Genealife in Lockdown 4 NFHM Blogging Challenge

This week I am collating some of the images and messages I have found important, supportive and humorous relating to the Covid pandemic. 

I will start with a cartoon ‘welcoming’ in the New Year.

It was hoped that in 2021 we would be rid of the virus.

 Sadly it was not to be.

Around the world, there continued to be supportive and entertaining insights into how others were coping or helping others to cope.

Librarians of the Librairie Mollat in France brilliantly acted out some of their book covers.

 Whilst staff at the Royal Melbourne Hospital were filmed performing as a scrub choir in the passages of the wards. Great fun for them and for us.

* * *

In Australia, we were slow to receive supplies of the vaccine, and unfortunately, in the meanwhile, we heard of blood clotting side effects to the 'Astra Zeneca' type, overseas. This turned many away from having the injections. Others wanted to wait longer for the 'Pfizer' type. Distribution seemed to be delayed and many of those prioritised have had to wait long periods. Finally, things now seem to be working more smoothly.

Alexis Lee Crumbley

 This was a reminder that appeared as a warning when some people were distancing from the reality of the ‘monster’ as Alexis named it.

Alexis Lee Crumbley  17 September 2020  · (permission to share.)

"Today is my six-month anniversary of coming down with Covid. I’ve been dealing with the repercussions for SIX MONTHS. 

I didn’t want to share on Facebook before, but I have shared privately with friends. Today I decided I was tired of hiding and hoping my story will be a warning to others. 

In the past six months:

I landed in the hospital because my chest pain was so bad that it required iV pain killers and my fever required iv fluids. 

I’ve had pneumonia twice. My lung capacity has been reduced because of lung fibrosis (damage)

I’ve had pleurisy

I’ve had inflammation of the cartilage in my rib cage

I’ve had so much brain fog. I haven’t thought straight for 6 months. I constantly have to go back and do things twice. 

I can’t drink alcohol because my liver is inflamed, and the alcohol makes me feel bad now. 

I have had chest pain and shortness of breath every single day. 

I can only walk for exercise. Anything more and I cannot breathe normally. Before March 16 I used to do spin classes 3/week.

My resting heart rate is 101. It used to be 55. 

Fast forward to today. I just left the cardiologist because I’m going to have to have two different echocardiograms and an MRI to determine the severity of my heart damage. 

Covid is scary. Covid can cause an inflammatory response that doesn’t land you on a vent but can be life-changing. I would be characterized as having a “mild to moderate” case of coronavirus. 

My cardiologist is hopeful but doesn’t know what to do about me. It’s not in my head he says! I’m his tenth patient in September who has come to him with these long-term symptoms. Average stats of “long haulers” as we are called is 44 (me!) a woman (me!) and previously fit/healthy and no pre-existing conditions (me!)

I go on with daily life, baking bread, helping the kids, wiping down counters bc that’s what you do. You can’t lay in bed forever. Doctor tells me I’m full of antibodies (I hope I still am) and I’m not contagious. I have to live the life I’m dealing with now. 

Anyways I share not to get any sympathy. I share because I feel people are getting fatigued of hearing about Covid and have moved on. I get it. It’s exhausting. But I want people to still continue to take this monster seriously.

Here’s a picture of the heart monitor I have to wear now. Stay healthy.

(Edited to add,  feel free to share. The support shown below has made it clear that it may be helpful for someone else not on my fb page)

Edited to add (9/19). The response to this has been amazing. Honestly, I thought 50 people would like this post. I’m getting messages from all over the planet and so many people are getting the message. Thank you so much

Editing one last time (10/28) THANK YOU so much to every single one of you who have reached out to me via PM. I’m so sorry I can’t respond to everyone, but it means so much that you took the time to do so." 

  

* * *

Upsettingly there was a swing by some who were not concerned that the first wave of virus was affecting the elderly, and many died in nursing homes, where it spread rapidly.

 Shared by Sandy Davis June 2020

Social distancing, isolation and mask-wearing became important methods of control.

 

However, not everyone chose to follow the regulations, where only essential workers were allowed out. So some very direct signs appeared!

Unsplash: Free image

I don’t know who wrote this below, in a time of high emotion, but it’s something to consider carefully:

 

"Chickenpox is a virus. Lots of people have had it, and probably don't think about it much once the initial illness has passed. But it stays in your body and lives there forever, and maybe when you're older, you have debilitatingly painful outbreaks of shingles. You don't just get over this virus in a few weeks, never to have another health effect. We know this because it's been around for years and studied medically for years.

 

Herpes is also a virus. And once someone has it, it stays in your body and lives there forever, and anytime they get a little run down or stressed out they're going to have an outbreak. Maybe every time you have a big event coming up (school pictures, job interview, big date) you're going to get a cold sore. For the rest of your life. You don't just get over it in a few weeks. We know this because it's been around for years and studied medically for years.

