Social Distancing - My Experience

I'm the most isolated person I know. I'm an introvert, so while most people are having a hard time staying at home in an effort to socially distance themselves and avoid the virus, I'm just doing what I've always done, staying in and doing my work, teaching online and proofreading, and enjoying my hobbies: reading, writing, watching movies, cooking, eating, playing with the dogs, and taking naps.

I generally go out only once a week to buy groceries and trade materials at the library. I've been doing that for almost two years now, since I started living in the woods. Nothing has really changed for me. Now, I'm more careful about keeping my distance when I have the occasional chat with a neighbor or the mailman, and I don't really talk to anyone else. The library is closed, so I don't even chat with the librarian. The only people I spend time with are my students, and that's through Skype.

For the introvert in me, living in the woods is a dream come true. I enjoy the peace, the quiet, the nature, the solitude. This kind of isolation is my lifestyle, not some strategy to avoid a virus. All my time is mine, and mine alone... well, mine and the dogs'. I get to decide how to spend my time. It's really a gift.

On Tuesday, March 17, I was walking the dogs, and one of my neighbors stopped his car to say hi. He asked me something, but I couldn't hear him, so I got closer. Just then he coughed without covering his mouth and I felt I was standing a little too close. His important question, the reason I got closer to him and got coughed on, was “How are the dogs?” I tried not to breathe and didn't want to open my mouth, so I just smiled and gave him a thumb signal. He drove away, and I rushed inside to wash my hands and my whole face with soap and water. I then washed my nose and gargled with hydrogen peroxide, too. I was so angry. How could people be so inconsiderate? I made a smoothie with apple, strawberry, banana, and freshly squeezed oranges. As I drank that, I made lentil soup and added lots of vegetables as well as turmeric, black pepper, and cumin to it. An hour later, I was having soup. I took a Vitamin B12 and an iron supplement with that. I drank water like medicine every hour on the hour for the rest of the day and went to bed after drinking some ginger tea and taking my low-dose aspirin, hoping for the best.

I like things to be clean, so I'm constantly cleaning. Also, I wash my hands a lot... more frequently than most. Why? It's just a habit I've had ever since I can remember. Another reason is I live with three dogs. Consequently, my fingerprints have faded and are almost nonexistent. Also, my hands are always dry because of my constant handwashing.

Wednesday morning, I felt fine. I had another smoothie. I went grocery shopping. At the store, I tried to look for masks and gloves, but that whole aisle was crowded, so I chose to avoid it. I went to get more wipes for cleaning. The shelves were all empty. I went for toilet paper. Empty. In the fruit section, there were only bananas, apples, mandarins, and peaches. I got the first three. In the vegetable section, there was no spinach, zucchini, or broccoli. (Yes. I know zucchini is a fruit, but it's sold in the vegetable section.) Since many of the items I needed were unavailable, I was out of there in ten minutes.

I'd never seen a store so empty. It was depressing. I'd been to the store a week before, and everything had looked normal. I'd bought my regular items, the same amount of everything I buy every week... and no, toilet paper hadn't been on my list, so I hadn't bought any. It was on my list this week, but there was none. I wasn't worried about not having enough food, though. Because of my vertigo, which visits me irregularly, and my inability to drive during a vertigo episode, which may last a few hours to a few weeks, I keep enough canned food for a few weeks for me and for the dogs: canned meats (sardines, tuna, salmon, chicken), canned soups (vegetable soup, chicken soup), and canned vegetables (sweet peas, green beans), and canned fruit, which I don't like much, but it's better than nothing.

On Thursday, I felt fine, and even though all this crap is going on in the world, I decided to keep a positive attitute and be excited about Nowruz, the celebration of spring. After my tutoring session on Skype, which takes place in my car where there's a better internet connection, I went inside thinking about taking a shower and watching something on DVD, but there was thunder, then rain, and it started to get really loud. My dog Hoppoo gets really scared during thunderstorms, so I decided not to leave him alone for a shower. I just put on my pj's and sat to watch a couple of episodes of White Collar. I had turned the sound up to cover that of the thunder but Hoppoo was still shaking. He was leaning against me with his head on my chest. I pressed him between my body and a pillow I held tight behind him, and it made him feel better. I didn't hear the alert on my phone. I didn't get the neighbors' phone call. I generally have terrible reception inside. We usually call each other when there's a tornado alert to make sure everyone has gotten the alert. Suddenly, all three dogs jumped down and ran toward the door barking.

I looked outside. It was pouring. I saw my neighbor holding a flashlight. I opened the door, and he was yelling, “Get out of there! It's gonna hit us any minute!” I didn't have time to put clothes or shoes on. I just took my phone and my car key because that will get the dogs to follow me, and we ran all the way to the shelter, a part of my neighbor's house. I was soaked when I got there and so were the pups. Two neighbors were there. One had his radio on, and we learned that tornado was coming right at us. The dogs were scared. The thunder was really loud and every clap of thunder startled them and made them move around. I was just trying to hold all three of them with my two arms so that they would stay right there with me. There hadn't been time to put their harnesses and leashes on. The man sitting next to me coughed and coughed, and I had nothing to cover my mouth and nose with. My hands were on the dogs. All I could do was turn my face down and away from him.

