Coronavirus. Your thoughts? [Serious and Non-Serious]

@lewd_araragi it's ok, thank you. We were living far apart for a long time and didn't really stay in touch. Was still a shock ofc but not the same as when you lose someone really close.

So I will go ahead and talk about this. I got COVID on the trip to Boston. Pretty sure it's Omicron and I'm thankful because the OG strain and Delta worried me. Omicron seems to be more like a headcold and doesn't tend to travel down into the lungs like the other strains. Having said that, I think that we completely over-reacted to Corona but at the same time, I felt at least 50% of the population (and I'm being very, severely generous there), can't follow simple instructions, aren't very well informed, don't know how to wash their hands, aren't mindful of things in general, so I think some initial precautions were reasonable, but the length of time we endured was not. I did all the things.. we wore masks in crowded spaces, used hand sanitizer, and I wash my hands more than anyone else I know, more so because of a texture thing than being a germaphobe. ...I digress. Hindsight being 20/20 and all that. I have had a pretty clear understanding for a while now that it's not "if" you get COVID, but "when". Now that I have it, I'm willing to output my fears. https://i.ani.me/0338/5316/screenshot_20220912-185321-651_2.png Part of my fears are legitimate and my others are not and I was plagued by what-ifs. I had childhood asthma. We found this out when I was 9 years old, a cousin of mine being an idiot delinquent decided he was going to "air burn" me by shooting me point-blank with what was supposed to be an empty pellet gun. BB and pellet guns both sometimes get things lodged in them. Of all the children involved that day, no one thought to ask WHY the pellet gun was empty... did it not work anymore? Do you suppose why? Well it turns out there was a pellet lodged inside of it. Airgun manufacturers advise to pump 1-10 times for use - going over this amount could damage the gun, the seals, valves, etc. In order to airburn me he pumped it up over 70 times. This action dislodged the pellet and sent it straight into me. I immediately grabbed my stomach and started screaming and crying and it wasn't until they saw blood that anyone else started freaking out. My cousin was pretty much a little bastard that had done unsavory things like that before and he was in trouble often, so this was just another day of bullshit with this kid. My parents were at work, we were on Spring break from school and the only people who could watch us was my elderly great grandmother who couldn't control my cousin. My grandmother was called before my mother because my great-grandmother, brothers, cousins, all people present knew that day, my mom was going to raise hell. My grandmother thankfully called my mother as soon as she saw I was bleeding. My parents both rushed to get home because they had to take me to the ER. After Xrays, they saw how much damage the pellet actually did. They weren't sure it was a pellet to begin with and surmised it could have been a piece of hardened dirt that was expelled, buying into the whole "the pellet gun was empty" thing. Something went through my intenstines several times and I was bleeding internally, that much they could see. I had to have surgery so they could go in and make repairations. Then, I was also a 3rd or 4th of the size I would grow into. Any scars I received were much smaller and have grown with my body. During the surgery, I had an asthma attack disguised as respiratory arrest. It just put me one step closer to death's door. My siblings were examined afterward to see if either of them had asthma as well because I was then put on daily medication for it. One of my brothers was diagnosed along with me. https://i.ani.me/0338/5316/screenshot_20220912-185321-651_2.png My second fear stems from when my grandmother passed away. I was very close to my grandmother, she was the person I loved most in this world. She was the one person in the world who seemed to love me unconditionally. She was the closest thing I knew to a living saint. She didn't just take care of me, my siblings, cousins, etc. She took care of everyone in the community and people who were not even related to her called her "Granny Ruth". 11 years ago she underwent heart surgery. She had had heart surgery before, she had a pace maker and her cardiologist was concerned with some test results that had came back, thought some things needed some adjusting. Post surgery, for some reason she didn't bounce back. She was in a long term care facility for weeks, but she lost so much working capacity from her lungs and the hospital could never tell us if the cause was from the condition or caused by the surgery, although, her lungs seemed to be working fine until she had the surgery. I had gone to visit her in the hospital, but couldn't make it as often as I wanted. I didn't have the money to keep going, or the time to take off work.... lesson learned. The family members who were able to be there, didn't really keep the rest of the family in the loop with what was actually going on, how bad it was. I don't know if it was because they didn't want the grandkids to worry or if they were just being thoughtless. Both can be true. One day after work, I was pretty tired. Sometimes towards the end of the week on Thursdays or Fridays I like to have naps just to catch up and get refreshed so I can actually enjoy my weekend time off. I recall the dream I had, I was in my grandmother's home and I was running around searching for her. When I was a wee child, 3-5, I did have rhotacism, the speech impediment where R sounds come out as W sounds. So instead of calling her "Granny Ruth" I distinctly recally it being "Gwannywoof". My dream devolved from me running around looking for her to me struggling to breath, gasping as I called out to her. This was one of the only times I have actually shot up from a dead sleep. I just knew something was wrong so I called. Things weren't looking well at all. My grandmother had been on a ventilator for a while but she was in and out of consciousness. I decided to plan a trip to go see her. I talked to my boss, told her I was taking off, why. Once I got into town I checked in with my friend I was going to stay with. Visiting hours were over so I went the next day. By that time they classified her as being in a coma. My dream is kind of a reasonable one to have. I can logic it out with the happenings for it to make sense, but the fact that I was the one struggling to breathe is what got me. I know that's what my grandmother's problem was, that was the reason why she was dying. But I also had a very strong bond and connection with my grandmother. I held her hand that day for hours wishing that some how, some way, if it was her reaching out to me via my dreams that I could some how reach her to tell her how much I loved her before she passed. https://i.ani.me/0338/5316/screenshot_20220912-185321-651_2.png I already have clostrophobia. I can't watch videos of cave diving or spelunking. The scene where the girl gets stuck in the Decent made me break out in a cold sweat just watching it. I have been suffocated before. My brothers always thought dogpiling on me and then putting a pillow over my face was great fun when we were kids. Well it gave me PTSD. lol Yes. I'm laughing about it now because of what dumb bastards we all were as kids. Thankfully, at least I hope, we learned from that and will teach our children better should we have them. Breathing. Always comes back to breathing. I'm not necessarily scared of drowning, but loss of oxygen, being smothered, being buried alive, locked in a small space, being around too many people and it's not out doors. So... my fears regarding COVID were very deep seated in all these things from past events, from Death strolling by ever so closely. Again. This strain is no where near as bad as the first 2, so for that at least I am grateful. I have had flus worse than this.

