2020 January

Sharing Germs

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Coughing or sneezing into your elbow is one of the precautions for infection prevention you can take to reduce spread of droplets throughout the air.

I’ve been struggling since December 26 with being both the caregiver and needing care myself. I don’t usually get sick because I’m cautious regarding exposure to contagious situations. For example, I screen those who come to our home both for their symptoms and their possible exposure to others, and I do most of our shopping online. However, on Christmas Day, I acquired a GI bug from out of nowhere.

Catching a crippling GI bug

On the morning of December 26, about half of our guests reported developing the same crippling diarrhea and vomiting illness I enjoyed that lasted 6-8 hours. Though the worst of the symptoms lasted less than twenty-four hours, the recovery took days. None of the guests remember encountering anyone who had been ill or was with someone who had been sick. I concluded from my investigation that one of the guests contacted it from being in a public place and brought it into the group that day unknowingly. Try as I might, I can’t prevent everything.

Continue reading at: https://multiplesclerosis.net/caregiver/sharing-germs/

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Times Have Changed

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Once upon a time, the world was a different place in America. Sons and daughters grew up and married and lived in or close to the same neighborhoods where their parents, aunts, uncles, and grandparents lived. Neighbors knew neighbors. Couples got together with friends on Saturday night, and children grew up playing in neighborhoods where best friends stayed that way through college.

Communities used to be connected

People had friends who talked to one another face to face and shared confidences, heartaches, and triumphs. Communities knew one another. Although some of them were related, many were not. They all shared connections through conversations and interactions when they met during their walks along the road as they took their dogs out at night or let their children play in the cul-de-sac. Most of the neighborhood knew one another at least by sight because they gathered once or twice a year for a 4th of July picnic, neighborhood yard sales, or a Christmas open house. They made connections, and they didn’t feel alone.

Continue reading at https://multiplesclerosis.net/caregiver/expectations/

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