Corona - An afternoon in A&E

Yesterday I had first hand experience of life in a major hospital during Coronavirus.

I've been having problems with double vision & headaches for a couple of weeks. I did my surgery online triage form which said I should phone 111. The phone responder triaged me again & got a doctor to call me back. He said to go to A&E within an hour despite the fact I haven't been out for 5 weeks now. All very dramatic, although in all honesty I didn't think it would be something very serious.

Getting into A&E reception is very different now. There were two people at the entrance who told me to sanitize my hands & said that no visitors were allowed in. I had to stand at a taped distance from where they were sitting. My daughter had brought me & we agreed she would go home. There were a few questions about possible Covid 19 infection & then I went in. At the reception desk the receptionist was behind a glass screen & I stood behind a barrier while he typed my details into the computer. I was given a personalised wristband & told to sit in the waiting area. There were 3 other people there, all sitting a long way from eachother.

After a wait I was called into a big triage room where the nurse asked a battery of questions & gave me an ECG. I was then taken to another area to wait for a doctor. The doctor took me to a cubicle where he asked a lot of questions & did a lot of Neuro tests. At the end he reassuringly told me that I hadn't had a stroke, didn't have a bleed on the brain or an aneurism - Thank goodness! He didn't know what was causing it because he wasn't a specialist, but said I should contact the Neurologist I am under & get an appointment because my symptoms have worsened considerably.

All the way through everything was calm & well managed. Everyone seemed very competent, purposeful & confident. People seemed very cheerful & jolly even. I made a point of thanking them all for what they are doing, but they all said the same - "It's my job".

That's the NHS we need to fund properly & protect. Those are the people we need to be everlastingly grateful to & reward properly financially. That is the organisation that we should be staffing adequately & ensuring that we keep the expertise our training gives them in house. Their morale is crucial.

Politicians meddle with that at their peril.

Corona - "Is this the real life" - Queen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFKBR1ggTMY

"Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?
Caught in a landslide, no escape from reality
Open your eyes, look up to the skies and see
I'm just a poor boy, I need no sympathy
Because I'm easy come, easy go, little high, little low
Any way the wind blows doesn't really matter to me, to me"

We often talk about "quality of life" being important. At the moment many people worldwide have little of it for a myriad of different reasons. I can only speak for myself.

There is no doubt that this is "the real life". It isn't a life I would chose, but there are benefits amid the many things I don't have.

I don't have freedom - to leave the house, to hug someone I love, to have face to face conversations with family, friends & aquaintances. The choices I can make are limited - I can't go for a walk or swim, visit friends & family, shop for myself... The property market is dead in the water, so I can't sell my house & move on. I'm in limbo not knowing how long this will last & what will happen at the end point. The only thing I do know is that it will eventually end, but life as we all knew it will be changed.

The benefits are subtle. The chance to catch up with things my former really busy life didn't give me time to do - things I let slide. The chance to spend time with myself & discover how well I can cope with that. Most people are co-dependent, so being deprived of social contact is very hard. Actually, I haven't found it too difficult. There is a huge difference between lonliness & solitude. The chance to think - about things that really matter, not just the minutiae of everyday life. Why are we here, how should we behave, what are our responsibilities to ourselves, others, our planet? Our previous lives were so manic - we all have the opportunity to reflect now.

Maybe this will be the catalyst which delivers us from our own self interested behaviours. Maybe the sacrifice & community spirit so many have found will empower us to build a better future for our children. The Corona Spring could be a proper new beginning.

Corona - Poverty, Volunteers & Carers

Corona is a health catastrophe, but it impacts different areas of society in different ways apart from the physical. Poverty makes coping with Corona much harder & many more people are going to be experiencing poverty & hardship than previously. 14% of people have lost their job or had their hours reduced in the UK according to YouGov. That's 1 in 20. 1 in 11 have had pay or hours reduced. Almost 500,000 people applied for Universal Credit in March. Then there is the impact on the self employed, which is being researched currently.

While foodbanks are trying to cope with as much as an 80% increase in takeup, they are also having to deal with a huge drop in donations. In addition they are having to tell mostly aged Volunteers to stay at home for their own safety.

