I’m Still Breathing! Hope You Are Too.
Day 4 of self-isolation. All is well.
On Monday 23rd I had a shiny new call centre employment contract and was due to start my new job. But I developed a cough the evening before and instead had to self-isolate.
There are no doctors to call. Local surgeries shut down weeks ago. All health services are online.
I completed a simple questionnaire on the NHS 111 website. The advice was and is to stay at home.
If your symptoms get worse, phone the helpline to speak with an assessor who will either tell you to stay at home or put you through to someone with more medical knowledge. If you have difficulty breathing, you should call 999! I’m not there yet. I hope you aren’t either.
Luckily, as either self-employed or employed now I can claim £94 statutory sick pay — which is more than I would have earned with my self-employment employer, Intercountry!
I’ve heard from a friend that the French aren’t interested in improving their English while worried about the coronavirus. There is unlikely to be any working from home as an online English language coach for me as long as this pandemic continues. I was already living on savings for the first three months of this year, waiting for the new contracts to flood in and fill my schedule. That will not happen now.
I drank plenty of water and ate as usual.
My back, chest, neck and chin heated up in the afternoon. By bedtime, I had been fizzing away and I could feel the heat coming off my belly, thighs, neck and chin! It felt like a mild sunburn.
Some light relief.
Tuesday 24th, my chest and back weren’t hot this morning, and I hardly coughed. I’d heard vitamin C might help, I bought some last week. I took one because I didn’t want to risk diarrhoea!
In the afternoon, I felt hot and my body was fizzing all over again. I kept meaning to look up why, but kept finding other things to do. The cough was deeper. But I don’t feel too bad overall.
As you know, there’s a shortage of masks in most places worldwide. My dad shared this how to make a mask from men’s boxer shorts video. It’s in Polish and pretty loud, so you might want to mute it!
This is my dad in his version.
Friends on Facebook and WhatsApp sent many messages that were heartfelt and funny.
Wednesday, I was not as good as Tuesday but better than Monday, aching and sluggish, thanks for asking. Even having a shower and putting on daytime clothes didn’t wake me up.
I sat sipping my coffee and trying not to nod off in front of my second viewing of Westworld season 2. It’s amazing how much you can forget in a year. I hope we’ll have forgotten this nightmare by this time next year.
No coughing, but I still had an extra hot chest and back and I hadn’t stopped fizzing. Weird. I searched for fizzing skin but got results for burning and tingling related to either MS or menopause. Neither of which applied to my sensation. So I did a Google search for antibodies. I had this idea that the fizzing was my body fighting either an ordinary cold or mild symptoms of the coronavirus.
I didn’t find any descriptions from anyone who felt like their skin was fizzing. I found an easy to understand (I couldn’t name all the different cells if you asked me to) animated explanation of how our immune system springs into action.
Can you imagine all the amazing characters whizzing around in your blood, killing off the virus and creating a fizzy mild sunburn feeling?
Thursday 26th I haven’t left Intercountry yet. I had one lesson this week. I’m still hoping I can get a shift pattern where I can teach and answer calls!
Currently, I have three sessions next week, but they might postpone. I’m hoping to see out the courses with the two learners finishing soon.
If I’m well or the symptoms haven’t got worse by Sunday, I’ll probably have to go to the new job. But that is only if they can find me a shift pattern I can get to by bus.
Rather inconveniently, the bus timetables have changed! It’s an outsourced NHS call centre for worried or panicking people. Exactly what they can find online but thousands prefer to call.
The news today was that 500,000 people were trying to apply for Universal Credit.
Wouldn’t it be so much easier to use the Statutory Sick Pay (SPP) system as per Keir Starmer’s proposal to treble £94 to match a proper living wage for everyone who needs it? Most payments could be made using employers’ payroll systems. That’s my understanding from my new job contract.
Or how about Scott Santens Emergency Universal Basic Income?
Whatever the UK or the US decide I hope they do it soon so anyone self-employed, on minimum wage or has lost their job can stop worrying about how they are going to eat, pay their bills, and the rent next month.
We don’t know what’s going to happen next week. Let’s keep communicating. Press our governments to do better, and stay inside or take precautions when outside, we have the best chance of continuing to breathe.
Stay healthy dear readers.
Do you love writing? Would you like to write for ILLUMINATION? Join Medium. Click on the link.
We look forward to reading your work.
