this is disabled girls who lift. We are reclaiming what's rightfully ours, one podcast at a time, it's mary Beth Chloe and Marcia bringing you the thoughts and unpopular topics to get you out of that. A bliss comfort zone. Welcome guys, thanks for coming to another episode of disabled girls who lift we have for you today, a very special panel of spoons, a whole bunch of badass bitches with badass diseases, being badass. Anyway, and um corona, we're going to talk about it. So this is Marcia from south florida and mary Beth from northern California. So I have the privilege, the absolute privilege of being the moderator of these bad Aspen's today. I want to introduce everybody before we dive deep into um this tragedy, tragedy going around in the, in the world. First, I'd love to introduce my co host of disabled girls who lived absolute and great supporter and best friend of ours, Marcia, dar booze, She's coming in from Hollywood florida, she's been doing strongman and powerlifting for three years.

Um and then my neighbor over here christened a keith coming in from antioch California, She's been doing strongman for three or four years, absolute great supporter of disabled girls who lived and has a few thoughts about all this. Ashley parker, pacific Northwest represent Tacoma Washington. Ashley has been powerlifting for three years, She's a runner, she's a runner right before that. Um Andrea Graham representing, oh we've got a lot of Floridians in the house, Melbourne florida. Hello, she's been doing strong run for four years, you know, whereas fit for homeschool on instagram will give you a little bit of their personal information later so you can follow them and their journey, but then we've got Christie Milan over here. Um, you might have all remembered her from one of our episodes. She's coming in from Miami florida and she's also been para lifting for three years. So welcome and thank you all so much for taking the time out of your days to just talk about this.

Um, I know there's a lot going on right now. A lot of us are strength struggling. Um, they want us to kind of, you know, decompress by taking some of the pressure off providing everybody in our community with resources, telling us how you're kind of dealing with this, um, coronavirus, covid 19 in your area and how um, the health care system or the community is supporting you right now. So I want to do a few check ins, especially since our panel right now is comprised of, you know, chronic illness warriors, seriously all around badasses. Um, and we're all kind of in different regions of the US. So, uh, Marcia, I kind of want to, I want to start with you. How's your region? How's your state right now? Um, yeah, so I know we'll go into probably questions later, but just in general, in the state of florida Broward County has the most cases of COVID-19 right now, so that's cool.

Um, no toilet paper, so that's awesome. Um, I wanna, you know all of a sudden, everybody loves ginger now so I can't make my juice so fucking ginger anywhere so that's cool. Um Work is iffy. Um I'm not working at the gym, I do still go to the daycare, I'll be going tomorrow, but definitely making a lot less because parents are scared, they're not all sending their kids and I also have two employees that I want to make sure they get paid also. So it's kind of touchy, it's a little touchy and luckily my husband's income is going to be steady, but I do rent out two rooms and those guys incomes are pretty much cut off as of today, so I don't know how that's gonna go when it comes to rent time. So there's a lot, there's a lot going on. And I also don't want to actually catch this virus, so there's a lot going on. It's really, I don't know it's it's real how is it in Miami Christy because you're close ish to me. And and I think Miami's second right. Uh Yeah, we today um just closed all non essential businesses so any bars restaurants, they can only operate as take out um to go orders, stuff like that, they can send food out, but they can't, they can't be open to the public um movie theaters uh gyms, health clubs, stuff like that all closed to the public.

Um That just happened today. I'm sorry, it it goes into effect tonight at midnight so everything is just kind of like on their last day um the gym, I work out we're closing tonight, so people were in trying to get their last last workout in before before we're all stuck inside. Just did they say for how long, how long I guess put in place for the idea is that we're gonna shoot for two weeks I guess is the consensus I'm hearing across the board is like everyone, we're going to see what happens over the next two weeks. No one knows. Yeah, no, no endgame in sight. That's the frustrating one of them. Really frustrating things, you know? Yeah. Are these mandated right now in florida by county? What's it like in Melbourne? Andrea Yeah, everything is mandated by county right now Melbourne um We just got our first case confirmed anyway. Case, I'm sure there's tons of people walking around with it unconfirmed as of yesterday I believe, but it's the same, Everything is being shut down. It's very stressful. I home school my kids so it's not as stressful for me transitioning into that anyway.

Um So that's one less thing I have to worry about but it's scary. Um you know, my kids take sports classes and we were doing that up until just this past friday, so I'm kind of still nervous that, you know, they came in contact and I'm trying to self quarantine now because things are getting very crazy alright and then kris sanda I know up here in the bay area of California, we've got six counties already with mandated shelter in place so it's pretty much the same were shut down. We're shelter in place. Um we have well over 30 confirmed people in our little bitty county and I don't understand it because even on the map it looks big and most of it's a Mount Diablo so it's really strange like we're not quite sure where all these people got it. It's a lot of community um Community um infection. Yeah and uh I mean again no toilet paper. No nothing. I mean my boyfriend's sick and we went to go get some saltines and you can't even find saltines or Ritz crackers or anything.

Um. Yeah it's it's a little surreal like we're completely shut down. The roads are clear, there's literally nobody leaving their houses or else you get a misdemeanor if you don't have good reason. Oh yeah. Oh yeah yeah we're actually legit shelter in place, shut down. You're not allowed to leave unless you for for like hospital type stuff. It's weird they're talking um if people don't start complying, they're talking martial law okay. They currently canceled a lot of um office visits to hospitals that are non essential, anything that are routine. Um So I do want to start talking about that soon but and how this affects us what's considered routine and what's not and they're talking about local law enforcement or you know them issuing those tickets out on the streets right now.

So um yeah this episode is really not too you know create more fear and anxiety with the disabled community right now but I do want to go straight straight into um how obviously how this is affecting us and how our community is responding to it um before we go into that Ashley over there in Tacoma Washington. What's it like? I know Seattle had some of the biggest cases in the US but how's Tacoma handling it right now? Tacoma is actually doing pretty good from a community standpoint yesterday the governor required the closure of the same bars, restaurants only take out um My husband and I work for a local business so we're out of a job right now which kind of sucks. Um but our gym is still open so We're trying to keep the limit of 50, yeah we're trying to keep the limit of 50 people but unfortunately there's a lot of drop ins that aren't keeping up with our like strict procedures so we're hoping that it's going to be cut off to drop ins and for members only.

Um But are my kids out of school for six weeks until april 24th week. So yeah and I'm doing the rest of my finals online so I mean I don't know it's just it's kind of like a flu season for me, I'm just keeping away from everybody. I mean it's the gym helping with that distancing or how are they? I know there counting people at the doors, but you can still work out next to each other, you can still work out. I mean me personally, I'm keeping my distance and I know the staff is working really well to keep the place sanitized, but there are a lot of people coming in that aren't respecting those rules. So I'm unfortunately here until otherwise yeah, I got still open also, but I'm doing the same thing because I can't really take the chance of trusting other people. Exactly, I don't trust anybody around these, nope, nope. But yeah, that's one nice thing about having the shelter in places, all the gyms are shut down, like everything is closed and there's just no option.

