I’ve never been so happy to see drugs in all my life! Sam’s Club Pharmacy (one of the best pharmacies I’ve ever dealt with, for two decades and counting now, even in different locations with different pharmacists) delivers now. I also know CVS is doing the same. Check with your pharmacy if you need this service.

On the table from my most recent “drug deal,” still in my decontamination zone:

Xyzal (or levocetrizine), an antihistamine);

Zyflo (previously not covered by my insurance, and with a $600 price tag per month, which makes this an $1,800 delivery for that one alone) for asthma;

Prednisone 🤮 (Satan’s TicTac’s, a necessary evil);

Nasal sprays (one anti-histamine spray and one for post nasal drip to try to avoid sinus infections becoming respiratory infections); and most coveted right now…

Xopenex (levalbuterol) because Albuterol is in short supply as it is being used for Covid patients, but would be catastrophic to many people like me if I didn’t have it, so I’m grateful that albuterol stopped working for me years ago, and I was moved to levalbuterol (xopenex), which is just a slightly different formulation from albuterol, but enough that it works for people in a different way and people who can’t use albuterol for some reason can often tolerate Xopenex.

I’m almost thankful for everything that has happened in the last few years, because as much as of a nightmare as it’s been, it has caused me to be prepared for this nightmare we are experiencing in ways I never could’ve imagined being prepared. All the way down to having changed to an unusual drug just at the right time when many asthma sufferers are about to go through hell and die…. because they can’t get their inhalers… because there aren’t any left or they’re being saved for Covid patients.

If you depend on albuterol, refill it immediately if you can, because you may not be able to do so when you need to. However, if you do OK without it, or one inhaler lasts you a long time, please don’t TP the inhalers!

(I know of one mom of two boys who already passed from asthma during all of this. Wasn’t even a personal friend, but it still broke my heart because someone I care about was very close to her and her family, including her kid who was best friends with one of her kids, has been devastated by it. And it happens to be someone who does an astronomically big dose of good in the world, and carries a lot of grief and hard emotions for other people. The last person I would have wished grief like this on.)

Don’t play around. Don’t take chances. If you are feeling ill, get tested. If you are struggling to breathe, go to the hospital. Don’t shrug it off. As one doctor connected to me said, this is a very unfair and undiscriminating virus. There is no rhyme or reason as to who does well and who doesn’t. The mom who passed was young and healthy, but an elderly friend with many underlying issues survived a 7 day hospital stay. I’m grateful my friend survived. But it just goes to show there is absolutely no telling who this will become catastrophic for. Fill your meds. Take care of your health. Try to avoid situations that cause asthma, that exacerbate hypertension, nip it in the bud if you have early signs of an infection.

And do all of the things. It’s not a joke. It’s not funny. It’s not political. If you play this game like politics, you may as well be going to a casino with the chances you are taking. Or going to your governor or senator for them to administer medical treatment when you get sick. Definitely don’t go to your doctor, if you’ve been slapping your doctor in the face by saying, “Let’s open the world,” with every true medical expert saying that doing so it’s going to create exactly what we avoided, ultimately overcrowding the hospitals where physicians and hospital staff are already depleted and struggling, physically, emotionally, psychologically, and every other way possible. Still without enough PPE. I have witnessed it myself, I have seen other people witness it, and I have delivered some of my own supplies to help. The medical community is struggling in ways you couldn’t even imagine.

• Social distance. And for the love of all things holy, don’t post pictures of yourself out in public without a mask. Many people are losing all respect for you, many who will never tell you so directly.
• Wash your hands excessively. For a minimum of 20 seconds. Look up the correct way to wash them, the same way doctors wash theirs. (i’ve also been told by people in the medical community that people are always shocked in medical school when they learn how much bacteria remains on their hands when they don’t wash correctly or for the right amount of time. Trust that without this medical school “hands on” lesson, your results are the same. Use soap that foams.
• Use sanitizer if you can get some, when you can’t wash your hands. But wash your hands when it’s available as an option.
• Cough or sneeze into your elbow.
• Stay home if you can. Do the best you can if you can’t.
• If you have disinfectant, use it. Often. Decontaminate your mail and packages. Especially prescriptions that have been touched by pharmacists who have had contact with a lot of sick people. It seems ridiculous, but do it. Even with all of these measures, I got sick.

The information is out there. Everyone has heard the information. It’s your choice whether you protect yourself or not. It SHOULD not be your choice whether you risk other peoples lives, but unfortunately, it is.

