So…. not to freak anyone out or anything, but I was listening to NPR this morning after dropping the girls off at school and learned that one of the evacuees from that Coronavirus-riddled cruise ship had been quarantined at Lackland AFB in San Antonio. After initially testing positive for the disease, two subsequent tests, administered 24 hours apart, had both shown negative results, so the patient was released. Well, lo and behold, another test administered I don’t know how many days later revealed that the patient was indeed still positive for COVID-19 and was once again quarantined. In the time that she was released back into the populace, this person could have infected God knows how many others. In San Antonio. Where I’m due to report back to the hospital next Monday. Now, I’m on a fairly isolated floor and the nurses who work the oncology unit don’t as a general rule go to other units in the hospital, but this still makes me a bit nervous. I contracted a strep infection during my first cycle and who knows where that bug may have crept in from. This current flavor of Coronavirus makes a simple case of strep look like a cakewalk in comparison. I have some concerns!

Great. Now it appears that the city of San Antonio and Bexar County (where San Antonio is located) have declared public health emergencies because of all this brouhaha. Rory has decided that he’s going to try to work from home for the foreseeable future, or at least until most of the Coronavirus craziness blows over. He went to the market yesterday afternoon and noticed a lot of shoppers wrestling multiple carts and indulging in panic buying. We saw similar behavior amongst the locals just after Hurricane Harvey, when it became nearly impossible to buy gas anywhere in town because of hoarding. Oi.

None of this would be such a big deal for us normally except that right now, nothing in our lives is really normal. I’m in and out of the hospital and immune-compromised, so I fall into the high-risk category for contracting the virus. Fun, right?🙄 We’re all doing what the CDC is recommending – staying away from crowds and washing, washing, washing our hands. At some point soon, Rory may begin wearing latex gloves whenever he has to interact with the public, like I’ve been doing this break. These are the precautions we’re taking and so far we see no need to dash off and stock up on toilet paper, water and canned goods. Unless supply lines are disrupted, which is a real long shot, there shouldn’t be an issue getting most of what we need. I know, I’m waffling between real concern and borderline indifference. It’s weird.