driftwoody
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Take the path closer to the edge, especially if less traveled
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Post by driftwoody on Dec 24, 2021 9:24:31 GMT -8
Well, COVID had the effect of canceling the annual Christmas Eve party with my sister, our four first cousins, and closely related family. My sister's husband tested positive a week ago, and my sister today. She's had symptoms several days, though neither are in bad shape. They're both vaxxed. My sister has some serious health issues otherwise, so I am concerned.
We didn't have the party last year, but were hoping for this year.
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Post by bradmacmt on Dec 24, 2021 10:10:22 GMT -8
My son in LA tested positive this past Wednesday (he's vaccinated and boosted). He has mild symptoms, but I cancelled his flight that would have had him home tonight for Christmas, his birthday and New Years.
Sigh. Covid sucks...
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bcpete
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There's cool, and then there's me.
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Post by bcpete on Dec 24, 2021 16:49:01 GMT -8
My brother called today because they have to bail on coming up for Christmas. Sister in-law is a teacher, and last Friday she was in close contact all that day with a teaching assistant who has since tested positive (sis in-law feels fine). In normal times we probably would have said 8 days from exposure is nothing to cancel Christmas plans for (with everyone fully vaxed), but this year is not normal for my family.
My sister & her 19 year old son are on a two week break from Vancouver General Hospital and traveled back home for Christmas to rest up mentally for my nephew's continued fight against leukemia. BC has one main leukemia hospital (in downtown Vancouver), and he's been down there since early September ... and my sister is his official cancer 'caretaker', so she's been living down there since then. It's been pretty brutal for them to be away from home fighting this thing (my sister's husband and second son are up here), but there's not much choice because there are simply are no facilities in northern BC for leukemia.
He just went through 2 weeks on intensive chemo in preparation for stem cell transplant procedures; which start in early January. My nephew has absolutely nothing in his system right now to fight off anything, so we're all being hyper vigilant when visiting them for Christmas. Covid sucks, but wow ... cancer sucks on a whole different level.
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daveg
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Michigan
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Post by daveg on Jan 4, 2022 19:27:29 GMT -8
I tested positive for Covid today. I'm fully vaccinated and boosted and my symptoms are mild. But I have a virtual appointment with my doctor tomorrow morning and she is going to refer me for monoclonal antibody treatment because I am considered high risk because of my blood cancer.
I have been taking precautions but circumstances caused me to take a risk that I knew might result in an infection. My brother is disabled and has several medical conditions that had him in and out of several hospitals and care facilities the past five weeks. He needed my help to take care of his affairs so last week I went to Maryland to do what I could. I needed to be in close proximity to him for and hour or two a day and took what protective measures I could, but it turned out they were not good enough.
He tested positive for Covid on Saturday. I assume he got infected at a rehab facility he was in earlier. A couple times I got calls from the rehab facility while he was there informing me that patients and staff there had tested positive. Fortunately, my brother is also vaccinated and, despite his disability and underlying conditions, his symptoms are also mild.
So it looks like we both will come out of this okay. Thank goodness for the vaccines.
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BigLoad
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Post by BigLoad on Jan 4, 2022 19:32:18 GMT -8
Good luck Dave, get well soon!
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rebeccad
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Writing like a maniac
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Post by rebeccad on Jan 5, 2022 7:50:52 GMT -8
daveg, get well soon, and best to you and your brother. The omicron variant is nasty that way—very hard to protect yourself from it, and we are now leaning on our vaccines to keep us from being too ill, rather than to protect us from getting it at all.
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davesenesac
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Our precious life is short within eternity, don't waste it!
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Post by davesenesac on Jan 5, 2022 8:29:55 GMT -8
Since the recent rise of the Omicron strain here in California, have switched from my pile of surgical masks to my supply of good N95 masks anytime going indoors. About the only times indoors is supermarkets, gas, and fast foods. Note High compliance indoor mask region.
What I have seen is the vast majority of others have not changed and are still wearing surgical masks or gaiters or one of the popular sub-N95 colored masks, often poorly. Folks, those masks are to prevent you from spreading aerosols to others. Not to protect you much from others aerosols. That is a factor in the current positivity explosion in which Omicron is much more transmissible thus stronger protection is wise even if not mandated. Obviously, many people don't understand the difference so are becoming sick even if vaccinated.
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Post by absarokanaut on Jan 5, 2022 15:07:15 GMT -8
I had a positive test in the Hub. Got a negative PCR the next day. No symptoms, vaxxed and boosted and had Delta in September and it was very mild.
Djokovic deported! Good on not giving a$$hats special consideration.
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daveg
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Michigan
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Post by daveg on Jan 5, 2022 19:58:36 GMT -8
Thanks for the likes and well-wishes. I'm feeling a bit better each day. My doctor ordered the monoclonal antibody treatment today and now I'm waiting for a time slot to become available. We've had a spike of Covid cases recently and the local hospital is operating at capacity.
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Post by autumnmist on Jan 8, 2022 17:07:45 GMT -8
daveg, I'm sorry to learn of the challenges both you and your brother are facing, but hoping that the cases don't get any worse, that you (and your brother) continue to improve daily, and that you both will soon be past these issues.
