My daughter lives in a group home

[deurbano]

26. i know how you are feeling. My daughter is not intellectually disabled, but she does have a

developmental disability, and is quadriplegic with a speech disability as a result of cerebral palsy. She is 46, and had lymphoma in 2013-14, and spent five months being treated in the hospital...developing her first ever pressure sore (which progressed to stage 4!) in the process, plus had a lot of other complications (needing a feeding tube, etc.). She was first misdiagnosed as having a cold or allergies or reflux because she had a chronic cough, but it turned out the cough was actually due to a tumor crushing her esophagus. Luckily, she never needed radiation (the chemo was VERY hard on her, though, and had to terminated earlier than the regular protocol dictated), but I think this experience has made her even more vulnerable to respiratory issues than many other people who are quadriplegic. I worry a LOT about how this could affect her, and like your daughter, she can't easily follow the prevention guidelines. She's had a bit of a cough on and off for weeks, so she went to the doctor and was told a lot of people have had a lingering cold, and they did blood tests for cancer that were negative and she had no fever... but the cough continues. I'm think maybe she should get a chest x-ray to rule out "walking pneumonia"? At any rate, for all these reasons, I think she's extra vulnerable, but two weeks ago, the doctor thought normal activities and even domestic travel were fine.

My daughter is extremely active in our community. (We live in San Francisco.) She rides BART and the streetcars all the time, goes out to eat at cafes, goes to movies, etc. She's particularly active in Democratic politics as a Ca Dem delegate and a canvasser (she's always one of the lead texters with her one good finger)... and in the domestic workers' rights movement and the movement for longterm care/independent living/self-determination for people with disabilities and elderly people. Four weeks ago, she was in Sacramento for a meeting concerning self-determination for people with developmental disabilities, in Las Vegas three weeks ago for a domestic workers' rights convention, in San Mateo, Oakland, Berkeley and all over SF for various activities (including an event she co-hosted on behalf of the Warren campaign regarding proposed disability-related policies) after that, then flew to NYC with my husband (who took time off work to be her attendant) for a domestic workers' rights meeting, and they got home about 1 am today!!!

While she was in NYC, NY started diagnosing its first cases, then I heard someone diagnosed in Toronto may have contacted it in in Las Vegas... and then on Thursday, my younger daughter's San Francisco high school (I was both a teen mom and now a geezer mom) was closed because a student's parent is being treated for the virus! So, my vulnerable older daughter seems to be a heat-seeking missile for coronavirus hot spots, which may now include our own home! (I think the school district is waiting to see if the student with the positive testing parent is also positive before deciding what to do going forward.) And my 17-year-old is a senior, and now the high school musical she is in may be cancelled, along with the annual dance performance, the prom... graduation?! And college visits for admitted students are being cancelled, too.

Of course, my high school daughter's situation pales in comparison to what some people in the world are experiencing, but it's beyond ridiculous that we don't even know how long the virus has been here, that we've had such criminally inadequate access to testing, that there has been so little advice or any guidelines until the last couple of days. I heard the recommendation now is for those 60 and over to try not to go out much. I'm 65! My husband is 64! More information... PLEASE. My two daughters and I were supposed to go to a bridal shower today. What to do? We decided my older daughter should stay home for the next week or so after the NYC trip (she was supposed to go to a CA Dem delegate meeting in Visalia, but decided to skip that), since she's feeling a bit run down anyway. My other daughter and I will attend. What about my 21-year-old son and the gym... which is right next to the high school that closed? And my son is supposed to go back to university in England in April. Will that even be possible?

This is coming at us fast.