Being actually in the throes of a global pandemic is exhausting. It’s a whole lot more than that, of course. For some, it’s fatal, and for their loved ones, devastating. For all of us, it’s a waiting game. Are we going to get sick? Are we already sick? Are we doing a good enough job of keeping our house clean and clear from infection?
Over the last few days, we’re hearing more and more from those who have recovered from having COVID-19 and their thoughts on the disease’ progression and things they perhaps wished they had done differently. From that, I’ve put together a few thoughts on how we can use their advice to better prepare in case we do get sick,
First, if someone in your family (or you) come down with COVID, you’ll need to have an isolation space ready. You’ll want to keep that person, as much as possible, completely separate from the rest of your family for as long as they are sick, plus the 72 hours of fever-free, symptom-free time before they can re-enter “civilization.” For a lot of people, this illness hits like a freight train; one minute they feel slightly under the weather, and the next, they are down for the count for days on end. This is why you’ll want to prepare NOW for what might happen then.
If you have a spare bedroom/bathroom, get that room ready by pre-stocking it with clothes for each (adult) family member, toiletries, cleaning supplies, medicines, etc. This way you can avoid having to pass more things back and forth between healthy and sick family members.
Set up a quarantine zone where the healthy family members can leave trays of food/etc. And then pick them back up when they’re used (and now assumed to be contaminated.)
Create a chart that either a healthy family member, or the sick person, if able, updates with daily temps, O2 sats, medicine schedules, etc. Should you have to transition to a hospital setting, that information will be valuable for the hospital staff.
If possible, create a contact tracing timeline and contact all of the people that the sick person may have interacted with to let them know they should isolate themselves for 10-14 days. Until we have a vaccine, this process of testing/contact tracing/isolation is how we’re going to have to manage the disease.
Hopefully, none of us will need to use these preps. But, it never hurts to think ahead.