Trails for Two

It's fantastic that she's not in the hospital. That is a big upside in so many ways. You keep up with your walking.

She'll heal up.

Any word on how coronavirus affects Alec's Peru trip?

I'll connect with the Big Guy. Hang in there.

Alec will have wonderful stories to remember, then tell about 2020 and his Freshman year at Cougville.

ounce wrote:It's fantastic that she's not in the hospital.  That is a big upside in so many ways.  You keep up with your walking.

She'll heal up.

Any word on how coronavirus affects Alec's Peru trip?

I'll connect with the Big Guy.  Hang in there.

No word yet on Peru, but I'm not confident about its chances. Hope they refund the deposit...

It's very good that Alita is healthy with no underlying issues. She's hating the coughing - she usually never gets coughs - and she's likely to go stir crazy isolating herself, but she has a moderate case of COVID-19. She should get through it without any lingering issues. I'm thankful for that, and I'm sure she is, too.

Thanks for putting in a good word for her. You know the Dali Lama? ;-)

(Oh yeah, big hitter, the Lama...)

Alec isn't quite sure what to make of it, but are any of us? But yes, this is a defining moment that everyone alive will remember. He was too young to remember 9/11 and in many ways, this might just have a bigger impact.

Just to be curious about the process she went through to "I crown thee with Covid-19," so by the process of the nurse, but not the process of The Test, is she officially part of the confirmed case number? It would seem to be a hole in the grand total of cases, if not. There is the official number and there's a 'black market' number of 'yes, but no test to confirm, but she has Covid-19' cases.

Can Alita open the window to get some outside feeling?

Your comment about the Lama reminded me of an "Animaniacs" cartoon where they wanted to find this guy, the Dalai Lama. Yakko would sit, floating cross legged saying, "lama, lama, lama, lama, lama, lama."

Whoa...this just got real.  First person that I actually know that is infected!

So...my question is...did she have the virus all along?  Has she been potentially infecting others for the last few weeks.  I know that you did everything that you were supposed to so if that's the case the system isn't working very well at all!!

And...they claim this virus is more contagious than most so why don't you have it yet...or do you?  Are you infected but just not showing symptoms...yet?  Obviously more questions than answers.

More importantly...you'll all be in my thoughts and prayers as Alita recovers.  

I've seen some great links to activities for kids while the schools are closed.  Hopefully there are things that Alita...and the rest of the family...can do to help prevent the inevitable boredom.

Family bonding time...

Take care.  I'll be thinking of you.

ounce wrote:Just to be curious about the process she went through to "I crown thee with Covid-19," so by the process of the nurse, but not the process of The Test, is she officially part of the confirmed case number?  It would seem to be a hole in the grand total of cases, if not.  There is the official number and there's a 'black market' number of 'yes, but no test to confirm, but she has Covid-19' cases.

Can Alita open the window to get some outside feeling?

Your comment about the Lama reminded me of an "Animaniacs" cartoon where they wanted to find this guy, the Dalai Lama.  Yakko would sit, floating cross legged saying, "lama, lama, lama, lama, lama, lama."

Animaniacs was a great subversive cartoon! At the time, friends of ours were involved in Earthworm Jim and the Tweety and Sylvester Mysteries. 

My reference was actually to Bill Murray in Caddyshack.



I'll deal with your other questions below with Nancy's, since they're essentially the same. And important.

nkrichards wrote:Whoa...this just got real.  First person that I actually know that is infected!

So...my question is...did she have the virus all along?  Has she been potentially infecting others for the last few weeks.  I know that you did everything that you were supposed to so if that's the case the system isn't working very well at all!!

And...they claim this virus is more contagious than most so why don't you have it yet...or do you?  Are you infected but just not showing symptoms...yet?  Obviously more questions than answers.

More importantly...you'll all be in my thoughts and prayers as Alita recovers.  

I've seen some great links to activities for kids while the schools are closed.  Hopefully there are things that Alita...and the rest of the family...can do to help prevent the inevitable boredom.

Family bonding time...

Take care.  I'll be thinking of you.

