A Brief Update

Hello old friends. It’s been a minute, hasn’t it? My health has been in a rough spot for the last month, so I’ve spent my time away from here sleeping excessively and falling behind in all areas of life. A sort of mandatory R&R, if you will.

The past week or so has been particularly strange. I turned 32 during a 72-hour sleeping spell, an old friend gave birth to a tiny human, my grandmother turned 90 and her birthday wishes were delivered by telephone, Thanksgiving dinner was one-tenth of its usual size, my a friend of boyfriend’s broke his hip at age 40, WordPress congratulated me on 10 years of blogging, and I haven’t seen my boyfriend for seven days since he developed Covid-like symptoms. He received a positive Covid-19 diagnosis three days ago and is currently being advised by his primary care physician to go to the ER due to his high respiratory rate, low blood oxygen saturation and difficulty breathing over the past few days (as as healthy, 38-year-old). Panicky, lonely and too mentally exhausted to do much else, I’ve been watching him sleep across the house via video calls, just in case he stops breathing and I need to call an ambulance. Thankfully, I’m asymptomatic, but I am still terrified. Somehow, despite extremely limited social interactions, N95s/P100s, googles, gloves, religious disinfection, and immune-boosting supplements, he still caught. We were the most cautious people I know due to my preexisting lung damage (see The Costco Mask Fiasco), and somehow we are still in a position we were doing everything we could to prevent.

On a lighter note, the hubby’s sister posted to Facebook that he was dying in the ICU (not true!) and a friend of his responded “What brother? You don’t have a brother…” which is probably believable because he’s never had a social media account. He’s in the ER now, mostly as a precautionary measure, but the three of us are independently dying of laughter and his sister is pissed that we crushed her digital pity points.

I’m not one to get political, but I view Covid-19 to be a health crisis as opposed to a political one. As such, I would implore you to please try to take whatever precautions you can to protect yourself, your loved ones, and anyone you may encounter. This virus is nasty and seeing it firsthand is just the pressure I need to speak up. People here is Phoenix–both politicians and the general public–are not taking this seriously and it’s frustrating, if not infuriating. At a rate of 0.5% of the local population being diagnosed positive daily, the governor just suggested people and businesses acquire outdoor space heaters to accommodate outdoor gatherings. Ugh. If you’re feeling even slightly ill, please stay home. Even if you feel it’s infringement on your rights, please wear a mask where requested. At the end of the day all members of humanity are on the same team, and we really should do all that we can to support one another.

I hope that you and your loved ones are staying safe and healthy, especially around the holidays right around the corner.