Part 2
After the appointment we went to a local hardware store to follow up on a lead that they had some masks. As I had taken off my protective gloves in the car I was left to my own devices to open the door: With my bare hand. A lovely young lady took over the once hardware-haven of the neighborhood and watered it down a bit, but she had all kinds of products one might need from soaps to toilet paper. And masks at a reasonable price.

Part 3
But as I took the money from my wallet the realization that I was interacting with a potential infection hit home: I had not had an ocular migraine in twenty-five days! I was telling myself that I was in remission and then, the old shimmer spot and compromised vision kicked in to accompany my pounding heart. And even when at home, after the new-age regime of fumigation of items and clothes, it returned twice. That is three episodes in a couple of hours. I was exhausted.

Part 4
There was an unending torrential rain pounding on the windows to the rhythm of my palpitating heart. I started to get a real headache and planted myself back in bed. What flashed as an image before me:

The torrential rain is generated by the collective unconscious of almost 9 million New Yorkers. It was a heavy, gray, miserable day.

Part 5
While trying to rest, a text message came in from my mother’s aide asking for intervention, to call and to help her. Now I was dealing with my 102 year-old mother screaming at the aide, insisting that the aide STOLE her meds;  took her calcium and thyroid pills. When I called and the aide answered, she was in the middle of a screaming match with my mother, and in my fatigue and frustration, I began screaming at my mother,  Because here is the bottom line: what aide is going to want to travel on two buses at 5 o’clock in the morning, risking illness, to work at my mother’s and take abuse for 9 hours. The words that were flying around went like this: “Pauline, no one wants to work with you because you accuse everyone of stealing!”

“My mother was incensed! What do you mean? Everyone likes me EXCEPT YOU!!”

I joined the fray. I started screaming at my mother: About what my day was like so far, that the pharmacist said she was due a refill. Anyway, my mother hung up on me because she said I don’t believe her. As the story went, she had pills yesterday and then the bottle was empty today. The pharmacist told the aide the last refill was in January. Who the hell knows?

Part 6
All I can say is that I had a headache which is scary enough as it is one of the virus symptoms, but this one was likely from the drop in the barometric pressure. My skull was sore. My limbs were going numb. Fallout from a migraine.

I had no appetite yesterday and barely ate. A great episode of “Better Call Saul” was a good diversion; after a handful of vitamins, CBD gummies and tea my heart finally stopped pounding. Sleep.

Part 7
2:00 am. Couldn’t sleep. I was hungry. And I knew if I didn’t eat something I’d be up for hours. So oatmeal and facebook it was, for a while until I could finally crash and turn off my head.

And the first chance I got, I called the dermatologists’ office answering service and filed a complaint about the waiting room experience and made sure it went to the office manager.

It was time to stand up again.