Corona, a stoned poodle and a miraculous surprise
Corona struck me as it struck everybody. Not more and not less I would say.
Although I probably don’t have as good an immune system as my peers, being in a wheelchair and thus not having an equally good cardiovascular system, I consider myself relatively fit.
From the beginning of March on, Corona became more and more a hot topic in the German news.
On Monday, 16 March, I should have had my quarterly Botox injection appointment. The clinic called us in the morning to cancel due to this novel virus because they had to convene and assess this whole new situation. They also wouldn’t undertake any elective treatments for the unforeseeable future. I was really upset because I had eagerly awaited this appointment as my spasms were really bad by that time. Luckily though, the friendly doctor made an exception for me and one week later, I got my Botox therapy.
Nina came over for lunch. We were sitting beautifully on our terrace outside, the weather not fitting to the seriousness of the situation. Actually, weren’t it for my sister, I’m not sure if my parents and I had reacted so quickly and decisively. I belong to the risk group myself. My parents and my carer Andrzej are part of the vulnerable age group. To protect all of us, the decision of this family crisis team meeting was, that for the unforeseeable future, I will neither be going to my therapy centre (three times weekly) nor will I have therapists coming to our house. Also, Nina and another lady that sometimes helps my mom in the household will cover the grocery shopping.
We then agreed that Andrzej will be stretching my arms and legs a couple of minutes longer than he normally does after waking me up before I get washed and dressed. After breakfast then, we will be doing approximately half an hour amateur therapy, with the help of the standing function of my wheelchair, which now really pays off. Yes, you read correctly. My wheelchair really is able to bring me into an upright position. This is not only good for my knees and feet, but also for my circulatory system as well as for my spine.
Even though no one in our house is a trained physiotherapist, I would say we were doing pretty well. In the first week my mom would step in together with Andrzej, but after a couple of days, my dad wanted to take over. He has a clear advantage over my mom, being 1 m 98 tall as opposed to her 1 m 62…
So first, I am trying to move my head, looking as far as possible over my shoulders, as well as down to my toes and up to the ceiling. Next exercise is the head tilt, which I am only able to do when my head is being guided. I have been training the head tilt for quite a while now but it somehow seems to be an abstract movement and signal for my brain. Then my hands and arms are being stretched, one after the other. It is important to do all the movements fairly slow, neurology works differently than orthopaedics. I’m not a specialist, but I guess that’s because the brain has to process it.
This takes roundabout half an hour. Then Andrzej mostly puts on my leg orthotics which by the way had cost €3000 each (thank God the health insurance took over the costs, but only after a long paper war). Subsequently I check my messages, read the news etc., and then it is already time for lunch. Mami always spoils us with her extraordinary cooking skills. Primarily thanks to her, those little family lunches turn into daily highlights!
After that, when the weather is good, my dad, Paula and I usually go for a walk, either in one of the surrounding parks or simply in our neighbourhood (inspecting other cars and houses). Meanwhile, our trio is well known! We stop here to chat with a neighbour, there to talk to another dog owner, so we are moving forward in a rather relaxed pace. In those quarantine days my mileage has gone up steeply. In mid-March, my odometer stood at some 480 km, and by the end of my self-imposed lockdown mid-May it is at 545 km!
Should the weather allow then I tend to stay outside in our garden, listening to podcasts or phoning up friends or relatives. I also just love watching Paula experience the impressions of her very first spring ever. In such moments, I can’t help but being grateful. Grateful for our big house and garden, grateful for the lovely nature, grateful for the love and harmony in my family, grateful that we don’t have to suffer from existential fears, grateful for having such nice and close friends with whom I can speak on the phone or via video calls, yes, even grateful for being so lucky to be born in a welfare state like Germany. Not in the war-torn Syria or Yemen, not in an autocratic state like Turkey, not anywhere in Africa where people see their best chances in jumping on a boat across the Mediterranean Sea, either tragically drowning or at best making it to one of those far too crowded refugee camps for instance in Lesbos.
During her morning walk on Good Friday with my mom, Paula ate the faeces that someone had left in the bushes of a nearby park (disgusting, I know!). I wouldn’t share it if it weren’t necessary to understand the following.
Back at home, and after getting her mouth and beard washed thoroughly by my mom (what a heroine, I am not sure if I could have done it), Paula came back upstairs into my room. She sat down in her dog bed and began trembling. First, I noticed that she couldn’t hold her head, and then I realized that her entire little body was shaking and that Paula was totally out of herself.
As it was roundabout lunchtime, Andrzej came to take me downstairs with the stair lift. Like always he wanted to help Paula onto my lap so she could come with me. She cried out hysterically but then sat quietly on my lap. Once we arrived downstairs, we lifted her down on her feet. The poor little thing could barely stand on her own legs! My mom didn’t wait any longer and drove her directly to the vet. Before that, she gave my dad instructions on what he should do with the trout which was in the often. She herself had planned not to eat today anyway, because of fasting on Good Friday.
My dad, Andrzej and I had very little appetite over lunch. What a shame: A lovely fresh trout baked with lemon and parsley, mashed potatoes with coriander and fresh spinach with garlic. Our conversation was mostly centred around Paula. Before my mom left, she had raised the concern that Paula has potentially been poisoned…
As it was a beautiful sunny day, I stayed outside in the garden after lunch. To distract myself, I started praying for my sister.
Nina and Otto had told us, I think it was on Palm Sunday, that they were expecting a little baby! It was another beautiful day, my parents, Andrzej and I were just finishing lunch. After Andrzej went upstairs into his room, my sister and brother-in-law told us the happiest of all news! We were all so happy and excited! My parents will finally be grandparents, and I will be an uncle!
While I was still napping in the garden, my mom came back. The good news: Paula wasn’t poisoned. The bad news: she was tested positive for THC! And not just with a small amount, but with a really high dosage. So high, that it was unclear if she could make it… Already during lunch, my dad and I had wondered, how it could come that a little creature like her could conquer all our hearts within not even a year?! Now we can only hope and pray, that she will win this battle. She had to stay at in the clinic until the next morning, imagine how we all felt!
Thank God she survived the night and Mami was allowed to pick her up the next morning. The whole day, she had a severe hangover and was a wreck until the evening, when she finally picked up one of her toys again. But she is not the same as before. She is jumpy and afraid of loud noises. We were told that THC might stay a couple of months until it is completely out of the system. And to me she seems even more sleepy and tired, although that is difficult to tell as other than eating, going for walks and playing, that is her main activity anyway…
On the day after my birthday (which was beautiful, by the way, and crowned by the huge success of my birthday charity donation on Facebook for Mary’s Meals, www.marysmeals.org, for which I raised, thanks to my great friends, over 1,400€!) I finally went again to my therapy centre, after a pause of more than two months. Since my body coped so well during the time without any professional therapy, I decided to try out going there only twice a week instead of three times weekly. The won day I plan to invest in some kind of brain activity, like reactivating my French speaking skills or something different. I haven’t figured out yet what that could be though…
All in all, I didn’t have such a bad time in the past couple of weeks, with time for reflection and overall more calm. But on another note, the new experiences everyone in society had during the lockdown, when everything seemed to stand still, weren’t all too novel for me. Since my accident, I had learned to value so many things like friendship, family, nature and life as such. Like everyone else during the lockdown, I as well suffered under the lack of social contact. Thank God, I wasn’t alone but instead embedded in my loving and lovely family.
