My Coronavirus Journal: Day 12: A Restart at Healing:

Some house cleaning and disinfecting ideas a friend of mine came up with for how to get my house COVID-free and safe once I’m better.

Day 12: Healing and Cleaning (Fri March 27, 2020)

Another night of bad sleep. I only had one nighttime decongestant left and I know from experience that just isn’t enough to do me any good. I tossed and turned. The pain in my body is back. The congested and laboured breathing. The anxiety, the ear worms that just won’t stop playing over and over in my head. I woke up feeling so shitty again.

I’m lethargic and slow. My brain clouded over again. I need my puffer again and my appetite is gone. It took me about an hour or two to eat my cereal and take my morning meds, even though it was afternoon. Feeling a little nauseous and just all over gross.

I let myself stay in bed for most of the afternoon, but by around 3pm I did manage to make myself get out of bed and take a long hot shower, which did help. The decongestants kicked in and I was able to breath again. Then when I returned to my room I realized how gross and smelly it was in my bedroom. So I opened my window to let it air out.

Then it was off to the kitchen to clean all my dirty dishes that had piled up on my desk from my meals the day before. A wonderful friend did a Shoppers Drugmart run for me and brought over three bags of supplies for me. Top of the list was the double pack of day and night time decongestants! No more single pill nights for me! I’m gonna need two a night until I can finally get rid of this virus. 

Bless her heart she also got me some fun stuff too, yummy snacks, and even a bunch of oatmeal cookies she and her daughter made together. I can just hear her little voice saying “Ella do, Ella do.” I can hear her with every bite. Delicious!  

So thoughtful with the self-care products too. A new bottle of shampoo and conditioner. A big bottle of liquid hand soap. And most shockingly, she was even able to find two containers of disinfectant wipes! This stuff is literally gold right now! I don’t even know how she did it, but trust this particular friend to find the last remaining containers of disinfectant wipes in the city. She loves a clean house! She was definitely the one for this job. 

With all that put away, all the bathroom and kitchen surfaces disinfected, and my bed linens freshly changed, I enjoyed a late lunch and audiobook listen in my nice newly made bed. The weather seems to be getting warmer. I think it’s even been sunny out today. I wouldn’t know, my room is a bit of a dungeon. My only window looks out at the brick wall of the house right next door, only a few feet away. But the fresh air smells like sunshine. 

Most of the time this dungeon room is a good thing, because I don’t like any light coming in when I sleep, and I usually like to sleep in if I can. But lately because my bedroom is really the only place I spend my time for 90% of my day, it is a bit depressing to not even be able to see the sunny days that I’m missing out on. I’m not getting enough fresh air and sunlight in my life, and I’m sure that’s having an impact on how long it’s taking me to feel better. 

I had a lovely impromptu House Party video chat with another friend today. I was talking about some of my worries and anxieties around cleaning and disinfecting my house before my new elderly roommate moves in. I mentioned worrying about my couch and how I spent much of my first week sick on my couch watching TV. And about how I read that article about how the CDC found the virus lived for up to 17 days in the cabins of the Princess cruise ship. 

“How am I supposed to disinfect my couch?”, I asked her. She started brainstorming with me, and we came up with a few ideas. She told me about this thing called a Lampe Berger, which was used to disinfect and sanitize rooms during the Spanish Flu epidemic. 

From a newspaper in 1918, in Kelowna B.C., during the Spanish Flu epidemic.

I will look into ordering one of these handy gadgets online if I can. Or maybe that’s what I will get my partner to do to help, he’s been looking for something that he can do to support me. This seems like something that he would find interesting. He could order it off amazon, and he has a prime membership, so would get free shipping too. I think that’s a good plan actually and give him a call. 

And, unsurprisingly for him, he is skeptical and thinks this thing is complete and utter bullshit! Haha! He says that it won’t do a damn thing and thinks it’s likely equivalent to magic and witchcraft in terms of effectiveness. But, if it will make me feel better, he will try to get one for me. But apparently they take two weeks to ship it, as it’s not available directly through Amazon. It’s through a third party seller. So, no free shipping with his Prime account. Hmmm… maybe not.

So, I went for the other good idea my friend came up with. A clothing steamer. It boils water hot enough to turn it into steam, that’s probably hot enough to kill any living microbes like bacteria and viruses. I will steam clean my couch with a hand held garment steamer. 

Funny enough, my partner  thinks this idea is just as bullshit as the Lampe, but he’s ordering it for me now because it’s available for free delivery with Prime. It should be at my door by Sunday. This is way better than the Spanish Flu days!