Saturday, March 14th, 2020
Steak and BJ Day.
COVID-19, The beer flu. Corona-virus.
The beer flu. It’s easier for me to say. Ha. Well, not so funny.
I am not goin to talk much about it, but I do have a few thoughts and experiences in the middle of this crisis, which might actually be pulling Neil and I back together somehow after he read my last journal entry, which I am not publishing for now.
So the big joke literally all over the world is a stupid toilet paper shortage. It is a joke. Hoarding in large amounts, leaving virtually nothing for others is at the top of “I am not liking society” thoughts.
There are more serious things going on in other countries.
I’ve seen videos of pushing and shoving and shoving old people (though that might have been staged, but a good eye-opener for what is going on).
When I first heard of this, I wasn’t scared. To me, it was just like any flu going around. I figured people were panicking for nothing. Social media, the news, have all sensationalized this “thing” creating mass hysteria, food shortages and lack of toilet paper.
What? Toilet paper?
I am a bit OCD about toilet paper, I always have been. I would skimp on groceries just to get toilet paper. It’s essential, right? It is the one thing I hope I never run out of.
Well, when I get down to 12 rolls I know it is time to buy some, I shop at Costco which is probably making the news somewhere.
People are massively hoarding, for some reason toilet paper is worth fighting for even though you might already have 3 packages in your cart.
I have my 12 rolls, I don’t need more.
Most of the meat is gone.
The staples; pasta, pasta sauce, bread, rice, all gone off the shelf. Toilet paper became impossible to buy. People started selling it on Facebook and some advertise selling on other websites like Kijiji for a completely ludicrous amount of money like five dollars a roll. A drug store marked up their prices for hand sanitizers and rubbing alcohol. People are desperate to find hand sanitizers, people are going mad looking all over the city for these products.
I shake my head at them.
I have grown up in a day without hand sanitizer. We washed our hands. And quite frankly I didn’t do that much until dinner time.
I completely disagree with the use of disinfectants, Lysol wipes, pumps of hand sanitizer, especially hand sanitizer.
From my knowledge and you can check google, but it is bad for you.
It creates new strains of infections that become resistant to antibiotics..I read.
I hear it is also bad for the environment as well.
It is something I learned a while ago and I don’t know if it is true but it seems to be when I Goggle it.
When you use hand sanitizer you are killing the germs, right?
But you are not only killing the bad germs, but we also have good germs on our bodies that help fight other things. Well, they get killed too.
So any little fighter germs you had on your body, that will protect your immune system, and you just kill it away.
One of the things that had upset me the most about taking a chemo drug for my MS was that I would lose my immune system.
Let me tell you about my immune system and why I think I have a good immune system.
I don’t remember ever being flat on my back with a cold. Except the flu, and fevers, and earaches when I was younger. I don’t remember getting many colds at all.
But when I did get a cold it would hit my lungs. I ended up with inhalers, triggered by colds and allergies, And sometimes on antibiotics. My lungs were weak and easy targets.
As an adult, I have had some colds, but I don’t remember the last time I had the flu. In fact, I think the worse that I felt was after getting a stupid flu shot. I got sick then. I refuse to get them, and I can be excluded because of my egg allergy, at the time it was based in egg (apparently) anyways I would have to get a prescription for some medication that is supposed to shorten the length of your flu.
I would have never filled it.
My kids get sick, my daughter from running around in large groups of people, my son usually from his dad, Bruce. So they are with me part-time, one week here one week at dads and have been doing that for thirteen years.
I would be well. The kids would come home sick. And I would never get sick. Maybe one evening of an incredibly runny nose.
I pinpointed my daughter being sick, always when she comes home from her dad’s. She usually runs the roads with her large group of friends, often pulling all-nighters, and drinking, just not taking care of herself. She would come back to my place absolutely exhausted and would start sniffling or complaining of a sore throat
This was very frequent.
Then I thought of something, was something I was doing for me.
So in the day that I got way too many tattoos (manic episode) and piercings, the girl at the shop told me to take Zinc.
SO I bought myself some zinc.
Zinc is a very powerful immune booster. It makes things heal correctly, It keeps you well. Despite how much I put my body through constantly getting tattoos and piercings, I never got sick.
What happens is your body focuses on healing the piercing or tattoo, leaving maybe some of your defences down (easy to catch a cold, skin infections), with just one tattoo.
Imagine getting five or six tattoos in a month and three piercings.
So you can imagine how hard my body was working 24/7 on healing all these things. I took Zinc. I never got sick. Never. I pushed my body so hard through that time. It was unbelievable. I give a lot of credit to zinc.
So I do this research project for my health and wellness course and I had to do a report on ‘an immune booster’ We had to produce proof and theories about things that boost your immune system, Guess which one I chose. Yup. Zinc. And guess what I got on my paper. 100%
I was thrilled.
After a while of my daughter coming home sick, I started realizing that maybe I should have her on Zinc. And a multivitamin. And for good measures, I start taking mine.
