Welcome to day 3 of my not so fun journey with the coronavirus. Today a new symptom seemed to take center stage. That was feeling dizzy. I recall last Sunday having moments of this feeling. Once having to hang on at the dinner table and another thinking I forgot to put the car in park only to discover it was not the car that was moving but my own equilibrium. Those moments were fleeting and passing. The shortness of breath is what made me go to the doctor and had me so nervous.

Then enter today. From mid-afternoon on I was very dizzy. It began when I bent over to pick up a cookbook that had fallen in our pantry. I stood up and felt like I had just left a tilt-a-whirl ride. It passed in about 30 seconds. The rest of the day I have been walking around like Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean. The sad thing is I have not even had any rum. For a moment I did contemplate drinking some and seeing if the two would balance each other out, but then thought that might not be the best thing for my healing. I have also heard from a few sources that they are saying not to take elderberry, which I had been doing. I stopped adding that to my list of things I am trying.

You may think the hardest thing is dealing with fact I feel like I cannot breath 80% of the time, or even walking around like a drunken pirate without having the pleasure of drinking rum. Both of those are most unfortunate. The real struggle, however, is far worse. It is having to be in the house with my lovely lady and not being able to wrap my arms around her and shower her with kisses. I can tell that she, who is pretty much symptom free as far as the virus goes, is also hurting. Watching someone you love so much be so close yet so far away is the worse frustration ever. Last night as I watched her sleep all I wanted to do was walk over and place a kiss in the middle of her forehead. Still, because I want her to remain as healthy as she can be I stayed roughly 6 feet away.

I always like to end things on a positive note. While Margie was sleeping I did manage to finish the book I was reading. How to live to be 100…or More by George Burns. In it, along with some great comic material, was some wonderful real world advice that I would like to share with you. There is a chapter he discusses limiting worry, stress and tension. With all that we are dealing with these days that can be hard to do. All of us want to stay well-informed, but by doing so many of become inundated. News of this virus, the death toll numbers, quarentine information is everywhere. It is on the nightly news, shows up on our social media and even alerts on our phones. Add to that all of the rumors and misinformation being spread to cause worry and panic and things can become overwhelming. This stress, tension and worry can lower our immune system and make us sick. How do we overcome this? I am going to give you a quote from George Burns himself – “You may not be able to change the world, but you can change the channel.”

Trust me, I get it. As someone who has this virus I like to be informed of all the latest information. We have to be careful to take some time away. Let us use this time that we have at home to read more, meditate more, catch up on some rest. Tomorrow Margie and I have a mini movie matinee planned. This will be with some amazing homemade nachos. We will check in on what is going on, but we will also take some time out to focus on joy. Something we could all benefit from doing. I would encourage everyone to plan at least one activity that will bring them some joy and self-care. I would love it if you could share it in the comments below.