Self-Isolations is over

Our two-week COVID-lockdown is over. We worked yesterday for the first time. My husband left the house in the morning, I watched him leave and I dragged my feet to the living room. I piddled around a bit but finally made it to my workroom. In clothes -real clothes! All our pajamas and sweatpants were spinning in the washer. We survived the coronavirus and I feel so many emotions, I don’t even know where to begin.

We are both in a risk group, so I suppose Irene Cara’s song is exactly how I feel. WHAT A FEELING?

I would have never gotten tested on my own, I would have just assumed I had a bad sinus infection or maybe allergy problems. Stuffy nose, congestion -none of it sounded like COVID-19. I lost my sense of smell and taste that bothered me the most. How do you cook if you can’t taste a thing? Turns out you can, but it’s tricky.

I chased my husband with a spoonful of WHATEVER I was cooking.
“Honey, what’s missing?”
“Tastes different!” (No shit Sherlock)
“Salt maybe?” (Really, of all the spices he names the one we don’t use?)
Sherlock was not able to tell me what was missing.

They say women lose the sense of smell and taste. My husband smells SMOKE now everywhere and everything tastes different to him. How different, yet similar our symptoms were. Interesting and very confusing.

“Everything is different here,” he said when he called me from work at lunchtime.

They have reacted. Five people had tested positive and had to stay at home for 2 weeks, which made an impact, not just workwise, but also it seems that finally, reality has sunk in. Everyone, even the ‘Warehouse guy’ is no wearing a mask. Sign everywhere reminding employees to wash their hands. Only one person is allowed to sit at a table in the breakroom.

It woke them up, which is good!

In the evening we ate chocolate for dinner, neither one of us was hungry. We felt deadly tired and went to bed around 6 p.m. and fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

We survived COVID!

I don’t normally share my feelings, I rather joke around a bit, but I feel very very fortunate. I have two autoimmune disorders and my husband had two major surgeries, one of them gave him the right to wear the title “Cardiac patient for life.” We were at risk to get seriously ill, but it didn’t happen.

I think about the patients in the hospital who breathe with help of a ventilator and it leaves me very humble. It could have been me. It could have been him. How lucky are we?

The fear I felt for two weeks during our self-isolation, I don’t wish it to anybody. My husband felt the same. We didn’t talk about it, neither one of us wanted to worry the other one. We talked about it last night. We feel relieved.

We owe now a Fingertip-Blood-Oxygen-Monitor, which put my mind at ease. That was the only recommendation my doctor gave me. Measure it three times a day and react, when the numbers go down. They never did!

Don’t let your guard down! Wear your face mask! Wash your hands! Keep the required distance!