Covid19 things I’m seeing & hearing

[RotBaron]

Preface: no intention of getting off topic into things forbidden in BBS. I’ve read the threads here and saw where they headed. However, I saw enough posts here downplaying it to raise my concern.

I’m a RN, I work primarily in medical surgical setting and skilled nursing. I have not had any patients with active infection, but I have had recovering/recovered patients. I do know many ICU nurses though that I trust their word on this. Also I’m in AZ where we’ve seen the biggest % increase recently. AZ lagged way behind in testing. In March and April our health services were screaming for more testing, so that was predictable. I can’t however speak for TX, CA and FL which have also had big increases when what I heard here was that those states had the testing AZ wanted.

It’s not behaving as a respiratory virus in a enough of cases and which begs should it really be Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome COV 2?

A good friend lost a 29 y/o to it, he did have underlying conditions, however he said it was the kidney failure that lead to demise. That’s the youngest case that I personally know of from another nurse I can trust. He sends me the ICU shift census updates. 2 weeks ago it was 19% in his ICU and about the same across the other 5 hospitals of that company network. At the moment it’s near double.

I know 4 people who have had moderate to severe symptoms, tested positive and recovered. They each had the well known symptoms, but each one had different chief complaint, i.e. one had severe fatigue “unlike any cold or flu he’d ever had,” another had considerable shortness of breath.

To sum up, lest I go on for pages, I see so many people out at stores and other places (unfortunately even on nursing units) that still don’t take it serious enough. At the same time I’m not saying to live in fear about going to the grocery store or your mail, I am saying that it does different things to different people. Please be as safe as you can and if you’re not worried about it for yourself, maybe be concerned enough for others that have known/unknown pre-existing conditions. 

 

[Busher]

Thank you for posting this. 

[MORAY37]

Preface: no intention of getting off topic into things forbidden in BBS. I’ve read the threads here and saw where they headed. However, I saw enough posts here downplaying it to raise my concern.

I’m a RN, I work primarily in medical surgical setting and skilled nursing. I have not had any patients with active infection, but I have had recovering/recovered patients. I do know many ICU nurses though that I trust their word on this. Also I’m in AZ where we’ve seen the biggest % increase recently. AZ lagged way behind in testing. In March and April our health services were screaming for more testing, so that was predictable. I can’t however speak for TX, CA and FL which have also had big increases when what I heard here was that those states had the testing AZ wanted.

It’s not behaving as a respiratory virus in a enough of cases and which begs should it really be Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome COV 2?

A good friend lost a 29 y/o to it, he did have underlying conditions, however he said it was the kidney failure that lead to demise. That’s the youngest case that I personally know of from another nurse I can trust. He sends me the ICU shift census updates. 2 weeks ago it was 19% in his ICU and about the same across the other 5 hospitals of that company network. At the moment it’s near double.

I know 4 people who have had moderate to severe symptoms, tested positive and recovered. They each had the well known symptoms, but each one had different chief complaint, i.e. one had severe fatigue “unlike any cold or flu he’d ever had,” another had considerable shortness of breath.

To sum up, lest I go on for pages, I see so many people out at stores and other places (unfortunately even on nursing units) that still don’t take it serious enough. At the same time I’m not saying to live in fear about going to the grocery store or your mail, I am saying that it does different things to different people. Please be as safe as you can and if you’re not worried about it for yourself, maybe be concerned enough for others that have known/unknown pre-existing conditions. 

 

I know people actively studying it and they say the damage they are seeing in cells all over the body is scary.  Heart muscle is being demolished in one patient.  Lung tissue in another.  A new scary thing that's popping up is that the virus has a particular new found affinity for attacking the cells that make insulin.  My friend at Johns Hopkins is seeing people come out the other side of a "low grade" Covid-19 infection with a nice case of diabetes for life as a souvenir.  Also, the list of what is considered a "pre-existing condition" with this virus is now so long that ~65% of the United States population has at least one.

I've personally had 5 friends go through it (and one of their infants who was hospitalized) and also had coworker pass away from it (5 are in their mid 30's and one in their 40's, all without pre-existing conditions).  The lady three doors down from my home died three weeks ago from it. She was a healthy 67.  My neighbor's mother AND father both died from it.  It's not a joke.

But, people are going to say and do whatever they want, especially in America.  Honestly, they don't believe it until it happens to them. There's also the false sense of bravado and machismo that pervades our society.

All you can do is try to educate them.  It doesn't help that the observations by research doctors with multiple PHd's are considered equal to the opinion of the guy on youtube who graduated the bottom of his high school class in this current climate. 
It seems there isn't a particular cell this virus won't attack, currently.  Heart, Lung, Liver, Nervous system, digestive system and even reproductive cells have been damaged. It's not really about the dying that is scary..... it's what you're likely to take with you for the rest of your life.  My colleague told me about a patient that "survived" a bad infection..... with extreme heart muscle damage that will likely lead to surgical intervention at some point, and lung function reduced by 45%..both are likely permanent.  The patient is 36 years old.

I'll take the science.  The people I speak with are former colleagues that went into medicine while I stayed in ecology....and they know what they are talking about. But again, I live in what was an initial Covid hot spot.

[whiteman]

My wife’s an RRT just south of Houston. The first couple months were smooth and manageable, last week things started getting busy. First cases were older folks, 50 to 90 and most went home in a couple days. The didn’t vent anyone, they’ve had great success with just going basic. Now she’s seeing 17 to 32 and they aren’t doing good.

Opened up to fast, people didn’t respect it and acted like it was over since memorial weekend. She’s head of the department and said their Houston medical center hospital was asking for vents, could only spare one.