Better pour yourself a cup of coffee. This might take a while to get through.

In late February, Alita had a bit of a scratchy throat, but she didn't think much about it. Colds are going around this time of year, and she had been repeatedly spat upon by one of the students in her classroom (she often describes herself as a "human kleenex"), so she didn't think much of it.

On Feb. 29, we had friends over. Later that night, she started feeling crappy. Fatigue, headache, congestion, some nausea and the beginning of diarrhea. It felt like a weird cold, and it felt nothing like any flu she's ever had. Then she started to cough. She NEVER gets coughs. That's my thing. This was back before the world ended, and people were just starting to think about COVID-19. Her temperature was elevated and it briefly touched 100.1, but it mostly was hovering around around 99.5.

On March 2, the coughing had established itself thoroughly. She was coughing sometimes to the point of gagging. We called a telehealth service through our healthcare provider and talked with an RN. We raised the notion of COVID-19 and were told that her temperature was below the threshold for "fever" (100.3°), and she didn't hit any of the benchmarks for the CDC testing matrix at the time. She gave us advice for colds and flu and said we should call back if symptoms worsened, if she popped a fever, if she had trouble breathing or if her cough lasted longer than three weeks. 

Outside, of that, she said, as long as her temperature didn't pass the "fever" threshold, she should be fine to go back to work.

Over the next two weeks, her temperature fell back down to below normal, but she kept the chronic cough, worsening at night, chronic diarrhea and fatigue that would sometimes lay her out flat. She kept working at school right up to the point to where the state shut them down. 

We went to pick up Alec for his spring break on March 13-14, and while she was still coughing and had gut issues, she was doing better. By midweek last week, though, she was getting worse again. The coughing was more violent and protracted. She had a hard time getting her breath afterwards. I was getting worried, especially as I watched what was going on in the world. 

Finally, on March 18, she got word that one of her coworkers had a presumptive case of COVID-19. "Presumptive" is my word, not any special status. It's a way to describe someone who is clinically -- but not officially -- diagnosed with the disease. Because the only way to be "officially" diagnosed at this point is to get a lab test. Those lab tests are being withheld for all but people who are going into the ICU with severe pneumonia. (I asked my doctor why bother testing those people, and he said patients in those instances are tested for everything in the hopes of finding something they can to do to keep them alive. Fair enough.) 

So with Alita coughing her head off that evening, I did an e-screening survey for her that ran through her symptoms and concluded with a sentence she was supposed to be able to read through without stopping for breath. We tried six times. She couldn't get through it five of those times without coughing, and the one time she did, she had to take a deep breath afterwards. So when the e-survey asked "can you get through this sentence?" I clicked "no.'

The next slide was, "Go to the emergency room right away. If you can't get there on your own, call 911."

Oh.

We called the telenurse line again. After a long wait, we got a person who took the information. She then put us on hold to get a doctor on the line for consultation. He said that COVID-19 tends to last for three weeks and that many people will get through it without severe complications. He said we *could* go into the ER but might not have to, but he'd leave that up to us. We opted to go to the ER.

It was close to midnight when we arrived at the ER. They only allowed Alita inside, because I've been exposed to her for the whole course of her illness and could be carrying the virus. They let Alec in briefly, since he'd only been around her for a few days, but they kicked him out when he coughed a couple of times. We waited in the car in the parking lot.

They tested all her vitals, which were all good, though her HR was high, and they gave her a chest X-ray, which showed no signs of pneumonia, which was my biggest concern. They also gave her an few shots from an inhalter of albuterol, which helped ease her breathing. 

They, of course, didn't give her a test for COVID-19. 

However, as she was talking to the doctor in the ER, she asked him flat out: "So this is coronavirus, isn't it?" 

"Yep."

We got home early in the morning of March 19 with instructions for her to self-isolate for 14 days, or 3 days after the cessation of symptoms without medication. They said I *could* go to work, but they strongly suggested I also self-isolate (not quarantine) for the same period. 