So it's kind of comforting knowing that you don't even have to sit there and debate with yourself right and kind of guilt yourself into going to the gym even though, you know, it may not be the best idea like that decision has been made for me. And so that's kind of nice. Like I don't feel guilty because it's not my choice. I've been noticing though a lot of help from the athletic community with online classes or courses or you know, assistance for those that want to train at home or work out from home carrying their what dogs or other makeshift makeshift dumbbells and I know this is something that disabled communities have needed for a very, very long time and we can actually learn from those who currently work from home and have always been forced to, you know, stay home. Um, but Andrea um, sorry Ashley, you mentioned um a little bit of what your community has been doing, your local government.

I am curious to hear what exactly the community has been providing and if they are assisting any workers who have been laid off any local businesses, especially small businesses who are forced to close their storefronts, what have you seen? I know um my husband is right now divvying up the food that was going to spoil and he's going to donate it to the employees that need it. And also I'm going to try and get him to donate it to elders and other disability people that can't, you know, make it out of their house. Um, but a lot of us are volunteering to take meals to schools and backpacks and any time somebody can't leave their house, we um get together and you know, donate our money and donate our resources to make sure that everybody has what they need to hunker down. I don't know if it's the same everywhere else, but we are pretty tight in Tacoma and I mean we all, we all need to take care of each other because we all depend on one another whether we want to or not basically.

So is that an organized group, an organized community group or is an individual just going out and boxing lunches for people? Um, both I have a friend who specifically is getting resources for people of color and elders. Um, so that basically whatever, somebody is really passionate about their going and helping those groups of people and there's a lot of us that are passionate about different groups of people, so everybody is kind of being taken care of, you know what I mean? Yeah, really? Thank you for that. And everyone else that's really been supporting each other during this tough time because I've seen, I actually, I saw chris send a post some workouts, right? Yeah. Well, and I think Marcia has to, like, it's the nice thing to do. I volunteered to anybody with a disability, I will happily give you anything I can. It's what we're supposed to do, right, definitely. And I'm gonna be honest, I'm judging anyone heavily who's trying to make money off of this. Like if you're not offering this for free. Um a lot of people have been a lot of the online trainers have been, you know, hit me up, I offer plans and I'm like, dude, now is not the time to make some money, like now is the time to just give some people some at home workouts that they can do what else is happening in everyone else's area.

Like, have you noticed? Um I don't know the local government assisting with any of this. I will say in Melbourne, I haven't noticed much community support, definitely nothing like Ashley's community. I think we're just now starting to take things seriously when we probably should have been taking it seriously. 23 weeks ago when things started kind of spiraling, ah they're just now starting to set up, I believe some some different distribution areas and help, but it's, it's very small and far between for sure. So having the online support is nice and definitely helpful to get resources from other places. Yeah, I will say that Broward, I'm not sure about Miami Broward County and Palm Beach, which is a little north of us just started setting up like drive through testing centers. Um, so as far as testing goes, maybe maybe it's available. But as far as things that I've seen going on in new york, like they're pausing evictions and you know, there's like programs for small businesses to sign up for if they're, you know, money is low, like I haven't seen anything like that coming up.

And then as far as like grassroots level community, that's not really, that doesn't exist. Like I went to the grocery store yesterday and like this old lady tried to block me from getting, so I seriously, I went to the grocery store just to get regular food items for my Children. I wasn't even going to stock up for the quarantine or anything and I it was like going to the grocery store at the end of the world. Everybody thought it was the end of the world and it was a very bad decision on my part to go to the grocery store. Yeah, no matter what time of day, we're seeing that everywhere and it's like, you know that these nonsense, these essential businesses are going to remain open, right? We're gonna have grocery stores, let them get the time to stock up. Right. Right. Because you are probably just a family of three or four. Why are you trying to feed a family of 50 right now? I will say being a florida, I will say being a Floridian. It's it's nice because we do have the experience with hurricanes and so I think, I think it's a little bit calmer here than in other places, at least in my opinion because we're used to having to stock up except when we're not going to Lowe's and home depot for batteries and for you know, flashlights, we're going to the toilet paper and the weird thing is seeing that the rest of the world is going through it because like we're used to going through it right.

Everyone, everyone in the country knows what it's like to prepare for hurricane season. Yeah, well we're here in California. We've been, we've been experiencing, you know the fires, the power outages and occasionally the earthquake. So we have been mentally prepared but physically like, I don't know why they're reaching for the toilet paper and the bottles of water like and the little money explained the toilet paper to me. I just don't understand it what why the toilet, the toilet paper is because they're, they're possibly and most likely going to put people like chris agenda in quarantine. So if you're in quarantine and you can't go anywhere. Although they did say, I think some places they're gonna let you go to the store for essential items. But if that's not an option, you know, it goes county by county. So the rules can change. They might not let you do that. They're stocking up on toilet paper so that they're not home for three, 2, 14 weeks without toilet paper. That's the real reason you could use everything else for toilet paper. It's not even really that it's more that people are looking for something to control.

Their, their finding anything that they can control and they can control the amount of toilet paper they have. Like, it's a weird comfort. Yeah, you could just go wash your gas in the shower a day. Yeah. It's just, it's amazing what people will reach for when everything else is out of their control. And right now it's toilet paper and bottled waters and eggs and so much like, you know, nobody is going ham on eggs right now, why are the eggs all out? Like who are you, what are you doing? Like the liquid egg whites, y'all gonna eat liquid egg whites and chicken, y'all that chicken's gonna go bad and I gotta get my protein. Okay, well it's funny is before the people that I saw stock up on, these were bodybuilders and powerlifters who cared about their protein and I'm like, oh, look, the whole world is eating as much eggs and chicken breast as you. But they never have in their entire life. Here's my thought with all this and this crisis now, public health crisis could lead to, you know, some kind of change and like how people view health and wellness, maybe they will take it more seriously.

You know, maybe we'll see a rise in, in that, in a trend and being healthy and being well, you know, they all learned how to wash their hands right, running out. Like, how did you not have soap already house soap? Just that you're just now buying soap? I don't understand. I hate, I hate to be the pessimist with it. But I think more than anything, what's going to happen is everybody's going like all the healthy people who think that we're being ridiculous, they're going to be fine and it's gonna be so mild that they're gonna be like, see, I told you it was nothing and I think in hurricane season as well. It doesn't, if it doesn't hit you then the next season people get more lax about preparing And I think it's, I think it's going to be just this backlash effect of people being like, see we told you it wasn't that bad. See you didn't need all this help stuff and you didn't need to do all this and it's just going to continue because people don't want to actually change anything, Washington, have eggs and toilet paper, you guys in the same boat.

Um so my husband is addicted to politics right now. So he was already on top of it like two weeks ago because because when I married him, I didn't have this illness and now that he's seen me just like every year from the flu just being the hospital and not able to do anything, he's like screw this, it's not happening like I'm gonna make sure that you're not allowed to go to the gym. You know this is the first thing I said when I found out was go to the weed store right now in the house here too now and it's so depressing because I'm like We've got like 11 little nugget and I'm like I don't want to use it. I might feed It later. 14 weeks of quarantine that counts as an essential business right now since it is medication for a lot of right yes it is right there remaining open and don't forget to support your local vendors.

