The world is closed, now what?

As a person who is very very high risk to die if I contracted the covid19 virus I sit here dumbfounded. I am on house arrest for at least 2-4 more months. Hard to fathom that right now. If I end up getting even a cold at this moment the hospital won’t be able to take care of me. I am a dead woman sitting. I see people ignoring the advice to stay home and to physically distance themselves from others and I just don’t get it. Our society has turned into those who get it and those who don’t. The longer the ‘those who don’t get it’ continue with their selfishness the longer we all have to stay in. It boggles my mind to see selfish 20 year olds celebrating their spring break in very close contact and then going home to spread that plague to the rest of the world. Our government is one step away from Marshall Law.

The United States is even worse than us Canadians and it terrifies me that they are our neighbours. Thank God we’ve shut our borders to them as they are going to become the latest hotspot of the virus for a very long time. They don’t have universal healthcare and they don’t even have a leader that can get ventilators, PPE and hospital beds to those who need it. Its every politician for himself down there! As much as I dislike Trudeau for his domestic policy in general I do applaud him for listening to the experts, creating programs to carry the burden and to do it in a calm and collected manner. Canada is full of medical experts and researchers and also experts that can design programs to help all Canadians. This is a tall order. I am 100% certain that we Canadians will prevail. We were born for this type of catastrophe because the majority of us are helpers.

The world has stopped and we have no idea when it will start again. The only way I stay alive is to never go out into the public and limit any visits with family. We stay in touch via FaceTime. That said, that is something I am grateful for, the Internet and social media. Even though I am alone I am not lonely.

Now as I look around my house for projects to distract me from boredom I just count my blessings. I have a gym in my basement to keep me strong, I have a refrigerator full of food, a roof over my head, enough medications for 2 more months and a crazy fur girl to keep me from going completely nuts.

I know what isolation is as I have had to live with it for my entire life. Cold and flu season every year sees me go into hibernation. Hospital stays are normally 2 weeks of solitary confinement. The symptoms of this corona virus are extremely similar to my daily life, down to the loss of smell. I am hoping that any CFers that contract this virus are able to fight it off because we already live the symptoms everyday. I’m a wishful thinker.

The hope for me and mankind after all this is over is that we emerge better versions of ourselves, we stop the manic way of living, we appreciate the little things and we plan for a different future, one where we take care of each other instead of letting greed and capitalism separate us again. Is this an apocalypse, I would say yes. Will we survive it? That remains to be seen. Do your part, stay home if you can, wash your hands (should have been doing this anyway-obviously the world was not) and stay positive. Maybe next year the flu season will not claim as many lives as it usually does every year. What a beautiful consequence to an ugly situation.

Until a type of normal life resumes I will adapt. I will fight for my health and I will pray that an end to this pandemic comes soon. We are in control of that. The virus needs us to move it. Be the one who stops it.

Health and Happiness,

N

P.S. Social distancing means PHYSICAL distancing. Stay the eff away from each other!