Coronavirus prep

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  • snowflake954
    snowflake954 Posts: 8,400 Member
    TonyB0588 wrote: »
    Theoldguy1 wrote: »
    @ReenieHJ -- I hope your husband is OK.

    We should start talking more about IF you get it. I'm reading about oxygen sensors being used and the level at which you should go to the hospital.

    https://www.consumerreports.org/medical-symptoms/covid-19-pulse-oximeters-oxygen-levels-faq/

    Amazon has sensors as low as $17. Any other insight from people that know more than I do about science?

    This is an excerpt from a news article/interview with family about the youngest person to die of Covid in our county. She was 30 with no underlying conditions. I x'ed out names for privacy.

    Looks like a meter could be a good investment. I ordered one this morning for us, our children and a couple relatives:

    "The first sign that she had contracted COVID-19 was a loss of taste and smell. That started the Tuesday before she passed. She got tested Wednesday, which came back positive three days later.

    “Over the weekend, she was showing more symptoms. Breathing was a little bit harder, but we just thought it was something that we kind of needed to work through. I mean, it's a part of being sick. It’s just kind of got to run its course. We still weren’t all that concerned,” xxxxx said.

    Come Sunday, xxxxx said, they were starting to feel a little uneasy. They called a doctor who sent them off with some prescriptions. Still, no real red flags were raised.

    “Monday morning, we bought an oximeter, which clips onto your finger and tells you your oxygen levels in your blood. They're supposed to be about 95% typically—anything less, you should talk to a doctor. Her’s were 60%,” xxxxx said. “That's the moment it hits you that this is bad. This is not something that you should be handling on her own at home.”

    They called an ambulance. xxxxx followed his wife to the hospital. Xxxxx was admitted to the intensive care unit. Meanwhile, her husband had to leave her at the door, in accordance with safety protocols.

    Xxxxx said they put Xxxxx on a mask to help her breathe, which she initially responded well to. But things started going downhill fast that evening. Doctors put her on a ventilator that didn’t seem to be working either.

    “They tried everything they could think of and some surgeries that I'd never even heard before for trying to treat COVID,” xxxxx said. “She put up a really, really good fight. But she passed away that Tuesday morning.”

    That was less than 24 hours after xxxx was admitted to the ICU"

    We had a 21 yr old woman die of COVID three days ago, here in Italy--no pre-existing conditions.

    Why are these people dying?? Here in my little corner of the world, they all recover fully. The last death was 29th April.

    Depends on which strain of the virus you get and how it develops.
  • SModa61
    SModa61 Posts: 2,828 Member
    So Hubby and I are traveling Thanksgiving weekend, but not for Thanksgiving. We need to squeeze in a trip to deal with all the construction repairs going on at our Florida Key condo which purchased a year and a half ago. Squeeze is to place it between Thanksgiving and Christmas. In each case, we wanted a quarantine period before the holiday so that the few people we might see are least at risk (ie out 2 adult children, SIL and grandson). Wondering if the timing is dumb. Will be traveling with every precaution we can take and utilizing the free Massachusetts Stop the Spread testing to assist as well.
  • HabitRabbit
    HabitRabbit Posts: 25 Member
    edited November 2020
    JustSomeEm wrote: »
    The anemia is probably running related. A lot of runners get low iron. I am definitely a red meat eater but it doesn't seem to help. I have been supplementing my iron and got it up a few points over the past two years, but am still low enough for it to affect my running.

    I finally broke it to my husband that we aren't going to MD for Thanksgiving. The family was very understanding, and probably pretty relieved since he is such high risk. DH wanted to go anyway, but I'm not risking it, especially since both Pennsylvania and Maryland are getting daily records right now -- and the holiday hasn't even happened yet.

    Is it the part of Maryland where coleslaw is a mandatory Thanksgiving side dish, and the ham is stuffed with greens?

