Covid 2022

 After getting Covid 19 in January despite limiting our exposure to others and wearing a mask, I have been

firm about people wearing a mask in my house. Dave had had a home health nurse coming to check his vitals and his skin tears.  She wore a mask, and we wore KN95 masks.  I sat in another room while she attended to Dave but opening the door for her coming and going was enough to give me Covid 19. I had been vaccinated and boosted (3 months earlier), celebrated Christmas without family, wore a mask and still got it.  Thankfully I wasn't terribly sick and could still help Dave.

I've gone for a year cleaning my own house because I haven't been able to find anyone who would wear a mask while cleaning.  When Dave's grab bar in the bathroom was pulled out of the wall, I had to find a handyman who could install it---a handyman who would wear a mask. . . . I finally found one, but had to listen to his covid denial.

He told me about his mother who was in pain and couldn't get a knee replacement because of covid limiting surgery. I said nothing. He told me about his father-in-law who was in the hospital with covid, died of a heart attack, and they put that he died of covid on his death certificate. Therefore all of the covid deaths were lies---people were dying of other things not covid. I said nothing.

He told me that he was super healthy, never wore a mask and hadn't got covid. .. .but, then, he told me something that I felt I needed to respond to.  He had a very strong immune system. . ...I looked him in the eye and said, "I had a very strong immune system and never got sick until it got out of control.  I have auto-immune disease: Reynaud's Syndrome, Sjögren's Sydrome, Alopecia areata AND auto-immune hepatitis---my immune system is so strong it is rejecting my liver.  In order to live, I must take medicine which weakens my immune system.  Be very careful."  He looked at me with shock in his eyes. He left a little shaken, I think.

I don't always have a chance to respond to negative looks at me wearing a mask in public. I've thought about making "calling cards" saying "I've been wearing a mask in public since 2016".  After an hour long consultation with an infectious disease specialist, we developed a strategy to "cope" with my medically induced condition.  The difference between 2016 and 2022  is cold and flu had a season and I had some "normal" from April to November. "Normal" was still wearing a a mask in elevators, waiting rooms, and church but being able to take it off once I could determine it was a "safe" place with no one coughing or sniffling.   

During cold and flu season, I stayed home and isolated only shopping at 5 AM or on-line.  Covid, though, hasn't developed a "season" so I have to be cautious year around, now.  I'm still not eating in restaurants, going to church or going maskless in public, but thanks to quality masks and the vaccine, I am able to see family, friends, go to medical facilities without too much anxiety. I don't pray for a cure. . . .I just pray for a season.