First Person Covid-19 stories

[dusty88]

to be fair there was nothing to do at the first visit if she was not requiring oxygen. there is nothing that is given to people with covid at home. they either get better or they get worse. perhaps some quarantine may be helpful.

I am not sure why we are testing non-hospitalized patients who have symptoms.

I see your point because symptomatic people should be isolating even if they don't get a positive test. However if the PCR test is negative it might make the doctor more likely to consider whether he needs to pursue other diagnostics?

 

[hoosierdoc]

I see your point because symptomatic people should be isolating even if they don't get a positive test. However if the PCR test is negative it might make the doctor more likely to consider whether he needs to pursue other diagnostics?

ok, so two to five days later you find out the cough and fever the patient had wasn't from covid. now what? if the patient is better, who cares. if they are sicker, re-eval them.

it's no different than any other viral syndrome. you show up with mild covid symptoms any other year and your doc says you have a virus and it needs to run its course. if you get sick, go to the ER.

how is covid different?

and... the insane amount of testing we're doing now is pushing back result times and we're out of rapid kits again. when a person shows up with cough, fever, shortness of breath and their family member tested positive, why on earth would I ever test them in a sane world?

if it was flu season any other year we tell them they have the flu and it'll have to run its course. no flu test.

 

[churchmouse]

I see your point because symptomatic people should be isolating even if they don't get a positive test. However if the PCR test is negative it might make the doctor more likely to consider whether he needs to pursue other diagnostics?

So you have "Flu" like symptoms and you do the right thing by getting tested.
It shows negative. And you would still have a person with the actual flu, not covid, isolate themselves.
I understand staying away from the work place if you are sneezing and spraying smagma everywhere. My work was mainly solo and outside. I worked sick more days than I could count. Kids and bills will drive a person to do this.

Hey, did you not "JUMP" my butt for doing exactly what you are doing right now. In this thread.
Yeah you did.
Wow.

 

[OneBadV8]

Hey, did you not "JUMP" my butt for doing exactly what you are doing right now. In this thread.
Yeah you did.
Wow.

 

[Htrailblazer]

Just to throw my 2 cents in on the pneumonia aspect. Everyone I have know with it was given lacix or a similar drug to help get rid of the fluid. Maybe that's why they were so mad? No treatment what so ever and just told to go home. I am no doctor though.

 

[hoosierdoc]

I have seen over 100 covid patients in the ER and I think I gave Lasix to one who was also in florid heart failure.

most sick pneumonia patients actually need significant amount of IV fluids

 

[Route 45]

ok, so two to five days later you find out the cough and fever the patient had wasn't from covid. now what? if the patient is better, who cares. if they are sicker, re-eval them.

it's no different than any other viral syndrome. you show up with mild covid symptoms any other year and your doc says you have a virus and it needs to run its course. if you get sick, go to the ER.

how is covid different?

No different? What other viral syndrome causes silent hypoxia, which is likely the cause of so many deaths?

 

[hoosierdoc]

No different? What other viral syndrome causes silent hypoxia, which is likely the cause of so many deaths?

I don't think silent hypoxia is killing that many people.

but... we tell people they probably have covid. we tell them to get a pulse ox on Amazon. $20 next day delivery.

how does a test change it? if you are symptomatic you should quarantine. that's it. literally no therapy for positive people at home other than any other respiratory viral illness.

 

[mmpsteve]

I have seen over 100 covid patients in the ER and I think I gave Lasix to one who was also in florid heart failure.

most sick pneumonia patients actually need significant amount of IV fluids

Doc, the one who took offense to your response earlier mentioned they sent his Aunt home with double pneumonia instead of admitting her. Is that standard procedure? I've had pneumonia, and I was happy to be admitted and put on IV. It hit me fast and hard, and I don't know that I would have made it had I not been admitted. Just curious. Maybe I missed something too.

.

 

[dusty88]

ok, so two to five days later you find out the cough and fever the patient had wasn't from covid. now what? if the patient is better, who cares. if they are sicker, re-eval them.

it's no different than any other viral syndrome. you show up with mild covid symptoms any other year and your doc says you have a virus and it needs to run its course. if you get sick, go to the ER.

how is covid different?

and... the insane amount of testing we're doing now is pushing back result times and we're out of rapid kits again. when a person shows up with cough, fever, shortness of breath and their family member tested positive, why on earth would I ever test them in a sane world?

if it was flu season any other year we tell them they have the flu and it'll have to run its course. no flu test.

fair points

I do think there is benefit of testing so that "exposures" don't make any excuses about whether or not they were exposed. Of course the converse argument is that some people use a negative test to think they don't need to quarantine. Current testing obviously is of questionable value when it takes so many days to get results from a PCR test.

 

[dusty88]

So you have "Flu" like symptoms and you do the right thing by getting tested.
It shows negative. And you would still have a person with the actual flu, not covid, isolate themselves.
I understand staying away from the work place if you are sneezing and spraying smagma everywhere. My work was mainly solo and outside. I worked sick more days than I could count. Kids and bills will drive a person to do this.

Hey, did you not "JUMP" my butt for doing exactly what you are doing right now. In this thread.
Yeah you did.
Wow.

Understandable statement but medically that's a different argument. I made no accusation of people calling something Covid that doesn't have at least a presumptive diagnosis. I was discussing the fact that sometimes it's important to do "rule outs' to see if you need to pursue other diagnostics for the benefit of the individual patient.


In any case, I'm not at goal of winning any arguments with you. I just think for all the accusations we have in other threads that this might be overblown, we could leave those accusations out of a thread where people are sharing stories of disease and loss.

