Lesson 653: Cabin Fever

Happy Weekend, Readers!

It's been hotter than the Fourth of JU-ly this week.

We took a break from fixing up our new mountain cabin

and sought 

 comfort and cool air

from out Great Lake last weekend.

Boat rides at sunset are one of our favorite things in the summer.

The little blue cottage that I've called my summer home since 1987

survived the roughest and most challenging winter yet.

The new wall only partially protected it from

the battering of high waves on a lake with the highest water levels 

on record.

It was officially repaired and opened for business

(and Grandma and Sunset Peggy's picture taking)

on July 4th weekend instead of Memorial Day this year.

It was nice to seek relief from the lake for a few days

prior to being home-bound.

Someone got sick.

The dog barely left his side.

You can say what you want about this pandemic,

but when you pull a thermometer out of your child's mouth

reading 102

in the middle of the night,

it's a game changer.

We are awaiting results from a COVID test 

and for once,

this cheery family is

hoping for a negative rather than a positive.

The most important thing is that Sam is feeling better

after four days.

I'm actually late posting this blog

because I fell asleep while blogging--a first!

Sam and I were watching the Parent Trap--

not the old, old one,

the old one with 11 year old Lindsay Lohan.

It's funny re-watching kid movies with your teenager.

I drifted off with Sam prattling on about the wrongness of the whole plot.

How dare those parents separate those twins like that?
Can you go to jail for that?

If I had a twin brother that you never told me about,

there would be no fun and games. I'd slap you and demand answers.

Wait......do I have a twin brother?

Every pregnancy I prayed for twins,

but the Good Lord knew what he was doing

when he didn't give me two Sams to raise.

A big shout out to the Western PA Golf Association

for helping fund Ellen's schooling 

for years 2-3-4-and 5!

Weekend Homework--

I know, always a drag,

but I thought this was very timely.

We don't know what we don't know,

so to everyone who is a sudden expert on 

science,

math,

medicine,

and government,

please close your mouths and stop your typing

long enough to read this.

I don't know the author or origin

as it appeared on social media,

but I thought it offered a good perspective.

“Chicken pox 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 dehabilitating 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 has been 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 been 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 had been 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 cataloged, 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
Diarrhea
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
Kidney damage
Rash
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, are smart enough to be scared of how easily this is spread, and recommend baseline precautions such as:
Frequent hand-washing
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 buys time for the scientific community to study the virus in order to come to a more full understanding of the breadth of its impacts in both the short and long term.

I reject the notion that it's "just a virus" and we'll all get it eventually. What a careless, lazy, heartless stance.

--Eloise