The tornado passed a few miles north of us. As I got up to leave, another alert came for another tornado. I stayed. The second tornado never happened. There was “no rotation,” the radio said. After a total of ninety minutes, the dogs and I were running back to our cabin in the rain while I was hoping the lightning wouldn't get us. I dried the dogs and went to take a quick shower. I washed my face and body with hot water and soap and gargled Listerine. I wore clean clothes and got out just in time for the change of the year, or Nowruz.

Friday morning, I woke up with a sore throat and a runny nose. With all the talk about the virus, it was scary, but I tried to think about it logically. I'd been sitting for ninety minutes in my wet clothes the night before, so it mades sense for me to have caught a cold. I made my smoothie and started soup. A few hours later, I got a headache, but I'd been having headaches for almost two months, so that was nothing. I didn't feel warm. I looked for a thermometer, and I found one in the box where I keep the dogs' nail clippers and fine-tooth comb. Then I remembered I'd used this thermometer for my dog once. No amount of alcohol would make me want to put that in my mouth after it had been stuck in my dog's butt. I went to bed Friday night, knowing I had done everything I could, nutrition-wise, to boost my immune system and make my “cold” go away, but I experienced chills and mild nausea.

I woke up Saturday and my muscles were sore, like they usually get when I do construction work for a few hours. I thought maybe I hadn't slept right. That can happen with three dogs in my bed. Breathing was a little uncomfortable, too. I wasn't able to take deep breaths. When I tried, I felt pain in my left lung. That had happened before, though. So maybe it was nothing. My throat was still sore, and I had a mild headache. I still didn't feel warm at all. I should be fine, I thought. All this talk about the Corona virus had created fear, and I wasn't going to let it get to me. I continued with my fruits and vegetables and soup and vitamin B12 and my iron supplement. I had to keep my body strong to fight this.

My neighbor stopped by my cabin to tell me he wasn't feeling well. He had a severe cough, and I kept my six-foot distance while talking to him. Apparently, the VA had told him he could go get tested whenever he wanted, but he didn't want to go there because everyone else would be sick, and he didn't  want to expose himself, just in case his cough was related to his precondition and not the virus.

I went to bed a little worried about my neighbor, an old man living alone with lung cancer. I was also feeling very uncomfortable Saturday night, with chills, nausea, and sore muscles, and two hours later, I had to get up because I couldn't breathe. I stepped outside to get air. I had a loose shirt on, but I still felt like it was too tight, and I kept stretching it away from my body. I spent most of Sunday walking outside, trying to breathe. I was stretching my arms above me and on both sides, trying to make room for a deep breath. All day, I managed to get two deep breaths. I still kept eating healthful foods and I used all my reflexology and anatomy knowledge to give myself a lymph massage, which is a manual lymphatic drainage. By nightfall, I was feeling a little better. I went to bed early and read for hours before I fell asleep.

I woke up Monday morning feeling much better, almost normal, whatever normal is. I thought I had dodged the proverbial bullet, but I wanted to keep my immune system strong and I was out of fresh fruit, so I went to the store. I called and asked my neighbors if they needed anything and ended up with a list which complicated things. Usually, when I go to the store, I buy the same products over and over, and I know exactly where everything is located. With this list I'd gotten from the neighbors, my shopping time increased a lot, and it took me almost an hour to find everything and get out. I still managed to stay away from other people as most of them were as cautious as I was. There were a few “covidiots” too, of course, and I did my best to not get close to anyone. I delivered the bags to the neighbors, went home, put the groceries away, and got in the shower. I also got a thermometer: no fever.

I didn't feel well Monday night: exhaustion, nausea, chills, and difficulty breathing. The nausea was stronger than it had been the last few nights, so I got up and made some ginger tea. After I drank it, I went back to bed. An hour later, I had to get up because I couldn't breathe lying down. I stepped outside for some air, but it wasn't enough. I started panicking, and that made things even worse. I tried to calm myself down. I boiled some water and squeezed a fresh lemon in it. I drank that. I sat down and started preparing my notes for the proofreading job I was doing. I worked a couple of hours, but my muscles were too sore to sit, so I went to bed. As I was finally starting to fall asleep, a thunderstorm started around three o'clock in the morning, and Hoppoo got scared. I usually walk around or dance with him, but I had no energy, so I just sat in bed, held him tight against me, squeezing him between my body and a pillow I had my arms wrapped around. (Yes, I sometimes end my sentences with prepositions, and I like it.) It helped him calm down, and, eventually, he fell asleep with his head against my chest. I started dozing off and realized the warmth his head had created on my chest made me feel more comfortable. We slept for about two hours like that, me sitting and him lying almost vertically against my body.

Now I'm up. The dogs have eaten their food, gone out, and are enjoying their regular nap, or what I call their "food coma," and I've just had my smoothie. My back hurts like I've lifted a truck. I have shortness of breath, a mild headache, and a dry cough.

I'll keep documenting this, whatever “this” is. Maybe it will help someone. One thing that has become clear, though, is that if this can happen to me, someone bordering on having obsessive-compulsive disorder when it comes to cleanliness, with my lifestyle, living alone and actively trying to avoid people, it can happen to anyone. A couple of unfortunate incidents, over which I had little control, have resulted in my current state. Please stay away from everyone who isn't living with you, and don't leave the house.