But no, we have no toilet paper and even at the natural markets, the whole immune system like shelf is wiped out which what's the point you're supposed to do that beforehand. I don't get it. A friend of mine brought around ginger beer last night. He's like, well at least it's like its helping right? And I was like, I'll take it but okay, well, so what does that look like for all of y'all's medication and just healthcare in general, have your doctors. Like I saw Kris Sanda that you're your own doctor hasn't even responded to your emails about your checkup. I literally just called member services and changed doctors because of everything that's been happening. Um she never, she's been out of the country I guess and didn't want to know. So it's been four weeks, it's been four weeks that she didn't respond to an email or anything. And it was something as simple as, hey, can I get a new inhaler because mine's expired and I've only had to use it once over the last couple of years, but still like now is the time to get a new one and then they screwed up my medications and they're like, well we can't really fix it because we've got other stuff going on.

And so I actually just left the practice and so now it's kind of up in the air. No, that's, I mean that's just, that's a really big thing right now to like whose health are we prioritizing? Well at this point like I called the nurse advice line and I was like well what am I supposed to do? And she's like you technically would be you would go to the er go to the urgent care and talk to them but you can't even do that. So enjoy withdrawals. That's that's Awesome. Well and right now our er s. at 107% filled like they're well and I'm not going to risk that. Like my boyfriend has been so sick from just catching a flu from teaching a kid's class at martial arts and he it created an I. B. S. And diverticulitis flare up and we had to treat it at home thank God I had back stock of antibiotics that I didn't finish taking and I probably should have but you know exactly and we had to treat everything at home because risking going to the er and all of our E.

R. S around here now allowed no visitors so I literally just have to dump him on the er and find out eventually if he's okay like it's just it's not worth it. So even the thought of trying to treat something that normally would be an emergent thing is now I guess I'll stay at home and die, jesus is anyone else experiencing the same thing right now with their healthcare team I'm in the process of trying to get like a refill um on my injections I have them sent to me like once a month four injections. I take a shot once a week. Um Just like in the process of trying to get in touch with my doctor too and it's it's been hard. I don't know, I mean I'm not really expecting like an answer real quick, I'm sure that they're really busy over there. Um You know, I see a psychiatrist too because I deal with anxiety from this and just life in general. Um And I that is the medication that I'm like a little more concerned about because I it like hasn't been working for me through this. Like I've had a couple of panic attacks over the last week and one of them happened at work and like, you know, now it's affecting my work and I can't I can't be, you know, running away in the middle of a shift to like go through up because of fear and worry, you know?

Um I'm not hearing back from her. That was kind of frustrating because I'm like, it's it's in my mind, you know, it's much more anxiety. Yeah. How are you handling having the anxiety? Just kind of I mean it's coming through our phones and everything and it's driving me insane. What are you dealing with it? I've tried to set a boundary with like checking my phone and being on the news and stuff. Um I'm I'm the type of person that really absorbs like energies around me and so like this type of global anxiety and fear is really like just made my mind like a not peaceful place. Um it was just really difficult a couple days to go to because I was getting my period. So it was like that one day that I had got my period um Yeah, it's just like, it was a, it was a bad day um since then it's a lot better. So now I'm just kind of, yeah, I've accepted like what's going on? I'm gonna suck. But at least if everyone cooperates, hopefully I'm hoping that it doesn't last for too long, you know?

Yeah, at this point the attacks myself in the past just two weeks, I've had more than I usually have in a month's time and I definitely just the stress and the triggers of seeing it on social media and it's stressful. It's scary and I think finding the balance two of both checking in with their circles and then telling them, hey, don't send me these articles right now. Hey, don't update me on how many cases there are in my area because I know that they are there. I just don't need that notification every fucking day, finding that balance there. That stress. So I mean, I don't know, maybe I'm weird, I do a lot of mountaineering and backpacking. So it's like I'll be on the mountain and then see clouds like, oh ship, it's, it's done and have to react. So I mean I I reacted like a month ago when they were talking about it from china and not having any flights blocked off. I'm like, oh my God, y'all are gonna bring it here. Like it's just a matter of time and then it got here and I'm like told you, told you really angry, like I'm finding, I have like a hair trigger right now, like on like even like simple things like next door, um, that the app next door, like I have been going off on some neighbors just because they're just being assholes and like not taking it seriously and it's just, it's creative.

It's turned the anxiety into just anger. I think that's, I think that's normal in this situation because we have a chronic illness and that there's so many people who are saying, you know, it's only affecting the elderly and we have nothing to worry about. And then you're sitting there looking like a healthy person is you have invisible chronic illness and it makes you angry. It makes you angry or spreading really bad misinformation because they want attention and that's driving me and like it's driving me up the wall just like so many people are calling themselves and you know, compromise just because they want the attention and that's driving me insane because it's actually making some people who are not normally immuno compromised, really think that they are and really scaring them and that is a horrible thing to do to people and then you had all these people are saying it's a conspiracy. Oh it's not that bad turning it into a racist thing. It's just the flu. It's just the regular flu. Yeah it's just the flu. It's just they just did this right now because of this voting season.

Oh I read one where they said um it's only affecting people with chinese background in their D. N. A. And I was like bro bro bro bro bro. Your vote? No no it's really sad how that misinformation can turn into violence real quick because like UC Berkeley we shut down um the entire campus. All of the classes are remote and our performances which is what I do. It's all canceled through the rest of the season but we have a high asian population on campus and no one has felt safe in the last month. You know I had some students students like crying to us saying I'm getting these nasty looks. People like cover their faces or run away from me because I'm asian no matter what ethnicity I identify with they see me it's just it's ridiculous and it needs to stop and the sad part is it's probably more americans visiting china than it is asians anyway.

Yes it's all traveled like it spreads so freaking quickly. Yeah and you can have you can be spreading it before you even realize that you have it and that's what people aren't really like taking home like oh, I mean if I, if I feel sick, I'll stay home. So it's like, no, like you could be fine and go fucking dig your nose and touch this table, cough over here, sneeze over here with your dirty as germs. Now the whole restaurant has it like it's, it's really that simple and I don't think people realize how simple it is or or their, their taking their precautions. Like I just, a friend of mine just posted that, you know, if you gargle with vinegar, it'll stop the spread of the virus. And I'm like, people are actually doing this and being like, it's fine. I took precautions so I can go out now and I'm like, yeah, doing gloves and taking pictures on their phone. Look at my gloves. Okay. You put the gloves on and touch your nasty as phone to take pictures and you're inside your car. So now you're gonna touch inside your car, open your dirty, ask our door, close your car door, touch your face with your gloves on the fund.

Did you buy the gloves for? It's to the point where I'm just going to go hide in Marcia's closet with her. Hey, is it cold feet? Wide distance still, there's not enough space like six ft. I have masks. So it's okay. I do appreciate though that there has been some public service announcements, you know, from celebrities, from young people and I mean I just saw the US government just issued a statement specifically for younger generations to fucking listen and stay home and it's not that bad. And this is the reason why because you are vectors and you are spreading that even when you don't know it, even when you don't have any side effects, I do appreciate that Beyonce has forget it. That's the only way people will take it here. Fiance gets and then we'll be saved. They'll take it seriously. Like tom Hanks has it, idris alba has it and they're like post videos like yeah, I didn't feel anything.