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walkswithblackflies
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Post by walkswithblackflies on Jan 14, 2022 11:12:01 GMT -8
This past Saturday, I attended a family birthday party. I considered not going, but the fact that my wife (teacher) and kids (middle/high school students) are potentially exposed every day, I didn't feel it increased my overall risk too much. Three days after the party (Tuesday), I began to feel "off"... not bad... just a tickle-cough. It was also really cold that day (below zero) with no humidity, and we had a fire going, so I assumed it was just dry air. An at-home test was negative. That night (Tuesday evening / early Wednesday morning), I began to feel feverish.
On Wednesday, I took two tests. The first, a PCR test at a local pharmacy, had a 5-day wait for results. I still haven't received the results. My wife found a rapid test facility and I went there on Wednesday evening. Found out that was also a PCR test, not an rapid antigen like the at-home tests, just with a quicker turnaround. I was happy with this, knowing that PCR was a better test than the antigen. 101F fever at that appointment. That evening, I also found out two at the party had tested positive, and my brother and cousin weren't feeling well. Both tested negative with at-home tests.
Got results from the second test yesterday... negative. I certainly didn't expect that. I was actually hoping I'd test positive... get it over with rather than suffer from flu then possibly COVID later on. My brother decided to take another at-home test this morning, and this time it came back positive. So I followed up with one of my own... also positive.
Basically, I had a solid 2-day low-grade fever and extreme fatigue. Not like getting winded type of fatigue, but like all I wanted to do was sleep. After two hours awake I was ready for another nap. The fever was also a bit weird... core was hot but limbs were cold. Last night I also had a sore throat. Basically no cough... maybe one twin cough per hour. My brother had the fatigue and sore throat, but not the fever to the degree I had. He also had more nasal symptoms that I did. I also had ZERO lung symptoms, my brother said he couldn't take a deep breath.
Good news is that I've turned the corner. I'm not 100% today, but pretty close. And so far, no one else in my family has gotten sick.
Interestingly, my fitness watch picked up on illness. My measured stress level went from the upper teens / low-20s to the mid-50s, my resting heart rate went from the low 40s to the low 60s, my "body battery" (0-100 scale) went from topping out every evening to a steady decline with no recovery until it bottomed out at 5. Beginning last night, all those metrics began to improve.
ETA: Double-vaccinated with Pfizer in March. No booster. I was actually scheduled to get my booster on Wednesday.
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BigLoad
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Post by BigLoad on Jan 14, 2022 11:30:09 GMT -8
Interestingly, my fitness watch picked up on illness. I'm sorry that COVID got to you. Not COVID-specific, but I've noticed over the last five years that illness shows up distinctly in my Fitbit data. Resting heart rate always goes up a day or two before the onset of symptoms for any respiratory illness I've had. COVID and flu vaccinations also spurred a notable rise, even the booster, which otherwise had no noticeable symptoms.
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walkswithblackflies
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Post by walkswithblackflies on Jan 14, 2022 11:47:02 GMT -8
Interestingly, my fitness watch picked up on illness. I'm sorry that COVID got to you. Not COVID-specific, but I've noticed over the last five years that illness shows up distinctly in my Fitbit data. Resting heart rate always goes up a day or two before the onset of symptoms for any respiratory illness I've had. COVID and flu vaccinations also spurred a notable rise, even the booster, which otherwise had no noticeable symptoms. Yeah, it sucks, but I feel it's also inevitable. Locally, nearly all cases are Omicron, and it's soooooooo contagious that I believe everyone is going to get infected at some point in the near future. Hopefully for the fully-vaxxed/boosted it will just be a minor inconvenience. Earlier this summer, my watch picked up on an intestinal illness two days before I felt sick. Can you tell when Omicron arrived?
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Post by bluefish on Jan 14, 2022 11:54:41 GMT -8
Because I'm on immune-suppressors for my myeloma, I'm getting a prophylactic monoclonal antibody treatment next week. I've been a bit paranoid, so I asked my oncologist whether Covid would likely attack my kidneys that I fought so hard to get back. It's hard to say, and even though my blood work looks very good, she hooked me up at the top of the list for the initial administrations at my cancer center. I really am blessed to have doctors that recognize how far I've come and the effort that was made to get here. Does it make me angry at the unvacced and unmasked who parade around with arrogant, cavalier attitudes? Let's just say it's almost come to blows a number of times.
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jazzmom
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Post by jazzmom on Jan 14, 2022 14:56:22 GMT -8
Yeah, it sucks, but I feel it's also inevitable. Locally, nearly all cases are Omicron, and it's soooooooo contagious that I believe everyone is going to get infected at some point in the near future. Hopefully for the fully-vaxxed/boosted it will just be a minor inconvenience. From what I'm hearing, the booster is key against omicron. I think people might want to rethink considering themselves "vaccinated" against omicron if they haven't been boosted. And the booster rates are surprisingly low, with the U.S. lagging behind countries like U.K., France, Israel.
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