Honest to God, she has barely been sick. She gets nasal congestion once in a while. But miraculously she was getting less sick, way less.
So when she is out a lot I make her take zinc for a few days, just to help her out.
As I was approaching time to start my chemo, I got Rebecca and me on a vitamin regime. I also told her she couldn’t party and run around everywhere as much as my immune system will be compromised.
So I had my Chemo back in November I think. I had a runny nose one night, maybe it was a very mild cold for 2 days after Neil had been sick for a week and a half. I was terrified I would get it. I did. But my body fought it. My immune system is supposed to be down?
Well, Neil has had a total of three colds since I had started taking my chemo. I have had 2 days max of a runny nose.
And we kiss and share a smoke, we are sitting close to each other, he is handling my food.
I never got sick. This is why I can with absolute certainty that I have a really strong immune system.
I don’t use antibacterial soaps or products in my house. Soap and water, my kids grew up like that. I wasn’t like the other mothers gelling up their kid’s hands every five minutes. If your finger was bleeding you would lick it from dripping, or you get a paper cut or something, the first thing you do is put it in your mouth. Anyways, we are supposed to encounter things that are not 100% clean.
The only time I have been a hand-washer was at work in psychiatry and since this outbreak of the beer flu. (Covid-9)
I am not an obsessive hand washer. I have germs around me all the time probably. I dont think twice about running my fingers over my lips or play with my lips. My hands are on my face constantly, and I don’t wash my hands much, until this outbreak. I am a bit more careful but caught myself spitting out an old piece of gum between paper (been chewing Nicorette for two years, going on three) without touching my mouth. But then I open the gum packet, touch it with my hards and pop it in my mouth.
K I will try really really hard not to do that. Jeez eh?
So people are in a mass panic about hand sanitizer, like freaking trying to find the stuff, I just keep telling people to wash their hands with soap and water. PEOPLE you just need soap and water.
Ok, you are going to the hospital to visit your very old sick grandmother, ya use it, it’s quick, or if you are dealing with cancers or other things that seriously compromise your health ya use it.
Because your kid touched the ground. For the love of you no!
Needless to say, I came across a recipe to make your own sanitizer at home. It’s so damn simple. And the drug stores are running out of it too. Its aloe vera gel and rubbing alcohol with like scented drops if you want. I am not trying to encourage the use… but for fun, I decided to make a batch, mostly for my daughter as she is off socializing everywhere, I have a couple of pill bottles set aside with some of my GERM JELL. She can take that with her in her bag. She is one who likes to use it, and I have explained things to her and I think she understands more and is washing her hands more than using the sanitizer.
Oh, one more thing. I am a carrier. So like watch, it could go a few ways. Rebecca could get sick, and then Neil gets sick because I got it, took it, put it somewhere else and didn’t catch the symptoms. Or Gavin gives it to me (we are both home all day and he hasn’t stopped blowing his nose for three days. I will pick it up and end up giving it to someone else. Which is why I have to be very very careful around my mom, cause she is old now. Her immune system is suppressed, she catches everything and she doesn’t go out anywhere, but my dad does, so he might be bringing things home, all he has to do is wash his hands. I am getting a bit better with this hand washing thing, at least for right now, and I reminded Neil to wash his hands.
“You just finished telling me how worried you are about Rebecca giving me the virus, then wash YOUR hands when you come in from stores. He is the one that is most often sick, though he will deny it, he will also deny having allergies, until recently. Sheesh.
I don’t know if being a carrier exists in scientific terms but it is what I believe.
Back to the pandemic, I am getting a bit nervous about it, there are people that believe in conspiracy theories. And I am not discounting them.
I am kind of scared now, but maybe the panic is going to stop now that people are being told to share and not hoard. It actually took a newscast to stop it.
Things are starting to shut down now, which is starting to increase my worry about it all. Schools are closed, universities and colleges, even church I hear, City’s programming. It is all coming to a halt, Oh and St. Patty’s day celebrations have been cancelled. I think I might even avoid karaoke. But Joe has Lysol wipes lol lol.
Shit, maybe I just jinxed myself. I just sneezed.
Be kind, share and wash your hands with soap and water. Wish you good health.
Categories: Uncategorized
Christie F.
Welcome to my blog. I have been journal writing for years. I took a course in Creative writing and found I enjoy writing short stories and poetry. I write more when I am hypomanic or manic.
I went into Rehab for Alcohol Addictions and have been sober for fourteen years.
Shortly after I quit drinking I was diagnosed with Bipolar 2, I have since been diagnosed with Bipolar 1.
I enjoy talking about my story, for people to learn or relate. I try and have a healthy lifestyle and try to use my coping strategies. Life is just too boring without Bipolar, it is a blessing but yet sometimes a curse.
I am currently working on a book and dream of publishing one day.
I am so excited to have found Wordpress.
This is my new adventure.
Adventures of Dit Dot 
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