If you are one of these people, please know that I have zero respect for you, and more sadly, I have ABSOLUTELY ZERO trust in you to care about me, and don’t believe your “thoughts and prayers” for one minute when I post that I might have the virus. Because your actions show otherwise.

Even if I care about you. I do not respect you. I do not trust you. And I don’t really even care about your thoughts and prayers. Sometimes the truth hurts, and unfortunately, the world has created a situation where my filter has been removed.

For those of you following all of the recommendations, and most especially if you are not even in a high-risk category and are still doing it, know that I see you! I have cried watching you learn to sew a mask, or even rigging one out of whatever you have in a sincere effort, teaching your children to sneeze into their arms, teaching your children to wear a mask, social distancing and staying home…. because it shows you care about others more than yourself. It is unselfish and the greatest act of love I have ever seen. This too, must be shared and acknowledged. ♥️

Stay safe, people! 🙏🏽🌎🙏🏽

Why is this happening When our fearless leader reminds us daily that we have all of the PPE and testing we could possibly want? Why do doctors have such a different message from the president of the United States of America? The puzzle pieces just don’t fit. I know who I’m inclined to believe. Do you?

Local Hospital Nurses Call For PPE For Health Care Workers Nationwide

[This article includes a discussion about Churg Strauss Syndrome, the primary condition I suffer from, and a personal friend from a support group we both belong to. It’s a great read, and she is an inspiration to me. Thank you for this amazing post. ~Gladys D. Smith-Mangen

With the possibility of a shortage of masks and gowns becoming a reality, an army of medical personnel, encamped in large tents that dot the …

Doctor On Front Lines, Bristolian Susceptible To Illness Talk COVID-19

*Trigger warning: politics

As we spend every day listening for medical news conferences from President Trump’s “task force,” and getting instead, a daily Presidential address, I am baffled by the American people and what we are learning about ourselves, each other, and our country as a whole.

The Press Conferences have never, ever NOT begun with the President’s daily dose of:

A) self-aggrandizing;

B) Political punches to the gut at anyone from Senators actively working in Congress, to the entire Democratic Party, complete with name-calling, literal campaigning, and “prior administration” blaming; and

C) An entire slew of comments that constitute medical advice and would be considered criminally actionable if given by any other person not licensed to practice medicine (literally recommending medical advice and drugs, providing his personal opinion on the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of drugs/medical equipment/treatment of patients, and committing to refusing to follow the recommendations of national and/or international health agencies, while directly influencing others to do the same by emphasizing they are “only recommendations).

This has taught me the following things, and I’m struggling with how to keep them from negatively shaping my children’s minds and futures:

1. The collective American IQ appears to be dropping at an alarming rate.

I can’t figure out whether people have always been so uninformed and impressionable, or if this is a response to these specific circumstances.

It’s as if people have abandoned all forms of common sense, science, logic, and truth. It’s as if the only way something can be true as if “the President of the United States said so.” Because he is the president, and, in his words, “The President of the United States has the power to do what the President of the United States has the power to do, and that’s very powerful.” It doesn’t matter what kind of science or logic exists, because they simply do not matter. I am really having a hard time excepting that the majority of America is really this ignorant.

2. Trump supporters follow the leader, not reality.

Trump‘s approval rating has changed 0% throughout this entire ordeal. At first I was baffled by this as well. But I’ve come to understand, with the understanding of the collective American IQ, that it actually does not matter what this president says, believes, stands for, does, lies about, or pretty much anything. He wants stated he could shoot someone on fifth Avenue and get away with it. I have come to believe he is correct.

The fact that his approval rating has not changed tells me people will follow him right into a grave before they will admit he is wrong about anything. If they ignore science, math, logic, commonsense, and people with degrees in the area they are discussing (medical degrees in most of the current cases), this only proves they are loyal to a party, or to a person, simply because he is the person who was elected by their party. They are not supporting a president because of facts, or because they have done their research and agree with him. The only way they can agree with him is if they admit they were wrong when they agreed with him before he changed his mind, and they agreed with him again. You can’t agree with the opposite things and have been right both times. I know this is confusing. It’s logic. It’s hard.

Even Republicans have come out of their party box to denounce their support of the president. At my last check, 25% of the republican party did not trust the president. Doesn’t this speak for itself?

