Not my best day

[carbonel]

I am having a total meltdown about such stupid stuff.

I may have to cancel the cruise I’ve been looking forward to for months because of last week's bronchitis (or cold or whatever). My mother says they won’t let me on board if I’m coughing, even if the cough is the aftermath of something totally unrelated to coronovirus. Hong Kong was already canceled, and with the additional cost for the ticket to Taipei, I’m already out $1,600 for airfare in all, plus the cost of the cruise. Vacation time is already planned. But honestly, everything going on with it has been so stressful (mostly related to coronovirus) that I’m ready to cancel if I could be assured that the cruise line and insurance company would make good on everything.

I do volunteer copyediting for an online publication, and I’m late on that because I was sick. I’ve finished editing the last article, but I don’t want to do the final bits to put it all together. Maybe later tonight.

Maybe I’m not as recovered from being sick as I thought, because every little thing that went wrong today had me stress-crying.

And this is all so minor compared to people with real problems that I feel guilty about feeling upset, too. I just want it all to go away. If the cruise doesn’t happen, maybe I’ll hibernate for a week. I don’t have seasonal affective disorder -- normally I like winter -- but maybe this is the classic midwinter blahs.

Comments

[dorinda]

That’s not stupid stuff! It all sounds very stressful to me, and your whole system was already under stress from being ill. I’m very sorry about the trip. :( But I hope you can have a restful staycation of your own, if that’s what it comes down to.

[sartorias]

You beat me to it. So, what Dorinda Said.

[radiantfracture]

What the last person said.

Being sick is miserable, and losing out on anticipated pleasures is miserable, and worrying about money is miserable, and none of those feelings is stupid.

[graydon]

The universe does not contain a hierarchy of pain.

I mean, some things are worse than others, but what is bad for you is bad for you.

Bronchitis is inherently a serious illness. Anything that interferes with breathing is serious. Familiarity may make it seem less so to the waking mind, but anybody who has been having trouble breathing is deeply stressed.

This year's not been a great year for communicable diseases; a bad flu year, the cold has been nasty -- I've a co-worker who cannot manage to get everyone in their house healthy at once this last month or more -- and it's not a calm time, which is no kind of help. It's not much like a question of "does someone have it worse?", it's "is this too much?" and, well, clearly, yeah, it is.

I am sorry about the cruise and I hope it all works out well and the various soulless husks of corporate entities do the right thing by you.

[minnehaha]

Hear, hear.

K.

[lydy]

Oh, honey. Oh, crap.

Take care. I'm so sorry.

[oursin]

That is not in the least unreasonable: it's horrible losing out on a much-anticipated treat even when you're not already feeling the effects of illness (bronchitis is no joke).

[naomikritzer]

So, a couple of thoughts.

I would be very hesitant to travel to Asia right now, because of concerns about our own government doing additional dumb shit while I was away. I would be worried about winding up in a detention-style quarantine for 14 days when I got back. (Americans who were in Hubei were evacuated directly to an air base where they're being kept in hotel rooms for 14 days and not allowed to leave. Right now it's JUST people who were in Hubei, but do I trust the current government to handle this whole situation in a sensible way? Absolutely not.)

I would be particularly hesitant to go on a cruise, because if someone does get on with coronavirus, your whole ship will be quarantined together, which sounds like the opposite of a relaxing vacation: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/06/world/asia/coronavirus-cruise-ship.html

I would be additionally hesitant to travel with a cough, for fear of being randomly detained somewhere en route. I'll note that due to a chronic condition, I ALWAYS have a cough. If I were planning to travel internationally, I would get a note from my doctor explaining my condition, and ideally have it translated into the languages of the countries I would be passing through, so that if I were stopped out of concern about coronvirus I could produce the note explaining that I always have a cough.

If you were running a fever, it wasn't just a cold and it's not surprising it's taking you a while to get over it.

Your travel insurance covers cancellations if you're sick, right? You're sick! You're still coughing! If you haven't gone to a doctor, go to a doctor and explain the situation with the travel plans, I strongly suspect they will be perfectly happy to "order" you to cancel the trip and then you'll have the necessary paperwork.

[carbonel]

You are quite right, and I was thinking much the same thing as I went to bed last night. But see my next post -- events have overtaken me, and there will definitely be no cruise for me because the ship can't land at the new port, either (Taipei). No doctor's note needed.

Here in Asia

[lsanderson]

They are checking temperatures, not coughs. The airport had several temperature guns on the way to immigration. High end shopping centers and the like also have fever monitoring equipment. The staff is cleaning the escalator handrails with alcohol -- or I assume it's alcohol. Masks are running 50-50 or so. Korean Airlines staff are all in masks.