    I'm in that part of Maryland, and the stuffed ham is delicious (if done right)... and we may be home quarantining (or sick) for Thanksgiving. :rage:

    My MIL drives for the Amish. The Amish folks where she's from are closely tied to the Amish from around here, so when she has an extended trip to this area, she stays with us. She got here last night, and informed us that last Friday she became unable to smell or taste, then came down with intestinal issues. Apparently she was in bed from Friday to Tuesday, and only crawled out of bed to take some of her local Amish on a trip. She is still sick and still can't taste or smell, and I just heard her downstairs coughing. :(

    If she has COVID, she's like a one woman super-spreader event. I wonder how many people she's potentially gotten sick driving them all over the place.

    Oh no! That’s very concerning. Fingers crossed that it’s not Covid, or at least that you don’t get it. I don’t know what your relationship with your MIL is like or how available testing is in your area, but ideally, she’d get tested. Today if possible.

  • Theoldguy1
    Theoldguy1 Posts: 2,427 Member
    Here, MN, alcohol is sold only in liquor stores. 3 2 beer, and low alcohol wine cooler type beverages, are sold in grocery stores and gas stations. EVERYONE at the grocery store chain I frequent, has their id’s checked at checkout. I’ve purchased 3 2 beer for making beer cheese soup many times, and even this old grey haired lady, obviously over 21, has her id checked. WI is only 25 miles away from my house. They sell alcohol everywhere. I’ve often wondered if there are problems with underage theft of alcohol in WI, it’s so readily accessible.

    Alcohol easier to get in IL vs WI. In IL sold at most grocery stores, liquor stores, convenient stores/gas stations. All package liquor sales in WI stop at 9 PM. In IL it varies by community but generally can buy package until midnight or 1AM.

    As far as theft, most places in any state that I've seen have smaller bottles in a case or behind the counter so only the clerk has access to help minimize theft by anyone.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,843 Member
    SModa61 wrote: »
    So Hubby and I are traveling Thanksgiving weekend, but not for Thanksgiving. We need to squeeze in a trip to deal with all the construction repairs going on at our Florida Key condo which purchased a year and a half ago. Squeeze is to place it between Thanksgiving and Christmas. In each case, we wanted a quarantine period before the holiday so that the few people we might see are least at risk (ie out 2 adult children, SIL and grandson). Wondering if the timing is dumb. Will be traveling with every precaution we can take and utilizing the free Massachusetts Stop the Spread testing to assist as well.

    The Wednesday before Thanksgiving is the heaviest travel day of the year, and I imagine that weekend is close second. It will probably be much less heavy this year, but still, if you could push it back a week that would probably have much less traffic.

    Are you driving or flying? If flying, what carrier are you taking?
  • T1DCarnivoreRunner
    T1DCarnivoreRunner Posts: 11,502 Member
    zamphir66 wrote: »
    Non-sequiter incoming, but:

    About the purchase of alcohol, I think every state needs to incorporate some kind of technology into their IDs if they haven't already that can then be read/scanned at a point-of-sale system before alcohol can be purchased. This takes the issue entirely out of the hands of cashiers. I say this as a former manager of a liquor store. Some customers can give you a really hard time about this. Also, the state liquor board loves to run "sting" operations wherein if a cashier neglects to check ID, they can be held personally liable over and above the store's liability. I think it's just a revenue stream for them, but it's stupid. Automate that nonsense.

    For many years, I have seen stores scanning state-issued ID's. My understanding is that the barcode contains the information and a computer can quickly collect and analyze that information. But it can also store that information, meaning my junk mail increases. I'm willing to sign up for store accounts that track my purchases and send me deals when there is a benefit to me to do that. But not as a condition of making a particular purchase. In response, I've been using a passport card for years to do this.

    Sometimes they try to scan it and then get frustrated when the computer can't understand it. My response is to explain how the passport card barcode works (it is just a number to identify your records in the State Dept. database... without access to that database, the number is worthless). And then go on to remind them that it is a government issued ID and still meets their requirement. I rarely get denied a purchase for that.