3. “It is easier two fool somebody then it is to convince somebody they have been fooled.” -Mark Twain

I have become exhausted of trying to converse with people about any of these issues. It has become clear to me that their allegiance is simply that. There is not actually a point in explaining anything, because they are not willing to hear the truth. Only people who are willing to consider what other people have to say, and who are willing to admit they can be wrong, are worth interacting with.

I have heard people take a list of several things the president has done wrong or lied about, find one in the entire list that they think they can disprove, and if they succeed in my saying even one part of their argument may have some credibility, or I give the president credit for making one good decision, they will walk away like a peacock strutting their feathers as if they won, completely ignoring the rest of the list of things he has been proven wrong about.

I have heard somebody scold someone else on social media for calling the president a name. Referring to this person as not being patriotic, or American. I could hardly contain myself when I read this. I asked if they were talking about the person who posted the comment, or if they were referring to the president himself for name calling. Once again, I am baffled. How can somebody possibly support the president by defending him against name-calling while his limited vocabulary is made up largely of derogatory terms for entire groups of people including an entire political party, which arguably includes half of the American people he swore to represent and protect?

I think by far my favorite part of the various exercises in ignorance I have witnessed is the number of people claiming Democrats should not cash their stimulus checks because they don’t consider Donald Trump their president.

First, I question their understanding of how American government works. For example, do they believe Donald Trump is personally funding the stimulus checks? I would like to believe they have been misled because he demanded to put his name on the checks, something that was never done by any prior president, ironically, to avoid the appearance of partisan preference.

Unfortunately, I can’t go with that explanation because they were saying it prior to this decision. In a completely ironic understanding, these people fail to acknowledge that accepting this stimulus check, which was paid for by taxes paid by the very people receiving them, including people on Social Security who had to have work credits and a certain amount of income earned to receive it, is very much a move resembling socialism. Accordingly, people supporting Trump who are against socialism, should not be excepting this money, unless they are admitting socialism is acceptable and necessary for any government and its people to survive something like this.

That doesn’t seem to be happening. Instead, it appears no matter what the president says or does, his supporters simply must be too proud to admit they have been fooled. The evidence showing Trump has failed at leadership, that he is not intellectually qualified to engage in high level government, and that he does not even understand how government, the separation of powers, or the Constitution actually work, is too great. The only possible explanation is they simply do not want to accept they have been fooled.

As a result of all of this, lives have been lost and will continue to be lost, America’s reputation in the world has dropped and will continue to drop, and because ignorance is much more common in America than intelligence and education, I worry that it is very likely Trump will be reelected, because he has repeatedly shown evidence of his success, in “non-partisan” videos of people saying great things about him. All the while, pointing at the video as if to say, “See? Everybody agrees with me!” Much like a four-year-old pointing to a cow and saying, “See? It has four legs, therefore it is a dog.”

To be fair, he did say early on that one day the virus would disappear like magic. And sure enough, he recently stood in front of the American people and said the curve was flat. Once again, I think he fails to understand what a curve is. A flat line would not be a curve at all. It would also mean, in this sense, that there are no more virus infections anywhere in America. Clearly this is not the case. However, using the same evidence he has a used throughout the entire pandemic, his announcement that it is time to open up America again, is evidence that indeed, the curve is now flat, and the virus has disappeared, like magic.

I am so proud to be witnessing the first magical president of the United States of America. Never again will people get to experience this in their lives, if we are lucky. It would be pretty hard to top this. But stranger things have happened. After all, he does presently occupy the seat in the oval office. If that is not proof that Magic exists, nothing is.

For those who need to hear this message, who are struggling with this Easter because they are alone, who depend on fellowship at their churches, or who are just having a hard time with celebrating this holiday alone, even if “alone” is with family, all or in part.

I’m reminded of a song by Natalie Grant called held. It’s actually a very sad song about losing a child a few months after birth. But the message is an incredible one, and really applies here.

The chorus reads as follows:

“This is what it means to be held;

How it feels when the sacred

is torn from your life and you survive;

This is what it is to be loved,

and to know that the promise was

when everything fell we’d be held.”

Most of you have not lost a loved one due to the virus attacking us, but everybody is struggling with something. Even if your loss or grief is not big, the message is the same.

Having faith and being a Christian does not mean you will not suffer hardships. It means that when you suffer hardships, you will trust that God has a plan even if you can’t understand it. It means that while you are suffering, you can turn to God to help carry you through when you can’t carry yourself.

