And some used to make fun of “germaphobes”. How things can change. I also used to hear parents say “I’d take a bullet for my child.” Or “I’d do anything to switch places with my child to spare their pain.” Or would or have thrown themselves on top of a child to save them. But fly on a plane in 2020 to attend their socially distanced wedding? Well THATS a tough choice and too risky. We really have lost our ever loving minds. Some “risks” are worth taking. At least they are for me.
DonH Midwest Me 56 WAW-EXW 55 Met 11/95 / Married 5/00 Bomb 6/20/05 / She Filed on 6/2/06 / Divorced on 10/9/06 4 who'd qualify as GF since D & dated about 25 women since D
She's going - BUT - she has to quarantine for two weeks when she returns so as to not expose us, her coworkers, and the patients. And she has to worry about her own health on the way. Fortunately her son already had Covid so she doesn't risk bringing it to him, but I'm not sure how old or healthy his fiance's parents are and what risk it poses to them.
Well, CMM was given another month’s reprieve from chemo. His platelets are a little bit low, and his neuropathy is bad, so his oncologist decided to just extend the break. It’s a double edge sword - last time he was off chemo for a few months, he developed many new metastases. On the other hand, his body needs to be able to recover and it’s nice to have a break.
Got my hair colored Saturday (my hairdresser has just one person at a time in her shop and everybody masked). Glad I did because they closed hair salons again today. (They closed gyms again too which didn’t affect me because I’m not going back into my gym until this pandemic is resolved. ) Guess I’ll have to get used to my white roots aagain soon.
On another front - my son’s new kitten is just about the handsomest thing ever. He has fluffy white Maine Coon fur, seal points and Paul Newman blue eyes. He and my son’s older cat are getting along great. (According to my son, Maine Coon cats are known for having water resistant fur, which explains why the handsome kitten dries off so quickly after a bath).
I've seen two patients this week who have what I'm calling post-Covid syndrome. Both had relatively moderate symptoms in the acute phase. Both are having lingering peculiar symptoms 4 months later - cognitive difficulties, fatigue, weird pains, GI issues. There are tons of patient online with similar long-term effects. Although they likely are just a minority of cases, it's disturbing (some SARS patients had problems for years after).
So far, out of about 20 symptomatic cases in my patients or their family members (none of which required hospitalization) I've seen Covid cause diabetes, orchitis (inflammation of the testicles which can result in infertility or low testosterone), and these two patients with long-term symptoms. The oldest of these four patients is 35. Also, one of my patients had a grandson diagnosed with kawasaki disease in April - I suspect that was MCIS, even though his tests were negative at the time. I haven't heard followup on his case yet.
Please beware of misinformation online. This is serious and you really want to avoid it if you can. None of my long-term well-tuned up patients has had these complications yet, which I hope is due to me making sure they have adequate vitamin D levels and B12.
B12 and niacinamide were shown in a computer model to be likely candidates for anti-Covid activity btw.
Stay safe and well out there folks. There's still so much we don't know about this virus. My nieces ECMO service is full in Portland.
Can you imagine we have a 61 year old guy teaches on a vent at our hospital for 100 days today. He has no discharge plan as he is undocumented. He had 4 chest tubes and is down to one and he has severely fibrotic lungs. He will never come off the vent. And has no mean to pay for long term care, so he will likely be a resident of our hospital for life. Such a tough case.
Another 86 year old woman took a turn for the worse. She will probably go on GIP hospice tomorrow.
I don’t know that the diabetes is caused by actual COVID as much as the steroids raising the BS. I think n it might be too soon to say in any cases COVID is the cause of diabetes. Hasn’t been around long enough to have a big enough control group to get a pre and post COVID HgbAIC.
The diabetic case was my son.He had what looked like a simple bronchitis. We thought at first it was the prednisone - he has bad asthma and has to take prednisone for a few days whenever he gets a URI. But usually he has no problems. This time his blood sugars went to 350-400 and he had blurry vision and a metallic taste in his mouth. The diabetes did not resolve once he stopped the prednisone - it's 5 months later and he still needs medication. A study on SARS patients showed 20 out of 39 developed diabetes. At a 3 year followup 3 still had diabetes. The pancreatic islet cells are rich in ACE2 receptors, the binding site for the virus.
Wow...CV19 is the gift that just keeps on giving. Thanks for keeping us up to date KML. Hope the cases numbers start to decline really soon. (((HUGS)))
) Guess I’ll have to get used to my white roots aagain soon.