One of the goals of my blog is to share the experience of those of us who have siblings with special needs. So now let’s talk about being a sibling of someone with special needs during a global pandemic. I obviously can only speak to my experience, but my sister is a heart transplant recipient. Breaking this down a little further, this means a suppressed immune system, which means that anything that there’s no vaccine for is scary. For those who may have no experience with something like this, you or I get the flu, we’re in bed or on the couch for a week, she gets the flu, HOSPITAL – so thank you in advance for social distancing and wearing a mask, it’s really not THAT hard, right?
My family was actually monitoring coronavirus before it even got here because of all of the above. Fun fact- by March 1st I was already over talking about the ‘the Rona … yep, fun times for me over here now that it’s July…. Anyway, back in another lifetime, my Mom and sister were supposed to fly down in late March from MD and meet me in Orlando where we were going to experience all that Wizarding World of Harry Potter magic at Universal Studios. Now, as a reasonable adult who can adapt my thinking based on new information, I’ll admit when this all started (early Feb 2020) I didn’t think it was the world’s biggest deal. Not that I wasn’t taking it seriously, but I honestly remember saying “Oh my gosh people, just wash your hands and you’ll be fine”. Jokes totally on me, I know, but having never lived thru a pandemic before, who would have known?
We started re-evaluating the trip (spoiler alert – it got cancelled, or as I like to say, Rona-ed), but it went about this way:
-Mid to Late Feb: we’re not going to cancel – just going to bring some extra hand sanitizer and lysol wipes for my sisters wheelchair and the handlebars of rides, etc. There had hardly been ANY cases in the US yet
-Late Feb: cases start popping up, ok – maybe Mom and my sister will drive instead of fly, the airplane is a tube of germs but we have a little more control in the park, right? Still such a still minimal risk
-First week of March: time to cancel – even if we can go no one’s going to have fun and it’s just not worth the risk, so let’s reschedule, maybe for like May? It’ll all be over by then right (anyone else shaking their heads here with me?)
-The park closed anyway, all reservations got cancelled and we went into quarantine/lockdown/these unprecedented times
Ok, first-world problems, we had to cancel a trip (which especially sad since I don’t live near my family and haven’t seen them since December). But I want to take the evolution of cancelling our trip to highlight some other elements lurking below the surface here. My personal experience with Coronavirus went from, “Ok, be vigilant in hand washing and we’ll all be fine” to thinking my sister could be in the hospital on a ventilator in a matter of weeks. I admittedly can be a worst case scenario person with a bit of flair for the dramatic at times, but the ‘Rona got real, real fast. My sister remains perfectly healthy because my parents follow CDC guidelines and she’s hardly left the house since March, but that doesn’t mitigate the seriousness of it.
The low-death rate of Covid-19 and the mentality of “I might get sick but won’t die” is all well and good until someone who’s close to you is part of the at risk population. Now we all have to assess our own risk, and the economic implications and all that other stuff that makes this such a complicated issue, but that’s not what this post is about.
I’ve been lonely, bored and, because I don’t live with my sister and had to move during this craziness, taken some risks I probably wouldn’t have if I saw her on the daily. In the spirit of my Faith, I refuse to live in fear, but there’s a healthy balance between not panicking about Coronavirus and being safe and smart (is this where I mention social distancing and masks again? – just making sure you’re following along). For those of us with at-risk family members, this is some of the real life and death considerations we are dealing with in addition to the toilet paper crisis, working from home or job loss/instability, and the general upheaval. I cannot think of a single person that Coronoa has not impacted in some way or another, but to anyone else caring for or worried about their at risk loved ones, you are definitely not alone.
It’s a mystery, I suppose, Just how long this thing goes, But there’ll be crowds and there’ll be shows, And there will be a light after dark
Someday when we aren’t six feet apart
Luke Combs “6 Feet Apart”