I took that Thursday off and set up our dining table to be my workspace for the next two weeks. Alita notified her school district, which sparked a lot of confusion since she didn't have an "official test-confirmed case" and that was the guideline they had for notifications. They finally said to mark it down as diagnosed but not lab confirmed or something like that. 

So, about these unofficial cases. THERE IS NO RECORD OF THEM. HOSPITALS AND MEDICAL FACILITIES ARE NOT PASSING ON COUNTS OR PATIENT INFORMATION TO PUBLIC HEALTH AUTHORITIES even though these unofficial cases are just as contagious as official cases. There seem to be two mindsets at play, influenced by the lack of tests and utter mishandling of this situation on all levels: 1) The mindset that "it's out there in the community, so it's too late to worry about tracking the path of it now, we just need to treat the sick people," and 2) The mindset that medical providers are more interested in treating the patient than gathering data, "whether you have it or not, we treat it the same, so what's the point of going to the time and expense of the test?" 

I find both mindsets to be dangerously myopic. 

Because, for one reason, I think there's a decent chance that I've got it, too. 

Yup. I've had headaches off and on, an occasionally scratchy throat, and an occasional dry, wheezy cough. It's hard to tell, since it's seasonal allergy season around here and we had several days of winds stirring all the pollen up last weekend. And I've had no fever, no fatigue or any other significant symptom. But if I ever got a test, I wouldn't be surprised if I tested positive like all those movie stars and NBA players who seem healthy but are testing positive. 

And I've been at work the whole time. Gone to the grocery store, etc. For all I know, I've been helping spread it. But without widespread testing, we'll never know, and the only thing governments can do is shut down the whole place in the hopes of at least slowing the spread so hospitals aren't overwhelmed with severe cases all at once.

And we brought Alec back from the relative safety (no reported cases) of Eastern Washington right into the middle of this. Gah. His school already went to online classes, but when we picked him up, we thought we were going to take him back this weekend. We left his books and notes there. We are going to have to head back at some point to get them and pack up his dorm room, but we're getting mixed messages from the college on whether this violates an agreement that freshman have to live on campus, and whether he'll get any dorm rent money back, or if his food account will roll over to next year, or... you get the idea. We're taking it a day at a time.

As far as going outside, city officials have asked that anyone with the virus (got to be unofficial, because anybody official is in the ICU) to not go out in public to help limit the spread. So she's pretty much housebound. We have a balcony, but she even felt weird on that. They gave her a mask to wear around us, and when she's coughing and in close proximity, she wears it. I'm washing my hands a lot. I hope Alec is, too. 

I think that covers all your questions. I think our situation is a case study to show how the system isn't working well at all, at least in terms of trying to understand and contain the spread of this disease. If what they say is correct, it's going to get a lot worse before it gets better. And at least we might be able to say that by being in the first wave, we'll gain immunity that will help us help others in the second, third and fourth waves. 

It's not a great thing to hope for, but it's the best we've got right now.

I'll ask one question and then I'll re-read it again.  What day did you start thinking about this as a human interest story for the paper?

ounce wrote:I'll ask one question and then I'll re-read it again.  What day did you start thinking about this as a human interest story for the paper?

I haven't, really. I don't know if I'm comfortable putting her/our story out quite so publicly.

Mark B wrote:

ounce wrote:I'll ask one question and then I'll re-read it again.  What day did you start thinking about this as a human interest story for the paper?

I haven't, really. I don't know if I'm comfortable putting her/our story out quite so publicly.

Jane Doe her and ghost write it.  I think it's necessary to get the story out there, especially when she's on the mend.  People want to read a serial.  Do it!  And maybe you write about the process of how presumptives are not in the overall number unless they win a ticket to ICU.

Does the patient and caregivers need fudge?

By the way, you as caregiver need to take care of yourself, too. You ain't no good all wore out.

ounce wrote:Does the patient and caregivers need fudge?  

By the way, you as caregiver need to take care of yourself, too.  You ain't no good all wore out.

Yes, do take care of yourself.  You can't help others if you don't!

I can vouch for the quality of Doug's fudge.  Delicious!

