I have a condition that prevents me from being able to develop an immunity to or fight off bacterial and viral infections. On top of that, my body doesn’t respond to vaccines so I can’t rely on protection from the shots. I found out that I have this condition a few years prior to COVID (luckily). Most of my life up until my diagnosis was spent sick and on lots of antibiotics.
Since COVID and old diseases coming back, my immunologist has recommended that I severely reduce being out with people, generally speaking. I mask when I go out, limit how often I go out, and try to time any hang outs with friends and family around my infusions (they temporarily boost my immune system) and other people’s travel/activity schedules.
The few times that I relaxed my personal rules, I got sick, needed antibiotics, and it took me 6-8 weeks to recover from “simple” sinus infections and colds.
How do I manage to go to the climbing gym twice a week?
We studied the data and checked out the gym at different times of the day on different days. Then, we picked 2-3 days that the traffic in the gym was significantly lower (luckily, it’s usually just us and maybe one other small group top roping) and mask the entire time. It hasn’t been perfect. Sometimes, there’s a large group or party that happens to be there. And, that sometimes means we have to leave and not climb.
Overall, we’ve managed to be as safe as possible and still get me out of the house. It’s literally the only regularly, scheduled time that I am out of the house during the week!
tl;dr
It’s not easy. And, honestly, it sucks having to stay home. But, being sick for weeks and being on hefty antibiotics that wreck my system while trying to kill off infections remind me why I have to still be careful out there.