Face Mask

While at Home

How to clean and sterilize your homemade face mask

By Jenny McGrath April 14, 2020

In early April, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) started recommending people wear face masks in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, commonly known as the coronavirus. In order to save surgical masks and medical masks for health care workers, the CDC said the general public should use cloth face coverings made out of household items.

“That’s the most important thing to keep in mind — that the purpose of the mask is not to protect the wearer,” Dr. Dean Winslow, an infectious disease specialist at the Stanford University Medical Center, told Digital Trends. “It’s to protect others, in case [the wearer is] asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic but shedding the virus.” The masks are useful for places like the drugstore, where it may be difficult to stay six feet away from someone else.

Coughing, exhaling, and talking all release droplets into the air that can infect others. In other words, the mask isn’t protecting you from the world; it’s protecting the world from you. That’s why it’s important to wear one, even if you don’t have any symptoms. You can still spread the disease before you start coughing or if you’re infected but never get very sick. Winslow also wants to remind people that masks aren’t a substitute for more effective measures, like staying six feet away from others. “Shelter in place and social distancing are, in the big scheme of things, much, much more important than the wearing masks are, in my opinion,” he said.  SOURCE:  Digital Trends

Buying Groceries

My wife decided that she needed to do a little shopping this morning and like always she does her shopping at Walmart's Super Center which is located less than 2 miles from our house.  Where we live in East TN, there has only been about 14-16 cases of COVID-19 reported with 1 death and while those numbers are still relatively low, my wife no only wears a face mask but disposable gloves as well...

Why is this important?

Because, no one else in Walmart was wearing a face mask and no one was wearing gloves, not even there workers at the cash register...  which was of alarm to her...   and left her with higher concerns that the virus could be easily spread.

1 Day Ago

Interestingly, our Federal Government is talking about lifting the Stay-at-Home Orders on May 1 and letting the economy start to grow again after a 90-day slow down. 

OUR/My concerns are that if we open-up our economy too soon and Americans decide that they are above the law or rules that we will have a relapse...

Sunday Morning

At my age, the days of the week pass by as quickly as passing gas after eating Southern Style Pinto Beans and corn bread...

Tomorrow, I have a PET scan to RESTAGE MY CANCERS...  so, what exactly does that mean?  Scans, such as CT/PET scans are performed to determine is the cancer is growing or if it has decreased or if it has spread to another other locations or if there are any new cancer origins...

This new staging data will be used to determined future treatment and if the current treatment is still working.

And while this is a necessary activity, my senses and feelings are alerted because of COVID19 and the fact that I really should be staying at home.

So, tomorrow, I will wear a face mask and gloves when I enter the hospital...

Today,
I feel fatigued and sleepy even though I sleep 10 hours last night and only got up once to pee which is amazing because I am usually up for that 2-3 times each night.

I cannot allow myself to take a nap today because I need to wake up at 5:30 am tomorrow...

Bandana Face Mask