Thanks for taking the time to pass on the details of the last few weeks and Alita's journey to a presumptive diagnosis.  Unfortunately it sounds nearly identical to my youngest brother's situation...the main difference being that he didn't start feeling ill till March 5th.  I passed hour story on to my SIL as Randy is the sibling that we've all agreed should take over the family farm.  He's been living with Mom for the last 3 years while they built a new house next door.  Fortunately they moved in over Christmas and so he's been able to isolate himself from Mom.  Fingers crossed that he doesn't have Covid-19 and/or didn't pass it to Mom.

Once again...thanks for sharing your details and know that you and your family will continue to me in my thoughts.

ounce wrote:Does the patient and caregivers need fudge?  

By the way, you as caregiver need to take care of yourself, too.  You ain't no good all wore out.

Mmm. Fudge. We sure wouldn't send it back, that's for sure! 

nkrichards wrote:

ounce wrote:Does the patient and caregivers need fudge?  

By the way, you as caregiver need to take care of yourself, too.  You ain't no good all wore out.

Yes, do take care of yourself.  You can't help others if you don't!

I can vouch for the quality of Doug's fudge.  Delicious!

Thanks for taking the time to pass on the details of the last few weeks and Alita's journey to a presumptive diagnosis.  Unfortunately it sounds nearly identical to my youngest brother's situation...the main difference being that he didn't start feeling ill till March 5th.  I passed hour story on to my SIL as Randy is the sibling that we've all agreed should take over the family farm.  He's been living with Mom for the last 3 years while they built a new house next door.  Fortunately they moved in over Christmas and so he's been able to isolate himself from Mom.  Fingers crossed that he doesn't have Covid-19 and/or didn't pass it to Mom.

Once again...thanks for sharing your details and know that you and your family will continue to me in my thoughts.

Oh, we've had Doug's fudge before. It's yummy. And it's very kind of him to offer.

Glad we could share our details. In a way, we're fortunate to be caught up in the first wave of this thing. In subsequent waves (as there will almost certainly be), we will likely have gotten immunity and can be in a position to help out without endangering ourselves or others. 

Alita got a rescue inhaler yesterday (that took a lot of work dialing for doctors) and it has helped with her chest tightness. She felt like she was breathing through a wet towel. I am coughing a bit more this morning, and it's a little wetter, and I feel the chest tighteness, but I don't feel feverish. 

We're worried about giving it to Alec and are encouraging him to stay in his room as much as he can. Luckily, he's 19 and that comes naturally.

Now if we can just figure out how to get his books and notes from his dorm room to here...

UPS ground? Alec's buddies can chunk his stuff in boxes.

Regarding the fudge, I have a couple of questions. Is the fudge so 'rich' that 1 square goes a long way? It isn't 'rich' to me because I'm used to it. Major ingredients are 11 oz. of 63% chocolate and a can of Eagle brand sweetened condensed milk.
Nancy and/or Mark can answer that.

2nd question.
If you want to try a higher chocolate content, I came up with a different formula, last month. Here are the major ingredients are:
11 oz. 63% chocolate, 1 cup cocoa (100%), and a stick of butter. It nets out to around 85%. It has no added sugar and can be a keto fudge due to high content of chocolate.

Final question.
Any objection to 2 batches, since Alita doesn't want to hear any whining that y'all aren't getting enough fudge and which % of chocolate.

As far as your coughing, watch the color of the phlegm.

ounce wrote:UPS ground?  Alec's buddies can chunk his stuff in boxes.

Regarding the fudge, I have a couple of questions.  Is the fudge so 'rich' that 1 square goes a long way?  It isn't 'rich' to me because I'm used to it.  Major ingredients are 11 oz. of 63% chocolate and a can of Eagle brand sweetened condensed milk.
Nancy and/or Mark can answer that.

2nd question.
If you want to try a higher chocolate content, I came up with a different formula, last month.  Here are the major ingredients are:
11 oz. 63% chocolate, 1 cup cocoa (100%), and a stick of butter.  It nets out to around 85%.  It has no added sugar and can be a keto fudge due to high content of chocolate.

