Day 3 Lock-down Codiponte...
Have hardly noticed. I do live in a very back-water place. Leave its confines though and the world is mildly different but not unpleasant. In the meantime…
while a couple of Lombardy provinces outside Milan were shut against the Coronavirus threat, then the entire region of Lombardy was too, quickly followed by the region of il Veneto along with several other provinces from there down to Parma and those few over by the Adriatic coast and down to the city of Pesaro, I was having my own very special health crisis. I thought I had come down with shingles. My general doctor agreed. Gads, I thought…
This and Coronavirus too? Viral over-kill. Better for YouTube. How is this to be bourn? I’ve been good though the last time I went to church was for the Midnight Mass at the Anglican cathedral in Genoa about 20 years ago. So now, what? I’m going to sneeze and wheeze and scratch myself to an early end? Buried with the shame of a rash? Gads.
There came no answer.
Ghastly itching on my head, neck and left arm, headaches often feeling like my cranium was going to explode, gnawing pain on the left side of my neck and a debilitating sense of fatigue. The entire list of symptoms would make themselves felt in waves and, with each new invasion, would become more extreme, more vicious. No rash though, a key element of the herpes zoster virus, AKA, shingles. And another symptom, a later blistering itching on my right hand was out of bounds of the dreaded shingles’ array of symptoms. The virus attacks nerve channels so, rashes, itching and pain fall to one side or the other of the body. The majority I had, but… ? Noting the off-beat indications, Dott. You-know-who, sitting on the longest and nearly completely shot black Chesterfield sofa in the entire world and wrapped in a hat, scarf, sweater and blanket paying court to my complaints and pleas for relief, said… an allergic reaction. So too said a friend in America, whom I had consulted for her vast wealth of medical experience. Digesting the list of symptoms, she emailed back… an allergic reaction. Trudged to my general doctor first thing Monday morning for better meds. I could’ve cared less about a diagnosis. General dottore said I had two things going on… shingles and something else. Oh, OK? However, all I really wanted was… time was a’ wasting… no more itching, no more pain, no more headaches… pleeaaasse! The doctor arranged emergency appointments with a neurologist and a dermatologist, which meant navigating under the decree made last Monday night by the Italian PM and his Council for locking down all of Italy against the Coronavirus threat.
But first, I had to internet over to the Apple-top, consult il Ministero del Interno - Coronavirus website to print off a form and fill it out at the top before leaving my humble abode of il Poggiolo for any of ONLY three permitted outings… by decree… 1) lavoro, 2) grocery shopping and 3) medical appointments/emergencies.
As it turned out, the clinic for the appointments down in the Big Town of Aulla was quite well organised, calm, under control, polite staff with synthetic use-throw-a-way one piece outfits in a weird white, aprons… ???… masks and blue gloves. Chicacosa. And though we, The Patients, had to stay outside and withstand a spray called rain and there’s-snow-in-the-air cold, since only a few people could enter the building at a time, all maintained their composure, their friendliness and their helpfulness to others, many arriving and anxious to know what the new procedure was. All also kept a proper distance from other participants.
The neurologist’s appt. was at 9:00 and the dermatologist was at Noon. VIETATO going to a bar or any place of public gathering in between. Thought of spending time photographing the ONLY statue of Bettino Craxi in Italy, a scandalously corrupt PM in the middle 80’s… the other monuments to his person had been summarily brought down or, BLOWN-UP when he fled to his villa in Tunisia to avoid prosecution for tax fraud, theft, racketeering, graft, etc. Decided not. But then, darned if my Luck wasn’t blowing in my direction. I saw both dottori together. And, within a few minutes of their listening to My Story and me submitting to a physical examination, the collective verdict was unanimous… an allergic reaction. No shingles. A prescription for a new med was slipped to me by a gloved hand and off I drove back to Codiponte past little traffic, few folk walking around, and a nearly empty grocery store. Quiet.
I am very proud of Italy. As my Father would often say… Don’t fight the problem. The Italian Government didn’t. Instead, a seemingly weak PM… burdened with a ridiculous coalition of recalcitrant Italian politicians of many stripes and various low IQ’s… and his Council… a more select group from the same… considered the situation, analyzed the Coronavirus threat, and voted in favour of saving lives and the discomfort of its people despite what will bite even harder… the damage done to the country’s institutions, industries, citizen’s lives and livelihoods… a way of Life. Brave, courageous, compassionate. Hard to have done. Harder to enforce. Hard all the way around. But…
where I live, in Codiponte, Lunigiana, Tuscany, Italy, and the experience outside & inside the clinic in Aulla and later in my favourite grocery store visit to stock up on necessities… white wine and potato chips… I am proud of the Italians too. Sadly, there are always bad apples… prisoners burning mattresses because Visiting Hours were stopped and the absurd disturbances in big city supermarkets to clean the shelves of bottle water… OK, an essential for sure… rubbing alcohol… well, there are safer & better products to use than that but, OK… gel… the silliest of feel good goo of today’s PC hygiene… and…? And…? And toilet paper? I don’t mean to sound like Marie Antoinette but, if they don’t have toilet paper, can’t they use their bidets? They use less precious H2O than showers, guys.
The positive side of the current Coronavirus crisis is we will know pretty well what is needed to be done when a true and real-live KILLER VIRUS hits The World and the forced changes to lives and livelihoods… ie waste not, want not… might be a good thing for our Future, don’t you think? I do. You too?