Social Distancing At Home

When I started to cough a little bit more, sneezed too often to blame it on the weather and started to feel less and less well last Friday I knew the time of working, isolation and social distancing was over and had to be changed into quarantine. The efforts to prevent becoming ill hadn’t worked and although the symptoms don’t necessarily mean I would test positive I need to act like I have.

For now it means no visit at all to my mum. Though she’s vital and in good health she’s also 87 and has a heart condition. Fortunately she understands the severity of this virus and takes every precaution necessary to prevent from getting infected. I couldn’t be more grateful for that.

I had to call in sick from work, something I haven’t done in the past 10 years, and if it had happened during normal times I never would have done so at all. But rules and regulations are to be followed. I said it so many times before. It’s my turn now.

At home I have to practice social distancing as if I’m living on an island, to prevent my hubby and 2 adult sons, who live at home, getting ill. Both boys are strong and healthy, but hubby suffers from severe COPD and that means I could be a major threat to his health.

Social distance at home means I have my own corner in the livingroom, sleep in a seperate bedroom, am never together with anyone else in the kitchen or any other room and we have sanitizing handgel and cleaning wipes on every floor. I perferably wear long sleeves to keep me from touching door handles, light switches and stair railings.

Being mindful has helped me a lot these past weeks to be aware of how often one touches his/her face and contactpoints. I don’t think my hands and house have ever been as sterile as in these days. It all may sound exagerated, but these days I follow the saying: “better safe than sorry” to the letter!

It’s Monday now and I’m feeling better than Saturday which was a really bad day, but at least I had no fever. This morning I called the doctor’s office and was told to stay at home until 24 hours without symptoms have passed. After that I am allowed to go out again and eventually work. I will not be tested, not even with a vulnerable person in my close vicinity. The symptoms are not severe enough. Of course the latter is a good thing, but we will never know if I had a mild form of the virus or that it was just the flu.