I got, I got to stay home and people are still out there like, oh la di da, I'm going to the bar ST patty's day. Oh that's not. Oh my God. Yeah. You know what really pisces me off about that is there's a finite number of tests that we have right now and all of these movie stars are getting tested positive. All these celebrities like Utah Jazz is getting tested, but they're not testing people who could possibly have it who are lower income and can't afford to buy their own tests and that's what's causing the spread here. The testing is nearly impossible if you even go to the er and you have a fever like you have to have very, very specific things before they'll test you and it's extremely difficult. I think they're coming out with something I read something about, about them creating a actual, like you said, crescendo something like a drive through testing thing. But as of, as of today, there's still, it's almost, it's nearly impossible to get tested in our county, which is why there's only one. Yeah, it's pretty much across the country that unless you've actually had documented contact with somebody else who has it, positively, they're not going to bother testing you, you're just going to go home and self quarantine.

And that is, they were saying here that they wouldn't test anybody who hasn't been outside the country. It's insane. Like all those people over the life center in Kirkland had no way of getting out of their beds in there, you know, 90 year old state and going to China and coming back. So where did it come from? So, I mean, they're testing is expensive, but think about how much more expensive it's going to be when you have more sick people. Exactly. And the fact that businesses are closing and our economy is just gonna be so screwed dominant defect already stressful to me. I did see that the, the government is finally starting to consider the payment towards people to help really help with the economy. I doubt it's going to happen. I would, I would not. Yeah, I am so pessimistic about it and I hope that like you guys post this and magically it's happened and I look like an asshole, but I really, like, I have absolutely no faith in anybody, like trying to help people out?

Like companies are saying, you know, we're not going to charge any late fees and I was like, but I'm still going to accrue fees, well I can't do anything. So bro like that doesn't really help me at all. And some people are lucky and they, you know, for me, if I don't work, I don't get paid so I'm not, I'm not gonna get paid. Some people are lucky and their places are closing and honoring their wages but that's not, there's no sort of mandate, there's no sort of rule to follow. It's nothing, it's like every man for himself and hope that you're employed by someone that's not an asshole. Well especially in the disabled community, a lot of us are in that gray area where I'm still in the midst of the application for disability, I'm still waiting for approval. So yeah, the back pain will be great. But right now that doesn't help me pay my phone bill or keep the lights on. So and my boyfriend's a personal trainer and martial artist so what he can't go do that so fuck me I guess. Yeah, no, it's, it's really up to the community and those that are like complaining about working from home and not feeling productive and not acknowledging that privilege to still get those paychecks in people who have been living paycheck to paycheck and now like what's next?

What's next for them. So really just spreading that information about still supporting your business is still supporting the people in your community and offering you're freaking help if you have that is Tacoma doing anything since you guys are kind of on a different wavelength community wise. Do you guys have anything happening to help the community? Like evictions still going on or any like loan or assistance or something? I don't know anything regarding like any sort of like rent halt or like mortgage or anything like that. I know a few people like from Verizon and T mobile have gotten their bills paid for him, which is nice. I called Sprint and they told me not enough people have complained so we can't do anything for you. I'm like, all right. Oh well. But I mean, um no, we're just, I have a lot of friends in the bar industry, in the restaurant industry and we're just kind of hanging out and helping each other when we can and I mean that's all we can do really just, it's unfortunate.

But um, yeah, it seems we seem to have it a little bit better community was than, you know, where everybody else is. So it makes me feel a little bit better. Um But you know, they're really good when I lost my job and I had like extensive medical bills. My husband put a go fund me behind my back because he knew I would be, I wouldn't be down with it and everybody donated and we, I was able to, you know, pay my mortgage and everything. So it's, I know for me, I'm trying to pay back by um, friday, I'm going to drop off a bunch of meals to a middle school for kids who rely on them and since they're not in school and their parents, you know, I can't pay for childcare and then they have to miss work because of it. And so it's like closing that um, that gap and with like food security and stuff like that is huge over here. I feel extremely behind already because I just came out like I had the flu and then I actually got the second strand of the flu the next month. So actually I did a podcast two months ago and it was just when I got back from having the flu and I was in the hospital for a week and then literally exactly a month later I got the second string of the flu.

So I was just recovering when all of this, all of the corona talks started coming out. So I'm just catching up and it's kind of like, I'm so terrified that it's gonna happen all over again. That's what I keep telling my doctor is like, dude, I just got over sepsis and an abscess and you want me to hope that I don't catch this virus. Like come on, take a look at my history and look at my luck like around here we're just treating it as I was when versus an if because the community still hasn't done enough and it's just, there's so much unknown that we're just kind of prepared for when instead of if and that really is a scary and shitty place to be. So are you all tell me, are you all preparing yourselves just mentally or are there other things that you're able to do? Like is your medication okay at the moment still waiting on? Really just refills or like what's, what's going on? How are you protecting yourselves? I'm actually really nervous because I've been flaring up for the last month and I started a predniSONE taper that I had to stop.

So I'm on my, my culture culture seen or whatever the hell it's called. It's um it's for they use it for gout but it's used for chefs treatment and it's not working. So I woke up today and I used the bathroom five times within an hour and had a bloody nose and I'm just like, oh my God, not a good time, no. And I was actually supposed to go to the gym today to train somebody and now I just don't want to because I'm just afraid I'm gonna fall apart out there and everybody's gonna look at me, oh my gosh, you have the, you know, coronavirus and I'm like, no, I have other ship going on, just stay in your own right. Like you cough and they're like, oh my God. I went to before, like, we got shut down and everything about, like last week I picked up some food at Wendy's and you know, one of my meds gives me a bloody nose every now and then because it screws with my blood pressure and I'm sitting there in Wendy's just all of a sudden, I was like, oh ship. And I was like, everybody's gonna think I have like Ebola or something or the coronavirus because I'm sitting here coughing and bloody noses happening.

I was like, this is this is ridiculous. Going off of what you both just said. I actually have the fear of not knowing when to take the symptoms seriously. You know, like, just all of our symptoms are so similar to those of the flu or the coronavirus. So like, for example, last night, actually at 4:00 yesterday, I had an episode where I just couldn't breathe. I couldn't breathe. So I had to use my oxygen all night and it actually didn't go away. It felt like I had an elephant just on my chest until probably about two o'clock today. And I was at one point thinking, you know, one of the, one of the first symptoms of this virus is, you know, breath problems and shortness of breath. And I'm like, when do I differentiate? How do I differentiate between my normal symptoms and then this virus, like, I'm terrified that I won't know when to take it seriously. I feel like I feel like we don't know and I feel like that's one of the scariest things is that we can't know and any time that we go to the er were already treated like we're crying wolf anyways.

