Worthington BLOG: Coronavirus Self Quarantine – Week 1

By Rick Worthington
3/16/20

As I have shared several times on social media and the KBOI website, my wife is fighting breast cancer. It’s something we have been dealing with for several years now.

We decided as a family on Friday (3/13/20) to self quarantine as best we can to keep the virus from getting into our home. That means my wife, son and our girls will all stay home full time. I will still go to work at the radio station, but have turned my newsroom and studio into a clean room, and will not come into contact with any other employees.

One of the things we have to do on a regular basis at home is clean, are be very careful about what germs or viruses my wife is exposed to. With that in mind, we are already used to wiping down counters with Clorox Wipes, and regular hand washing. So, the elevated cleaning to go with coronavirus concerns in really old hat to us. We’ve already been doing it for some time.

We did order some groceries, and pick them up on Saturday morning. Everything we needed was not available, as some people are hoarding certain items. It’s frustrating, and I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels that way. I’m told everything will be restocked – and getting supplies wont be a problem. I’m anxious to see if that is in fact the case, but only time will tell.

I think our son is probably the one person in the family the self quarantine effects the most. He is a Senior in High School. So many big events are in question now, including Prom and Graduation. Nothing is official right now, but he and I both think they will be canceled. It’s terrible for him, and my wife and I are both really struggling with the reality of the situation. I’m sure many parents out there are feeling the same thing.

None of us have caught “cabin fever” yet after just one weekend. That might be a little ways off, as we still have plenty of Netflix programs to catch up on and video games we have not yet jumped into. Also, we have neglected some projects around the house and will try to tackle a few of those in the coming days.

I’ll let you know how it goes in a few days…

Rick