Author: Steve

 

We heard that the rate of spread of the Corona Virus was that the number of cases would double every week.  A logarithmic scale like that is a scary scenario.  At the time, Governor Cuomo guessed that he had 1,000 cases, diagnosed and undiagnosed, and made the prediction that if left unchecked, his state would be dealing with 64,000 infected people in six weeks.  That’s how the math works.

 

So I watched for an easy number to track.  Last Tuesday the total number of reported cases in the U.S. on the daily news topped 1,000; that’s my baseline.  If the governor’s prediction held, that number should be 2,000 by this Tuesday; today.  Seven days have passed.  The number of cases in the U.S. just passed 6,000.  That represents 2 ½ doublings in my first week of careful attention.  A very scary start indeed.

 

All of a sudden, out of nowhere, all over the globe we’re fighting for our lives, interestingly by doing nothing.  Go home.  Stay home.  Don’t go out if you don’t have to.  Close everything that’s not a pharmacy or grocery store.  Measures that would be fine for a week or two, but long-term are just not sustainable.  This is not a one or two week problem.  It’s going to go on for months, not weeks.  Plan on at least a year, probably more.  Even after its peak, the virus will continue to be a problem until there is a vaccine or treatment for it.  Imagine the cabin fever if we just do what we’re doing today.  How many people have the reserves to wait this out?  No money.  Can’t pay the rent.  Can’t pay the utilities.  Can’t buy food.  Economic collapse.  Not sustainable.

 

We’ll all do what we need to do right now, as long as we can, but after the curve flattens and we’ve made it past the medical facility overload; at some point we’re going to have to suck it up, just start living again, and take our lumps.

 

 

 

A trip to Corpus today to meet with the surgeon and see how the knee is doing.  The doctor thinks Judy is awesome.  The knee looks just right for this stage of recovery.

 

Here is how it looks on the inside with an x-ray.

 

Looks just like a knee, doesn’t it?  The empty spaces in the joint aren’t really empty.  Just like cartilage, the plastic part of the joint doesn’t show up on an x-ray.

 

Normally the doctor would have us come back in two weeks, but considering our distance and the virus situation, we settled on waiting a month for our next visit.  We were originally going to stay overnight and see a different doctor in Corpus on Tuesday morning for something else, but were hesitant about going to a doctor that treated sick people (instead of an orthopedic doctor’s office) so we called them up and they agreed to do the visit virtually tomorrow.  The hotel took a late cancellation, no problem.  It seems like everyone is making every accommodation they can.

 

We’re back home again tonight.

 

 

Judy told the physical therapist how well she was doing.  The PT said “No walking without the walker!” 

 

Turns out the walker isn’t required just for security and balance.  We have a couple healing bone ends that don’t want to bear full weight yet.  Walking with the walker distributes weight to the hands and takes some of the force off those healing bones.  Judy woke up sore today.  Maybe PT knows what she’s talking about.

 

We get it.  Judy is back to the walker, even in the house.  Our education continues…

 

 

 

Or two.

 

Suddenly Judy is up and about and feels like doing things again.  She has her balance back and is walking all around the house comfortably without the walker.  Tonight we were going to have burritos for dinner and she offered to make them!  OMG, she’s back!  Well, actually she’s not back all the time.  She still needs a lot of sleep; more than can be gotten just at night while her body repairs itself from the surgical intrusion; but when she’s awake, she’s back!

 

We ventured off the deck together for the first time in twelve days and had a golf cart ride around the park.  We talked with neighbors, but only from a near distance, which brings us to another subject.  We’re trying to remember to be conscious of “social distance”.  No hugging and stay back a few feet.  There aren’t any cases of coronavirus reported yet in the Rio Grande Valley, but we’ll start practicing being safe now.  Judy and I are in the danger zone; not for any underlying conditions; no compromised immune systems, but we’re undeniably at risk because of our age.  I go out for errands and take advantage of all the strategically placed hand sanitizers.  Don’t want to bring a virus home to Judy.  Don’t plan on getting into a flying or floating petri dish either.  No airplane or cruise ship rides for a while.

 

Went to the grocery store to get a few things today and that was not cool.  The aisles had more people than food.  There is an abundance of fresh food; fruits, vegetables, and meat, but durable staples; rice, beans, flour; nothing but bare shelves.  No cheese.  No butter.  No eggs.  Never seen that before.  We just had a hiccup in our land of plenty.  We hear stories of other less-developed countries where going to the grocery is a crap shoot.  You might have a wish-list of what you’d like to get, but settle for what is there that day, and figure out how to make it work.  I felt a twinge of that today.  Just a twinge though; a temporary thing.  Those other people we hear about, it’s their normal for weeks, months and years at a time. 

 

Home from the brush with reality.