Emotional support group Covid19

[Wiseman2]

Tough reading the news again with 200,000 new cases a day in the US and 40,000 new cases a day in the UK 😕

[Seraphim]

We recorded our first case of the new Covid strain. 

[Seraphim]

4 cases of the new variant now. 

[Cheetarah]

Goodness, what happened to the format?  I am so confused, lol.  
 

So we are still doing a lot of the same things we were in March.  It was weird not having family over for the holidays.  M’s bday, my aunt and uncle did come over...when it was time to eat cake I shoved the household in one room and them in another, then lysoled the crap out of the air.  
 

Guys, my doctor’s office...I’m so upset.  So that’s the ONE place you should feel safe, right?  Except no.  They’ve been haggling me to come in.  I need labs.  No, I say.  They don’t follow what I feel to be reasonable protocol to begin with. I want to go off site for my labs and then have a telehealth for results.  
 

My fiancée went to pick up my print lab orders and naturally, had to wait 40 minutes because no one had it ready.  There was a freaking half eaten egg roll with a fork on the waiting room table.  Like someone had set themselves a nice dinner area.  1.  No one should be in a waiting room that long these days.  2.  That means someone’s mask came off and no one paid attention.  Also, who eats in the waiting room?  I’m not against a piece of candy or something pre-pandemic, I mean there’s reasons someone might need it like low blood glucose.  A meal?  During a WAVE?  
 

Totally grossed out and between how they’ve handled it I want to change practices.  I’m having a hard time finding a doctor that accepts new patients.  I also called corporate about it and need to follow up today because I haven’t heard anything back. 
 

In other news I’ve had to take a COVID test twice.  I hate when we have scares in this house.  We’ve had one run of the mill cold since March and it was scary waiting to find out if it was JUST that.  A weird world we live in when my fiancée got pneumonia and we were relieved it was that and not COVID.  
 

[Wiseman2]

Yikes.😱

Definitely find a new provider.👨‍⚕️

[Seraphim]

Holy Lord! Food and reading materials?

[Seraphim]

It is pummelling the nursing homes again. 😓

[boltnrun]

My new doctor has one chair, no tables and no reading materials in the waiting room. The lab I went to had you wait in your car or outside until it was your turn. My previous doctor had no protocols. So glad I have this new doctor, although I just got removed from Obamacare due to no longer being employed so I'm worried about that.

[Fudgie]

On 12/28/2020 at 11:02 AM, boltnrun said:

My new doctor has one chair, no tables and no reading materials in the waiting room. The lab I went to had you wait in your car or outside until it was your turn. My previous doctor had no protocols. So glad I have this new doctor, although I just got removed from Obamacare due to no longer being employed so I'm worried about that.

That's a good thing. My doctor does the same thing: they ask you to call from your car and they will either come get you or they will call you to walk in. It's much safer. Waiting rooms are just not a good idea. 

[Seraphim]

Dear God we have hit 2900 cases in the province today and almost 1000 in the city of Toronto. We are not getting out of this lock down in 28 days. 

[Seraphim]

20 hours ago, Fudgie said:

That's a good thing. My doctor does the same thing: they ask you to call from your car and they will either come get you or they will call you to walk in. It's much safer. Waiting rooms are just not a good idea. 

I haven’t seen my doctor in person since Covid started as far as I know he only does phone appointments unless you are absolutely dying. 
 

That might change though once he gets inoculated. 

[Cheetarah]

My doctor isn't the one bugging me to come in, it's the practice.  They're like YOU HAVEN'T BEEN SEEN!  Go visit the midwife.  Why am I visiting the midwife for diabetes care...?  And what exactly do you need to see?  Because my feet look great, my blood pressure is phenomenal(I have a meter at home my doc recommended and the readings are sent to her), my meter readings are great, I've had well-controlled Diabetes for 5 years.  I don't argue that I need an A1C and some metabolic panels, but you don't need to shuffle me into your saliva ridden office to get them. 

I'm not over that egg roll.  Corporate is blowing me off.  I'm still having difficulties finding a new provider that not only is accepting new patients but also takes my insurance. 

 

[Cheetarah]

We're starting to see a climb again.  For awhile we were at a 16% positivity rate, then it went down to about 7.  Now it's back to 9.  The hospitalizations are slowly increasing as well(and so many....SO MANY DEATHS).  We're averaging about 150 a day for the state.  I think today had about 180.  

[Seraphim]

9 minutes ago, Cheetarah said:

My doctor isn't the one bugging me to come in, it's the practice.  They're like YOU HAVEN'T BEEN SEEN!  Go visit the midwife.  Why am I visiting the midwife for diabetes care...?  And what exactly do you need to see?  Because my feet look great, my blood pressure is phenomenal(I have a meter at home my doc recommended and the readings are sent to her), my meter readings are great, I've had well-controlled Diabetes for 5 years.  I don't argue that I need an A1C and some metabolic panels, but you don't need to shuffle me into your saliva ridden office to get them. 

I'm not over that egg roll.  Corporate is blowing me off.  I'm still having difficulties finding a new provider that not only is accepting new patients but also takes my insurance. 

 

Mine are good as well my last A1C reading was 5.9 and my blood pressure was 112/78, The only thing a little off was my kidney function. It is showing mild mild decrease in functioning but I tend to go up and down in that reading. He didn’t really look at much else. My last readings were so good he didn’t test my random glucose or my cholesterol. 

