mdlbear: biohazard symbol, black on yellow (biohazard)
[personal profile] mdlbear

It's been a month since anyone but the three residents have been in the house -- Colleen's caregiver, V, was the last "outsider". I've done a couple of curb-side pickups, Colleen has had two MAC clinic appointments, and a few people have come to the door with deliveries. But we're as safe as anyone can be in this pandemic.

Meanwhile our daughter E is on the front lines -- she started work as a checker at Safeway around the beginning of March.

All the links under the cut will be repeated in Sunday's "Done Since" post, but I want to highlight this one in particular:

Even patients without respiratory complaints had Covid pneumonia. [...]

And here is what really surprised us: These patients did not report any sensation of breathing problems, even though their chest X-rays showed diffuse pneumonia and their oxygen was below normal.

We are just beginning to recognize that Covid pneumonia initially causes a form of oxygen deprivation we call “silent hypoxia” — “silent” because of its insidious, hard-to-detect nature. [...]

Patients compensate for the low oxygen in their blood by breathing faster and deeper — and this happens without their realizing it. This silent hypoxia, and the patient’s physiological response to it, causes even more inflammation and more air sacs to collapse, and the pneumonia worsens until oxygen levels plummet. In effect, patients are injuring their own lungs by breathing harder and harder.

In other words, by the time you notice that you're out of breath, you've already damaged your lungs and are low enough on oxygen that you'll probably need to go on a ventilator immediately. With predictably bad consequences.

The reason I'm telling you this is to convince you to go out and get a pulse oximeter now and check your blood oxygen level every damned day whether you feel sick or not. If it starts going down, call your doctor no matter what other symptoms you don't have.

In one of my last trips into Rite Aid before we isolated, I bought myself a pulse oximeter and have used it almost every day, feeling somewhat silly about it. Turns out it isn't silly at all.

Notes & links:

  @ Is the Virus on My Clothes? My Shoes? My Hair? My Newspaper? - The New York Times
  @ ‘Five-Second Rule’ for Food on Floor Is Untrue, Study Finds - The New York Times
    Longer Contact Times Increase Cross-Contamination of Enterobacter aerogenes from
    Surfaces to Food | Applied and Environmental Microbiology 
    " Although we found that longer contact times result in more transfer, we also found
      that other factors, including the nature of the food and the surface, are of equal
      or greater importance. Some transfer takes place “instantaneously,” at times of
      <<1s, disproving the five-second rule. "

  @ UW coronavirus model says Washington state could potentially start safely reopening
    the week of May 18 | The Seattle Times
    -> depends on how quickly the curve starts dropping off, the availability of testing,
       adequate hospital space and equipment, the ability to trace and isolate contacts of
       people who test positive, and continuing to prohibit large gatherings.
  @ Coronavirus: Advice From the Middle Ages for How to Cope With
    Self-Isolation

  @ Keep your home free of coronavirus with these cleaning, disinfecting tips 
  @ Opinion | The Infection That’s Silently Killing Coronavirus Patients - NYT
    " Patients compensate for the low oxygen in their blood by breathing faster and deeper
      — and this happens without their realizing it. This silent hypoxia, and the
      patient’s physiological response to it, causes even more inflammation and more air
      sacs to collapse, and the pneumonia worsens until oxygen levels plummet. In effect,
      patients are injuring their own lungs by breathing harder and harder. "
    " Widespread pulse oximetry screening for Covid pneumonia — whether people check
      themselves on home devices or go to clinics or doctors’ offices — could provide an
      early warning system for the kinds of breathing problems associated with Covid
      pneumonia. "
    -> so I've been doing exactly the right thing by measuring my O2 level every day.
    -> the time to call for help is _before_ one starts feeling short of
       breath

  @ National coronavirus response: A road map to reopening - AEI [pdf published 3/28
  @ guidance document to support governors’ efforts [PDF] (COVID-19 Updates - April 20)
    " States should consider initiating the reopening process when (1) the number of new
      cases has declined for at least 14 days; (2) rapid diagnostic testing capacity is
      sufficient to test, at minimum, all people with COVID-19 symptoms, including mild
      cases, as well as close contacts and those in essential roles; (3) the healthcare
      system is able to safely care for all patients, including providing appropriate
      personal protective equipment for healthcare workers; and (4) there is sufficient
      public health capacity to conduct contact tracing for all new cases and their close
      contacts. " We'll see how that goes.
  @ A parade that killed thousands? (thnidu | Déjá vu all over again)

Date: 2020-04-22 07:55 am (UTC)
alexseanchai: Katsuki Yuuri wearing a blue jacket and his glasses and holding a poodle, in front of the asexual pride flag with a rainbow heart inset. (Default)
From: [personal profile] alexseanchai
sincere: thank you for the info and advice

sarcastic: thanks for the anxiety spike

Date: 2020-04-22 07:59 am (UTC)
azurelunatic: Vivid pink Alaskan wild rose. (Default)
From: [personal profile] azurelunatic
The Big Retailer Online store was out of $20 pulse oximeters when I looked, at least ones that had a history. There were $40 ones. I wound up getting a watch oximeter instead of a stand-alone. This way I'll be likely to have it on hand. (Accidental pun intentionally kept.)

I think my old phone also has an oximeter feature.

Date: 2020-04-22 06:16 pm (UTC)
we_are_spc: (Default)
From: [personal profile] we_are_spc
...

Someone tell me how to get a plseoxemeter that tells you what your oxstat is and all that. The only one I've seen is in my pulminologists office, and I have no idea what the model even is to start looking.

Like for serious. *sighs*

I'm glad you are both doing as well as you can during this pandemic, it makes me feel better that I may well see you at cons/other events once all this passes us by.

-T~

Date: 2020-04-24 04:32 pm (UTC)
we_are_spc: (Default)
From: [personal profile] we_are_spc
Ah, but my pulminologist had one that spoke it out loud. I wish I could find *that* one...although bluetooth ones would work as well. That way I wouldn't have to have anyone read it for me. Which would be ideal.

Thank you for the info: I will go look now.

-T~

Date: 2020-04-22 09:38 pm (UTC)
jesse_the_k: Alana of Staples/Vaughn SAGA comic (alanna amazed)
From: [personal profile] jesse_the_k
Seriously, thanks for this info!

Hoping your pulse ox continues to report nothing of note for all of you!

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