Week 21 - Cautious Quarintine

Week 21 - Post Lemtrada

March 15, 2020

I don't even know where to start this week.  Things are a bit surreal these days.  It really feels like we are in a movie.  We've got two extremes going on: empty store shelves and packed bars and beaches.  Hopefully, we will settle down somewhere in the middle.  I mean even in Italy, grocery stores are still open.  It's not really necessary to buy a year's worth of toilet paper.  We don't have any government mandated shut downs yet except for events over 250 people but restaurants have already started proactively going to carry-out/delivery only.

I am trying to keep myself somewhere in the middle.  Like I mentioned on my last post, the CDC said to start getting prepared and buy a few extra groceries each time you shopped so I did.  We have enough groceries and toilet paper to get us through at least 3 weeks, maybe a month if everything had to completely shut down.  The only thing we got at the last minute was some cold medicine and a thermometer because ours was giving me an error half the time.  I guess everyone in the City was afraid theirs would die because we had a hard time finding one.  I was going to setup a curbside grocery pickup for tomorrow.  I did that during the late fall/early winter to lessen my germ exposure while my immune system was really low.  All of the days and times were full for the next two weeks!😮  The only date that had times available was the 30th and I assume that was because they just opened that date up.  Same thing for delivery.  People are losing their minds so I really shouldn't be surprised but I was.

This last week I had felt a little warm a couple times.  Each time I checked my temperature, it was a degree higher than my normal but not at fever level.  I haven't had a cough; I am having more drainage but Oak pollen has been really high the last two weeks.  Everyone in the house has had mild allergy symptoms and we are all on high alert because of me.  No one has had a fever. 🙏

This week I had an appointment with my functional medicine doctor.  We ended up doing a telemedicine appointment.  I know that their office is low risk because they don't see sick patients but with how few tests are/were being done and without knowing for sure if you can be asymptomatic but still contagious (new studies are indicating that you can be), I decided to be on the safe side.  I didn't really learn too much new because it was mostly about how I was feeling and making some adjustments.  I didn't have any new labs to review.  I did send her my latest monthly Lemtrada lab work but that was all normal-ish.  Since my energy is inching up and we seem to moving in the right direction, I am mostly keeping things the same.  I am going to continue to increase my exercise routine and adding more fruit and vegetables into my diet.  She also suggested adding another Vitamin C in and some Licorice Root for energy and immune system support.  I had some Licorice Root (liquid) already.  I was taking it for a little while last year for energy.

This week I need to get my monthly blood work done.  The Quest I go to is inside a grocery store.  Which is convenient for killing two birds with one stone but not for when you are trying to avoid people.  I have a mask that I bought last spring for pollen and is actually a N95 mask which I didn't know what that meant until this pandemic.  I am just going to wear it.  It'll protect me a little.  I did ask my neurologists' office if they were recommending anything additional for patients in my position and they said to avoid crowds and travel which was slightly before they were recommending that for everyone.  I asked them again today wondering if anything had changed but they are still recommending the same.  I wanted to make sure they weren't recommending home blood draws.

As far as my MS symptoms go, my fingertip numbness is feeling a little stronger again and my leg spasticity/shakiness in the morning is a little more frequent.  Both seemed like they were getting better last week.  I think it's probably the stress of not knowing and the possibility of danger. Added into that is we have been doing social distancing between me and the rest of my family since my husband got back into town; 5 days so far.  Plus my kids were in school until Thursday and my daughter had to work Sunday.  They say 14 days.  It's tough not even being able to hug your family. 😔 I guess we will see how strict we want to be for how long.  The kids have spring break this coming week and we will see if that is extended.  The way things are going, most likely. 

A historian recommended that we should all be keeping a journal right now since this a historical event (at least I hope it's just historical); seems like a good idea.  Everyone is experiencing it in different ways.  Plus it gives everyone one other thing to do, write!

Stay safe everyone! 🤗