[boltnrun]

So what's going to happen is, cases and deaths will continue to skyrocket.  Shutdowns will continue and people will continue to ignore them until they get sick or someone they love gets sick.  They'll start to take it seriously, things will get a bit better, then people will start screaming "Open it up!!!111", government leaders will comply because they want to get re-elected, and the cycle will start again.

The vaccine will not help if you a) can't get it or b) won't get it.

The US is far, far behind the projections of how many people were to be vaccinated by the end of the year.   So no, the vaccine will not be the miracle we are hoping for (not yet anyway) yet people will point to the vaccine as a reason to disregard safety protocols.  Or they'll bring up that ridiculous "herd immunity" (do they even know what would have to happen for herd immunity to work???)

It's discouraging.

I actually consider myself lucky because I already have it so I don't have to worry anymore about catching it.  If I hadn't yet had it...I would be petrified to leave home.

[Seraphim]

I think it will be 2022 before we see any semblance of normal . 

[Cheetarah]

Do any of you feel as though even when we return to...normalcy...what that even is I don’t know anymore...that you’ll have phobias and avoidance issues? 
 

I curbside everything I can and my fiancée is the only one who goes in the grocery store.  I am getting to the point where I don’t even want to go to pick up my orders at Target.  I’m a little bit going backwards, acting more like I did in March (washing bags of Doritos with dish soap - lol - did anyone see that SNL psychic skit?).  
 

I think about the summer of 2019 when I moved where I am now and I SHOOK people’s hands(It’s nuts how that seems so reckless these days)!!  Without hand sanitizer!  I worked on a campaign, I kissed and hugged everyone because that’s what you do. Now,  I haven’t hugged or touched anyone outside my household since March. The idea of it is actually frightening, and when it becomes safer to do these very simple things I don’t think I’ll deal very well with it.   
 

 

[Seraphim]

24 minutes ago, Cheetarah said:

Do any of you feel as though even when we return to...normalcy...what that even is I don’t know anymore...that you’ll have phobias and avoidance issues? 
 

I curbside everything I can and my fiancée is the only one who goes in the grocery store.  I am getting to the point where I don’t even want to go to pick up my orders at Target.  I’m a little bit going backwards, acting more like I did in March (washing bags of Doritos with dish soap - lol - did anyone see that SNL psychic skit?).  
 

I think about the summer of 2019 when I moved where I am now and I SHOOK people’s hands(It’s nuts how that seems so reckless these days)!!  Without hand sanitizer!  I worked on a campaign, I kissed and hugged everyone because that’s what you do. Now,  I haven’t hugged or touched anyone outside my household since March. The idea of it is actually frightening, and when it becomes safer to do these very simple things I don’t think I’ll deal very well with it.   
 

 

I think many are going to be dealing with psychological issues. I have gone backwards quite a bit .

[boltnrun]

I'm kind of going the other way. I suffered severe anxiety due to fear of catching Covid. I caught Covid. I survived.  Now I feel like I have nothing left to fear. 

[Cheetarah]

My fiancée is in the ER with suspected Covid-19(pending a PCR after antigen). I had to make her go.  She couldn’t even stand up without struggling to breathe.  O2 is 92%, bp way up, chest X-ray already done, bloods done...now she waits to see what’s next. She says it’s totally empty there.  On NYE.  So weird...

Shes high risk.  

 

[Wiseman2]

Hopefully operation warp speed is not turning into operation red tape?😕

[Seraphim]

6 hours ago, Cheetarah said:

My fiancée is in the ER with suspected Covid-19(pending a PCR after antigen). I had to make her go.  She couldn’t even stand up without struggling to breathe.  O2 is 92%, bp way up, chest X-ray already done, bloods done...now she waits to see what’s next. She says it’s totally empty there.  On NYE.  So weird...

Shes high risk.  

 

I am so sorry 😞 Hugs. Hoping she is ok. 

[Rose Mosse]

6 hours ago, Cheetarah said:

My fiancée is in the ER with suspected Covid-19(pending a PCR after antigen). I had to make her go.  She couldn’t even stand up without struggling to breathe.  O2 is 92%, bp way up, chest X-ray already done, bloods done...now she waits to see what’s next. She says it’s totally empty there.  On NYE.  So weird...

Shes high risk.  

 

So sorry to hear this. Let us know how it goes.

[Batya33]

9 hours ago, Cheetarah said:

My fiancée is in the ER with suspected Covid-19(pending a PCR after antigen). I had to make her go.  She couldn’t even stand up without struggling to breathe.  O2 is 92%, bp way up, chest X-ray already done, bloods done...now she waits to see what’s next. She says it’s totally empty there.  On NYE.  So weird...

Shes high risk.  

 

I hope she is ok!!

[Cheetarah]

Her PCR was negative. 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️
 

I didn’t think there were many cases of false positive antigens (more false negatives, sure).  I mean, I’m definitely glad but that’s spooky.  

She apparently has suspected severe allergy induced asthma, they think sleep apnea(I could have told them that she snores like a beast - her O2 dips during sleep.  Not horribly but significant enough apparently, but she’ll have a sleep study soon enough) and pneumonia.  Again!!  
 

They’ve had her in a short stay room with nebulizer treatments, oxygen and IV steroids and antibiotics.  They’re doing what they hope is the last treatment before they release her with steroids, a nebulizer and daily inhaler.  She says she’s feeling really good but they still hear a lot of crackles.  
 

Thank you, guys...Although this adds another layer of high risk for her if she does ever contract COVID.