Final question.
Any objection to 2 batches, since Alita doesn't want to hear any whining that y'all aren't getting enough fudge and which % of chocolate.

As far as your coughing, watch the color of the phlegm.

That's a possibility, though I'm trying with his RA first.

Either fudge recipe sounds great, though we don't need a keto version particularly.

Yes, phelgm color is important. Not really having any of it, myself.

Welllll, I created the formula from a really great chocolate mint brownie recipe with York peppermint patties as the mint piece. It is not keto in any shape, form, or fashion. But the first step in that recipe is to melt the chocolate and a stick of butter in a double boiler. And I just split off in another direction. You're not getting that as the 2nd batch because I was going to add some sugar for you, but I didn't want y'all to be the Guinea pig.

I've made the 2nd batch and it is sitting out to dry out some of the tackiness. Should be mailed tomorrow. The top row is quality control, as they are the rounded part of a pie pan cut away from the rest.

ounce wrote:Welllll, I created the formula from a really great chocolate mint brownie recipe with York peppermint patties as the mint piece.  It is not keto in any shape, form, or fashion.  But the first step in that recipe is to melt the chocolate and a stick of butter in a double boiler.  And I just split off in another direction.  You're not getting that as the 2nd batch because I was going to add some sugar for you, but I didn't want y'all to be the Guinea pig.

I've made the 2nd batch and it is sitting out to dry out some of the tackiness.  Should be mailed tomorrow.  The top row is quality control, as they are the rounded part of a pie pan cut away from the rest.

I don't care what they say about you, Doug. You're a good man. I'm lucky the samples aren't everything below the first row. 

And I'm trying to get enough dirt on those people, that they will all share your well thought out and insightful reality.

I made a batch for someone, but I couldn't get a hold of her, so it was all quality control. You would be amazed how fast I can eat a batch of fudge, like above. Blew me so far out of keto.....

Shoot me your address, so I won't QC more, PULEEEEZ!!!

Fudge is a much better topic for discussion than the virus!  And it looks delicious.

That said...how is everyone doing in the household?  

Any progress on obtaining Alec's school books and notes?

I wonder if Alita is included in the number or cases?  Is her presumptive diagnosis enough to add her to the total or does it only include those that have been tested?  I'm thinking that the number of cases is vastly understated.

Oregon and Washington are now on official stay at home orders.  We partied to much over the weekend!  Shame on people!  Not surprised that many people thought of themselves and their needs and wants before considering others. How disappointing.  

Speaking of disappointing.  My Chinese friend, Nailan, was told to stay in the house for two weeks and then she could go out for a walk but to avoid crowds for a month.  That month officially ends today.  I mentioned that I didn't understand how this was going to be effective as her husband was allowed to come and go at will.  It's worse than that.  She's been to Costco and other stores multiple times during her "quarantine".  Janice ran in to her at Costco and is quite angry.  She had multiple options available to her to obtain anything she needed.  I'm very disappointed in her attitude. 

But I'm also baffled by Janice's reaction to this.  Janice is 73 years old.  Her husband is 75.  Her Mom is staying in the house right now.  She is 99!  Janice was still going to exercise class at the gym, attending church, and planning on driving to Portland to babysit her grandchildren this weekend.  While those activities were all technically legal, they definitely weren't in the true spirit of social distancing and put her Mom at extreme risk.     Technically she is allowed to travel to Portland to watch her grandchildren but it's a risk I wouldn't be willing to take.  I'm curious to see what she decides.  Not judging...just curious.

Enough of my corona virus stories for today.

Hope your household is recovering and coping with this as well as possible.
Thinking of you.

Bump--address, por favor. Either here or PM.