So it becomes a why even bother going And I think it's a very deadly spiral that we're on. And that's kind of the fear of not having enough tests and not being taken seriously in general with the er, is that we're just going to continue to question ourselves and question our symptoms no matter what it is. Yeah. We need to start figuring out some home remedies and showing those. Honestly. I got tons of WhatsApp threads for that. I liked a lot. Yeah, that's why I went out and made sure and get a couple new humidifiers for the house because it's a dry cough. One of the best things is having a humidifier at home, so might as well make sure all the ones here are clean and ready to go just in case. What about thermometers? Are you all used to checking your temperature here and there? Are you tracking that? I checked my temperature probably every day, to be honest. I do. Um I like the fact I get hot flashes or, or just flushed in my face often, especially if I'm stressed or I'm just having a flare.

So I'm constantly checking my temperature. I don't know. I think one of the most valuable things is to know your baseline because I always run a little bit cold. So knowing knowing that that where you're at, I have friends who run typically hot and I'm like you need to know that and if you don't know that you won't know when you are starting to hit that worry zone. So you already know what you're what your highs and lows are as far as temperature. But even then it's hard to, you know, compared to the symptoms of coronavirus. Is that what you're saying? Yeah, I feel like we're probably more likely to dismiss it as the flu right now and probably think a little optimistically and say, you know it's not the corona so why go to the er when I had the flu just the Two times ago, so two months ago um I only had a fever of 99 but I kept telling them my my temperature is normally 96.8 it's opposite, it's not really low telling them that and they kept dismissing it when I was getting triaged. And sure enough I did end up having the flu and I kept telling them, I'm like I promised you I know it's 99 but I'm telling you that's like 102 for me for me it's the same thing happened when I had sepsis.

They were like, no, your finger is not high enough. I was like bro? It is surprised me bro. Yeah, they were actually ready to um to discharge me. The nerd. The doctor came in and was like, hey we're going to discharge you, we can't really find anything wrong. Yeah, you're throwing up and you look terrible. And I was like, no, something's wrong. And she walked out and literally walked back in and was like, oh, never mind, you have sepsis. That's pretty big. Yeah, I think, and it's not only every website or every if you don't know how to where you should be looking for information because you can go on one website and it says it's an upper respiratory infection, you can go on another website and it's like, oh it's a lower respiratory infection. Got one website, you're not going to have a runny nose. The next website, you will have a runny nose. Like one website, it might take you a couple of days. Next website sudden you have, what are you doing? You're like, what the fuck? According. According to social media, it causes diarrhea and that's why there's no telling paper. Yeah right, what what what what is it?

Nobody knows. I went off on somebody on facebook because she's like, you know, there I have said diarrhea is very rare and she's like, well there have been some people who have been hospitalized because they have diarrhea? And I was like exactly. Some people that's rare. Like, do you not understand the words that are coming out of my mouth. The spread of misinformation just makes healthy people think that they have it and go to the hospital and it gets us dismissed if we actually do have legitimate concerns and that really scares the crap out of me. Whether or not these people need help or don't need help. Like the hospital has so many beds, so many nurses, so many tests, so many pipettes and gloves and face masks. So it's like, not to mention people are stealing those. We, I won't say which hospital, but a friend of mine works at a hospital here and apparently they're at the point where the mass actually got stolen off the truck. And so what they're doing is when people are coming in, they're being asked to take off the mask and they're taking the mask out of the room and spray lifestyle on it and reusing masks, they have no choice.

And I'm like, wow, that's where, that's where, that's where we've gotten because people are stealing supplies from hospitals and now they're having to reuse masks. Local hospital, right? Yeah. It's like black friday shopping, but for masks and the shelves are empty right now. Yeah. Well Marsha didn't your, well, yeah, well didn't your daycare center run out of supplies very quickly. Yeah. So they're running low. And the other thing is that, you know, like businesses, hospitals, clinics, whatever, at least the medical daycare, they have contracts with distributors and they usually have scheduled deliveries. So imagine all of a sudden everybody's like, oh shit, I need like 10 times my order. Like they can't feel that demand. They're not ready for it. And then on top of that, where some of this stuff comes from, it's not coming right now because it's from china. So it's like, oh, well that's great. I mean they're hoping to squeeze by and stay open because there are still kids there and there are still some people that are able to, you know, work and move around and, or they can't actually take care of their kids like that.

You know, they have a night nurse, no day nurse, so they send the kid, so hopefully we'll squeeze by, but if not, they're going to have to close because they're not gonna do that. They're not going to spray Lysol masks, they're not gonna lie salt masks, They don't got it, they're closing. No. And with all these schools closing too. I mean, daycares have started closing weeks ago over here in kelly, but I've even noticed that some of these, these teachers and home school teachers have offered their services to parents. Um, and they've gone to their home to take care of, you know, their kids if they can't work. So just seeing that happen within the community. No pay you, no, no pay required has been being a homeschool parent, I'm on a lot of the threads for that. And in our community, they have actually come together, the homeschool community has come together and said, let's help the local community as far as that goes, that is kind of cool to see. So, your, your schools are closed in Melbourne now. The schools? Yes, Well, we technically we're on spring break and they just extended it.

I know the convenience of that. Huh? You know what? What are you? So not everybody has kids here, but for the people with kids, are your kids freaking out? Are you talking to your kids about it? How does that work out? I personally tell my kids everything. I'm very, very brutally honest with them. So I have told them because they were taking gymnastics and my son takes jujitsu and those are contact sports, you know, mats are the worst place for spreading germs. And so I've, over the past two weeks or so, we've been going to the classes up until this past this last friday and you know, every time we go, I was changing the rules, I was like, okay, we're not leaving until you go wash your hands and you know, we're not even leaving the building, You have to go wash your hands and just taking more precautions and they're asking questions like why, you know, and I'm telling them and being honest with them and telling them, you know, people have died from this and mommy is very sick and can get worse, you know, and we're just trying to be careful and I think they take it to my kids are only six and seven but they think they take it seriously, but at the same time they're kids and they're still crazy already.

So we have a pool so they could just jump in the pool. So I'm very fortunate for that. Just don't share it with other kids that well Christy. You have, you have a daughter that goes to Gymboree. Right. Yeah, she does my daughters to um she, you know, doesn't understand what's going on. But um I have noticed a trend lately in the content that they're putting out. I get youtube notifications now for Children's videos really encouraging like handwashing baby shark. That's really, that's been really popular over the last two years now. They have like a hand, some something regarding hand washing baby shark. Um to like spread the message and teach kids about handwashing and saying, you know, good hygiene. Um she's been washing her hands a little I guess a little more excited about washing her hands more. So that helps. I was just talking about making a unit for talking about germs, you know, because of what's going on.