 

HIV is a virus. It attacks the immune system and makes the carrier far more vulnerable to other illnesses. It has a list of symptoms and negative health impacts that goes on and on. It was decades before viable treatments were developed that allowed people to live with a reasonable quality of life. Once you have it, it lives in your body forever and there is no cure. Over time, that takes a toll on the body, putting people living with HIV at greater risk for health conditions such as cardiovascular disease, kidney disease, diabetes, bone disease, liver disease, cognitive disorders, and some types of cancer. We know this because it has been around for years and studied medically for years.

 

Now with COVID-19, we have a novel virus that spreads rapidly and easily. The full spectrum of symptoms and health effects is only just beginning to be catalogued, much less understood.

So far, the symptoms may include:

Fever, Fatigue, Coughing, Pneumonia, Chills/Trembling, Acute respiratory distress, Lung damage (potentially permanent), Loss of taste (a neurological symptom), Sore throat, Headaches, Difficulty breathing, Mental confusion, Diarrhoea, Nausea or vomiting, Loss of appetite, Strokes have also been reported in some people who have COVID-19 (even in the relatively young), Swollen eyes, Blood clots, Seizures, Liver damage, Rash,

Kidney damage, COVID toes (weird, right?).

 

People testing positive for COVID-19 have been documented to be sick even after 60 days. Many people are sick for weeks, get better, and then experience a rapid and sudden flare up and get sick all over again. A man in Seattle was hospitalized for 62 days, and while well enough to be released, still has a long road of recovery ahead of him. Not to mention a $1.1 million medical bill.

 

Then there is MIS-C. Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children is a condition where different body parts can become inflamed, including the heart, lungs, kidneys, brain, skin, eyes, or gastrointestinal organs. Children with MIS-C may have a fever and various symptoms, including abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhea, neck pain, rash, bloodshot eyes, or feeling extra tired. While rare, it has caused deaths.

This disease has not been around for years. It has basically been 6 months. No one knows yet the long-term health effects, or how it may present itself years down the road for people who have been exposed. We literally *do not know* what we do not know.

 

For those in our society who suggest that people being cautious are cowards, for people who refuse to take even the simplest of precautions to protect themselves and those around them, I want to ask, without hyperbole and in all sincerity:

How dare you?

How dare you risk the lives of others so cavalierly. How dare you decide for others that they should welcome exposure as "getting it over with", when literally no one knows who will be the lucky "mild symptoms" case, and who may fall ill and die. Because while we know that some people are more susceptible to suffering a more serious case, we also know that 20- and 30-year-olds have died, marathon runners and fitness nuts have died, children and infants have died.

 

How dare you behave as though you know more than medical experts, when those same experts acknowledge that there is so much we don't yet know, but with what we DO know, they are smart enough to be scared of how easily this is spread and recommend baseline precautions such as:

Frequent handwashing, physical distancing, reduced social/public contact or interaction, mask-wearing, covering your cough or sneeze, avoiding touching your face,

sanitizing frequently touched surfaces.

 

The more things we can all do to mitigate our risk of exposure, the better off we all are, in my opinion. Not only does it flatten the curve and allow health care providers to maintain levels of service that aren't immediately and catastrophically overwhelmed; it also reduces unnecessary suffering and deaths, and it buys time for the scientific community to study the virus in order to come to a fuller understanding of the breadth of its impacts in both the short and long term.

 

Please don’t say that it's 'just a virus' and we'll all get it eventually. What a careless, heartless stance."

 

 * * *

Isolation meant people and children at home together. Adults working and children being home-schooled. A particularly stressful job for those with multiple children, with autism, disabilities and/or living in financial difficulty. And of course, if two parents worked from home and had little experience of being with their children all day and fitting in the home teaching life became quite arduous. Concerns were raised about the learning for students and how it would affect their overall levels, especially those in final year preparing for entry to University, etc.

One interesting response, below.

Work meetings were carried out by 'Zoom' video conferencing on computers. There were numerous comical responses.

Lots of ideas floated about things to do for those at home with free hours ahead of them. Many started gardens, growing vegetables hoping to produce a crop. Other ideas were for online activities and libraries and galleries had jigsaws of their paintings, sculptures and book covers to complete on your computer. You could choose the number of pieces from under ten for young ones and up to hundreds for the advanced. 

There were plenty of 'nice thoughts' and happy stories to brighten our moods.

 

 Some people went out of their way to brighten other's days.

Like this postman outside, who joined in dancing every morning with the little girl inside, whether it was sunny or raining.

Also, many words of wisdom were shared:

Countless things I could add to this blog, but it is very long already. 

I will take a moment now to wish readers to keep safe and stay well.