The long of it, or how I’m doing
I’ve had a little breathing problem since the car crash of May ‘18, some scarification of the lungs, but I could power through.
This past Summer we discovered that I had a hypersensitivity to disinfectant fumes, because the staff was cleaning visitor tabs with lysol spray in the call center, but we added some fans, and moved them to the far side of the call center and it was fine.
In October we moved the call center into a much smaller room without very good air circulation (just an outtake vent behind the door. Part of the call center that wasn’t used for phones was used for storage, including hand sanitizer.
In December Engineering turned on the heater for the museum, and the outtake vent started spewing dry air into the cc. At this point I started to have more difficulty breathing when moving around.
As January starts this has worsened some and I begin to look for patterns. It’s worse at work, virtually non-existent on my days off. I also start looking for new apartments, as I know my current landlady will want to start remodeling in the Spring.
February comes and I waste a couple weekends completely attempting to make my own shirts and pants, as our dept. is changing dress code, and Big & Tall stores no longer carry Big and Tall clothes. I could also use new shoes, but the nearest place that carries my size is in Austin.
Lack of progress on that front, combined with lack of progress apt hunting, and the increasing amount of time I’m short of breath leave me in a sorry state physically, and I begin to notice that my legs are swelling. At the end of Feb. I’ve looked at the options and the one that fits my symptoms is fluid retention. Thankfully the main treatment for that is drink more water, so I add it to my shopping list for Friday.
Also I get notification from Landlady that, yes indeed, it’s new apt time, and they need me out by the end of May, 90 day notice, should be doable right?
That Thursday, while at work we get an email that the water is down in the building. Bringing up news reports, it seems the water is down throughout half of Houston. So while I’m at work, people go out and buy up all the water at grocery stores.
There’s a boil water notice until Saturday late afternoon, So I content myself with looking at apt listings, doing some light cleaning to make packing easier, and then start a little packing. But then I run into the Fluid retention, and activity becomes very difficult. The next week passes, I can see my symptoms getting worse, but water still hasn’t made it back on the shelves even that Friday. I redouble my apt seeking, hoping against hope to have a place by this weekend, so that at least one thing is accomplished.
Then, well this past week happened. A series of unfortunate events and badly timed announcements, and on Thursday again I can only watch as the hordes rush forth and buy up all the foodstuffs.
This Friday would have been my usual “Buy for a few weeks” day, which still isn’t much, like $40 instead of $20. I’m exhausted and inflexible, so Friday morning I go to grocery delivery site, and find their earliest time available for delivery is Sunday Afternoon. I need water now though, it’s literally the only thing that will help cure me. So I find a place nearby that has some, and slide on some sandals and blob out the door.
The first thing I notice is that Downtown Houston is PACKED with people, which concerns me. I get to the store and they’ve shut down half their parking to get their facade powerwashed, so I head to their underground parking, which appears full at first. Mainly it appears full because a slew of drivers have parked in two spots. I find one little spot, and struggle to get out without dinging the car that is definitely also in my sport. My goal, get a cart, get water, get anything that’s on my list that they have in stock, and get out. The elevator opens into bedlam.
I took 20 minutes to get a cart, I grabbed two packages of water, and then kept being redirected away from where I was headed by more aggressive shoppers. After an additional 20 minutes I’ve added some Gatorade for electrolytes, some poptarts for breakfast, and a box of wheat thins for snacking. by this point I’m wheezing, and this little old lady points me out and starts yelling that I’ve got the coronavirus. She starts trying to find a manager to kick me out of the store so I move over to the cashiers. I injure myself getting back into the car, manage to stumble into the house and basically collapse, pulling out a water to start drinking.
Realizing that I’m still missing a lot of the elements of food, I go back to grocery delivery, Their first delivery time is now Monday afternoon, and start to place my order. I hit a glitch that won’t let me add anything else to the order, but proceed with that, because I can go to a different service to get the rest, which I do, their delivery time is an hour before on Monday, so Monday is just Grocery day.
Friday night I don’t realize that my bed has slipped out of position to a way that I can’t find a position that isn’t bearing down on my hip nerves, So Saturday is very slow with huge bulging thighs, basically blocking each others movement.
Sunday morning I’ve corrected the bed, and the water has started doing it’s thing, but it’s caused two unforseen issues. Issue 1. Thigh Weeping. and issue 2, is best left unsaid.
Monday, finally my food is arriving, then just after the “Edit this order” option expires I get a message that the first carrier has swapped out some things, and that every source of protein except for eggs is out of stock. Also swapping the Butter for Cooking spray, which is useful I guess? The second delivery does the exact same thing, except they at least offer to remove the substitiutions.
So I’ve ended up with Grapes, Two sets of Hot Dog Buns (no Hot Dogs) Some more Gatorade, Eggs, cooking spray, milk, and 9 cans of tomato sauce (pasta was out of stock)
Fun
