid college funds, but will not do regular handouts if I can help it.

That’s terrible! And it makes me wonder how much the annual gifts were accompanied by other life ruining actions or habits, or if that was the primary / key cause. I know other people who give their adult kids annual gifts but IIRC, they started after the kids were older and reasonably established in their respective careers. The adult kids’ habits aren’t maybe the best financial habits but they also don’t have to be with this fairly significant cushion to pad any mistakes or run of the mill impulses. They’re not getting drug habit money, so they seem ok? I also don’t recall if it’s actually annual or just no more than annual to be under the gift tax exclusion limit.

I am still of the mindset that we’ll pay for about half of undergrad for each kid but I’m not sure if we’ll have enough for 4 years saved by the time college starts, so I doubt this will be a real life issue for us but I AM curious about what the right level of giving / passing down money is to ensure that your kids aren’t terrible humans or aren’t ruined by the prospect of a neverending spigot of cash. Is it all expenses up through college? And then maybe they can have up to the gift tax exclusion if they donate half of it? How DO you handle having more than enough ten times over without creating a completely entitled human?

Year 5, Day 128: No idea if this was going to happen regardless but I’ve neglected the flower bit of the garden for a couple weeks. To my surprise and delight, they didn’t die off. Instead, three of the plants bloomed! I have flowers! 🎉

Less good news, we briefly saw an old friend over the weekend (we were masked, they were not) and they just let us know they’ve tested positive for COVID. They said it before I thought it: what did I (you) expect? They socialized at three large events in a row (two of which I didn’t know about before they notified me) and didn’t mask for any of them. I’m not thrilled. But I’m not surprised either. So many people are just swanning about unmasked while our wastewater levels skyrocket. I don’t know what anyone else is thinking but I’m most definitely thinking absolutely not! Now I’m mildly obsessively reviewing our layers to make sure we’re doing any and everything that would mitigate risk.

We were masked, did the nasal spray at the start of the day, were boosted. Smol Acrobat briefly unmasked to chomp on some snacks but then they went outside. That part has me extra worried about whether those few minutes were enough to infect them.

Back to better news while I figure out when we should all test ourselves: I’ve made the decision to work with an online fitness trainer to try and develop a program that doesn’t set off my fibro or ME/CFS. I want to get stronger and leaner, a little healthier heart-wise. I don’t care what numbers are on the scale as long as I feel stronger and leaner and like this body is mine again.

I’ve had an intake call to cover medical history and relevant stuff, and we start next week. There were a lot of unexpected emotions that bubbled up during that call, and after. Fear and worry: that it won’t work with my ME/CFS, that I’ll fail again at trying to get a little healthier or feel a little less alien, of getting my hopes up. Unsettled: making myself a priority? Weird? Hope and excitement: automatically trying to repress this a little bit, we have to start slow and low (intensity) or we will definitely fail. Wish me luck? I could use an accountability partner.

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