 

[jsharmon7]

Question for Doc,

I’ve been hearing reports of ICUs filling up and some states are out of beds. Would it be reasonable to assume these must all be ventilator patients? If there’s not much that can be done but let the virus run it’s course, why would hospitalizations be going up so much? Just wondering if there are other factors at play this time of year or if I’m missing something.

 

[chezuki]

to be fair there was nothing to do at the first visit if she was not requiring oxygen. there is nothing that is given to people with covid at home. they either get better or they get worse. perhaps some quarantine may be helpful.

I am not sure why we are testing non-hospitalized patients who have symptoms.

Because some of our employers require it to return to work.

 

[lovemachine]

Because some of our employers require it to return to work.

My wife’s work requires a 2 week quarantine whether or not you test negative or positive. So I still don’t see the need of a test.

 

[Route 45]

I don't think silent hypoxia is killing that many people.

but... we tell people they probably have covid. we tell them to get a pulse ox on Amazon. $20 next day delivery.

how does a test change it? if you are symptomatic you should quarantine. that's it. literally no therapy for positive people at home other than any other respiratory viral illness.

A positive rapid test should come with the suggestion to buy a pulse ox. Silent hypoxia IS killing people with Covid, a mechanism that is not seen in other respiratory viral illness.

https://yourhealth.methodisthealth....ion-that-is-quietly-killing-covid-19-patients

My brother, who is in the healthcare field, has Covid. No severe symptoms, just an occasional cough. But he is high-risk, so he was monitoring at home with a pulse ox. Good thing, too. Despite not being particularly short of breath, his level dropped way below normal and he went to the hospital. He was admitted and is currently on steroids and antiviral meds. Only now is he experiencing breathing problems. Had he waited at home, like his doctor told him to, it would have likely been too late for him.

 

[Wolfhound]

A positive rapid test should come with the suggestion to buy a pulse ox. Silent hypoxia IS killing people with Covid, a mechanism that is not seen in other respiratory viral illness.

https://yourhealth.methodisthealth....ion-that-is-quietly-killing-covid-19-patients

My brother, who is in the healthcare field, has Covid. No severe symptoms, just an occasional cough. But he is high-risk, so he was monitoring at home with a pulse ox. Good thing, too. Despite not being particularly short of breath, his level dropped way below normal and he went to the hospital. He was admitted and is currently on steroids and antiviral meds. Only now is he experiencing breathing problems. Had he waited at home, like his doctor told him to, it would have likely been too late for him.

Monitoring SPO2 levels with a pulse ox is important with COVID. Like DOC said they are only about 20 bucks. My understanding is that ventilator use has dropped way off when it comes to treating COVID. Giving oxygen, IV fluids and possibly remdesivir seems to be the method now. I have seen statistics of anywhere from 30% to 90% mortality when put on a ventilator with COVID. YMMV

 

[HoughMade]

Question for Doc,

I’ve been hearing reports of ICUs filling up and some states are out of beds. Would it be reasonable to assume these must all be ventilator patients? If there’s not much that can be done but let the virus run it’s course, why would hospitalizations be going up so much? Just wondering if there are other factors at play this time of year or if I’m missing something.

In Indiana, we have 24.3% of ICU beds available. 42.3% are used for COVID patients (this is a change over the last several weeks, before that, most ICU patients were non-COVID). However, 71.9% of Indiana's ventilators are available.

Ventilators have proven not to be helpful and actually to be harmful for COVID patients in many instances.

 

[churchmouse]

Understandable statement but medically that's a different argument. I made no accusation of people calling something Covid that doesn't have at least a presumptive diagnosis. I was discussing the fact that sometimes it's important to do "rule outs' to see if you need to pursue other diagnostics for the benefit of the individual patient.


In any case, I'm not at goal of winning any arguments with you. I just think for all the accusations we have in other threads that this might be overblown, we could leave those accusations out of a thread where people are sharing stories of disease and loss.

Nice way to cover. So it is what I said elsewhere. Get over it.
I argument here. Just dont point fingers. Simple as that. Other staff saw it without my drawing attention so that’s it.
Have a great day.

 

[OkieGirl]

Doc, the one who took offense to your response earlier mentioned they sent his Aunt home with double pneumonia instead of admitting her. Is that standard procedure? I've had pneumonia, and I was happy to be admitted and put on IV. It hit me fast and hard, and I don't know that I would have made it had I not been admitted. Just curious. Maybe I missed something too.

.

Every patient is so very different in their health management, underlying conditions, and how they respond to therapies. It's also, sadly, impacted by available beds and what the .gov health insurance will cover in that instance. I'd love to wager a guess that it is highly unusual that a patient gets sent home with double pneumonia but it happened so why? Was her health record showing that she was always very responsive to treatments so she was issued the appropriate RX with the expectation that she'd be quickly on the mend? Did she say she had an appointment with her primary care physician the next morning so she wanted to wait to see how she felt with a little more rest? There are so many variables it's all just speculation.

I've been shocked with my folks as they age and get a bit more timid about advocating for their health. Dad was actively having a heart attack in his doctors office, the nurse had already called the ambulance, he had scheduled the appointment a few days prior when he first started feeling symptoms and rather than follow instructions of "GO TO THE EMERGENCY ROOM" he waited for his doctor. Then wanted to drive himself to the hospital because he didn't want the Ambulance bill.

We weren't in the exam room. It's difficult to speculate on limited information.

 

[Hoosierdood]

Understandable statement but medically that's a different argument. I made no accusation of people calling something Covid that doesn't have at least a presumptive diagnosis. I was discussing the fact that sometimes it's important to do "rule outs' to see if you need to pursue other diagnostics for the benefit of the individual patient.


In any case, I'm not at goal of winning any arguments with you. I just think for all the accusations we have in other threads that this might be overblown, we could leave those accusations out of a thread where people are sharing stories of disease and loss.

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