For those not familiar with my blog, I have 4 sons, ranging from the age of 21 through to 33 years of age and they have often been the subject of my blog. The eldest 2 are married to the most perfect wives. I have loved them like the daughters I never had and more. I just hope my 2 youngest sons can do them justice going forwards and find wives equally amazing.
The last 2 years have been very trying to everyone. Covid has been enough of a challenge and we now find ourselves not only trying to survive in this crazy world that is slowy coming out of the Covid madness, but also trying to save friendships, relationships and our own jobs going forward.
My youngest son recently left home. He decided he wanted to spread his wings in a whole new country and got on a plane to the UK 2 weeks ago and decided he wanted to explore job opportunities in London itself.
I was so emotional the last few weeks before he left. It hits you hard when your youngest decides to finally leave home and not only that, decides he wants to go to a whole new country.
We encouraged him as South Africa has very little to offer him. It has been a struggling country for many years now and frought with fraud and corruption at every level of Government and Business. His prospects here in South Africa are virtually none.
My partner called on some good friends of ours and asked for assistance with a bed to sleep in for a week or 2 for him in London. They kindly obliged and I am EXREMELY thankful to them. I cannot express my gratitude enough as without them I would have gone through hell not knowing if my son was safe or not.
So 2 weeks on and he has found himself a fantastic job in London and a place to stay with a few lads his age. He is super excited about starting his life in the UK.
It was his first day at work today. I have been counting the seconds till I can talk to him later to find out how it all went.
Very thankful to all those who have made this possible and I am so grateful he has managed to land on his feet there and I wish him the best life can offer in his new venture.
I have wanted to write this post for a few months now but as I know it is such a controversial topic, it has been hard to put pen to paper without speaking with some actual experience.
So here I am, 3 weeks after having tested positive for Covid-19 and this is my personal experience.
Firstly the reason I went to be tested was that I was supposed to go to a Christmas Eve Dinner with some close friends. It is a tradition formed quite a few years ago where a small group of us get together for a proper sit down meal and our host prepares an amazing meal for us, followed by Santa arriving secretly with big sacks of presents for the children which they go out to find in the field.
We didn’t have any specific symptoms that we thought were Covid related but there was some doubt at the back of our minds. So out of respect for our host, we thought we should test before attending.
So what were these doubts?
My partner had been having some stomach trouble a few days prior with some diarhea and general uneasiness. He normally has a sensitive stomach so we didn’t think it was abnormal at the time and certainly didn’t think it was Covid related. A few days earlier he had also had a mild fever for about 36 hours. Again probably related to gastric flu and it did not ring any alarm bells.
I had felt slightly off for a day or 2, again nothing major. Just feeling 90% rather that 100% well. And looking back after the fact, I had an episode where I falsely accused my dearly beloved of putting sweetener in my tea. My system seems to be intolerant to sweetener as it makes me really ill. This includes any form of dietary supplements, meal replacements, diet drinks etc. I get quite ill from it so I know to stay away from it all. I also don’t keep any sweetener in my grocery cupboard. So thinking back, this was probably an indication of Covid affecting my taste buds. But again, my taste buds are compromised due to a battle with Throat Cancer a few years prior and again I didn’t have a second thought as to why my taste was off. Again this was short lived with my taste returning to normal 2 days later.
So on the surface of it all, we did not think we had Covid and were quite surprised when we came back positive. We had been careful of who we met with and to this day we have no idea who we could have contracted if from. We always wore masks when going out and sanitised as required and limited where we went to and who we saw.
Once we tested positive on the 24th December 2020, we isolated immediately and started on the following medication (we had these on hand):
Vitamin C (We had been taking loads of Vitamin C prior anyway but upped our dose to a few chewable tablets per day.
Azithromyacin – An antibiotic used for upper respiratory infections
The health department also sent a team out to visit us on the 26th December and they gave us the same medication as above but added Zinc and Asprin to the list.
