Saturday, March 14, 2020

Just another day in this so called life of mine: does it look like I’m worried? (Hint: I am)

This past Friday I got a call from my doctor’s office asking how I was doing, could we postpone my appointment on March 30 with Dr. Marvi ‘indefinitely’, did I need refills on my prescriptions, and if I was experiencing any flu-like symptoms to be sure and let them know right away. 

I thanked her for the call and asked if they were reaching out to all their patients because of this coronavirus.  She said no, just the high-risk ones.  Excuse me?  What makes me a high-risk?  “Your age Mr. Morris, and your medical condition.  Are you still taking meds daily for your high blood pressure?”   Um… yes.

A little later after that call, I got on my computer, saw an email from my sister that they were visiting different stores in search of various supplies and encountering a lot of empty shelves, and a notice from my apartment building’s management that for the time being, please restrict visits from non-residents to emergency personnel only.  For real?  The younger side of me wanted to roll his eyes and shake his head at all the drama, the older side gulped and wondered if he should take this stuff more seriously.

I decided I’d better go to the store before the weekend got here, put on my shoes & coat, headed downstairs.  Our 80-something resident Jack (who spends most of his waking hours holding court in our building’s lobby) was asking everyone if they’re loaded up on milk, you can freeze that you know, ”because once the milk runs out, ya won’t have anything to put on your cereal but your tears!”   Dude, chill!  I worry more he’s going to give himself a stroke then me running out of milk…  I think I’ll add a quart to my shopping list.

When I got to the market, things seemed normal enough—I forgot to walk down the paper goods aisle to see if they’re sold out of anything.  (I’ve got 4 rolls of paper towels & 10 rolls of toilet paper at home so I think I’m good.)  I head to the checkouts, a young woman is at the register with a much older woman bagging for her.  As I watch her swish my items over the barcode scanner, I notice 2 items are displaying the wrong price on the scanner.  I say “Thoth two hummetheth—they’re on thale.”  The girl stopped and looked at me.  I say “The hummetheth… on thale.  THALE.”  

I reached into my mouth and pulled out my stablilization splint.  “The 2 containers of hummus are supposed to be on sale.”  I pop my oral splint (for my TMJD) back in.  That older woman who’s bagging my stuff walks off with my hummus, comes back & tells the girl how to null the items and enter the sale price manually.

After I got outside and remembered I needed some cash, I head back inside just in time to hear that older woman who bagged my groceries telling a woman about the man who just left, he had to remove his dentures because he couldn’t talk with them in.  Ugh!  I don’t want her to see me, I’ll get my dough another time.

When I got home and saw Jack still sitting in the lobby, I pulled out my quart of milk.  “It’h going right in the freezer.”   He didn’t say a word, just grinned & nodded at me.

After I got on the elevator, pressed 4 and got to my floor, Opal (the woman who lives down the hall from me) was waiting to get on.  She saw my bags and asked how things looked outside.  I said pretty normal.  She told me there were 20 infected people in Pennsylvania, it was only a matter of time.  I felt like we were talking about the end of the world and us becoming zombies. 

I wonder just how bad things are going to get?   

10 comments:

  1. Doug, i can relate. One side of me wanted to roll my eyes at the drama, yet the other side of me found herself going into the Walmart in another city (Columbus) in search of supplies. Rows & rows of empty shelves... and the special large-puppy-breed food that I feed Shiva was gone, too. I became enraged, thoughts like: 'these ANIMALS!!!'
    ... I've calmed down; the stores will re-stock. Hopefully this will blow over soon & all the non-sense will stop.

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    1. Courtney I'm sure it will (blow over soon). Hope Shiva gets her special chow too (and not at a marked up price on the streets)! Hang in there... :)

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  2. First I am so sorry you have joined the high risk group. I'd never have put you there but now I will tell my friend who thinks she is immune but also takes BP pills to maybe rethink.
    Laughed out loud at the denture comment from the clerk. Thanks for the giggle.

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    1. Thank you Patti, I think we're a lot alike--both the new 60 (and I'm still adjusting) :) But yes, if your friend is on BP meds, she gets that red flag! Anyway, glad to hear from you & sure do hope you're doing ok. I've been wondering about you since your "oops" piece :)

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  3. Like Patti, I had a good laugh over the woman's mistaken denture tale. I can just imagine the look of astonishment on your face! Hee, hee! Can't understand all this insane panic buying. People (of course not us) are lemmings!

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    1. Haha, thank you Florence--loved the lemmings comment! As for the dentures remark from that clerk, yes my jaw did drop but at least I'm old enough now where I didn't feel the need to prove to her I still have my own teeth :)

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  4. I think it is a good idea to stay away from crowds and strangers until we see where this thing is going. Apparently one of the biggest fears is overcrowding of hospitals if this thing spikes.

    Does that mouth thing work well? My friend's son has I think a similar issue.

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    1. Hey Joe--big time agree about the social distancing, but I wish the panic or whatever it is would die down--went to 2 markets today and both had lots of bare shelves. (No toilet paper--none.) About my splint, it HAS helped, a lot. I wear it 24/7, only take it out to eat & brush my teeth. It's taken a lot of strain off the jaw muscles by keeping my bite always open. It's been 4 months now, hoping to lose it in May or June. Sorry to hear about your friend's son, it's a weird awful thing.

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  5. My local supermarket had an hour this morning where they only let in elderly and disabled pensioners, who had to show their concession cards, to get their supplies before the rest of the shoppers were allowed in. From 7am to 8am, so I got there just after 7am and already the toilet paper and tissues etc were completely sold out. If this keeps up I'll be cutting up some threadbare bath towels and using those to wash/wipe with instead. I'll buy extra bleach for the soaking, just like the nappies when my kids were babies.

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    1. Wow, River. That sounds like something straight from WWII. Can you believe all this is happening? I should've waited a day before saying anything, my own town's supermarket looks like a tornado hit it. I'm leaving shortly to (hopefully) get some toilet paper... but what you said here, I may wind up buying some bleach too!

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