Items

• 2022-02-26

  My Personal Experience with COVID-19

  It was Christmas of 2020, and my eighty-four-year-old Dad was really sick. Up until then he had been healthy. He worked out at the gym every day and always went for coffee at Starbucks afterwards. I call him every day, and I could tell he was under the weather, but he didn’t want to admit he had COVID-19. He was sick for several weeks but came over on Christmas Eve to have dinner with our family. I remember being slightly irritated that he did come over because we could have brought him dinner at his house and minimized exposure to everyone else. Fortunately, our family and my sister’s family did not catch it that year. Oddly enough, we wouldn’t catch it until the following year. I remember being sort of surprised that we didn’t catch it because everyone around us had it. When the gyms and restaurants and grocery stores all closed, I would walk around our subdivision everyday to continue my exercise routine and I noticed I was tired and had shortness of breath. I remember going in for my annual physical with a face mask on and telling my doctor my symptoms. I remember him saying that those symptoms were too early to be COVID-19 and was probably a milder version of the flu. I was doubtful due to being heavily exposed by my dad, as well as so many others who had no idea they had it but were technically “super-spreaders.” My sister’s family and our family caught Covid within a week or two of each other despite not having any contact and being vaccinated the prior year. My husband and I both opted for the Johnson& Johnson vaccination because it was traditional with just the one shot. Our friend, who worked with my husband also got the same vaccination. My husband and I were sick after the shot, but we knew from friends that we would be. It lasted maybe a night and then we felt better the next day. Our friend wound up in the hospital after her vaccination with a small intestinal blockage which she blamed on the shot. She stayed in the hospital for about a week, but other than some follow-up monitoring, she is ok. Shortly after that, we read in the news that several women had died from embolisms after receiving the vaccination. Our daughter, who has special needs, sees many doctors and I remember telling him that I just gotten vaccinated and now there was this complication. He was very reassuring and said that the women who had passed away probably had a serious and pre-existing condition. He told me to stay active for the next week or two and drink lots of water which I did, but it was the longest two weeks until we were cleared from the risk. We did end up catching Covid in February-March 2022. It had been a normal week. I went to the store, gym, did carpool, walked the greenway, but I felt slightly off all week long. I remember coming home and making dinner, but I was exhausted and told my husband that I was unable to have dinner with everyone that evening. Sure enough, I was running a low fever. I took an at-home COVID test, and my results showed I was positive within a few seconds. I immediately quarantined in our bedroom for the next several days. My husband caught it about a week later, but his symptoms were different than mine. He had a bad sore throat and was cold and shivering for a couple of days, and had a cough that lingered. Our daughter, who has severe Cerebral Palsy, caught it next but thankfully she only had mild symptoms for two days and recovered almost immediately. Our son caught it last, and he had a very bad sore throat for a week. We made it through, and consider ourselves fortunate that we recovered without long-term issues.
• 
  2020

  Humorous Memes about Quarantine and COVID

  During quarantine I collected many humorous memes about staying at home and the problems that brought. All sorts of subjects were covered: cooking, getting along with your spouse/roommates, homeschooling the kids, learning to bake bread, being stuck at home, sanitizing, facemasks, people hoarding toilet paper, boredom, effects of isolation, etc. Here are a few of those memes.
• 
  2020-12-15

  Political Face Masks

  As the CDC released guidelines for how citizens could help stop the spread of covid-19, many American’s started to wear masks and personal protective equipment (PPE) before leaving their homes. Masks quickly went from simply being a means of protection to a way of expressing themselves. Much like wearing a campaign t-shirt to show political affiliations, people started to wear masks adorned with slogans from the presidential campaigns. The Trump campaign, and others, released MAGA masks for purchase on their campaign shop. Only during a pandemic in tandem with a presidential election would we see something like this. As the pandemic continues on, it is safe to assume that masks will continue to be a way for people to display their personalities.
• 
  2020-07-27

  Vacation during Covid-19

  My friend Ramsey and I went to Florida during the Corona Virus and we had to wear masks everywhere we went, even on the airplane.
• 
  2020-06-01

  Cat Mask Guide

  @pennysnark on shared a meme in her instagram story. The meme is a cat wearing a mask in various fashions with explanations on the proper way to wear a face mask.
• 
  2020-06-19

  Man Banned from Flight Because He Refused to Wear a Face Mask

  A "mask war" developed in June 2020. Many states mandated that people must wear masks at all times to protect people around you in case you are infected with COVID-19. Some people took that as an assault on their civil liberties, refused to put a mask on, and made an issue out of it. Wearing a mask became politicized, with many Trump supporters and conservatives coming out against mask-wearing. Here is one conservative activist purposely defying the mask rule on American Airlines. He got kicked off the flight, which is what he seems to have wanted to happen.