    The exception is if I am buying something where the seller is required by law to collect my name, address, and date of birth... specifically if I am buying a gun, I use my state-issued ID.
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,899 Member
    Theoldguy1 wrote: »
    Here, MN, alcohol is sold only in liquor stores. 3 2 beer, and low alcohol wine cooler type beverages, are sold in grocery stores and gas stations. EVERYONE at the grocery store chain I frequent, has their id’s checked at checkout. I’ve purchased 3 2 beer for making beer cheese soup many times, and even this old grey haired lady, obviously over 21, has her id checked. WI is only 25 miles away from my house. They sell alcohol everywhere. I’ve often wondered if there are problems with underage theft of alcohol in WI, it’s so readily accessible.

    Alcohol easier to get in IL vs WI. In IL sold at most grocery stores, liquor stores, convenient stores/gas stations. All package liquor sales in WI stop at 9 PM. In IL it varies by community but generally can buy package until midnight or 1AM.

    During Covid, stores (even groceries) must stop selling at 9 in Chicago, since there was apparently an issue in some neighborhoods (definitely not mine) with gathering socially outside of certain liquor stores. Bars and restaurants can currently sell until 11 pm. (My general impression is that lots of people think the no liquor sales from a store past 9 thing is ridiculously overbroad, as obv no one is gathering around the Jewel.)

    Pre Covid, the standard stop was 2 am, but there are some bars allowed to sell 'til 4.

    I've had friends from other states shocked that everything is sold everywhere.

    On the other hand, WI raised its drinking age later than most other states, so used to be a destination for those close by for that reason. I went to college in MA near the VT border, and the seniors when I was a freshman were "grandfathered in VT), so used to go there to buy alcohol. When my mom was in college, she was in WA near the border of ID (which had a lower drinking age), so the same thing happened.

    Liquor laws are very local in general, and in IL one can go dry by precinct. This has been used in Chicago to attack problem bars and liquor stores -- Mayor Daley the second was really big on that, so there are little patches of dry precincts in an otherwise very wet place.
  • SModa61
    SModa61 Posts: 2,828 Member
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    SModa61 wrote: »
    So Hubby and I are traveling Thanksgiving weekend, but not for Thanksgiving. We need to squeeze in a trip to deal with all the construction repairs going on at our Florida Key condo which purchased a year and a half ago. Squeeze is to place it between Thanksgiving and Christmas. In each case, we wanted a quarantine period before the holiday so that the few people we might see are least at risk (ie out 2 adult children, SIL and grandson). Wondering if the timing is dumb. Will be traveling with every precaution we can take and utilizing the free Massachusetts Stop the Spread testing to assist as well.

    The Wednesday before Thanksgiving is the heaviest travel day of the year, and I imagine that weekend is close second. It will probably be much less heavy this year, but still, if you could push it back a week that would probably have much less traffic.

    Are you driving or flying? If flying, what carrier are you taking?

    It will be flying, and if we push back then we cannot have 2 week quarantine before xmas upon our return, and unfortunately it is important we get down to examine the mess.

    We are flying JetBlue, which still has the middle seats blocked out until January 9th. I am purchasing some "safety style" glasses and just purchased filter inserts to drop inside our double layer fabric masks. My sister, seattle doctor who is very concerned about COVID, actually feels that flying is not a concern because of all the precautions taken by the airlines combined with the plane's filtration system.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 31,717 Member
    Just a local FWIW update: One of the two big health care systems here (in mid-sized city, Michigan, USA) has just returned Covid tests to a more restrictive basis.

    It had been on an "all come" basis over the summer, now it's back to people being "required to receive a test order from a qualified medical provider OR self-order a test through the (health system) app using the Symptom Screening tool." One of their drive-through sites (the one I used a couple months ago because shorter lines 😉) is now limited strictly to pre-operative or pre-procedure test requirements.

