As previously mentioned in earlier posts, I have heart conditions. It used to be 'just one', a little something I called 'my stoopid little heart thingie' - Rheumatic Heart Syndrome (RHS). Then in late 1998 I developed pericarditis (in short, where the sac surrounding the heart becomes inflamed and fills with more fluid than it should) which developed into cardiac tamponade where the pericardium fills with so much excess fluid it squeezes the heart...yes it is a life-threatening condition as that squeezing can stop the heart beating, and yes, the 'treatment' is the stuff of nightmares - an aspirating needle is guided via echocardiogram images into the pericardium to drain off the fluid. Mine was done in an emergency situation and the 'pain relief' administered was not able to be given time to fully take effect. Nothing like seeing a thin tube flopping about from the insertion point to cause life-long nightmares ever after.

The RHS damaged my aortic valve (luckily my most recent echo shows 'trivial' damage so no rush to replace that valve the now). The pericarditis eventually became 'recurrent pericarditis' and they still, 20+years on, don't know why although they think it might be a consequence of catching Dengue Fever in 1996 whilst living in Guatemala City, Guatemala. Apparently in some people the Dengue leaves them open to later developing recurrent pericarditis. Er, like me.

Every time a pandemic spreads itself across the globe (and for some reason those pandemics always seem to begin in China) I have to worry and that has been the case since I was a teenager with RHS and in late 1973 caught a whopping case of what was then called Hong Kong Flu. I remember getting up from the sofa in the middle of the night to visit the water closet. I remember making it as far as the entry to the hallway leading to the WC. I even remember beginning the faint that caused a middle of the night ambulance ride and I remember coming to in hospital a few days later hearing a cardiologist telling my step-mother I would always have to be careful of catching flu owing to the RHS being a 'pre-existing condition' that meant a flu could kill me.

I remember her shrugging off the warnings. My dad was in the process of divorcing her but I was still living in 'her' house as I was under 18 at the time and the prevailing notion was children should stay with the maternal figure (hahahaha, maternal figure!). Just before he died he told me he'd not even been advised I'd been in hospital (second time that year as in the spring of '73 I spent two weeks in hospital after a motor wreck) and been told my heart was predisposing me to all sorts...so when I wanted to join the USCG he was happy to sign the papers (I wasn't 18 yet), something he said had he known my heart condition had led to a whopping case of flu that nearly killed me he would never have signed me into the USCG.

Right, onwards and upwards - obviously I survived the Coast Guard, survived having my children (although the first one really did almost kill me and the cardiologist was so angry with me for daring to become pregnant he refused to ever see me again and I had to find a new cardiologist). In the early 90s I read a book called 'The Coming Plague' and it scared me so badly I could only read one chapter at a time then put the book down for a week or so to give me enough time to control the panic attacks.

But I managed well enough over the years until the pericarditis, and then afterwards even when my ex-husband cancelled my health insurance (despite being court ordered to keep it going) I was on my own. Which I somehow managed to do until I found a job with health insurance.

And then in early 2009 another pandemic hit and I came down with another whopping case of flu, this time a flu later named 'Swine Flu' and let me tell you, there were three days there I was certain I was about to die as my case of the flu was so bad. And, naturally, this lovely little killer came from...China, spread to Mexico and made its way into the USA via the border crossing.

After I recovered I went into serious preventative mode, even more so than when I'd read The Coming Plague and started a whole new way of grocery shopping (for example) - spray the trolley handle and basket with isopropyl alcohol, let it dry (preferably in sunshine), do the shopping then spray the hell out of my hands and outer garments after I'd packed the shop into the car boot...

In August 2010 I came to Scotland. In March 2019 I came down with a whopping acute flare of the recurrent pericarditis - something not often enough seen in the UK so when I presented with obvious signs of looming cardiac tamponade my GP sent me 'urgent' to the Rapid Access Chest Pain unit thinking I had heart failure.

Which of course (thank-you God) I don't have, but lack of proper treatment for the acute flare meant months of recovery despite my repeatedly telling one and all I came into contact with I knew I had pericardial effusion and it was the cause of all my symptoms. I was told repeatedly there was no way I was 'that unwell' as I was 'too bouncy to be that unwell' and 'no-one with what you're claiming could be as ambulatory as you are'.

Heh.

I'm not going to 'diss' the Scottish NHS here but I will say it's a damn good thing I'm not entirely stupid and can self-care as they are clueless - they didn't even bother to do an echo where the effusion was discovered for over a month after I was first seen and by then I was well into recovery and the effusion clearing itself.

And now (the point of this post) we have a 'novel coronavirus' sweeping the globe and its mutation rate means it could well be the 'VirusX' the CDC and WHO have been worrying about. And people like me with 'pre-existing conditions' are especially vulnerable to this new flu. And naturally, it began in China - apparently in early December 2019 but has taken until this past week to be fully revealed to the world. Swell.

We 'downsized' September 2018 so don't have as much storage space as we did at the old house - instead of being able to store around six months of rotating 'dry goods' and three months of 'perishables' we now can only store 2-3 months 'dry goods' and a month of perishables. Yesterday we 'topped up' when we saw on the news there were four people in isolation down in Edinburgh suspected of having the novel coronavirus. We're not panicked, of course but we made a point of topping up the aspirin and isopropyl alcohol stock amongst other things. We filled the fuel tank and stocked up a bit more bottled water.

First thing (around 8am UK time) I scanned the news. This morning there are six suspected cases across the UK, dozens more across the world. The mutation rate of this 'novel coronavirus' is almost exactly like the 1917 Spanish Influenza mutation rate.

Skippy, this ain't gonna end well. 

Ten cities in China are on lock-down. The death rate is 26 but news sources (credible ones) are saying that number will likely double by the end of the day. Presumed cases just in China are at 10,000 and likely closer to 20K. Cases in the rest of the world are being diagnosed every hour, and worst of all - medics are being infected so it's clear the virus has mutated now to the point of human-to-human transmission.

Here in the UK it has been revealed GP surgeries have been advised to communicate with suspected cases via telephone and if a patient dares present with symptoms at the actual surgery they are to lock said patient in the exam room, clear the surgery wait area of patients and close the surgery at once.

I'm a 'hermit' type person any road as is my husband - our main exposure to the 'general public' are the grocery and butcher runs every few weeks. I'm not terribly worried and neither is my husband - we're going to continue on as normal for us during winter (pretty much staying in to avoid being out on icy roads).

But I'd be lying if I said I don't have concerns - when was the last time China took an outbreak seriously enough to lock-down ten of it's cities?

I've just tuned to the telly news (11am UK time). and I feel sure this 'novel coronavirus' news will be even more disturbing than it was at 0800hrs.