Coronavirus - COVID19

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That guy may be a nurse, but he's an asshole.
 
COVID absolutely exploding here in NC. About 25% of our patients are now COVID. Deaths every day. Way up from the worst in the Spring. I'm nervous - because we are not even into peak illness season we see every winter. My unit is gameplanning scenarios where we admit all patient types (we are a specialty rehab only unit) in order to free up beds in the main facility. It's getting real down here.

Small silver lining in a pretty cloudy sky - it's rumored that the Pfizer vaccine will be available for us soon.
 
Virginians, by default, are a stupid lot. We have a lot of military here. I have nothing against them, I'm former military myself. But they bring their family from all over, and we get the best and worst of everybody as a result.

Pre-Thanksgiving, we were warned by our Governor (who is a medical doctor and very smart) not to have a typical Thanksgiving. People didn't listen. We're seeing massive spikes, especially in Virginia Beach where I'm at.

Projections now show that come late January into February, we will see a peak of 98,000 new cases in VA per week. And that's best case scenario. They said realistically, it will probably be 126,000 cases a week. God help us.
 
I'm not sure the 'spikes' have a lot to do with Thanksgiving (although it may play a small part). The spikes were beginning well before Thanksgiving. It's cold outside in most states. People are spending even more time in close quarters. Immune systems tend to weaken during the winter. It was probably inevitable that it was going to get a lot worse in cold weather months, as is the case with the flu. I also think there is an ignorant segment of the US population that either a) thinks it's overblown and they wont get it, b) is refusing to wear a mask for 'political' rationales, or c) is 'tired' and disregarding safe practices because 'it's a hassle'. I think these things are as big a factor as anything else.
 
I received, along with many of my hospital peers, the 1st dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine last Tuesday. Other than the usual 'sore arms' and some minor 'flu-like symptoms' (headache, malaise, low grade temp) no one experienced problems of any kind. I will be getting the 2nd vaccine (required) about 21 days after the first.

I'm hoping that vaccines are available to the public very soon. I hope everyone here gets theirs. I have a few nursing friends who, so far, elected not to get vaccinated. It's obviously a free country, but it's both illogical and irresponsible not to get vaccinated. For nurses (who can review the data related to side effects and reactions that's out there on the web like anyone else can) to refuse the vaccine is just flat out ignorant imho. I believe health care organizations cannot currently require employees take the COVID vaccine because it's not technically 'approved' by the FDA. But it blows my mind that some people are more afraid of a vaccine than they are a virus that is killing people in large numbers every day.

Get vaccinated people.
 
For anyone who might be skeptical about the vaccines, I had my 2nd vaccination (Pfizer version) 2 weeks ago. I'm in a research study where I answer some questions every day in an app, and then get tested periodically. Today, I took a COVID antibody self-test and it was positive for antibodies for the first time. So Pfizer (and likely Moderna) probably know what they are doing.

I was also test after the first vaccine, but was negative. It took both shots (for me) to produce antibodies. I'm excited that it appears to offer protection.
 
I tested positive for COVID.

Typical of this disease, the "signature" differs based on individual.

I have nothing noticeable affecting the nose, throat, mouth. Those are typical "flu" areas for me. So this is no flu for me.

I do have chest "agitation" in the center where the heart is. I have less stamina than usual. I'm knocked into sleep by the afternoon.

Due to the reduced stamina, I have increased irritability and cannot handle prolonged reading or listening to others talk in person.

I also live an extremely isolated and introverted life, so my lifestyle makes it hard to contract infection.

What concerns and interests me more is that in Nov 2019, I had a similar experience that was more debilitating than this. It actually put me into a fatigued state where I would lay in bed for hours, trying to will the energy to get up and move some things around the house. This was the "rock bottom" that lasted for two weeks.
No nasal, throat, etc in the Nov 2019 incident either. But the same rapid shortness of breath. The lingering symptoms lasted into January and even the spring and summer.

Either I contracted some other supervirus that just coincidentally has similar effects to this COVID or COVID has made a successful second invasion, though weaker than the first. I have stamina in the morning and after the forced afternoon nap this go-around.

I did have a dental infection just before this.

If in the future, I get this same round of symptoms again after being "cured", it would then be clear that "immunity" to COVID is a mitigator of symptoms rather than a full quasher.
 
man, take care of yourself. do you have anyone you can reach out to if it gets worse?
 
Hate to hear that SCP - hang in there brother and keep us posted!
 
I’m not sure why or how this thread got locked - sorry to anyone who wanted to post in it.
 
I think it got political for a bit there. I am glad it is back open, too.
 
There has been a shift in symptoms. Energy is almost all back. This started around Monday at around 6pm. Also began developing a very weak and controllable cough sensation, peaking about this afternoon. I recorded one sneeze this morning. The "load in the chest" is becoming less and less perceptible, especially while sitting.

While the battery of symptoms the prior week brought myself down, it also rendered me a non-threat to others because I did not want to do things and had a very limited energy budget.
This shift in symptoms would, if I were ignorant or had misattributed to "normal causes" like fatigue, would have made me dangerous to others because the symptoms in my current state are very minor and not enough to stop me from going outside, talking, etc.

I would classify two broad phases of this infection. One is the "life-sucking" phase. The other the "spreader" phase. Yesterday was day 1 of the spreader phase, in which I had my energy back but still felt nothing in my nose or mouth and only the slightest cough urge. Today, day 2 of the spreader phase, the virus symptoms finally feel flu-like, and very lightly so. A little tenderness on the roof of the mouth, a little "mucus scent" in the trachea.