This year, most of us are not getting dressed up, going to church, taking beautiful pictures in our fancy Easter dresses, or maybe even seeing anyone. It’s tempting to view this as a depressing time when your church and spiritual experience has been taken from you. But it hasn’t.

This is quite an opportunity to actually understand how strong your faith is. How will you exercise it alone, with just your immediate family, or just you? When nobody is looking, will you still watch the service online? Will you find another online resource to share with your children? Will you still think intensely about what Easter means, even if a minister or a preacher is not standing in front of you speaking it to you?

In other words, this is a great time to reflect about your relationship with God. If you’re having trouble doing this without a church visit, you may want to spend today working on your personal individual relationship with God independent of the church, rituals and routine. It might just get a little more real than you expected. I know mine is.

I wish everybody a wonderful Easter today whether you’re with family or alone. Although, if you truly have faith, you are never alone. 😉

If all else fails, remember, this is what it means to be held.

Why are we denying your life-saving medication? Let me count the excuses that haven’t worked in the 45 mins I’ve been on the phone with Sarah so far:

1. Your payment card isn’t updated. (Card being updated. Not sure why? I have no copays.)
2. There is a deductible. (I’ve met all deductibles. It’s April and I’m me. My deductibles are met in January. Every year.)
3. There is a “gap copay deductible.” WTH is that and why haven’t I had to pay it any other time I fill this med!?
4. This is for 30 days and the last one was for 17 days. 🤦🏻‍♀️ (17 days. On an inhaler that only comes in one size and dosage for 30 days!? Wtf is 17 days anyway!?) (Abandoned “gap copay deductible with no explanation. 😂)
5. This is for 3 for 30 days. (Omg. If it’s 3 inhalers, you think maybe it’s a 90 day supply!?)
6. You’re in Florida. I may need to transfer you to another department. (I didn’t move since the beginning of the call! Did YOU!?)
7. Your xopenex can’t be filled two at a time. (Holy 💩! Rescue inhalers and nebulizer solutions are NOT the same thing!)
8. You don’t meet eligibility requirements for Medicaid anymore bc or your disability income, so you have to get that squared away with Medicaid and you may be able to call them tomorrow. (Fine!! I’m still on Medicare and in the interim, I need to know where my scripts are so when I fix that I don’t have to go through all of these issues again!)

I’m now talking to Marcus. For Florida. God help me, and God help Marcus. This is why I’m still on Xanax.

Update: It was Genella FTW! In 5 minutes she helped me and gave me more info than the other two people combined in what was actually about 1.5 hours! I started at 1939. Finished at 2113! I can’t WAIT to mess with this stuff again tomorrow! For anyone who thinks professional patients sit around doing nothing all day, this is part of my daily routine. Always. I’ve just never heard them switch excuses so many times in one call. 😑😖😭

I went to the bank. I probably would have had my neighbor do it, but I was delivering another supply box to one of my doctors, so I figured I would just make a deposit on the way home. I have all my PPE.

Except, I arrived by myself. I went up to the ATM, put in my card, and saw someone pull in behind me in the ATM reflection. I crossed my fingers hoping he would go stand at the little stop sign on the ground that said, “Stand here for social distancing.”

I didn’t even put my pin number in, because I was ready to pull my card, knowing how much of humanity’s IQ has been revealed during this episode of “Making America Stupid Again.” Sure as 💩, he walked right up next to me as I pulled my card and went to the stop sign to wait myself.

He even looked back at me, and didn’t apologize or anything. This is why we are going to spend so long like this. The USA as a whole, and Florida even more so. FloridaMan has already been busy, and will be putting in overtime for the remainder of this apocalypse.

#YouCantFixStupid

#IApologizeIfThisIsSomeoneYouOrIKnow

#InHisDefenseThisIsFloridaAndItWasntInSpanish

#ImTryingToGiveHimCreditHereGiveMeABreak

I had a thought not long ago about the way different people have reacted to the current situation with the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the things I noticed, or that I have come to believe, is that certain people have been able to handle the changes and the uncertainty much better than others. when considering the reasons why, there are three for me.

Chronically Ill Patients:

First, I am a professional patient. One year ago when there was no suspicion of COVID-19 being an issue, I was wearing a face mask to protect against pollen because it could cause an allergy attack that would become a sinus infection, and subsequently reach my lungs where it would become a respiratory infection sometimes requiring up to 8 different rounds of antibiotics and prednisone to beat it.

