Coronavirus (COVID-19) has truly taken its toll on everyone. Most of America is out of work and school and on lockdown. Despite being given stay-at-home orders, a lot of people are still continuing to hang out with friends and family and go places for unnecessary reasons. That seems to be the trend for healthy individuals, at least.
As someone who is immunocompromised, my pandemic journey has been a lot different.
Even before my state put stay-at-home orders in place, I was self-quarantined. I'd heard too many stories that those most at risk for having an extreme case of coronavirus or even dying from it, were immunocompromised or elderly. I didn't want to risk it. I stopped seeing my friends and family since they were still working and socializing. I stopped going to the store unless it was necessary. I even stopped eating out for fear of contracting the virus. Since March 12, I've only come into close contact with a handful of people, and I've made sure to stay 6 feet away from most of them.
Not only did I follow all social distancing rules, but I also picked up sanitizing habits. Every day since I moved home from college, I've been wiping down door handles, remotes, and light switches. Name something communal, and I've Lysoled it as soon as my dad got home from work.
When packages come, I pick them up with Lysol wipes, wipe them off before opening them, wipe whatever is inside, and then after throwing the package away, I wipe down whatever the box had been placed on.
You can call me crazy, but there's one thing that's for sure — I won't be catching the virus from something that's able to be cleaned.
Despite taking all these precautions to not get the virus, the fear still lives with me. For most healthy people, COVID-19 is just a passing thought. They see it as more of an inconvenience or hurdle than an actual problem. For the immunocompromised though, this is likely one of the scariest situations we've been through. We aren't sure we will be able to fight it off if we catch it, and the numbers aren't promising.
For us, coronavirus could be a death sentence.
Living through this pandemic being immunocompromised has been terrifying. If I cough, my heart drops. If I feel like I can't breathe, I begin to panic. I'm checking the death toll and infected cases numbers constantly just hoping for this to all end. I don't want to fear for my life every time my dad comes home from work, and I want to feel safe to see my mom again. Unfortunately, I don't think those feelings will come for a while.
The threat of becoming deathly ill from this is something I think will remain prevalent for quite some time.
All that being said, remember that there are roughly 10 million immunocompromised people living in the U.S., so in two weeks, when the lockdown is over and you invite your friend over but they kindly decline because they're still self-isolating, don't be mad. Don't get upset because your cousin doesn't feel safe coming to your birthday party. Don't fire employees for not wanting to return to work yet because they're scared.
Those of us who are immunocompromised are scared, and we are dealing with it the best way we know how, so please, just be kind.