It's a good opportunity to really sit down with your Children and talk to them about the spread of germs and how it can affect other people even healthy people, you know, or people you wouldn't think are unhealthy right? Right, So it's been yeah it's been a little bit of a learning opportunity for her. Um She doesn't hate washing her hands now and I don't have to fight her now, it's it's um but do you hate this song Baby Shark now? You know it's just I'm over it. Yeah but I have like no reaction anymore, I'm so used to it, but Gymboree is still open, she's still able to go Gymboree today, you know, I don't even know, I'm thinking by now they're closed because they are closing all gyms. I'm so I think they're grouped into that for sure. A little daycare, baby gym. Yeah. Yeah, it's just a school of Germs now. Germs right? Yeah, no she is not handling it very well and I kind of you know it's easy to get really selfish around these times and just not realize how it's affecting the kids but I noticed that she's been just acting out and um she's really quiet, she's usually just like very uppity, very artsy doing her thing and um I can just tell that she's just not feeling it right now, it's making her feel some type of way that she doesn't know how to communicate to me um but luckily I'm noticing it and I'm like right now she's at her grandma's um for about four days and I'm gonna take her out hiking backpacking all that stuff because we have some of the best hiking ever.

So teacher how to build a fire and like, you know, I do wilderness first aid and all that. So a lot of the skills that I think she'll need, you know out there. So can I come too seriously? Come On. I was actually supposed to go down to Joshua tree on the 24th, which so pissed about. But luckily I had $1400 saved up for that trip that I can, it's a cushion. So now I'm realizing, yeah, I'm realizing how Like necessary it is to have savings even if you don't think you can have savings like even $10 a month can go a long way to adult. Yeah. I think, I think I found a quarter on the couch, you know, anytime I see a nickel or dime on the ground, I'm like scared. I don't care who sees that. I'm picking that up. If it's silver, it gets off the ground well and Penny's, we've been throwing away your pennies saying that that was going to, you know, save all those up and turn them in and does everybody rent or own or mortgage situation because I know for me this is like a terrible time financially because I'm two years into a house that is really old and it had a lot more going on than we thought and I just got a new roof, just had to get like my septic tank drain, just a whole bunch of adult bullshit I was not ready for and now it's like oh you might not have good income for like two or three weeks, who knows?

And the people that are helping me with my rent and renting rooms are also not having income, who knows? So I don't know what my mortgage company haven't contacted them to see what they're about but it's definitely not great. Same. I have a mortgage and my husband I feel okay about it because I actually am getting student loans in and my grants because I start spring quarter on the sixth so hopefully that's not mess with it in any way. But he is very he's a southern man and he has a lot of pride. So the fact that he doesn't know how he's going to pay our mortgage, he's losing his mind. Yeah but I I know that since I handle all the bills and stuff that I can talk to them and hopefully they won't be assholes but we can only hope so. I'm not sure yet. Well the city thing right now about the U. S. Is there like alright take out more loans, it'll be zero interest or low interest so that we can be more in debt. That's for small businesses, people having trouble with their mortgage and rent but like how are you actually supporting us?

Whereas what is italy right now right Just they just I think they said mortgages only but they're cutting mortgage payments, I don't know what they're doing exactly about rent for the next few months. Yeah, they forgave him and I'm like wow, Canada is doing something similar with health care and I mean Canada has just always been on top of it um how's it going for your house? Andrea it's good, I'm lucky enough actually with my mom uh financially, I'm not stressed out as much as you guys would be. So I'm lucky on that side of things, but I do work on on social media so that helps, so I don't have to, I don't have to leave my house, I can do everything right here and it's on my own time schedule, so I'm very lucky and fortunate to have that and it's not shutting down with the virus, so I'm very, very lucky Christie I am um my gym's closing tonight and um my other job, I borrowed time at a yacht club, so hospitality, we're definitely done, we're definitely done for a bit.

Um I I don't know, I hate the thought of like being out of work again all of last year was like really hard for me like getting back into the workforce after being like having a baby and being a stay at home mom for two years, so that was hard um and that is what's causing a lot of like my anxieties the work part but um I feel, I don't know, I'm trying to stay positive about it. I know the members at the yacht club are telling us that they're going to take care of us. So I think it might be okay. It was really busy last week we had a good weekend. So as long as it's like two weeks anxiety handle two weeks I can handle but any longer than that, like I'm gonna freak out. Yeah, that's the worst is the uncertainty. Like how long is this gonna last? Some people are talking about august like right, just in time for hurricane season. Like I don't know if they're waiting for the numbers to reflect because people have been staying home. I mean I feel like we're not getting a lot of information. But then again, I was raised on punk rock and I've never trusted the government or anything.

They're always out to screw us no matter what they say. So as far as I know if if if the quarantine or if the incubation period is like two weeks, right. If somebody is getting sick today then we're still screwed for two weeks and if they got someone sick tomorrow it's another two weeks. Like just trying to think of time wise, it's not it's not a happy place right now. I saw one state that's not even affected currently. I can't remember the state of west Virginia might be, it was somewhere in the middle of it might be like Missouri or something. I was looking at it too, it was Like a mandatory quarantine for, I think it was like crazy. That was like 14 weeks or something like that. Is that the same one that you guys saw? West Virginia was the one that hasn't been affected by this or something? Some state on the East Coast have have zero cases so far. If it's West Virginia though, like they do not have great healthcare system in there, so I would not trust zero at all. Yeah, it's tricky the reporting also, so like um florida has a like an interactive map page or whatever and like if you just look at it real quick, it says um let me see if I still have it open, If you look, if you look at it real quick, it says 173 cases.

Cool. Cool. Alright, well I guess that's not that bad. But then you look again it's like wait 195 and it's like, oh they're counting nonresidents separately for some reason. That's nice. Oh well and also how, how Very little testing And then it's like, and then it's like results pending 1000 yeah. And those are just the people who have reported um somebody on Reddit started a website for self reporting symptoms and self reporting if they are even think that they have it. And I was like why haven't we even started like why isn't that being done? Like don't you want to know who thinks that they might have it even if they don't have access to a test and we're just sticking our heads in the sand and I don't know. I feel like they can go both ways though because I can also start a panic. I feel like, oh I'm sneezing or coughing or yeah, I must have it. Yeah, that could go either way. But the people that get turned away like Andrew's mentioning earlier, everyone's doing like the heavy screening and not everybody can just walk up and get a test.

So all those people that are turning away are they, are they recording those people as what? Nothing. I mean a lot of what they're just telling people is if you've recently traveled, you are going to have to self quarantine for 14 days here like that's required. But that's also like what if you get in contact with someone who's recently traveled? Have you thought about that and how often that happens or just us going to the gym or the grocery store. So like are you all trying to avoid, you know, public contact or are you having somebody do that for you as a chronic illness? You know warrior. What are we doing? My friends have been taking this pretty seriously. I have a group of friends who've been taking it other homeschoolers who have been taking it seriously for a couple of weeks and I honestly wasn't and I'm the sickest of everybody. So I was probably the one that should have. But as of yesterday I am self quarantined and I'm going to stay that way for as long as possible. I did my shopping and got everything. And my mom though it is scary since I live with my mom, she works at the hospital, she's a nurse.

So every day she's coming home with everything from the hospital, better strip at the door. I've honestly told her that you gotta, you gotta make an outside shower for her coming into the house because the hose. Yeah. Even even though I've been home for a couple of days, I'm gonna leave again. But like everybody else in my house is still moving around. So like right at the door. I'm telling everybody take everything off. Here's I got um, I used quite a lot because I don't use a Lysol spray your ship, spray your phone, spray your wallet, leave it right there at the door and does not pass the door and you're gonna hand sandy before you even like everybody was coming home and literally every time someone leaves the house and like have a nice day, don't kill me. Hey? Yeah, I'm like driving it in. That was, yeah. No, seriously. I'm serious. The problem too with, you know, the entire university or multiple universities being sent home is all these young people, We are vectors and we're sending it home to our parents and our grandparents who live at home with us.

