Stay Home

Stay home, stay healthy

Words used every day, everywhere across the globe these days.

I contacted Cori in Singapore, Sarah in Milan, Katrien in Antwerp, Blessie in California. Different countries, different cultures, different governmental approaches, same words being used.

Everyone is coping with Covid-19 in her or his way. Family and friends are affected. Contact with my father and Pascalle’s parents is limited as they are above 80 years of age. I called my aunts and uncles as they too are grounded. I notice a smile when talking with them, a quick sparkle in their eyes, as they appreciate being contacted. People are lonely. They watch statistics on the news and the world wide web the whole day. We decided to limit the amount of watching the news.

My schedule changed because of Corona. No hydro-physiotherapy in the warm pool in Thermae 2000, no therapy in Aachen. Just 2 times per week physiotherapy to stretch my muscles, it’s necessary. I need to stay in shape using the tools at home. Indoor bike and outdoor exercise on the terrace. Discipline is important.

The nurse still comes in the morning hours to assist me taking a shower and getting dressed. Pascalle is working from home these days and as soon as we get the message that help from outside will be limited, she will help me. For now, we continue as we did before; Pascalle is my wife, she is not my nurse.

We take precautions of course as I am aware the nurses help out in different places, different circumstances. The risk for the nurses of being exposed to Covid-19 actually is huge. We decided to decline help as soon as the nurses have a slide symptoms of a cold. Because of the level of my spinal cord injury (C5-C6) it will be difficult for me to breath when being infected.

I still remember the cold I had shortly before leaving Adelante. I don’t want to fall ill like that again. So I stay home and stay healthy. Rust-Regelmaat-Reinheid are the 3 pillars so I am taking it easy, drink plenty of water, have regular good meals, regular exercise and wash my hands regularly. And a Jägermeister every now and than is important, isn’t it?

Working with the students is somewhat different now too as Highschool is closed.
Working on the Stemcell, Reuma and i2-CoRT projects is different too.
Zoom, Skype, Bluejeans, plenty of possibilities to see each other and have good discussions ensuring projects proceed. I am sure companies and institutes will use these tools more often after Covid-19 settles down.

People will continue to adapt, also to the consequences of the impact of Covid-19, I am sure.

And a last example; People are creative finding solutions to stay in touch. I just love to see all the short movies, humoristic pictures and ways to gather around a good cause.
One of the best so far, to me, is the short movie made by a lovely young girl in our village, Pip. She created a story to support our Pastor who suffers from Covid-19. Check the following link and even if you don’t talk Dutch, you will get the message:

https://vimeo.com/401487132

stay home, stay healthy and puzzle!