In America 15,000,000, yes 15,000,000 people have had their water cut off because they can't pay their bills. America for goodness sake, which is the world's biggest economy with a GDP of $20,494,100 (China is closest with $13,608,152). In the USA 38.1 million people lived in poverty in 2018 that's 11.8%. As of 2017 20% of UK people live in poverty. Covid 19 is set to make that rise.

Volunteering is hugely important to economies. In the UK:-

• In 2017/18, 30% of people aged 25–34 formally volunteered at least once a year, and 15% at least once a month (regularly), the lowest across different age groups.
• The highest rates of volunteering can be found among 65–74 year olds, with 42% at least once a year, and 29% regularly.  
• Women are more likely than men to have formally volunteered (40% vs 35%)

Social distancing & self isolating obviously means that workforce, which keeps our society ticking over, has largely disappeared.

Then there are the Carers:-

• There are around seven million Carers in the UK  – that is one in ten people.
• Three in five people will be Carers at some point in their lives in the UK.
• 42% of Carers are men and 58% are women. 
• The economic value of the contribution made by Carers in the UK is £132bn a year
• As many as one in five children and young people are young Carers

The economy literally probably couldn't function without Carers, who are unpaid & largely unsupported by Government. Just think how many Carers are living in unimaginably difficult circumstances in this pandemic.

As the weeks drag on the implications of Covid 19 become more & more obvious & widespread. It is truly a virus in more ways than one. It's tentacles are spreading not just through bodies, but through the very fabric of our communities & society. It's destroying our networks. Hopefully we will replace them with something better.

   

It's a huge web of consequences with the Corona spider at it's core.

Corona - My New Normal

There really is no way I can describe my life, almost 4 weeks into complete solitary isolation in my house, as "normal".

I am part of a research study into the effects of lock down. I have to report in every week & do the same online questionnaire. I think I am coping very well, but I could be delusional! The hardest part is knowing that I am only a third of the way through lockdown. What will I do when there is nowhere else to tidy out, no more accumulated paperwork to shred?

If friends ask what I have been doing I am hard pushed to give much of an answer - that is "normal" for me though. I do know that I am never bored & I am always busy. I'm now thinking that I should make a timetable with varied activities. I'm very "task oriented", so up to now I have been doing "jobs" I hadn't got round to. I need more variety in the day.

I need to programme in the "normal" day to day routines - housework (such as it is), being online & making contact with friends, meals. Then I should make time for playing the piano, doing some sort of exercise to replace swimming, reading (all those books I have bought but not read), doing something intellectual & doing something creative. Otherwise there won't be enough to nourish all parts of my body & brain. I will age & wither away.

This is a test of ones inner resources. It's a test of control over emotion. There is no point in railing against enforced isolation. There is no point in any self pity. This is reality for now. It is what it is - we all have to get on with it & do our best to support & help others. We have to keep going & hope for better times to come.

This "New Normal" could be very beneficial - for each one of us, for society & for our world. We need to sieze the opportunities for a "Brave New Wold".

 

Corona - "Silence is Golden"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n03g8nsaBro

The 1960's - I was in my 20's, newly married & an unexpected mother. Well not unexpected after 9 months obviously! It was a good decade for pop music - The Beatles, Cilla Black, The Animals, Manfred Man....

I have never been able to work to the sound of background music, but music has always been very important to me. I'm very eclectic, I like classical, choral, opera, jazz, blues, pop. The pop songs of the 60's to the 90's are the ones I still know the words to.

My point is that music is really important to human beings. Worldwide we have had different musical styles since the earliest times. Good music reaches the parts other things can't reach & often sums up how we feel. There is a close emotional involvement with music of all types. We really need it to be happy.

So the song "Silence is Golden" resonates with me at the moment. Because of memories & also because silence is a new phenomenon living in a city in the time of Covid. (Apologies to Gabriel Garcia Marquez).