So please keep your distance even from the people that you live with because you don't know the ship that you're carrying quarantine. My mom to her bedroom, right? Everyone's Byron dorms have to go home or they could stay in dorms unlike so I've heard in stanford MIT or sorry just MIT and Harvard um they were strict as shit and they've locked all their gates and sent everybody home and forced them out within two days. But UC Berkeley's allowed them to stay throughout the semester until they figure out what they're doing or people who do want to leave, they get a prorated refund. Um And then you know food shops like dining halls, they're staying open but closing down the ones that are unnecessary and then pack packing lunches for people that can't leave you know and and delivering it to the dorms. So I'm super thankful that you know UC Berkeley has done that.

But others they've like what about these international students who can't afford a flight? I have no home to go to or they don't want to fly because they can't come back. Well exactly or they can't fly to their country right now because of these travel bans. They're not considering any of that And these are students who are for their first time have left their homes, you know they're 18, 19 years old. They don't know what to do. They're taking the right steps finally, but it's, it's, you know, it's sad because they're not giving them enough resources while they force us to do these things. Exactly. You still have your reaction. You still have to have flexibility though. Like you offer these choices to them and tell them what is safe, closed down. You know, whatever you need to close down, but don't physically force somebody out of their home. That's inhumane Me. I'm in school right now and I actually had a fever of 101 the other day and couldn't go in because I didn't, I was like, oh my God, what do I have? I'm going to die. But a lot of times my, my issues like bring on sporadic fevers.

So luckily that was that. But my instructor gave me a zero. Oh my God, my other group members, son was in the hospital and my other group members, daughter was two and coffee and couldn't go to daycare. And she went on to say how lenient she's been. I'm like, listen lady, this is the time to be fucking lenient. Okay, because it's really just selfish of me to go into class with a fever just to get a great, I'm not going to do that to somebody and I would hope and expect my instructor to understand that. Like without me even saying anything, wow. Yeah, they really shouldn't be making exceptions. They should be creating a blanket statement, you know, for all of their students for everybody because I mean, and we've heard it time and time again, like disabled students, We've been asking for this for a long time. Seriously. A lot of us alright, have needed to telecommute remote what we don't have the technology.

Uh huh. And now that it's happening to the able bodied community, they acted like I was absolutely insane when I asked to take my comps for my PhD program, uh, just completely online. You can take them at home, but you have to physically hand them in. I was like, well, that's stupid. And there's no guarantee I'll be able to physically hand them in given my current body. And they were like, no, you can't, you need to take a sabbatical. And now they're completely online and everything's done fine. And I'm like, bro, come on. Yeah, that's the most irritating part about it is I'm seeing, I can I get back pay for all the years that I was in the hospital with the flu. I mean, it's just what I mean, the fact that you can give that to somebody who's otherwise healthy is just a really big slap in the face to people who really actually need it for the rest of their lives, literally lost my last job because I had to telecommute too often and now they're like, oh, we just hired a guy in Kansas and I'm like, what the hell is going on here?

Yeah, it's ridiculous. I know my husband because I haven't been able to work for years because of my diagnosis and um I'm in school right now to get my exercise physiology degree to help like clinical research and autoimmune and exercise. But because of that, my husband is like the breadwinner and he has all this, just responsibility on his shoulders and now since he usually makes salary, he's not getting it anymore. And he's just like I said, he's absolutely losing his mind and when he freaks out, like I'm usually the one that freaks out, I'm the crazy bitchin the house. So when it like switches and I'm just like, oh my God, you're crazy. Hey, that's why I've been trying to stay clear a lot of social media. I've been off instagram for a couple of days actually and I've been taking a lot of time off instagram since I got the flu the first time. And it's just the only time I've been on there actually is to post some more uplifting kind of funny beams about the virus and you know, I do that to try to lighten the mood a little bit and you know, I still take it seriously, but sometimes you need to, it's just like hurricanes using when all the funny memes go around, you know, it's not intended to to upset anybody, but it's to try to lighten the mood a little bit because all of the serious talk gets very overwhelming and anxiety filled right now.

It's so important right now to protect your energy. Obviously avoiding misinformation by not reading as many articles. But what is, what is everyone else doing? You, you're watching comedy shows on netflix. So you, you know, talking to more of your folks. Um, as often as you can while you're, where you're isolating at home or what are you doing to lifetime movies? I'm all about lifetime trying 24 7. The acting is so bad and it's just, it's still exists. I don't have enough tissues to watch that type of thing right now. I'm just like, honestly though maybe Andrew is probably in the same boat where like business as usual. I'm on the same spot on the couch and I think the same spot that not much has changed. Not much. I'm not going to go out for dinner. That's all That's changed. Absolutely. I've been staying in bed. I mean, but I always stay in bed. I'm used to it.

We gotta, we gotta share some pointers to the rest of the world because this isn't new for a lot of us. It's good. You just stock up on things that you like. You know, I got a nice giant water jug. I don't have to get up. I got my gaming laptop games on it. He TVs right in front of me. Dogs nearby for pets. I'm good for at least six hours. Whatever heating pad for my back. I've trained my Children well over the years of being sick. So they're very, very independent and at this point it's very helpful because you know, when I'm laying in bed, just like, hey, will you, can you give me this, can you turn off the light? Just save a little bit of energy here and there and they find it fun because it's something for them to do. Eventually they're gonna stop doing what I asked. But it is helpful to have that. I know we get to go hiking tomorrow. I'm gonna take my husband to the coast, the olympic coast and we're gonna fish around in the tide pools and get his mind off of this crap. He's a beach boy. So they're closing the beaches as well.

Actually they just are beaches down here are closed. Oh, we're going to the beach right now. Well, I honestly didn't understand. They're all playing in the water. I didn't understand why they were closing the beaches efforts. I understand like Daytona and areas where spring breakers are gonna, my, my little beaches here. I was like, I don't understand. And and I actually asked a group of my friends like why why are they closing it? But it makes sense? You know, it's airborne and and do you have the boardwalk still that you have to, you know, walk on and it makes sense. A friend of mine works at a hotel and she says their phones are blowing up because people are treating it like vacation. So they're asking to bring their kids to the hotel and go on vacation. I'm like Forking kidding me. One of the beaches over here are a national park, the olympic national Park. And um you you have to, you have to travel like three hours to get there and you know, you gotta like walk out three miles, so I'm pretty sure hopefully that those are closed, but you're taking a risk.

