Brin (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
brin_bellway) wrote2020-12-27 11:23 am
brin_bellway) wrote2020-12-27 11:23 am
Not a sequel to the previous post, despite having the same set of content warnings
[cw: illness, apocalypse]
One of the less common reasons I'm looking forward to a vaccine is that I want to be able to deliberately expose myself to pollen under various conditions without worrying myself or anyone else about whether I've got The Plague.
Pollen masks are an incredibly useful tool, but if at all possible I need a broader toolkit. I've never tested any anti-allergy meds, and I want to start. Even being able to medicate myself back to 2019 levels of bad (sore throat only, no nasal symptoms) would be helpful.
I've already talked about missing picnics and the smell of grass, but *also*: speaking as someone of a prepper inclination, "being unable to safely breathe your own planet's atmosphere" is a hell of a liability in a wide variety of disaster situations. *Every* scenario where I need to evacuate, and *every* scenario in which I have to perform outdoor labour to keep things running, is for me close to a raging-wildfire-in-the-distance scenario for everyone else, in terms of "holy shit how are we gonna breathe".
(unless maybe it's winter, but then we have "holy shit how are we gonna keep warm", so not a great improvement there)
Hell, it's a liability in plagues! I can't eat outdoors in order to avoid eating in indoor public spaces, or at least it's a nasty tradeoff: I actually *did* eat outdoors once in early November thinking pollen time was over because early November's been safe every other year, but oh yeah this shit is degenerative and it turns out half an hour of early-November air *will* fuck me up now. And I'm very aware that I can't follow the advice to ventilate your convalescing space: every airspace I could ventilate to is toxic, bitterly cold, contains vulnerable people, or some combination of the above. While I was in quarantine, I was in significant part breathing in the same air I'd earlier breathed out, with all the germs thereof: each breath sent reinforcements to whatever viruses might be coursing through my system. But I couldn't open my window to rid myself of them, because the cure was worse than the disease.
One of the less common reasons I'm looking forward to a vaccine is that I want to be able to deliberately expose myself to pollen under various conditions without worrying myself or anyone else about whether I've got The Plague.
Pollen masks are an incredibly useful tool, but if at all possible I need a broader toolkit. I've never tested any anti-allergy meds, and I want to start. Even being able to medicate myself back to 2019 levels of bad (sore throat only, no nasal symptoms) would be helpful.
I've already talked about missing picnics and the smell of grass, but *also*: speaking as someone of a prepper inclination, "being unable to safely breathe your own planet's atmosphere" is a hell of a liability in a wide variety of disaster situations. *Every* scenario where I need to evacuate, and *every* scenario in which I have to perform outdoor labour to keep things running, is for me close to a raging-wildfire-in-the-distance scenario for everyone else, in terms of "holy shit how are we gonna breathe".
(unless maybe it's winter, but then we have "holy shit how are we gonna keep warm", so not a great improvement there)
Hell, it's a liability in plagues! I can't eat outdoors in order to avoid eating in indoor public spaces, or at least it's a nasty tradeoff: I actually *did* eat outdoors once in early November thinking pollen time was over because early November's been safe every other year, but oh yeah this shit is degenerative and it turns out half an hour of early-November air *will* fuck me up now. And I'm very aware that I can't follow the advice to ventilate your convalescing space: every airspace I could ventilate to is toxic, bitterly cold, contains vulnerable people, or some combination of the above. While I was in quarantine, I was in significant part breathing in the same air I'd earlier breathed out, with all the germs thereof: each breath sent reinforcements to whatever viruses might be coursing through my system. But I couldn't open my window to rid myself of them, because the cure was worse than the disease.
no subject
Me, usually at work: I *hate* needing to breathe, breathing is such *bullshit*, why can't I just live *anyway*
Me': You'd still need airflow to talk, and you'd hate everyone who made you talk to them and thereby forced you to breathe.
Me: It'd still be an improvement!