I have a bottle of sanitizer next to my bed, one in the living room next to the couch, and another on the counter in the kitchen. I always keep sanitizer in my purse. The two bottles in the living room and kitchen are approximately a half gallon each. I already had Lysol wipes and Lysol spray, blue nitrile gloves, at least one N 95 mask, and approximately one full box of disposable surgical masks such as the ones they used to give out in hospitals prior to rationing them.

I also had established accounts with Uber eats, Publix Instacart, and even Amazon grocery delivery. I have been meaning for months to transfer my prescriptions to mail order, but have not done so yet and I had relied heavily on my father and daughter to pick meds up for me when I was not feeling well.

As a professional patient, I was already used to washing my hands a lot, and anybody who has spent significant time around me has witnessed me jumping back on moving across the room if anybody coughs, sneezes, or even has a horse voice. Since I am immunocompromised, I am terrified of even a simple cold. A simple cold for somebody else that ends in a couple of days can take me out for six weeks at a time. If I’m unlucky, it results in a hospital stay.

TEACHERS.

My mother is a teacher. One of many in my family. Had I not become an attorney, I’m pretty certain I would have become a teacher or a photographer. One thing about teachers that has certainly been ingrained in me is to be ready for anything. There is just never a shortage of surprises and things you could never imagine when you put a bunch of kids together in a classroom. If you’ve ever seen the meme that says, “I know what you did last night, and so does the rest of the class,” rest assured it is true.

Military/Police

The thing I believe has prepared me the most, however, is the mindset of a military brat. I thought maybe this was just my own personal opinion, but several other people have mentioned it in some of my military brat groups online, and we have learned that we are certainly not alone in our thinking. Furthermore, being from a family of law-enforcement, and knowing how many retired/veteran members of our military have gone on to become law enforcement officers, I noticed that most of what is true for military families is also true for law enforcement families. Of course, having a father who was a military police officer meant I got a double dose of this particular upbringing.

Among the many things we have learned and picked up as children raised by and in the military (and sometimes law enforcement) world, the following have become clear evidence of how different we are than other people as a result of our upbringing.

1. Chaos/uncertainty. With the exception of first responders, such as police, firefighters and paramedics, Nobody is conditioned to expect chaos and uncertainty better than military families. We are used to it. Not only are we used to it, but this is precisely what our families trained for. When others are running away from danger, we are used to having a family member running toward it. naturally, we pick up some of those habits and many of us are quick to run toward dangerous situations to try to help others. It’s how we were raised. Children learn more by example that they do anything else.

2. Responsibility. Children raised in the military are some of the most responsible adults you will find. Responsibility is one of the most critical things taught to us. We know that the jobs are parents have or had were critical parts of the greater whole. We saw our parents fill a responsibility that often took great sacrifice. The sacrifice was not only made by the family member, but also by the spouse raising the family in the absence of the military member when here she is stationed away from home or sent away on temporary duty. Even the children must pick up more chores and help around the house more than in other families. The value of responsibility is ingrained in us from the moment we are old enough to understand it.

3. Fear. Because we live with the constant knowledge that Military family members may possibly not make it home, just as law enforcement families know their loves one may not make it home after each shift, we are used to living with that constant fear. So much so that it just becomes an accepted part of who we are. As a result, fear does not knock us down the way it does many in similar circumstances. We are simply used to taking fear on and pushing past it. We had no other choice. Now it is habit.

4. Preparedness. Military families are trained for disaster on a large scale. They are trained for survival. Most military families have enough food stored, including non-perishable foods, and much larger quantities than most people. Many of us have memberships to wholesale stores such as Sam’s Club, BJ’s or Costco. We buy in bulk. Sometimes this was because the pay was once a month and that would be when we went to the commissary and loadEd up for the month. Sometimes it was because we simply like to be prepared. In any case, we usually don’t have to do much shopping when there is a warning about a hurricane or something like… A global pandemic. Many of us even have MRE’s (meals ready to eat) on hand at home or in our cars to give homeless people.

5. Survival/defense. Most military and police families have seen some things. Those serving have seen much more, and the families benefit from that knowledge. Many families are taught self-defense, and most family members of military or police have been trained to use a firearm responsibly from an early age, and wouldn’t go without one as adults. Part of the survival/defense instinct is perseverance. We don’t give up easily. Nothing is impossible. Impossible just means somebody hasn’t done it yet. Naturally, we are prepared when we are told to shelter in place, and we know no matter how bad it gets, we will stick it out, and we will likely be the people helping others. It’s what we do.