Yes there are people out & yes there are solitary cars on my street. But nothing like how it was 3 short weeks ago. Life has changed, the cities have changed. The threat of Covid 19 looms everywhere. The sun is shining, the birds sing, the trees are clothed in leaf & & blossom. Our spectacular world continues it's seasons, oblivious to the silent threat to all of us humans.

Maybe it is only fair. We humans have threatened the natural world for decades. We humans created the circumstances for this new silent threat to exist. One theory is that the virus mutated & moved from a bat to a Pangolin to a human via a live animal market in Wuhan.

However this virus arrived it is threatening us in ways we were ill prepared for. Maybe the silence will give us the time to think.

Corona - Questions, Questions

Everyone wants answers. On a global level what we all have to adjust to is that there often aren't any. Even if there are, they are frequently just speculation & for every answer there is a counter opinion. Then there are all the conspiracy theories & the fake news.

On a personal level, if you are in the least introspective, you have to question a lot of your preconceived ideas & habits, especially if you are unable to go out at all. We all have to be able to learn the lessons this virus is showing us.

I am wondering what the main purpose of my life is, and whether it is what I thought it was. I, like all of us, am driven by nature, nurture, personality, habit, routine, learned experience.....All of that makes me behave in the way I do. This pandemic should maybe make me try to alter some of the patterns of behaviour & thought that I have taken for granted for years. We all have the opportunity to be better human beings.

Returning to the question of questioning - When this all ends I want to know what effect the shut down of society as we know it has had on our world:-

Human Rights - Homeless people, workers on zero-hour contracts and women who face
domestic abuse….How are we caring for them? Emergency legislation, how do we control it?

Animal Rights – Endangered Species – Are they better off / worse off / more secure, during
the crisis?

Biodiversity – Impact on deforestation, mining….? Should we be actively involved
in supporting the search for natural remedies for controlling disease?

Climate Change – Who is monitoring the impact of Covid e.g. reductions in emissions
worldwide.

Peaceful Co-operation – This pandemic is highlighting the resourcefulness & caring of populations. Amazing ideas are happening worldwide - Are we keeping a record of initiatives for future development & use, e.g the use of social media & technology.

Systems & Infrastructure – Are broken. Too much power rests with hugely wealthy individuals & multinational corporations. What have they contributed to this battle with the pandemic? What should we expect them to do in the future?  

Who is collating the all the evidence which emerges during this pandemic - Charities? We need answers & evidence to devise a "Charter for the Future" after Covid. I hope we get one, otherwise what is the point?

 

Corona - 12 days & counting

It's been 12 days in my house on my own. I did cross the road to have a social distancing conversation with 2 friends a few days ago, which was lovely. My wonderful daughter comes regularly & brings me bits of shopping & tasty treats she has made for her family. We have a conversation with me in the doorway & her half way across the road - no traffic of course.

I've also had to have my plumbers in the house, but kept a reasonable distance away from them. I was so grateful that they came. My underfloor central heating packed up at the beginning of this week. They came on Wednesday & it's an electrical problem, not a water leak thank goodness. The electrician was supposed to come yesterday to tell me which one of 2 different parts to order, (all the suppliers have closed down because of Covid so I have to order & hope they will deliver). Now he's not coming till Monday. Also my ensuite shower stopped producing hot water last week. The plumbers couldn't get a replacement part, (it was only 6 months old, so was under guarantee), because of suppliers being closed. Now my computer has got serious issues & Steve, who is my techie Guru, says I should back everything up while I still can & buy a new one ASAP. It's all extremely frustrating & time consuming. As if being incarcerated wasn't bad enough!

But, on the bright side, I don't have Covid 19. All the family are fine too thank goodness. It's important to keep a sense of perspective in light of the horrifying stories coming from around the world. What have I got to complain about?

To be honest its fine really. I keep in contact with a lot of people - by WhatsApp, text, email, phone, Zoom videoconferencing. The days are always busy, but I'm too sedentary. I spend far too much time on the computer. I need to have a list of jobs to be done & a timetable for the day with time to exercise, relax, do something creative & meditate in there, so I don't just keep working all day.

I'm too task oriented. It will be a battle with myself.