Surreal
What a crazy time we are living in. This is a journal of our lives and I hope my kids read it one day so I have to write about something so historical that it will no doubt be written about in the history books. Covid-19- coronavirus- something most Americans had never heard of until a month ago and something no one in the world had heard of before last December. I’m not going to go into all of the details about how it began or the timeline but I will tell you how it is affecting us now. It’s a virus that the experts are saying is
We had two sleepovers and starting packing to stage our house to list it because after YEARS of talking about it we finally found a house we love and got it under contract. (More on that later) The Monday of spring break Louisiana had its first coronavirus case. It was kind of crazy that it was close to home but by Thursday it was starting to get real and starting to get serious. So quickly. Monday and Tuesday I had five kids here spending the night and by Thursday I didn’t want to go out in public and even breathe the same air as other people. We had plans to be at the deer camp to have crawfish with Capn, Yay, Chad and Rachel and we always love being together but the weekend kind of had a somber tone.
They had their car packed full of stuff not knowing how long they would be here because of how quickly things were progressing. By Friday, Louisiana’s Governor had announced that schools were closed until April 13 to try to stop the spread. Even though our numbers were only in the 30s at that point (but realize that was only after 4 days- over 200 now) we were being told by the world health organization and The CDC that we needed to practice “social distancing” to “flatten the curve”.
In Italy doctors were having to triage and making impossible choices. So many people were getting sick at once that there were not enough ventilators and so they were having to decide if they should (for example) let 80-year-old grandma be left to die to save the 45-year-old doctor. It’s the kind of ethical questions you only hear about in theory or wartime before this thing. The government asked all citizens to stay at home as much as they can and stay at least 6 feet apart when they are in public to try to stop the spread so that it didn’t bring America’s health system to the same crisis point. We needed to flatten to curve to not overrun the healthcare system capacity.
The news of school closings sent people into a panic and stores were overrun and completely sold out. We are still having kind of a hard time getting exactly the groceries we want but no one expects to have a Grocery shortage. At least they are able to restock at night. I automatically took this very seriously. What I was finding though is that most people said this “was an exaggeration, it’s just the flu, everyone is overreacting.” So because of this, as of Monday the governor had to enforce even stricter rules.
No gatherings of 50 or more, (and even that has been reduced to 10 even since yesterday). Casinos and bars have closed. Movie theaters are closed. And restaurants are only allowed to serve takeout. Nana is in the hospital and can’t have ANYONE visit because of her age. One of Pops’ childhood friends died and he’s not allowed to attend the funeral because he’s not immediate family. From what I read on Facebook and see when I am out running my necessary errands, most people still do not believe all of these precautions are necessary and the rumor is we are not far from being in the same lockdown situation that Italy and California are in right now. That means at home, just the four of us, no contact with anyone outside unless it’s an absolute necessity for a month. I am praying it doesn’t get to that point but the governor has asked the U.S. Department of Education to allow us to cancel school for the rest of the year. I haven’t even mentioned that to the girls yet because they are going to be heartbroken. The new house means a new school and they won’t have even have a chance to say goodbye to their friends. In the meantime, I am preparing for a lock down that I hope never comes but living that way now to protect us just in case. Matt is one of those people with a pre-existing condition and it is not a risk I’m willing to take. The school is sending work and we are going to do it somewhat. I’ve come up with a schedule that we will try to follow Monday through Thursday. (hey, may as well take advantage and have a 3 day weekend every week! 😉)
Today was supposed to be Dr. Seuss day so we dressed up and read the book and made green eggs and ham. And tomorrow the real math and everything will start back as well. No one ever thought this kind of thing would happen in modern day America. And we pray for the people who are out of work because their businesses have closed and don’t know where the next check will come from. But I’m also using it as a blessing to slow down. I don’t have any choice anyway so may as well enjoy the family time and do what we can to make the best of it. It’s all so surreal but I trust God is in control and if we do what is recommended everyone will be fine. The economy will eventually recover and taking these steps will save lives. The situation changes daily so I’m sure I’ll update in the next few days but this is where we are today. 10:45 PM on Tuesday, March 17, 2020.
