Pre-covid, post-covid

Five weeks in the hospital, April 19- May 21, 2020, two on Covid unit, three in rehab.. groceries are delivered. I'm slower on my feet, more careful where I go, not often at that.

There is a sense of before and after...

I refer to it as pre-pandemic and post-pandemic but then I live in an area where the word "Covid" is still political. 2020 was a tough year for us, too. The pandemic just made it harder.

Post Covid is different for me and my cousins as we are now the oldest generation.  One of my dad's sisters-in-law died just before the start of the pandemic, Mother passed away in 2021 and that left us without any aunts and uncles.  The biggest change for me is that I'm no longer a caregiver.  DH has stuff going on from time to time but it is vastly different than caring for parents.  I'm still not sure what to do with myself.

At school we talk about the current 3rd grade as "the grade whose kindergarten year was at home", because they missed almost all of that formative time. And the 4th grade is the grades whose 1st grade year was at home, and they also missed a lot. I mean, all kids did, but the younger ones were especially hard hit because they couldn't work independently and they missed all the foundational stuff.

I still think of my retirement in 2015 as my big marker in life, but I do think about world marker as March 13th, 2020.

I think of it as "before covid" and "since covid".

My life and perspective has changed.

"Life as I know it" can change in a second. 

I learned the words hardship, humble, grateful, thankful.....in ways and depths that I had never experienced before.
I will never ever take anything for granted, ever again.

My inner circle, out circle and extended circle.......have changed. I saw some kind and unexpected true colors. I saw some "don't care" true colors.

The worst part for me was the financial hit. 
I learned that what I thought was *enough* saved....... needs to be quadrupled or more.
My savings was supposed to be for the usual *emergency* type situations (car repair, sick and missed work supplement income, new microwave, new tire(s), shit happens, etc... and for living life (travel, splurges, bucket list things, etc...). Never in a  million years did I ever expect my savings account to be for survival day to day and month to month. 
I worked so hard and made so much effort to build my savings, only to have it drained. That has been so hard emotionally and mentally. 

My foundation got shaken and got unsteady and wobbly. My inner strength got a bit lost for awhile.
I am still in the rebuilding and work in progress phase. 
Thankful, grateful and humble.... for all that I have.  I have more than some, and less than others.

ScrapbookMyLife I'm sorry you had such a hard time and that you are still struggling. Be kind to yourself.

Yes, I think of it that way. My life has changed quite a bit in that time. Not as much as some of the other peas, but still significant to me.

* I already worked from home 2 days per week before March 2020, but now I am fully remote and will remain so. Same for DH.
* My dad got COVID in mid-March 2020 (yes, the early days) and spent 6 weeks in the hospital, very seriously ill (this was before Paxlovid, before vaccines, before easy access to testing...). My siblings & I took turns taking care of him when he came home from the hospital (he lived alone & we were all out of state) because there were no spaces available at any of the rehab facilities he could have gone to when he came out. That turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as I'm not sure he would have fared well in that environment. Instead, my sibs and I (and my adult kids) all took turns tag-teaming at his house, along with the home health nurse that came several times a week. But it was pretty scary since it was early days, there was so little information on the disease, ever-changing medical advice, and so much misinformation and suppression. To top it off my Dad lived in a red area of a red state, so mask usage (April - June 2020) was minimal...ugh. Now, three years later, he passed away this spring after what was basically a long, slow decline following his bout with COVID in 2020, exacerbated by a broken arm which accelerated his decline.
* We are much more conscious and deliberate about exposure and risk now, staying away as much as possible from people who we know never took it seriously when they now say they have "a cold". Even though we are all vaccinated and very risk-averse, we limit our exposure in those circumstances. Seeing how some extended family members and acquaintances reacted was eye-opening and I hate that it changed my view of some of them.
* DS basically lost a semester of college when everything shut down...he pretty much shut down at that time too. Luckily he was able to redirect and bounce back, but it was very rough going for a while.
* So many people in DH's and my circle lost someone significant, there's been a lot of grief the past 3.5 years.

Yes, I refer to things as pre-covid all the time.

My life isn't a lot different but i think for nurses Covid was a very interesting time.

Most people really appreciated the risks that were taken by healthcare workers when so little was known about the virus.

But after, when things began to relax, there was a real acceleration in overall bad behavior, aggression, impatience, and angry ignorance displayed by a much larger number of patients than before. That certainly contributed to a lot of job dissatisfaction.

And a lot of nurses got used to taking shortcuts during that time and I don't know that standards are as high with all new grad nurses as they should be, post Covid. Maybe I'm just old but if I never see you with a stethoscope, I don't want you caring for me.

The whole CDC and PPE and bandanas and all of that REALLY struck a nerve with me and many many other nurses.

In my personal life, I was very happy that DH began working from home. He's still home 4 days a week except when traveling.

I experienced a lot of career growth in the last few years since Covid which is satisfying professionally but lately I'm feeling like I would really like to step back and go part time. Life is short and I'm really missing my old much lower stress life!

I refer to it less as pre-Covid and more like before the world changed. I just don't feel comfortable in my existence the way I used to, but I think that started a year or two before Covid. To me the world has gotten meaner and most people don't get joy or pleasure out of anything. I hate to be a Pessimistic Patty but to me the world is so different and Covid made it 1000x worse.

I'm sorry you've had a tough time ScrapbookMyLife. Hugs to you.

I think of pre-covid- covid and post covid.

I just had covid last month.. so think we are still in covid

Yes i definitely refer to pre-COVID as the before times. We lost my mother in law to COVID in the first year, back when California had so many dead that they were holding bodies in freezers and there was a 4 month wait list for funerals. We knew she would not survive, but LA county had travel restrictions and we could not travel back to say goodbye. God bless the nurses who over the span of 5 days, let us say goodbye every day through an ipad until she finally did pass. I lost my brother 6 months into the pandemic. His death wasn't caused by COVID, but I could not travel home for the funeral because of COVID. My son was scheduled to have heart surgery late March 2020 that was delayed until August. His graduation was postponed and altered when they finally did have it. My work came to a complete halt and when it reopened it was nothing like it was before. Nothing is the same anymore. Not that it's all horrible by any means. But I don't think we will ever get over saying goodbye to my mother-in-law through an ipad. I'll never get over not going to my brother's funeral. I'll never get over being scared for my son's health while we waited to be able to fix his heart.

scrappinmama sorry you and your family had such difficulty and sadness during Covid with lasting after affects ongoing.