How To Stay Calm And Self Isolate With Your Family

With the Coronavirus pandemic hitting the states my husband and I took some time this week to plan out how we can prepare. As of right now Pittsburgh only has two confirmed cases but we know how quickly this spreads.

Right now we just don’t know how far spread this virus already is. While my anxiety is trying to tell me to freak out, the hold it together and be strong mom in me is pretty chill.

It’s of course because of my anxiety that I am preparing us and our home for the upcoming pandemic.

We Already Work From Home

My husband and I both already work from home so not much is going to change on that front. We don’t go out much anyways other than a couple of walks each month.

Being bloggers and content creators has been a miracle in a lot of ways. For instance, this morning I woke up with a migraine. I simply took my ibuprofen and laid in bed until it mostly subsided.

If I worked a normal job, migraine or no, I would need to be out the door and at work.

If you must go into work make sure you wipe down high touch area’s – door knobs, desk tops, copy machines, and even coffee pot handles. According to the CDC “novel coronavirus may remain viable for hours to days on surfaces made from a variety of materials.”

So while the primary transmission of COVID-19 is through respiratory droplets, it’s not impossible for it to transfer via surfaces. Make sure you are disinfecting high traffic areas often, washing your hands often, and not touching your face.

When you arrive home after work, quickly change your clothes, wash your face, hands, wrists, and lower arms. This may help prevent the spread of this virus.

We Are Limiting Our Time Out

However, we are at this point halting all outside excursions until this goes away. The reality is we have elderly people that we come in contact with regularly in our neighborhood while they are walking their dogs.

We know that by hiding out in our homes we are helping to minimize the spread of this virus to the most vulnerable.

COVID-19 has a incubation period of up to 2 weeks and you don’t have to be showing symptoms to have it. Remember, the symptoms for COVID-19 are not the flu symptoms, it’s fever, shortness of breath, and coughing.

People with COPD, Diabetes, elderly, asthma, and any other disease that affects breathing can face serious life threatening conditions with COVID-19. So while we aren’t concerned so much about us because we are healthy, we know we can spread it to those who are not.

Limit your time out and about as much as possible. Carry your disinfectant wipes with you and use them to open doors, push shopping carts, or to touch anything that normally gets touched. This can help stop you from spreading the disease.

Instacart is a great service so you can have groceries delivered too if you really want to minimize the amount of people out.

We Stocked Up On Foods

Speaking of Instacart, we went ahead and stocked up on food. My reasoning for this is Italy. When I heard that Italy basically shut down the entire country I knew that if the same thing were to happen here we would need to make sure we were prepared.

I purchased a couple gallons of water for just in case, loads of canned and boxed goods, and even have an emergency stash of Ramen noodles just in case.

We have plenty of beans, canned tomatoes, soups, and canned vegetables. I stocked up on pasta, prepackaged bags, evaporated milk, canned coconut milk, and even bought brownie mix.

The truth is, I don’t think we will get to a point where our city will effectively shut down, but if it does, we are good for about the next month with food.

I Bought Only The Cleaning Supplies I Needed

The only cleaning supply I was out of was Lysol disinfectant spray and dish soap. I found some spray online at Walmart and I purchased the dish soap through Amazon.

I don’t need to stock up on anything else it just so happened that I was running out of these things at the same time that everyone else was buying them.

For a full list of approved products that kill Coronavirus, check out this list here.
For effective coronavirus cleaning instructions check out what the CDC says here.

No Toilet Paper Available Anywhere

I currently have 9 mega rolls of toilet paper in our house so we should be ok. However, I did take a peak at both Amazon and Walmart online to see if I could purchase any. Amazon is completely out and Walmart is in store only.

I don’t actually believe there are loads of people out there hoarding toilet paper, I think a lot of people are preparing for a long term stay inside their home. Due to that, people are making sure they have enough essentials to last anywhere from 2-4 weeks.

To be honest, I have seen one picture of someone with a shopping cart filled with several cases of toilet paper. If you have 1,000 people go through a store on any given day and half of them grab one case of toilet paper to be prepared the shelf is going to empty fast.

The real problem is the stores were under-stocked for this situation. In a week or two the shelves will be stocked again.

Activities For Kids

I have a preschooler here at home and we home school him, we are quite accustomed to finding activities for him. If you need ideas for activities for your kids check out these posts below.

We Aren’t Freaking Out

We are doing our best to not freak out over this. I am spraying outside door knobs and our mailbox with disinfectant spray every day to help make sure our house is safe.

My hope is that everyone does their part to not freak out too. It’s difficult to stay calm when it feels like the world is burning around you. Take extra time to take a break from social media, from the news, and from other people who are freaking out.

Read a book, write, draw, paint, practice your craft, and take care of yourself as much as possible.

Make a list of local resources and phone numbers and if you find out you’ve been in contact with someone with COVID-19 take the necessary steps to isolate yourself from others.

We Are Doing Our Part

The thing I’ve learned from this experience is it’s not really about me, it’s about others. At this time the best thing the healthy can do is make sure that they do their part to stop the spread of this virus.

Remember:

Check on your local elderly to make sure they are stocked up.
Keep a 6 foot space between you and others
Disinfect high traffic areas
Leave your house as little as possible
Use Instacart to leave the stress of shopping at the store
Wash your hands
Don’t touch your face
Be proactive to flatten the curve

Self isolation can help to stop the spread of infectious diseases and it’s a good idea to have a plan in place in case you need to self isolate again in the future. By voluntarily self isolation we may be able to help take some of the stress off our hospital staff, nurses, and doctors.

Stay healthy my friends, let me know what you are doing to minimize the spread in your area in the comments below. Follow me on Pinterest for more like this and pin this to your preparedness boards.

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How To Stay Calm and Self Isolate With Your Family