Thanks to Doug for sending me here.  I knew Alita was battling the virus, and although I've been reading FB a lot, we have been trying to self-quarantine here just to stay out of the fray.  Too many people in GA are non-believers and think it will all be over by "Easter" just like the Orange man in charge.   I was/am very happy and sad to read Alita's story as it helps me try to understand what we should be looking for symptom-wise.  Neither Shannon nor I believe we have been exposed but at this point in time, we also don't know if we have been asymptomatic or simply suffering from seasonal allergies that hit us both.  Back earlier in the month, I had what I assumed was/is a stomach flu that lasted for 3 days with flu-like symptoms, but was it??  Shannon has been lucky - nothing but what appears to be allergies (it is major pollen season here), and now of her co-workers (they have been teaching online in our county since the 12th of March) appear to be ill either, but case are still growing here in GA.  Many of the counties/cities have been very slow to embrace flattening the curve and it sucks because now they are all taking drastic measures (like shutting down parking lots at trail heads) making it tough for those of us who were exercising alone to do so outside.  

Enough about me ranting, this is to send karma west to you, Alita and Alec in hopes that Alita is doing better and will be well soon and that you and Alec stay symptom free.  Sorry to have been such a stranger for so long.

Mark...Hope all is well and that you're just busy coping with life and don't have time to post.

Take care.

nkrichards wrote:Mark...Hope all is well and that you're just busy coping with life and don't have time to post.

Take care.

(maybe this will help draw the boy to here)
Mark, fudge is in the mail!

Hi, everyone! My apologies for disappearing for a few days (yes, the fudge brought me back, Ounce), but as you might imagine, it's been an extremely hectic week for those in the news business. (For example, our number of officially diagnosed COVID-19 cases doubled overnight between Wednesday and Thursday, and our local unemployment claims jumped 1,575 percent in one week.) I've been working long hours from my dining room table, remotely coordinating our coverage for what might end up being one of if not the biggest story of our lives. 

We are doing well. Alita is recovering nicely and is off medicine for much of the day now. My little dry cough went away when the wind stopped and the pollen stopped swirling around everywhere, so it might have been an allergy thing all along, but we'll never know for sure. (Insert rant about testing practices here.)

Alec seems to be doing fine healthwise, but it looks like he's going to be finishing out his term here. The university just gave in and agreed to either refund dorm costs and food accounts or roll them over to next year for people who are leaving campus (we're going to roll it over). That leaves us to eventually drive over there and clear out his dorm room (nobody has been willing to ship his stuff over at this point) once Alita's self-quarantine is lifted and the broader "stay at home, stay safe" edict is lifted. Thank goodness we brought his computer back with us. We're hoping that the university has some mercy on its students through all this and switches to a pass-fail system so GPAs aren't destroyed and scholarship opportunities damaged. 

Interesting stories about how people are managing this situation, Nancy. We're still not quite to the point yet in terms of spread and impact to where even the fact-resistant people open their eyes and realize this is a very big deal. For our part, Alita is staying in the condo. Even though I have no symptoms whatsoever, I'm still wearing a mask when I go to the grocery store or a take-out place, out of an abundance of caution. 

Those GI symptoms are interesting, Michele. This disease attacks mucus membranes and causes stomach problems and diarrhea in a percentage of cases. I know Alita had that for three weeks. She started to feel better about the time things got better in the GI area, and I don't think that was a coincidence. 

Tidbits: Doctors have told us a few interesting things: The normal course of the disease is emergence about five days after exposure; if serious illness is going to develop, it usually develops early in the second week of infection; the course of the disease is tending to run about three weeks from initial symptoms to resolution. Also, data from China is showing only about a 15% rate of transmission within households, so this isn't like that super-scary super-transmissible virus they dramatized in the movie "Contagion." That's something, anyway. 

That's it for now. Hope things are going okay for all of you. Be safe!

Great to hear that you're all relatively well.  Maybe being busy with work is a blessing.  You'd go stir crazy if you didn't have anything to occupy your time.

Thanks for checking in.  And we appreciate the insight that you're able to provide.

Stay safe...

nkrichards wrote:Great to hear that you're all relatively well.  Maybe being busy with work is a blessing.  You'd go stir crazy if you didn't have anything to occupy your time.

Thanks for checking in.  And we appreciate the insight that you're able to provide.

Stay safe...

Oh, stir crazy is definitely a thing around here.