... I just thought of something else. My grandmother, how saintly she was, I found out a lot of things about my grandmother at her wake. For the short time I knew her in life, there were so many things about her I didn't know. One of those things is that she didn't like cats. I was confused by that sentiment because part of my childhood was living with my grandmother. We always had cats. I knew she didn't like when I brought them indoors because of the possibility of fleas and what not, we never had indoor cats at her house, but we had cats. Turns out, the reason why she kept them was because of me.

@verucassault You should publish those posts as a novel because what I finished reading was an epic odyssey. https://i.ani.me/0338/5316/screenshot_20220912-185321-651_2.png You're childhood was painful to say the least. A ruptured intestine from a point blank bb gun had to feel like a flaming arrow. Did your jackass cousin ever make it up to you? I assume no. I sincerely hope that your health doesn't take a turn for the worse in your old age. And if it does that cousin can pay for the medical costs as repentance! https://i.ani.me/0338/5316/screenshot_20220912-185321-651_2.png Thanks for the backstory as I enjoy learning more about people's lives as a form of context for perspective.

@gabriel_true I can't remember him apologizing. He was crying that day too but it was because he knew he messed up and knew he was in trouble. He was like 5 years older than me or so, 14 year old picking on a 9 year old. Cool story. I recall 2 officials visiting me in the hospital after my surgery and they were getting a report of the incident. I don't know if they were looking to press charges, send him to juvi or what but nothing came of it. I think they strongly counseled the family afterward and he stayed out of trouble for just a year or two. Then fell back into his bastardly ways.

I still haven't gotten covid even after cuddling Veru on day 0. What if I'm the only person in the world who has a complete natural immunity to covid? Like, that's my super power, and my blood is the only complete cure for covid. Everyone on MO, feel free to call me by my new title, Super Covid Immune Man, if you so feel like it. I do very much enjoy my ego vigorously stroked.