What Personal Experiences Do You Have or See With COVID-19

Earlier today my wife told me of her friend’s dad who died of other causes and they had to televise the funeral.

This led me to start thinking about getting COVID-19 and how awful it would be being separated from your family during this event and maybe dying and not even having a funeral for your loved ones to be able to gather together.

I think about all the people that live paycheck to paycheck that won’t be getting one.

I do physical therapy home healthcare and often go to nursing homes and I’m starting to feel like I’m walking in a minefield. There are so many things that I have to sterilize as I go and it seems it would be so easy to make a mistake. For instance, I take out my phone to have a patient sign, then I must reach into my bag to get a wipe to clean my phone before I put it back into my pocket. I’ve touched my phone and I’ve touched my bag which is setting on the floor and when I leave the house I need to clean my bag before I put it on the seat in my Jeep. Then there is my blood pressure cuff, my thermometer, my oximeter, my theraband, the pen I write with, my notebook to clean before I put them back into my bag. All the while my nose is itching but I don’t dare touch my face to scratch it. I feel like I'm taking risks for myself and others and trying to decide if I should cancel my contracts for the time being which could make the people I contract to angry and I could lose my job. I don't need the job financially but I would miss it and this virus could cause me a lifestyle change.

 

But where has that back scratcher been in the last 24 hours? Will have to sterilize it...

 

That kind of stress is rough, I liked the threat of exposure to walking in a minefield, and not being able to have that closure for your grandfather must present an emptiness.

I quit my physical therapy job but I have a mix of strong emotions and concerns for people and have had trouble sleeping. I've been doing some exercise and worked in my woodworking shop today (yesterday) and that helped to keep my mind off of it a bit.

 

My daughter and I were talking on the phone. She helps out with a clinic that counsels women how to adjust their lives so that they have an alternative to abortion. We discussed that the trend of mindsets seem to be changing on the subject for the better under our current leadership. Then, the subject came up that elective surgeries were being canceled due to the pandemic and that abortions were falling into that category. We talked about the possible number of deaths from the pandemic and then went back to that there are about 3,000 abortions a day and if all abortions were canceled for a month that comes out to 90,000 babies which would somewhat offset those deaths.

My daughter says, "A baby boom!"

I said, "Not only that but we have all these couples locked up for a month with nothing to do. Yes, on the bright side of this there just may be a baby boom when its all said and done!"

Just a thought I figured I'd share. I would love to see that experience become the news at the end of this tragic time...

 

Back in early March seeing this coming and wanting to be prepared, to have the right tools, I ordered an Oxygen Concentrator from Amazon. It was in stock with about 30 other brands and was supposed to ship in 6 to 10 days. After a few days I checked and my product was no longer available, the page was closed. I checked the other brands and there were only 7 left and all but one of them had the page closed.

After a week I checked my shipping status and it had stalled, I read the reviews and every one of them was saying they were either notified that they had canceled their order, which they didn't or that it was sent to the wrong address.

I waited and at 15 days I was surprised to see that package had shipped. But the address said to a university in PA. Then I was notified that the package was in customs, then it was cleared, then I could expect it on April 1st. Today I received a notice that it had been delivered, but it wasn't. UPS said it was delivered to the customer, a man at the university in PA. I live in AZ, BTW. Just out of curiosity I called the university in PA and to no surprise they were completely closed down.

So I want a refund, back to Amazon, they can not give refunds. Looking at the reviews again at least 35 people also can't get a refund. Yes, this package was supposed to be shipped from Hong Kong. The page to leave a review is closed so no telling how many people Amazon allowed to be scammed by this company in China.

In my case it would seem that UPS had the package and delivered it, to someone?, but the evidence doesn't add up so I also wonder what is going on with UPS saying they delivered the package.

Edit: Oh, and at UPS the department to report a problem like this is temporarily closed due to the virus.

Something weird is going on here...

I do plan to go to my credit card and refute the charge and expect I will get my money ($600) back.

 

I've had nothing close to home but my heart sinks every time I hear of a nursing being hit in other states because I've worked with the geriatric population for the last 2 1/2 years and those precious people are often forgot.

 

Yes, about 2 out of 100 people in NY are currently infected plus perhaps a number of others that are not known. I advise people that the safest way to behave is as if every person is infected and consider everything you touch is contaminated and that keeping your hands off your face is hard to do but is as important and washing your hands.

 

It turned that after a couple days I disputed the charge on my credit card and then later that day I went back to Amazon and in a roundabout way found another link that did give me an option to request a refund, contrary to what they what they were telling me before, and so I also requested the refund from them and they said it would take a few days for them to investigate it. In the meantime, my credit card refunded the money within hours and a couple days later Amazon informed me that my credit card had taken back the money so they would close my claim.

After all this, I went to Ebay and searched around quite a bit and found 2 Oxygen Concentrator units that were made in Germany and being stored in CA and order 1 and received it 5 days later.

I still wonder what was going on being UPS said a man ("the customer") met the driver and accepted the package which the company in China had sent to the wrong address - as they did to several other customers. Sounds like a scam on Amazon shoppers coming out of China.