6. Villages. not many places is it more true than in the military that it takes a village to raise a child. With many families missing a member on a regular basis, military families are completely used to depending on each other and helping each other. Even 20 years after my father retired and I became an adult, I have had veterans pull over to check on me because they saw a military symbol on my car, or a disabled veteran tag because my car was in my father’s name. As an adult, I still have this mindset and am often coordinating with other parents to do things for families or children who need a little bit of extra help.

7. Problem-solving. Because a family member is often missing on a regular basis, we learn how to do things many others in our shoes would not do. Children learn to use tools and fix things themselves at an early age. we learn how to figure things out for ourselves because sometimes we don’t have another choice. By the time we are adults, it’s just second nature for us to be creative and find ways to get things accomplished with or without any help.

8. Positivity. One thing we have no choice in learning is how to be positive despite very negative circumstances. If we walked around acting in accordance with some of the things we experience, we would probably scare people. Many of us use humor as a coping mechanism, and it’s not surprising to see someone laughing and kidding around, even during unimaginable trauma and loss. It’s sad to say, but we are often used to it. It’s not that we don’t feel grief, fear, or sadness. We just know we can’t wallow in it forever. We know how to move on.

9. Adaptability. If there’s one thing every military brat has learned, it’s how to adapt to change. Even when there’s not a crisis or an emergency, military families are always being moved from one location to another. Children attend many different schools and say goodbye to many sets of friends, I’ll need to be placed in a new city, in a new home, with new people. sometimes the new places and people are so different that we have to learn a new culture, and sometimes even a new language. This is something that benefits us throughout life in ways we probably never realize until something like this happens.

10. Loss. while we do remain positive in the face of fear, we must definitely do feel an experience loss. We grieve just like everyone else. However, we understand on a level many don’t that loss is sometimes necessary. Sacrifices are sometimes necessary. We know that sometimes it’s not fair that one family has to make the greatest sacrifice ever so that other families will be safe. There is no greater loss than this one, or one more noble. As a result, we learn to see loss not only as a sad event, but as a necessary part of doing battle, whether it’s on the field in a war, or in our homes during a pandemic.

In short, we have been preparing our entire lives for exactly this kind of situation. While we accurately read a situation and are the first ones to purchase necessary items before they disappear from the shelves when there is an imminent emergency headed our way, we don’t panic buy. We don’t panic at all.

Are we nervous? Yes. Some more than others. Some of us have underlying medical conditions that make us more vulnerable. Are we aware of the many possibilities that are scaring people? Absolutely. We know the dangers are very real, and we know what is likely even when we are being told differently by our government in an effort to avoid “panic chaos.”

What we don’t do, however, is complain about how inconvenient some of the more stringent measures being taken are to our daily lives. In fact, we are often trying to explain to others the reasons for the measures, and how to cope. We are usually the ones reassuring everyone else. Unfortunately, it also means we share information meant to be simply that: informative; however we forget that people not raised like us may take that information and process it in a way that terrifies them.

If you are not a military brat, a professional patient, or in another field that prepares you for chaos and uncertainty, don’t be afraid because we are sharing very real information with you. Pay attention to how we are dealing with it. Pay attention when we provide tips on how to get by. Pay attention when we offer help to others, and don’t be afraid to ask us for help. Pay attention to the fact that despite everything, we are still laughing and living every day to the fullest, whether we are allowed out, or confined to our homes.

Because at the end of the day, even if we were raised to expect uncertainty and chaos, we have also been raised to make the best of any situation, and we know how to navigate chaos with a smile. We know how to say difficult goodbyes. We know how to be separated from loved ones. We know how to give ourselves the best chances of staying alive when staying alive is not the given most of society has been raised to take for granted.

If you are struggling to find something to be grateful for right now besides quality time with yourself and/or family, take just a moment and consider something seriously.

Not so long ago, there was no Internet. Let that sink in. Then remember that at that time, our phones only dialed, and some of them took a very poor pictures. They were just starting to allow text messaging using keypads to spell out letters.

Think about how different all of this could be without the technological advances we have made. No ability to do remote education. No ability to do remote medical appointments. No ability to work from home. And waiting patiently for the news at certain times of the day, or in the mail. Or the newspaper. Only getting a phone call if you wanted to know anything immediately. Do you feel grateful for anything now?