    I don't know what indications in the screening tool qualify a person for a test (or maybe it's just a formality hurdle to limit request volume). They haven't - that I know of - specifically said that this is due to the dramatic increase in cases/hospitalizations locally lately, so some need to ration to higher-need people . . . but that's my assumption.
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 9,950 Member
    JustSomeEm wrote: »
    The anemia is probably running related. A lot of runners get low iron. I am definitely a red meat eater but it doesn't seem to help. I have been supplementing my iron and got it up a few points over the past two years, but am still low enough for it to affect my running.

    I finally broke it to my husband that we aren't going to MD for Thanksgiving. The family was very understanding, and probably pretty relieved since he is such high risk. DH wanted to go anyway, but I'm not risking it, especially since both Pennsylvania and Maryland are getting daily records right now -- and the holiday hasn't even happened yet.

    Is it the part of Maryland where coleslaw is a mandatory Thanksgiving side dish, and the ham is stuffed with greens?

    I'm in that part of Maryland, and the stuffed ham is delicious (if done right)... and we may be home quarantining (or sick) for Thanksgiving. :rage:

    My MIL drives for the Amish. The Amish folks where she's from are closely tied to the Amish from around here, so when she has an extended trip to this area, she stays with us. She got here last night, and informed us that last Friday she became unable to smell or taste, then came down with intestinal issues. Apparently she was in bed from Friday to Tuesday, and only crawled out of bed to take some of her local Amish on a trip. She is still sick and still can't taste or smell, and I just heard her downstairs coughing. :(

    If she has COVID, she's like a one woman super-spreader event. I wonder how many people she's potentially gotten sick driving them all over the place.

    Oh no! That’s very concerning. Fingers crossed that it’s not Covid, or at least that you don’t get it. I don’t know what your relationship with your MIL is like or how available testing is in your area, but ideally, she’d get tested. Today if possible.

    Strange, I don't see JustSomeEm's post, just your response to it. Wanted to send hugs/best wishes. Hope you stay well for the stuffed ham (yum!).
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 9,950 Member
    JustSomeEm wrote: »
    JustSomeEm wrote: »
    The anemia is probably running related. A lot of runners get low iron. I am definitely a red meat eater but it doesn't seem to help. I have been supplementing my iron and got it up a few points over the past two years, but am still low enough for it to affect my running.

    I finally broke it to my husband that we aren't going to MD for Thanksgiving. The family was very understanding, and probably pretty relieved since he is such high risk. DH wanted to go anyway, but I'm not risking it, especially since both Pennsylvania and Maryland are getting daily records right now -- and the holiday hasn't even happened yet.

    Is it the part of Maryland where coleslaw is a mandatory Thanksgiving side dish, and the ham is stuffed with greens?

    I'm in that part of Maryland, and the stuffed ham is delicious (if done right)... and we may be home quarantining (or sick) for Thanksgiving. :rage:

    My MIL drives for the Amish. The Amish folks where she's from are closely tied to the Amish from around here, so when she has an extended trip to this area, she stays with us. She got here last night, and informed us that last Friday she became unable to smell or taste, then came down with intestinal issues. Apparently she was in bed from Friday to Tuesday, and only crawled out of bed to take some of her local Amish on a trip. She is still sick and still can't taste or smell, and I just heard her downstairs coughing. :(

    If she has COVID, she's like a one woman super-spreader event. I wonder how many people she's potentially gotten sick driving them all over the place.

    Oh no! That’s very concerning. Fingers crossed that it’s not Covid, or at least that you don’t get it. I don’t know what your relationship with your MIL is like or how available testing is in your area, but ideally, she’d get teste Today if possible.

    She's very 'anti-medicine' and also doesn't actually believe COVID is a big deal. She won't get tested. And if I suggested she did, she'd be even less likely to go do it.
    Theoldguy1 wrote: »
    JustSomeEm wrote: »
    The anemia is probably running related. A lot of runners get low iron. I am definitely a red meat eater but it doesn't seem to help. I have been supplementing my iron and got it up a few points over the past two years, but am still low enough for it to affect my running.

