Being 60 makes a person realize that they’re not getting any younger and that the “someday” that one’s life will be over, is no longer an out of view realization as it seemed to be in your youth.

As a binge drinker of alcoholic beverages throughout my entire adult life, I’ve made the commitment to “never drink again” so many times over the years that it’s impossible to quantify, but with this lethal pandemic making the idea of death such a very real possibility, this will certainly impact my behavior in the future, should I survive this.

Around the 1st of April, I started experiencing some nasal drainage which is typical for me this time of year, but with this deadly virus rapidly creeping into every community, I had to wonder if this could possibly be the initial symptoms coronavirus. By the next week, there was no doubt that I had either the COVID-19 or something very similar and it got to the point that I called my Doctor’s office to ask for advice. The only advice was to stay at home and treat the symptoms with over the counter medications.

After about 2 weeks of having visions of my own death, which always seemed so intense in the middle of the night, I finally got in a night of good sleep and woke up feeling as if I might possibly overcome this thing, whatever it is. In fact, I felt so good about starting to feel healthier that I started buying a little bourbon to aid in the process.

After overdoing the whiskey, I awoke one morning feeling sicker than I’ve ever felt in my life and threw-up profusely several times, which is very unusual for me over the years.

Then getting over what felt like, and possibly was, alcohol poisoning, started to feel the return of some of the COVID-19 symptoms along with a few new ones. This was all with a bonus, a toothache. Now stuck in a situation that I can’t get to a Doctor’s Office or a Dentist Office to address my health issues, I am convinced that if I get over this situation, I will not only never drink again due to loss of interest, but ever smoke again.

This pandemic will serve to make the public in general so much healthier than before it, providing we survive it!

Update: After discussion my situation with my Dental office, they suggested getting tested for the coronavirus as a top priority which I did on Friday, May 1st. The results came back Monday as negative, which thoroughly surprised me, the only thing I can figure is that I had it and the virus has passed, or else it was a false negative, which is apparently the case 30% of the time with the swab test. Nevertheless, the dental apppointment has been scheduled a month down the road, as apparently the Dentist doesn’t have much faith in the test either. So now I’m on antibiotics and using over-the-counter tooth remedies to get through until June 5th.