PS If you have ever criticized a person who is chronically ill because they spend a lot of time on social media, consider how much time you’re spending on it, and why.

Does it keep you from feeling isolated? Do you feel connected to others and less alone, especially communicating with people like you, with the same unique challenges at bt his time… be they jobs that force you to be exposed, kids at home with no child care, lowered immunities, separation from your children and custody issues considering one immunocompromsied parent, people separated from loved ones in nursing homes and hospice & worried they may not see them alive again, people fighting to keep their sanity if they are not used to spending many days with young children at home or with their spouses, children in abusive homes that are not getting a break for childcare or school, whose parents are stressed out and taking it out on them, so many many different challenges…

Be thankful for our ability to be in community as much as we can these days, and remember to take breaks and be present, especially if you are with family you don’t normally get to spend this much time with. The Internet will still be here. And a godsend for many of us. But please remember how much you are depending on it during this time and think about why. Remember the same thing applies to people who cannot work and feel isolated at home. Now do you understand? If people understand at least one thing about disabled and chronically ill or terminal people, it will be one positive we can take from this. Just a little bit more understanding and compassion in the world. ❤️

This is an interesting read. It’s OK to have a sense of humor about stuff even when the stuff is serious. And it’s OK if you are healthy and don’t need to worry about COVID even if you get it. However, please do not shame the people who are actually at risk of severe illness and/or death for being concerned, sharing real information, or taking steps you may consider unnecessary to protect themselves.

If you ARE one of those people, pay attention every time you are assured that most of the community is safe. You will never hear it without a disclaimer such as the word “most,” “healthy,” “young,” “normal…” to account for the small part of the population that DOES NOT fit that category and DOES need to worry, and may need to follow different instructions than what is provided for the general public by the CDC.

If you have a specialist such as a pulmonologist or a rheumatologist, you are probably at risk and should talk to them to confirm your risk level and ask how to protect yourself. If you are elderly, you are probably at risk. If you are immunocompromised you are at risk. If you have respiratory disease of any kind, including asthma, you are at risk. Several people in my asthma group are in the hospital. That’s just the group with asthma and not the group with autoimmune vasculitis, where asthma is only a small part of our daily lives and disease.

If you are at risk you know who you are, and you were already at risk prior to this outbreak. More than likely you already have worn a mask to protect yourself in the past. More than likely you have already reacted out of the ordinary when someone coughed near you or even spoke with a raspy voice. Those of you who are not us have seen us react this way. On any given day.

Most of us already had plenty of hand sanitizer at home that we use already, along with washing our hands. We already had extra vitamin C, and some of even had masks and gloves a year ago, before any mention of this virus. And we have used them already just dealing with every day life and things that are not offensive to the general public, but can shock our systems into a hospital or death.

If you are immunocompromised, or otherwise at risk, and you are not taking this seriously, read this article. I am posting Memes and I am laughing because panicking isn’t going to help. But make no mistake: I don’t think this is a joke and people at risk need to protect themselves. I have six family members who are doctors. I’ve seen and posted a pic of one in a full protective suit with helpful medical advice for EM/EMS folks. I am worried about those family members. Even the ones I’m not close to.

You cannot count on otherwise healthy people to keep from spreading it, nor do I think they really can even if they try. So it is everyone’s job to protect themselves according to whatever their risk level is, and to educate yourselves about what to do both now, and in the event you begin to show symptoms.

You cannot count on otherwise healthy people to keep from spreading it, nor do I think they really can even if they try. So it is everyone’s job to protect themselves according to whatever their risk level is, and to educate yourselves about what to do both now, and in the event you begin to show symptoms.

If you are lucky enough to be safe, maybe consider offering to lend a hand to those who aren’t so lucky, instead of laughing at them, like my neighbor did within 2 hours of a sign being posted on my door that I wouldn’t be answering and to leave items at the door or call me.

It’s just a thought. Remember that in an instant your life can change and you, your child, your parents, your sibling, your spouse or your best friend can become ill with no warning and suddenly be part of the “at risk” group. Treat everyone you see worried as if they or their loved ones are one of these people. Because to somebody, they are.

#StaySafe #NotMeantToEncourageTPHoarding #DontBeSelfish #BeKindToEachOther #ThereButForTheGraceOfGodGoI

#StaySafe #NotMeantToSanctionTPHoarding

DontBeSelfish #BeKindToEachOther #ThereButForTheGraceOfGodGoI