3-4X more contagious than the flu. That’s because of how long the incubation period is and how long you can be contagious without showing symptoms. It’s also especially deadly for people with pre-existing conditions and older people. The flu has a death rate of 0.2% and this is killing about 2% of the people is affects. Most young, healthy people seem to handle it just fine and thank God it doesn’t seem to really affect kids at all. But if the same number of people caught this virus as the flu, the number of people that die would be catastrophic. And it’s brought the world to its knees. China is finally slowly starting to turn around after fighting it for 4 months. Italy and other European countries are under a 24 “lockdown” meaning people can’t leave their homes except for supplies and doctors appointments. (Some states in the western US did today but we aren’t there...yet)
Matt and I started talking about this almost 2 weeks ago. He had been following it for way longer and I had heard of it but wasn’t at all concerned. It was something “over there” that “they” were dealing with. This kind of thing doesn’t happen in America. Well, I will admit I was definitely wrong! The kids were on spring break last week and we spent the first few days after we got back from Hot Springs playing with friends.
We had two sleepovers and starting packing to stage our house to list it because after YEARS of talking about it we finally found a house we love and got it under contract. (More on that later) The Monday of spring break Louisiana had its first coronavirus case. It was kind of crazy that it was close to home but by Thursday it was starting to get real and starting to get serious. So quickly. Monday and Tuesday I had five kids here spending the night and by Thursday I didn’t want to go out in public and even breathe the same air as other people. We had plans to be at the deer camp to have crawfish with Capn, Yay, Chad and Rachel and we always love being together but the weekend kind of had a somber tone.
They had their car packed full of stuff not knowing how long they would be here because of how quickly things were progressing. By Friday, Louisiana’s Governor had announced that schools were closed until April 13 to try to stop the spread. Even though our numbers were only in the 30s at that point (but realize that was only after 4 days- over 200 now) we were being told by the world health organization and The CDC that we needed to practice “social distancing” to “flatten the curve”.
In Italy doctors were having to triage and making impossible choices. So many people were getting sick at once that there were not enough ventilators and so they were having to decide if they should (for example) let 80-year-old grandma be left to die to save the 45-year-old doctor. It’s the kind of ethical questions you only hear about in theory or wartime before this thing. The government asked all citizens to stay at home as much as they can and stay at least 6 feet apart when they are in public to try to stop the spread so that it didn’t bring America’s health system to the same crisis point. We needed to flatten to curve to not overrun the healthcare system capacity.
The news of school closings sent people into a panic and stores were overrun and completely sold out. We are still having kind of a hard time getting exactly the groceries we want but no one expects to have a Grocery shortage. At least they are able to restock at night. I automatically took this very seriously. What I was finding though is that most people said this “was an exaggeration, it’s just the flu, everyone is overreacting.” So because of this, as of Monday the governor had to enforce even stricter rules.
No gatherings of 50 or more, (and even that has been reduced to 10 even since yesterday). Casinos and bars have closed. Movie theaters are closed. And restaurants are only allowed to serve takeout. Nana is in the hospital and can’t have ANYONE visit because of her age. One of Pops’ childhood friends died and he’s not allowed to attend the funeral because he’s not immediate family. From what I read on Facebook and see when I am out running my necessary errands, most people still do not believe all of these precautions are necessary and the rumor is we are not far from being in the same lockdown situation that Italy and California are in right now. That means at home, just the four of us, no contact with anyone outside unless it’s an absolute necessity for a month. I am praying it doesn’t get to that point but the governor has asked the U.S. Department of Education to allow us to cancel school for the rest of the year. I haven’t even mentioned that to the girls yet because they are going to be heartbroken. The new house means a new school and they won’t have even have a chance to say goodbye to their friends. In the meantime, I am preparing for a lock down that I hope never comes but living that way now to protect us just in case. Matt is one of those people with a pre-existing condition and it is not a risk I’m willing to take. The school is sending work and we are going to do it somewhat. I’ve come up with a schedule that we will try to follow Monday through Thursday. (hey, may as well take advantage and have a 3 day weekend every week! 😉)
Today was supposed to be Dr. Seuss day so we dressed up and read the book and made green eggs and ham. And tomorrow the real math and everything will start back as well. No one ever thought this kind of thing would happen in modern day America. And we pray for the people who are out of work because their businesses have closed and don’t know where the next check will come from. But I’m also using it as a blessing to slow down. I don’t have any choice anyway so may as well enjoy the family time and do what we can to make the best of it. It’s all so surreal but I trust God is in control and if we do what is recommended everyone will be fine. The economy will eventually recover and taking these steps will save lives. The situation changes daily so I’m sure I’ll update in the next few days but this is where we are today. 10:45 PM on Tuesday, March 17, 2020.
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