Adaptation to COVID world

My mom’s sister, my brother and I have a family group-text chain which we use when we need it. My mom died April 9 — dementia, not the virus — and her ALF had locked down a month prior to that to try to prevent the virus from catching inside once it became clear how bad it could be in confined environments like that. That sucked hard because I wasn’t able to drop in a couple of times a week as I had before, and I wonder if the timing of her final decline was tied to the fact that nobody could visit her anymore.

 

My niece spent a few days at my house when she was finally able to get a flight out of Peru. Peru went on serious lockdown early so I felt fairly comfortable she wasn’t a carrier. She’s family and needed some help. I did what I thought I should do.

I don’t know when or if I will see my mom in Minnesota again. She’s 97, frail, with dementia. I am so glad I went home mid-February.

 

As an employment lawyer, very busy advising companies. Most of our clients are in the NYC area and none are planning are opening before July 4th regardless of any orders and most are thinking Labor Day. Biggest issue is from those living in small apartments who will do anything to go to an office and are begging to be allowed into work buildings.

 

My wife is going to give us all crewcuts. I can't take the shag anymore. My younger kid and I look like rejects from CHiPs.

 

My wife's oldest sister is in assisted living with dementia. She's been locked down for weeks. Mrs. Corner is doing ok with it, although telephone conversations are very unfocused. It's still hard, of course.

 

I had a platinum-level dose of sadz this afternoon..I'm in a FB group of social media marketers and one of the members asked the group for advice on how to host an online event with numerous non-tech-savvy speakers and more than 100 people "in attendance." (I guess ZOOM caps at 50).

She's "hosting" funeral services for her teen daughter who died in her sleep last night after a lengthy (non-COVID) illness...but no funerals of any kind are allowed in her community.

Fuck cancer? Absolutely, but fuck COVID too.

 

Quaranteamies!

 

Sorry to hear that. It’s heartbreaking.

 

I hope there's some sort of all-clear so so everybody can see their loved ones.

If you are not on any psychotropics, guided hypnosis talk-downs might help. I started using them as part of my pain management regimen and they work for me.

The Honest Guys are great for beginners and if you have a geeky streak, they do some Star Trek and fantasy sleep talk downs that are a lot of fun. They also have a YouTube channel with most of their older recordings.

The thing about recorded hypnosis is that it works as long as you either mix it up with other talk downs or use relaxing music. Don't use the same one every night. There are a number of good "live" curated music channels on Youtube that do not have commercials and can be relaxing. (Chillhop, Peaceful Piano, etc.)

I have one pain management session bookmarked I use ONLY when I'm hurting to the point that medical intervention is about as effective as a handful of Craisins.
Here it is. It might help you sleep. I usually last about fifteen to twenty minutes and then I'm out cold.

Good luck. I hope you find some relief.

Wow! What did you play?

I don't see why you would be shamed for that.

Finally, apologies if this a repeat of a link from here. It illustrates why I keep rattling on about my own experience. I really, really am not trying to get you to care deeply about my lungs for their own sake (sakes?) I do want you to invest some care in keeping your lungs safe. Pulmonary damage is awful. It can sap so much out of your life. Go out and live and all, but please think twice about taking unnecessary risks.

Opinion | ‘I Wish I Could Do Something for You,’ My Doctor Said

 

Pleasantly surprised that over half the people in our Publix were wearing masks when I went yesterday. I hadn't been for a couple of weeks, but in my 3(?) previous post-lockdown trips, it had been 15-20%. Our area hasn't been particularly hard-hit, so I had expected fewer people to be wearing masks.

 

Publix, at least in my area, has been extremely good about taking precautions. They ask people to wear masks. There is someone at the front door disinfecting the handles of shopping carts before they go back out. I have observed checkers who were not busy taking disinfectant spray and cleaning the handles of the drink coolers at the mouth of the checkout lanes, stuff like that. I went to the Pig in a mask and was looked at like I had two heads.