March 24, 2020. Madison, Mississippi. Training.

I did not know it, but for years I was in training for what we all must do now, which is social distancing. In the autumn of 2014, I took a type of chemotherapy that reduced my immune system. Rather than wear a mask all the time, Ken and I decided to stay away from people. And it worked. I never got an infection. When my white cells are at 1, my Oncologist suggested that I could no longer use that medicine. "You will die from the disease," she said. So she switched me to Ibrance. The side effect of that chemotherapy is devastating on the immune system so once again I stayed away from people. When Ken and I took the cruise down the Mississippi, their dining arrangement was impossible. There was only one dining room, with 8 people at each table. It was impossible for me to get away from people. The cruise line accommodated its by serving us all meals in a lounge, so we were by ourselves. I never went to the grocery store. I turned down every invitation to large parties. I attended no movies or theaters. In other words, we isolated ourselves from everyone who we did not know was free of infections. We ate out especially in Mexico where the restaurants were outside. In the US we sat a long way from anyone. With only 5 months when I was off Ibrance, I have followed that pattern, except last Spring when my scans were clear and I had no chemotherapy. Last summer I was a free to attend everything and accept all invitation. But of course, no one knew except me. I did enjoy movies and my good friends who invited me for lunches and dinner. Now I am back to my old drill, which turned out to work just fine. I was not aware, but I had been in training for the corona virus. The system worked perfectly for me so I assume it will work well for the whole country. But enough is enough. Soon, people need to go back to work. Not long now.