Celebrating Christmas the Myasthenia and COVID Way

The biggest holidays of the year are peaking just around the corner. This will be our second Christmas dealing with COVID-19 during the holidays.

My view on life is different than most. While I may sound flippant about how I view my health and the world around me, trust me, that is farthest from the truth. However, for me, if life is going to be worth living, that means not being alone!

Planning for the holidays

Most of 2020, I was alone caring for my ill husband. Though we are no longer as interested in going out much for social events, we do like to get out into the world some. Being alone is depressing. Being alone and caring for a sick family member that is too ill to even carry on a conversation with you is even more depressing.

Therefore, as he is recovering from his last bout with illness, we are discussing what we intend to do about the holidays. Christmas 2020 was part of a critical time for him. Not only was our holiday celebration greatly diminished, but we also didn’t decorate!

That in itself was very depressing for me. This year, he’s doing much better and we are working toward having a very nice family Christmas. That said, we are still doing things differently and safely in order to accomplish the same goals.

Utilizing online shopping

Instead of physically shopping at the stores, most of our gifts and decorations are being ordered online.

Last year, we frequently ordered our groceries online and decided to return to that practice again. But this time, not much of the order was correct. Therefore, I guess we go back to shopping for groceries in person. Gift buying will remain online for the most part.

Staying safe

One of our granddaughters is a medical assistant at a local hospital. She works with COVID patients. Are we staying away from her? No. She’s probably one of the safest people to be around.

She wears a mask when she’s on duty, she wears scrubs and proper attire for infection control, and she showers and changes her clothes before going home. She also is tested frequently for COVID. That doesn’t mean she can’t get COVID or pass it on to us, but I’m not overly concerned.

Taking extra precaution

Our family gathering really hasn’t changed much since I was first diagnosed with myasthenia gravis. My family did their research on myasthenia and understood that if they are ill with any type of infection or exposed to infection, they stay away from me.

I don’t think this Christmas will be much different, as they have even gone so far as to be tested for COVID prior to a get-together when the possibility of exposure has been established.

Love and support from family

Because of everything we’ve done and the precautions we take, our plans are to still get together for our family Christmas. Our children and grown grandchildren are very conscientious of our welfare, so I know they would never deliberately put us in harm’s way.

We all do understand the risks and still, we will gather. Everyone needs the love and support of their family in order to thrive. We, as humans, need that human interaction.

So, though we will be cautious, we still plan to gather for the holidays. Why? Because mental health is just as important as physical health!