The Pandemic is Personal: Patti Dailey on adjusting to not going out during COVID-19

Editor’s note: Wel­come to The Pan­dem­ic is Per­son­al, a week­ly series focus­ing on on how the nov­el coro­n­avirus (SARS-CoV­‑2) is affect­ing the every­day lives of peo­ple through­out the Pacif­ic North­west. We hope to enlight­en you and reflect on what you and oth­ers are address­ing as this pan­dem­ic runs its course.

If you have a sto­ry to tell, please feel free to con­tact us.

Pat­ti Dai­ley is a vet­er­an Demo­c­ra­t­ic activist and pub­lic ser­vant based in Pierce Coun­ty, Wash­ing­ton State’s sec­ond largest juris­dic­tion. She has a long­time his­to­ry of involve­ment in the labor move­ment in the Pacif­ic North­west. A can­cer sur­vivor, Pat­ti is among those who are the most at risk from pos­si­ble expo­sure to COVID-19, the nov­el coro­n­avirus. In this install­ment of The Pan­dem­ic is Per­son­al, she reflects on her nec­es­sar­i­ly strict phys­i­cal dis­tanc­ing regimen. 

Func­tion­ing through COVID-19 with dis­abil­i­ties that increase my chances of con­tract­ing the virus has been inter­est­ing and challenging.

In 2015 I fought both triple neg­a­tive breast can­cer (TNBC) and renal car­ci­no­ma, also known as kid­ney can­cer. One left me with new dis­abling con­di­tions and both left me at high risk for oth­er illnesses.

I work full time for the state DSHS (Depart­ment of Social and Health Ser­vices) in Taco­ma, Wash­ing­ton. In ear­ly March I became con­cerned hear­ing about deaths relat­ed to COVID-19 and how peo­ple over six­ty years of age, with health con­di­tions that decrease their sur­viv­abil­i­ty, were at great­est risk.

I began try­ing to lessen my expo­sure to peo­ple.  My divi­sion was not yet ready to send peo­ple home to tele­work so we con­tin­ued to work in the office despite news of expo­sures. I was issued equip­ment with set-up instruc­tions to take home and began work­ing from home full-time the last week in March.

Due to state bud­get short­falls, I am includ­ed in the groups of AFSCME Coun­cil 28 rep­re­sent­ed employ­ees who will be fac­ing furloughs.

We are going to be fur­loughed one day per week through the end of July, then one day per month through the end of the con­tract peri­od in June 2021.

Because I was one of the employ­ees whose Social Secu­ri­ty num­ber was used for a fraud­u­lent claim, I may not be able to file for unem­ploy­ment relief.

This will cause a sub­stan­tial finan­cial hardship.

For­tu­nate­ly, I have done sur­pris­ing­ly well work­ing from home.

I live alone with a dog and two cats. It is amaz­ing how the rela­tion­ship with your pets change when you are with them full-time. They became my new co-work­ers and we had to estab­lish some new work­ing rules like, don’t fol­low me to the bath­room – this is not an all-staff oppor­tu­ni­ty; you can’t write, so no tak­ing over the key­board; and the mouse does not belong on the floor.

The biggest chal­lenge I have had is how to get out to shop for food and keep safe. I only go out dur­ing the restrict­ed shop­ping hours at Safe­way at 6 AM.

I get anx­ious when I encounter peo­ple who refuse to real­ize the impor­tance of wear­ing masks and keep­ing phys­i­cal dis­tance. It has been espe­cial­ly unnerv­ing when employ­ees are not wear­ing masks and I either ask them to mask up or move, or even just pull their mask up over their nose, and the mas­sive atti­tude I get in return makes me angry and upset. Each trip is stressful.

There’s unfor­tu­nate­ly a con­tin­gent of peo­ple out there who do not seem to under­stand that COVID-19 isn’t just a mild flu for peo­ple like me. This is a dead­ly virus that can eas­i­ly kill any­one with under­ly­ing med­ical conditions.

I have been avoid­ing Cost­co and oth­er stores that do not have spe­cial hours for old­er peo­ple that are not dur­ing the work­day. Though I’d rather not, I have been using Ama­zon for things I am unable to get at the gro­cery store.

I have not been able to go to the doc­tor, to ther­a­py or oth­er appoint­ments and have had to adjust my sched­ule due to being iso­lat­ed at home.

I miss going out to eat and inter­act­ing social­ly with friends. Because of fear of expo­sure, I have not been able to do even a lit­tle out­door activity.

The oth­er pit­fall is work­ing hard to keep from falling into depres­sion. I have been forc­ing myself to stay active with my union and the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty. Par­tic­i­pat­ing in Zoom meet­ings gives me some oppor­tu­ni­ty for social interaction.

Will all of this be over soon?

Prob­a­bly not, and espe­cial­ly not for peo­ple with dis­abil­i­ties who are at greater risk. Some experts sug­gest we’ll need to stay home until there is a vac­cine – which could be more than a year from now. So, like any oth­er dif­fi­cult set of cir­cum­stances, I’m learn­ing to adapt and adjust and make the best of it.