We had also done extensive research on the benefits of Ivormectin and took some orally on the 27th and then again 3 days later. Ivormectin had been banned by South Africa a few days earlier but as we deal with animals, we took the vetinary grade (injectable version taken orally in some juice – slightly bitter taste but am alive and well to tell the tale). There is extensive studies about the benefits of taking Ivormectin for Covid-19 on the web and YouTube so please go and look it up.
The following week or so was followed by us feeling not bad, but fatigued is as best as I can describe it. We were not sick, but found we tired quickly. We were up early everyday. We had a swim in the dam most days, sat outside in the fresh air and functioned fairly normally except we found we had to rest and slept more than usual.
My partner also found his blood pressure increased considerably so we kept a close eye on it and he also started with a dry nagging cough which he struggled with for about 2 weeks. He thinks it was a side effect of taking Azithromycin as he found it dried out his system.
Now 3 weeks later we are back to normal and haven’t had any symptoms for probably 12 days.
We live in a small farming community and we personally know about 40-50 people who have tested positive. All are well and none of them have had any adverse effects and have experienced no more than mild symptoms. A friend of ours yesterday described his experience as a mild flu with a mild hangover.
We also know of a one or two people within our extended community having died but I am unable to give context to this as to what exactly their circumstances were and if they had any underlying causes.
My father-in-law also tested positive. He is 77 years old. He had some bodily aches for a few days and we treated him with Ivermectin and the same medication we had when he first complained. Other than that he has had no other symptoms, no fatigue and has carried on with his daily routine despite being positive.
So what are my thoughts on it all? And this is where it gets controversial.
I have lived the experience and I have watched others live the experience so I can only comment on this.
Prior to “lock-down” towards the end of March 2020, my company employed some 194 people. Due to the lock-down we had to stop operating with only a small part of our company re-opening in the last half of the year. But with the effects on not being able to operate fully, we have found ourselves unable to recover and 194 people are now unemployed. A very sad state of affairs. My heart goes out to them and their families as I know they will not find alternative employment with the majority probably not finding employment at all for a very long time. We live in a country where the unemployment rate was well above 25% at the start of the outbreak and I am sure this figure now sits at above 50%.
The Government offered a benefit to companies for their staff to accommodate the loss of income. However we managed to claim for 1 month out of 8 successfully with it being extremely difficult to use their online portal with no support or assistance and no hope of the other 7 months being paid out for no other reason other than the Governments inability to manage their systems correctly and I won’t go down the road of bringing up the fraud and misuse of tax payers money as part of this post. That aside, our company has been a victim of not of Covid itself, but of Governments inability to think of the consequences of their actions. Every single 1 of our 194 employees would rather risk Covid than being unemployed and not being able to put food on the table.
The daily Coronavirus Death Toll numbers are staggering – or are they? That is the million dollar question. The real facts are that people are not dying in the streets and statistics need to be taken in context. And yes, people are dying. Can one put a value on life? Is 1 death too many? So where lies the line one may ask.
Just for some perspective, I found the following information on Worldometer for the 2021 year to date. Almost double the number of people have died from Cancer so far this year than from Covid-19 and we turn a blind eye to this. I am a Cancer Survivor and I can honestly say that I would gamble with Covid-19 anyday over Cancer.
Worldometers Stats on 12 January 2021
The negative effects to lockdown has caused poverty, malnutrition, unemployment, loss of income, destruction of businesses, disruption to food supplies and food security, distress sale of assets, suicides, long term mental effects, disruption of education, chronic loneliness, increase of domestic violence, the list is endless. How will we mitigate all of this against the virus itself is the question. There are a privileged few who can work from home or are able to sit at home and wait it all out, but the vast majority of us have to go out to work to put food on the table. Finding a way forward in dealing with the virus will require a reckoning with the harm, the hurt and the death that lockdown, not the virus itself, has caused.
There is not a day that goes by where I do not do some form of research on Covid-19. I have read hundred’s of articles on the subject from scientific papers to government statements to conspiracy theories. And the only thing I am sure of, is that there is no consensus. And I am flabbergasted at this. How can there still be such controversy a year later. So in the absence of truth, all I can base my opinion on is my own personal experience.