[FESS67]

I have heart disease and I have left the house only 5 times in the last 3 months.  If I get it I am in trouble.  It saddens me that human beings cannot adhere to pretty basic rules to stop something like this.  Most are too selfish and do not want to put themselves out for the better of others.  A sad difference from the Greatest Generation who lived this game for real and put others first.

Modern society has become too focused on possessions and position.  We have even seen cases of 'influencers' doing dumb things just so they can get the next post on some social media platform.

Having said that, dealing with this situation is a difficult choice that no matter which way people go they will be judged poorly.  Open up and people die = bad choice.  Stay closed and society collapses = bad choice.  I do not know the answer however I think I prefer the open up scenario.  We may lose 2 million people to it but the other hundreds of millions get to go on in some sort of normality.  Harsh call but I feel the bunker down option hurts more people for longer.

Either way, do what you can to stay safe and try to not put others at risk.

[Shuffler]

Until this past Thursday, I did not know anyone who has it or has had it. I found out our company insurance broker had it. It said it hit him like a cold and never got any worse.

My brother went to his doctor to get his physical. When he entered the doc just reached out and shook his hand. My brother laughed and said he thought he would get a fist or elbow bump with all that is going on. His doc just laughed.

We have been through this many times before.

[Eagler]

They say everyone will have to catch it for us to be safe as no vaccine will be available before that happens

They say once you have it you have " a pre existing condition" going forward as far as health insurance goes

Currently the only place you can get any kind of coverage once you have one is obamacare and that is crap insurance at best

This event will lead to national heathcare reform

<S>

Eagler

[Shuffler]

They say everyone will have to catch it for us to be safe as no vaccine will be available before that happens

They say once you have it you have " a pre existing condition" going forward as far as health insurance goes

Currently the only place you can get any kind of coverage once you have one is obamacare and that is crap insurance at best

This event will lead to national heathcare reform

<S>

Eagler

Never understood folks not getting insurance. If they prefer to spend their money on cars, drugs, partying..... that is on them.

Choices one makes should never impact others.

[Busher]

CLANK

Anyone else hear the Lock? Just have to bring politics to a medical crisis.

[CptTrips]

They say everyone will have to catch it for us to be safe as no vaccine will be available before that happens

I think we better hope that is not the case.  It certainly shouldn't be taken cavalierly with a nihilistic "Oh lets all just hurry up and get it to get herd immunity."  That's suicide-bomber thinking in my opinion.

This is not the flu.  It is not a cold.  They are starting to see a wide range of second order effect of this disease even if the patient thought they had a "mild" version.  This thing can damage organs through out the body.  Heart, lungs, blood vessels. The damage may not be detected immediately, but may lead to long term health problems and shortened life spans.

A lot of gassed soldiers in WWI didn't die immediately in 1918.  They died in 1922, 1925, 1928.  With damaged lungs, just one more bad cold was all it took.

What I fear, is a mass nation-wide health problem of a million COVID damaged survivors, ruining and shortening lives and putting incredible long term pressure on our health system for decades to come.

No one should want to hurry up and "get" this to get it over with.  I've had friends express this sentiment to me and frankly I think they are ignorant, uninformed or just crazy.  For one thing they are getting better every day in even learning how to treat this disease.  Your odds of survival are much better now than the first few months when they had no experience on how to fight this.  It will get better.  They will find pharma treatments.  They will develop serum antibody treatments before a vaccine.  A certain percentage of the population will never get this before the vaccine arrives.  You want you and your family to stay in that golden percentage.  That will require intelligence, discipline and a little luck.

Hope you all make it.




 
 

[Maverick]

I have pre existing conditions as a two time cancer survivor down to one kidney. I don't go out much at all. I had to take the car in for service and wore a mask. Was the only one in the dealership with one. Now my county is seeing a doubling in covid cases. We do go out to eat or have take out twice a week to give the wife a break from the kitchen. but that is pretty much it. The wife does her grocery shopping by internet and has curbside delivery so she doesn't have to go in the store. Hoping this crap slows down in the next month or so.

[save]

The problem we have in many western countries lately  is than the younger generation do not respect distance to other young and contract it, and in turn give it to relatives and friends.

I'm scheduled for test for antibodies against corona in 2 days, the reason is that I might have antibodies, I flew from Bangkok, with a flight from Wuhan leaving just less than an hour before my flight in February, and I shared passport and security control with them.

If have I have antibodies, they can use my blood to give corona patients in the hospitals, if they prove it to be effective.

I caught a fever one week after coming home, but that was very brief, and could be, or not an Corona infection.
My friend I flew with was home from work 2 weeks, and had bad coughs for another 4 weeks
.
Fortunately we both work from home 100% of the time, so no other could be infected from what we had, whatever type of infection we got.

[CptTrips]

Hoping this crap slows down in the next month or so.

Yeah, me too.  But I don't believe it will. 

I think we haven't seen anything yet.  I think the orchestra has just been warming up in the pit.  The curtain doesn't open until Fall.  Then the show really begins.

It would be a good idea to use this lull to get restocked, purchase a freezer if you don't have one, based on the first trial run, is there anything you wish you had prep'ed better the first time, now is the time to correct that.  Battery charger for vehicles?  (Hadn't moved my truck for a month and found my battery dead!   )
You've had a warning shot.  Don't waste the opportunity to prepare. 

Oh, how about just grilling and taking meal duties from your wife for the evening instead of going to a restaurant?  Personally, there is no way I'd eat in a restaurant, or even get take out.  You have no idea who is breathing on your food in that kitchen.  But you can guess they are a low wage worker, who probably doesn't get sick pay so just tough out a shift even if they are feeling sick. Shudder.  But hey, if you feel comfortable with that...

 





 

[Scared]

Yeah its coming back strong. I know we have to re-open our economy to keep from collapse, but people are gonna die. stay safe folks. take your vitamin D!!!!

[Spikes]

In.