    I finally broke it to my husband that we aren't going to MD for Thanksgiving. The family was very understanding, and probably pretty relieved since he is such high risk. DH wanted to go anyway, but I'm not risking it, especially since both Pennsylvania and Maryland are getting daily records right now -- and the holiday hasn't even happened yet.

    Is it the part of Maryland where coleslaw is a mandatory Thanksgiving side dish, and the ham is stuffed with greens?

    I'm in that part of Maryland, and the stuffed ham is delicious (if done right)... and we may be home quarantining (or sick) for Thanksgiving. :rage:

    My MIL drives for the Amish. The Amish folks where she's from are closely tied to the Amish from around here, so when she has an extended trip to this area, she stays with us. She got here last night, and informed us that last Friday she became unable to smell or taste, then came down with intestinal issues. Apparently she was in bed from Friday to Tuesday, and only crawled out of bed to take some of her local Amish on a trip. She is still sick and still can't taste or smell, and I just heard her downstairs coughing. :(

    If she has COVID, she's like a one woman super-spreader event. I wonder how many people she's potentially gotten sick driving them all over the place.

    Per one of my son's friends who is in residency as a doctor in pulmonary critical care, the sudden almost complete lost of taste is one of the most obvious signs of Covid.

    Harvard also agrees.

    https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/06/app-reveals-loss-of-taste-smell-coronavirus-indicators/

    Best of luck to her.

    :( She claims she has zero ability to taste. But also that she otherwise feels fine now. It's been 9 days since the onset of her symptoms, so maybe we're okay.

    I'm super frustrated... I think we're going to quarantine as a precaution, which means cancelling dental appointments and meetings at work for the next few weeks. She's completely unconcerned about potentially causing others to get sick, and it makes me want to shake her. Her son (my hubby) has previously been diagnosed with an issue which makes the possibility of getting COVID somewhat concerning - and she potentially brought it here.


    Sorry, just venting.

    Don't want to suggest negative things about her, but is there any chance she knows loss of smell is a covid symptom and she's saying this just to yank your chain? Your remark about how she would be less likely to get tested if you suggested it makes me think it's a possibility.

    But, yeah, be careful, be safe as you can. I've gone through two self-imposed quarantines so far (once for contact with someone who thought they had it but tested negative, once for someone who tested positive but I came through the quarantine period without developing symptoms), and it's not fun. Best of luck.
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 9,950 Member
    SModa61 wrote: »
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    SModa61 wrote: »
    So Hubby and I are traveling Thanksgiving weekend, but not for Thanksgiving. We need to squeeze in a trip to deal with all the construction repairs going on at our Florida Key condo which purchased a year and a half ago. Squeeze is to place it between Thanksgiving and Christmas. In each case, we wanted a quarantine period before the holiday so that the few people we might see are least at risk (ie out 2 adult children, SIL and grandson). Wondering if the timing is dumb. Will be traveling with every precaution we can take and utilizing the free Massachusetts Stop the Spread testing to assist as well.

    The Wednesday before Thanksgiving is the heaviest travel day of the year, and I imagine that weekend is close second. It will probably be much less heavy this year, but still, if you could push it back a week that would probably have much less traffic.

    Are you driving or flying? If flying, what carrier are you taking?

    It will be flying, and if we push back then we cannot have 2 week quarantine before xmas upon our return, and unfortunately it is important we get down to examine the mess.

    We are flying JetBlue, which still has the middle seats blocked out until January 9th. I am purchasing some "safety style" glasses and just purchased filter inserts to drop inside our double layer fabric masks. My sister, seattle doctor who is very concerned about COVID, actually feels that flying is not a concern because of all the precautions taken by the airlines combined with the plane's filtration system.

    Just remember to be careful within the airport and any other crowded places you go, too.

    Best wishes.