Interestingly, what I perceived as no effective symptoms in my nose and throat might have been an actual symptom. A sort of "pain killer" effect caused by the virus. Such a "deception of perception" would lead to the reporting of something as asymptomatic when it is actually being affected. I have been regaining my prior sensation sensitivity for my internal muscles and organs gradually.
When breathing, I felt my right nostril get more "open" and feel refreshed by breathing in air. A subtle pressure in my right ear also dissipated. But my baseline the week prior was "no pain or anything" noticed in my nose or ears. The subtle aches in my body I had before infection are coming back after being dulled out for two weeks.

People who think they are aysmptomatic might have been infected but merely thought they didn't eat well, had bad sleep, or simply suffering from lack of exercise. Had the virus not cause to go into a literal routine from Tuesday to Friday last week, I might have brushed it off exactly that way. But because it did, and I was reminded of my bizarre 2019 experience, I finally decided I need to check out COVID as a potential cause.

It is quite possible that some asymptomatics might get an energy boost or euphoria when they were infected but because symptoms are treated as symptoms only when harm or pain is occurring, people might not attribute a "good day" as something caused by a viral infection. This could then give them more stamina to work out, socilaize, etc that would naturally release and spread the virus.
 
That's got to be very difficult and scary to go through... I would say 'I can't imagine', but working in a hospital that has been inundated with COVID patients for almost a year, I can imagine. Hang in there and keep us updated!
 
Boone said:
That's got to be very difficult and scary to go through... I would say 'I can't imagine', but working in a hospital that has been inundated with COVID patients for almost a year, I can imagine. Hang in there and keep us updated!
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Actually, I never felt fear in either case because the virus distorted my perception and basically morphined its own damage, leading me to blame self-neglect due to bad sleep, bad posture, tight muscles, etc. This February experience certainly could cause a panic if the load in my chest suddenly started becoming painful or if my heartbeat began to get irregular or really high but it never went that far. The mystery 2019 experience was much more burdensome and irritating since even into February, my mental irritability and lack of energy was still a problem. Not scary though.

The dental problem also has happened in the past, but on the other side of the mouth, and cause my lymph nodes to swell and inflict similar fatigue on me. So initially, I thought it was that.

I am highly suspicious I got the mutated strain or my initial immunity wore off. I don't know if I'll ever be able to confirm it. But the "life-sucking" phase this time was way too similar to the Nov. 2019 battery of symptoms for me to a priori reject the notion. I wanted to move things up stairs in both cases, and in both cases, I'm quickly out of breath when I just moved a couple small things. The extraordinary need for sleep, which was near continuous in the 2019 version, and made me put signficance on the 3pm time point this time, and the increase in irritability and unwillingness to do anything because I'm physically annoyed. Yet in both cases, I was "miserably painless".

I would say my experience was intellectually valuable if only because what is reported as asymptomatic is actually virus-induced deception of perception or even boosting the feeling of some infected people with no harm at all.

I have been gradually started to get those little internal sensations and especially the feeling of pain in my muscles and bones again. Especially when just waking up at 5:35am. Left forearm really ached since I did a little light-duty lifting with a small UPS battery the day before.

After waking up this morning, the virus cough response was stronger, likely fighting its last stand. I went to sleep maybe at 2:51pm or something(near 3pm again) and woke up at 5pm. Now everything is back to being in control, with a quite few weak outbursts.

Also, weirdly, I only had three hours of practical sleep last night(2AM-5AM), but I feel like I can keep trucking, even right now. Normally, that kind of schedule would kill me for the whole day. I believe that once the virus is fully dead, this unusual stamina I have is going to go away.

This "feeling good" is actually effective and conducive for the survival of the virus as one would be normally out and about with these good feelings and just a "small cough".

Of the few adjectives I'd describe this thing, they would include deceptive, trickery, covert, stealthy, counterintuitive, gaslighter. Whereas the flu is like a guy who kicks the door down and vandalizes stuff in your face, the coronavirus is more like a burglar who moves a few things around but when you notice it, you can't be sure if it is just you, natural causes, or an actual intruder. Then one day, he reveals himself with a wicked smile on his face.
 
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In the last month, my 250 bed hospital has gone from NO Covid-19 patients, to over 40/day currently (a number having died enroute to that number) with our ED and ICU filled to capacity. And that's not even addressing employees who have tested positive during that period. Getting a little scary.
 
That sucks. I wonder how many of them have underlying conditions already.
 
I'm sure a lot of them do - and these are just the folks sick enough to need to be hospitalized. If you are relatively 'stable' they are just sending folks home to quarantine because beds are so tight. I have heard from my ICU peeps that this time around, the patients are younger (and some without major previous health history), but that's just 'what I've heard'.
 
If you want to hear good info and a reasoned take on what is transpiring, here is our Infectious Disease MD.

 
He's lying. There's no mass patient overload.
And hey, were they vacced or not?
You're a fake account. No hospitals are over run.
But they will be when the vacd get sick again.
It's a year and you're still buying this crap?
They are commiting medical apartheid..while hardly anyone knows anyone who caught anything in real life.
Pay attention..im not saying something nasty doesn't exist.
I'm saying it's all on purpose to kill the economy etc . Govt doesn't care about you.
Can you get a clue yet?
 
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