It stupefies me that people are taking some of the risks that they are, or have been, during this pandemic. Even though my lung doctor pulled me off of prednisone (unless I really, really need it) in the event that I am exposed to someone who has COVID-19 and come down with it myself, I know that I am high-risk, being someone that… does not have mild asthma. I have not left the house unless I have had to leave the house, and when I have left the house, I have worn a face mask, frequently washed my hands, maintained the proper distance from people who are not part of my household unless they have been my doctors needing to check me, and used hand sanitizer. But to hear stories of people practically blowing this pandemic off, casually socializing with each other, acting like we aren’t even in the midst of a pandemic blows my mind.

And in case I actually need to confirm this, my pulmonologist actually had to make the decision to pull me off of prednisone unless I really, really need it because of the pandemic. If I am actually exposed to COVID-19 while on it, or having just recently come off of it, my immune system is going to be weakened, and that means that I am going to have a much more difficult time fighting it off… and if I actually come down with it, we do not need that. So we need to try to deal with my asthma in other ways, as I’ve mentioned in previous posts in here. And I can completely see why that decision has been made, given that people who are completely healthy prior to infection have actually died from this or have had a profoundly difficult time fighting it off. People who have been healthier than me prior to onset of infection have had their lungs (and bodies) absolutely ravaged by it. So yeah, I can see why this decision was made from me. It still does suck that one of the medications in my toolbox had to be removed like that, though. But… I can see why it was.

It’s getting harder to remember the way things were before this, when they were nearly all laissez-faire.

When I could just casually take Bub on Pokemon Go walks to the nearby cemetery, which is amusingly not only a PokeStop but also a Gym, sit in the gazebo in the middle of it for several minutes, take the Gym on behalf of Team Mystic if it didn’t already belong to us, get several spins off of it, enough to fill our inventory, make sure I’d caught my breath, then walk back home. Or, if I was really feeling up to exhausting the hell out of myself (pun definitely intended now), walk past our road to the funeral home on the other side, which is a Pokemon Gym, take that on behalf of Team Mystic if it didn’t already belong to us, then walk home. Bub was always up for the walks, and since he doesn’t have asthma and is in good health, never got tired from them — he maintained excitement the whole way through because we were catching Pokemon and taking (or helping secure) Gyms in the name of Team Mystic. Me, on the other hand? My inhaler was my best friend…

Funny to think that now I miss completely exhausting myself in the name of making my child happy, but hey.