Yesterday evening I started a seven day isolation. I have had contact with a possible instance of coronavirus seven days ago, no definites but due to the fact I work with high risk people there’s not much room for maybes.
I don’t have any symptoms but of course that’s what the seven days are all about – to see if I start showing symptoms.
I’m not feeling particularly stressed about this, obviously I’m concerned about the virus in the wider sense and very aware that I specifically may have a problem. But I don’t understand quite the panicked sense of being locked in that many people seem to have – we’re what? A week into this properly? A month into certain people needing to isolate due to being at risk.
I can’t go out until next Tuesday. This doesn’t worry me too much. Now don’t get me wrong, I suspect that if it does end up being a long time my perspective will change – but I have enough food, I have the ability to do laundry etc. I have any amount of things around the house that need doing. And I’m working at a distance for a surprising number of the tasks that I do at work. I don’t get this stir-crazy amongst adults without children. (I totally get it amongst children and parents needing to deal with children).
Is this because I frequently have long periods at home? Has the chronic fatigue gotten me used to this sort of thing? Or am I just chronically under-reacting because of the Depression and this will hit me later? (I mean ideally seven days later when I can go out again…)
I also timed this pretty well as I got the news that I needed to start the isolation after I’d done some shopping, got some prescriptions in and most importantly, grabbed chocolate. It’s only a week, it’s not like I’m going to develop an urgent need for anything within a week. I desperately want chocolate cake so I’m probably going to melt some of the chocolate that I bought and make some on Saturday.