Dealing With TB In The Home

So for the past few days, I've been walking around the house in a surgical mask. I tried to get Jerry and his mom to wear their masks too but nobody seems to be taking me seriously. They only do it when I remind them to. Not only that, but I still hear his dad coughing around the house without covering his mouth. And no, nobody else seems to be using the hand sanitizers or handwash that I scattered around. I'm so worried all the time now that my mother in law has already gotten the disease and that she is going to pass it to Jerry (who may or may not have it at the moment) when he talks to her without a mask on.

My aunts messaged me frantically last night, urging me to move out of the house as soon as possible. I could go into labor anytime during these next few weeks. After which, our newborn baby will be extremely susceptible to illnesses or disease due to his still developing immune system. I felt strongly that Jerry should also move out of the house with me, but it seems that he is suffering from some pride issues. Apparently, according to Singaporean Chinese culture, the wife moves into the husband's household and not the other way round (at least that's what he says). He seems so deeply affected by that rigid piece of tradition that he's actually willing to risk catching TB at home and thereby not being able to spend the next 6-9 months around his wife or newborn. I can't believe it!!!

A tiny ray of hope appeared yesterday. Jerry logged onto the Housing Development Board (HDB) website and discovered that despite our disadvantageous queue number, we do have an appointment to pick our Sale of Balance Flat (SBF) in about two weeks from now. Sale of Balance flats are public housing apartments that are either halfway or already completed, which means we could move in immediately instead of having to wait 4-5 years for the place to be built. Unfortunately for many Singaporeans, getting any sort of housing is a terrible headache and a miraculous feat because our queue numbers are balloted. The worst that could happen now is that all the available units would have been picked before we even had a chance to exercise our ballot. 

If by some miracle, we managed to get a unit this time around, we may be able to move into our new place as early as the end of the March. It will be rather inconvenient for us then, because my due date is March 21st, but that's at least better than nothing. 

In fact, that's all I have to hold on to now. We can't afford to rent an entire unit right now because I'm not planning to work at full capacity for this year, which means we would have to live with relatives. Since Jerry's not comfortable with doing that, we are in a bit of a dilemma because of the TB situation at home right now.

I literally can't do anything right now but pray and hope for the best.