I watched a video the other day,
taken shortly before everything changed, when none of us had any idea what was
to come. This pandemic has been a wake-up call for us all, perhaps more for
some than others. In our current state of emergency, I am astounded by all the zealotry
surrounding the issues, on both sides. Everybody has an opinion about how to
proceed, but I take my cues from health care experts. Hunters Bay Radio
volunteer Chris Occhiuzzi wrote an interesting article the other day, trying to
put this pandemic into perspective. In it, he suggested that the zealots, on both
sides, should tone down the rhetoric. I agree. For my part, I’m trying to
follow common sense directives in order to protect myself and to keep the virus
from spreading to the weakest and most vulnerable in our population.
My wife Shauna reposted an article
the other day on Facebook about the nature of viruses, and the gist of the
article is that, 6 months later, we still don’t know all that much about COVID-19.
The article is worth reading. You can take from it what you will. If what you
conclude is that “Science doesn’t know” well, time will tell who has made the
right decisions. I’m just as concerned and skeptical as the rest of you. What
concerns me are the potential long-term effects of this virus. I do know something
about chronic illness, as I am a caregiver myself, and I’d like to comment about
that role.
Illness is, by its very nature,
isolating and discouraging. Anyone who is living with it will likely agree.
Shauna suffers from a chronic pain condition. In her twenties, she almost died
after being hospitalized for two months due to a severe case of food poisoning.
She had contracted Campylobacter poisoning after eating bad chicken from a fast-food
restaurant chain. That dangerous bacteria, together with the powerful
antibiotics needed to kill it, virtually ripped apart her digestive tract. As a
result, she now has Crohn’s Disease and a myriad of related complications. I
suspect that it is her compromised gut that has led to so many of her other immunity
problems over the years. Regardless of
the cause, she has been very sick for a long time. In the early days of our
marriage, we were more active, but we were often forced last minute to cancel
our plans, for travel and social engagements. Friends and family were often disappointed
with us because we were always late or unreliable. To our frustration, many of
her symptoms were unable to be successfully treated by doctors. The immune
system is probably the least understood function of the human body. I’ve read 5
or 6 books on the subject, and I am even more confused now than before reading them. To those who have told us that “it’s
all in your head – there’s nothing really wrong with Shauna”, I say walk a mile
in our shoes and then offer your opinions. Ultimately, our decision to leave
downtown Toronto, move up north, and to
build our primary residence on the site of the Taylor summer cottage was based
on the need to live in a cleaner, quieter environment. We have attempted to move
away from the judgment, and the obligations we could not fulfill. Everyone has
an opinion about what makes us sick and what cures us. Believe me, one becomes
a little less all-knowing and judgmental when chronic illness invades your life
or that of someone you love.
This novel coronavirus is still relatively
new, with increasingly complicated side effects, for example the long-haul
syndrome. When venerated medical professionals are imploring us to be vigilant,
I am inclined to believe them. That is my choice. To complicate matters
further, a few years ago, Shauna was rushed to Toronto and hospitalized again
after suffering a severe neurological attack, and was ultimately treated with
steroids for a year. As a result of the two major attacks to her health, my
wife is immunocompromised, and I live in constant fear of bringing a potentially
deadly virus into our home. We have lived with chronic illness for the past 28
years. It has changed the life of the person I love the most, and it has
changed our life a couple. Some of our contemporaries have begun to contend
with serious illness in their own lives. As their social lives suffer, they are
beginning to relate to what we have already been through and better understand what
isolation feels like. Unless you’ve experienced chronic illness firsthand you
might not understand the pain you could cause yourself or spread to someone
else. May you never learn. I suggest you consider the possibility that
ignorance is not bliss. Believe me, you want to avoid chronic illness at all
costs. It is at times baffling to me that the generation before mine, often referred
to as the “Greatest Generation”, made huge sacrifices 6 year during r world war, and yet in a period
of only 6 months, many people these days cannot agree to make some fairly basic
sacrifices in order to fight a common and deadly enemy. It seems like common
sense to me. Choose to practice physical distancing, wash your hands on a
regular basis, avoid large gatherings, and wear a mask when in public. Then again,
these days, common sense seems to be on injured reserve. It is no wonder that
those elders that are still with us are concerned and afraid.
- Written by Jamie Oppenheimer ©2020 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