But I think I might that's a little different. It's not like a tourism about the boardwalk and yeah, everybody's spaced out should be fine. But down here, the spring breakers, well, Kristi had to hop off so she can tell you from being in Miami because she's in that area. But the spring breakers are down here. Like nothing happened, pool parties and everything, like nothing happened. God, no wonder it's freaking just like spreading like, yeah, people just are not freaking getting it, they're not getting it well and they're they're not gonna get sick anyway. So why bother? Well, that's the thing. Everybody thinks they're immune to everything. Everybody thinks they're immune to everything until they have it period. That's just nature, that's human nature. It's always gonna be that way. You're not gonna understand someone with a chronic illness until you have a chronic illness. And the problem is most of them won't get it and most of them won't ever have a chronic illness, so they're going to continue being an asshole. Yeah, it's their sister or their grandma or their dad, that's like, yo I don't feel great, and they're gonna be like, oh sh it's okay, man, asshole.

I've been telling you that your whole life, yeah. Or what they're saying is I just want to get in and get it over with. But it's like, What about everybody else that you're spreading it to, like, once one person infected another 10, 20 people are to stay your home. Do they know why? Because I've been really like, so I have been treated like the flu, I know shame on me because every year I get the flu and every year I'm hospitalized. So I'm kind of, I'm like, all right, bring it whatever. But then I hear that sometimes you can't tell if you have it and then I'm like, oh ship I could be standing or squatting next to somebody and in the rack right next to me, they could have it, but not, I won't know about it and then now, boom, I have it and I'm done for like a year. So, that's what encouraged me to stay away from everybody because I know I won't spread it to anybody because I'll be too busy dying on the couch if I get it. But I don't wanna, I don't wanna feel like dying anymore. I'm Over it. Really? Even so even so they said it takes what 14 days? It could be in your body before you even have symptoms.

So that's all that's two weeks that you can not have symptoms and then get a ton of people infected and not. And even if the average is three days or four days, there's still a window, there's definitely a window where people don't know they happen and they're just living their merry life. Like nothing's up. Like do you all get the same thing where, because I'm not sure what everybody's the situation is but you know when you're about to be sick and there's about two weeks where you're just sleeping and you're like something's going on and then it's coming. Yeah I get it. I get the nerve pain like right under my ear and then like a jaw pain. Like that's what I know it's coming. My first sign of fatigue always. I have to take all the time. But it's like an excessive fatigue. Yeah. I gotta sleep 20 hours. And even when I do sleep 20 hours I'm still tired when I and I must muscle cramps get worse. Like the electrolytes get just thrown off and you can't get hydrated enough, you can't get enough salt and yeah and then you're like oh shit something's on the on the horizon.

But I want to take some time to to um give give the rest of the community some P. Ece. Is anybody that might be listening out there. What kind of what kind of advice are you giving them during this pandemic what or those who you know don't have chronic illnesses like myself. What kind of advice can you give them to stay the home? I think one of the best advice that I've done lately is so when I was healthier I was a statistician and so I've taken a lot of time to kind of take the power back right now and really started disseminating the statistics and helping with the statistics and making my own graphs to just kind of now I'm informed and now I know the actual information I'm taking the power back of the scary stuff that's been going around and the misinformation and I'm doing what I can to make sure that nobody else gets inundated with all of this stuff and trying to do what I can to be in control of what I read and in control of what others get from me and just trying to regain some power with this as opposed to just feeling out of control.

Because I think that's the biggest thing is the fear with this and the the unknowing and feeling like you have no control and I think it's important right now to just reclaim your power even if it's something as simple as well. At least I have power over what I eat or at least I have power over where I go. Just find something where you can have some power in this and have some stability and just reclaim it and it'll help it'll help ease some of the anxiety and it will help just you feel better about the unfortunate lack of power we have right now. I think, I think it's hard to give advice because you don't know, you know, to healthy people, you don't know if they're taking it seriously or if they're not taking it seriously. So, you know, you want to give advice to people who are taking it seriously, who are gonna take your advice, but then the ones that aren't taking it seriously, you know, that's a little bit trickier to try to advise them because you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make a drink and, you know, when a healthy person is gonna is gonna take their health for granted, you know, unfortunately, and so it's hard, it's hard but take my advice for, for people with chronic illnesses that are listening, you know, to this would just be to do the best you can for yourself right now, you need to focus on yourself and your family, your immediate family and, you know, if you can block out the rest of the noise, if you can focus on yourself and you stay inside and you don't go anywhere, then you don't have to worry about other people social distancing if you're not going anywhere, you know, so you you force yourself to quarantine if you're if you're someone who's worried about catching it and someone who's worried about the effect is going to have.

If you do catch it then you have to unfortunately stand up for yourself and say I've got to stay home. I don't doesn't matter if the government is telling me not to or to I have to do what's right for me? Ashley. What's up are you spacing out? I just got an email about how? Never mind. Sorry. Well sorry go ahead. Any advice before we end the episode? Um Either for healthy or for chronic illness and home. Just do it takes some time, read some books, do some budgeting, make sure that you have savings for the next time this happens because this isn't the only time it's going to happen. So use this as a learning opportunity to take care of what you need to so that you're prepared for the next time this happens regardless flu H. one n. One whenever the hell might come back you know it's always going to be something and everybody always needs to have a plan you know so that's all I got. Stay in your lane. Save your damn money. Stay home, smoke weed.

We're sorry eat it. Yeah whatever. Um I mean yeah stay the funk home. That's a big one to wash your hands. Stop being nasty and honestly like after this is gone. I really hope that people still get like I hope the habit sticks that they still wash their hands and stop being so damn nasty. We can hope that I can hope I can hope that the habit sticks. I really do because I'm I'm over it. People out here are really really dirty and crusty and flu season always hits and it's terrible. So everybody that's now all of a sudden concerned like I've been scared all flu season, you know. Yeah, that's a good point. Yeah. I mean in christendom to she brought up a good point to in knowing what your bass lines and boundaries are, especially with somebody with a chronic illness. All of these symptoms are going around or you know, infographics of symptoms of what to look out for. But as long as you know what your baseline is educating people like your physicians.

That's crazy to me. But the fact that you have to do it but me is someone without a chronic illness um and someone who's who has to go to the grocery store here and there where there where I'm you know, exposing myself to the public or the public, exposing themselves to me. I am careful with all sanitary, you know, all sanitation, making sure not to touch all of the apples. Just the ones that I'm gonna fucking by not, you know, not putting my hands on everything and then swiping after myself. Like bring your own wipes, bring your own sanitizer and wipe after your your carts because you don't know how often the grocery stores um are doing that for us. It was not a hoarder of any means, like a lot of people, you know, hoard groceries and stuff like that, but I do have a stockpile of hand sanitizer and so it's coming in handy more than usual right now. Well and it is really shitty right now that vendors are raising their prices to $75 per bottle, you know?

So if if you're, if you've got a stockpile and you $70 a share the share the wealth. Alright guys, thanks for coming on. We will, we will re adjourn this panel in the future. Again, as you are now, you're not a guest, you're you're a friend of the podcast, you're welcome anytime as a panel or on your own and uh check the show notes for everybody's handles. Um and uh thanks for coming disabled girls out. Please. Thanks for listening to disabled girls who left. We appreciate all of your support and everyone who's taken the time to show us some love. Don't forget to subscribe rate already, review of our channel. We're on Apple podcasts, Spotify player, FM, google podcasts and more. You can also find us on instagram at disabled girls who left