Okay. So. First of all: I AM OKAY and I have every intention of staying that way. But.

I began showing symptoms consistent with the milder cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday morning. (In hindsight they actually started mid-day Monday, but it wasn’t at all obvious - more on that in a bit.) It’s not severe enough for me to be able to get tested or need hands-on medical care... but given my medical history, my doctor is taking it seriously, and obviously I’m assuming that I’m contagious.

Which means WS is closed for... I don’t actually know, I need to make some calls. Definitely at least a week, probably two weeks. Could be more. We just don’t know enough about how this thing is transmitted, so I don’t even want to risk doing production for later until it’s been at least a week since the onset of symptoms AND I’ve been fever-free without medication for at least 72 hours; that’s my state’s official recommendation for isolation of mild presumed cases. Shipping is also suspended, for the same reason.

(It could be considerably longer/get even more complicated if any of the other people in my house get sick, but I’m not going to worry about that right now. Much.)

Okay, so that’s the logistical business stuff. On to the personal. As you may or may not know, I have EDS and chronic Lyme disease, and a history of minor colds turning into nasty lower respiratory issues; as a result within minutes of emailing my doctor it was determined that yes, we are going to presume it’s COVID-19 and also we are going to nuke it from orbit NOW.  I’d already been working on getting my body as physically healthy as it could be, both to fully recover from surgery and to prepare for this exact situation, and my doctor is really good at keeping me alive and mostly functional despite my body being held together with zipties and packing tape, so I’m very hopeful that it will remain mild and uneventful.

Physically, I’m... not too bad, but all over the place? That thing you’ve probably been seeing, about sudden loss of smell and taste being an early symptom - they weren’t kidding and it is WEIRD.  Over the span of a few hours early yesterday I went from “I kinda can’t smell the herbal ointment that’s slathered all over me and my yogurt tastes weird” to “I can’t smell the eucalyptus oil in my bedside diffuser and also the curry that was nicely spicy on Sunday and oddly bland on Monday is completely flavorless now, WTF.” During that time I also acquired a persistent low-grade fever and chills (although in hindsight I suspect my inability to feel warm on Monday probably wasn’t just damp hair) and severe fatigue, plus mild nausea and almost no appetite, and just for funsies, an intermittent weird sensation in my chest that I can’t define any more succinctly than “wrong.”

(Also a wretched headache, but mah nishtanah halailah hazeh? Although it’s different than my usual headaches, and I can’t articulate that either. It all just feels WEIRD.)

The fever is now staying mostly under control with liberal application of Tylenol, and the rest of the symptoms come and go - half an hour ago I was horribly queasy and dizzy and freezing cold and my chest felt weirdly wrong again, but right now I feel disconcertingly normal aside from the headache and having no appetite and not being able to smell anything. I’m hearing that the mild cases are like this - a friend several states away who is about a week ahead of me with nearly identical symptoms confirmed that yes, it’s consistently inconsistent and kind of miserable but mostly very boring.

(Boring is good, here. Doctors like to tell me that I’m “very medically interesting” so I will happily settle for boring and unremarkable, even if I’m cranky because I had JUST gotten back on my feet after having surgery last month and was REALLY enjoying feeling normal again.)

My plan is to rest a whole lot, eat nutritious things that I can’t taste, drink aaaaaaaaall the water, take my meds religiously... and in the times when I feel well enough, I’ll work on overhauling the website or writing tutorials. (Or maybe you’ll even get a book at the end of this, who knows? We’re living in a really weird world right now and anything could happen.) I’m fortunate enough to be able to afford to take a week or two off, even this soon after having done it once already this year, so mostly I plan to rest.

You’re welcome to keep ordering things if you want, just know that the soonest I can ship anything is somewhere around April 1st, and realistically probably not until mid-April or later. I’ve also learned that my e-commerce platform has opened gift card sales up to sellers at all account levels, not just the exorbitantly expensive level that’s otherwise overkill for a business of my size, so at some point when I’m feeling clear-headed enough to wrestle with the website I’ll get that set up.

Stay safe out there, y’all. Wash your hands. STAY HOME. Assume everybody has this, because they probably do and it hits FAST and out of nowhere.

Okay. On to the napping part of my agenda now.