I am not sure I have convinced you one way or another that the virus is nothing to be scared of. But then I didn’t set out to change your mind. All I wanted was to share my personal experience.
I hope the powers that be find a solution quickly to not only curing the Virus itself but also to the catastrophic consequences of the lockdowns for it is killing us one way or the other.
Sadly its that time of year again. I am another year older. I have been a bear with a sore head the last few days with the realisation that yes, I will be another year older again. And sadly I cannot stop time.
But then one has to get old gracefully and I woke up this morning full of acceptance of the fact that I am not a year older, but a year wiser.
Now I currently live in a house where there is only 1 shared bathroom and no en-suite. And it is currently freezing at night. If you know me, you will know that I don’t do the cold gracefully and I get cold very quickly.
So I woke up this morning, needing to pee. Something I have to do every morning before I do anything else. I desperately need to empty my bladder. And the thought of getting out of bed and putting a gown on so I can tip toe to the other side of the house, freezing, so I can do my business did not appeal to me.
It then dawned on me why adult diapers were invented (That new little bit of wisdom kicking in)
I have been feeling a little low these past 2 days. No particular reason, just struggling with the motivation to do things and get things done – and believe you me there is a lot to do on the farm.
So I lay in bed this morning, I lay in for a little longer than usualtrying to find the energy to get up, and it dawned on me, I am a Sunshine kinda girl.
I love blue skies and sunlight. And to make me even happier, add a few Sunflowers.
Blue Skies, Sunshine and Sunflowers
And the sky has been overcast the last 2 days and this affects my mood more than I realise.
So I’ve dragged myself out of bed and decided to play some happy music. One of our favorites is Sugar Sugar by the Archies. We play it almost every morning on the way to work. Very difficult arriving at the office in a bad mood ready to shout at people after listening to this.
For those starting to feel like they are living in a jail cell, it doesn’t get any better than this. I used to be a HUGE Elvis fan growing up so it brings back many memories.
We started yesterday morning planting some new seedlings. I’m not used to bending this much and I definitely felt my age this morning getting out of bed. Everything ached and creaked.
We only hobby farm nowadays but thought with the Apocalypse upon us, we should probably make some effort to get a few veg in the ground. If not for us, then certainly to assist the local market in case imports are affected with border closures.
Shortly after planting, and taking a well deserved break, we noticed that Horsey (aka Whiskey) was not herself. She was staying in her stable and not roaming around as usual. Occasionally she wondered out and just lay on the grass, but not making any effort to eat. She was also sweating up a storm.
Now Whiskey is an old lady of 30 years. So she has had a pretty good life so far and she now roams around the farm freely, doing as she wishes. So when we noticed she wasn’t feeling herself, we thought this may sadly be the end.
The farm is a small community of close friends so we rallied the troops to get some advice from all. We have a number of horses on the farm so everyone is familiar with horses and their ailments.
After lubed up arms bring shoved down her read end and a few other pokes and prods, she was given some meds and all we could do was give her lots of love and hope she pulls though.
We sat with her on the grass for most of the day, giving her lots of scratches and tickles and making her feel loved.
We got up early this morning to find Whiskey laying on our front porch, still alive and well. She is roaming around this morning. Still not herself, still not eating, but is drinking water voluntarily. All good signs and can only hope that she is on the mend. She is definitely staying close to us and not venturing far off.
Not sure what the day will bring yet. Getting quite a but done on the farm and in the house over the last few days. But as it’s Sunday, perhaps we deserve a rest.
Touching base with family and friends is important so will make it my mission today to reach out to a few. See how they are, and have a virtual coffee catch-up. Hope you will all do the same.
Received an early morning message from my kids in Dubai with their recommendation to add to my playlist today …
https://youtu.be/wBrb0jIR2_8
Will post a little later this morning with yesterday’s activities. Have some serious dance moves waiting to try out in the kitchen first. I forgot how much music can add to our lives.
