The View From Inside

In the last week or so, the pace of life on the “inside” has been marked by a steady change in how the world works for us.

Early on, it was preparing for the surge, then it became the overwhelming fear and frustration as we were seemingly swallowed by the onslaught. However, over the last week it’s different. We seem to be settling in for the long haul. Its NOT going to be over soon. We’ll push it to certain areas of the hospital, but it is not going away.

In an earlier post, I’d said that we seemed to be getting a handle on it… it was naive of me to say that. We had discovered the rhythm and the pattern of the illnesses but not exactly how to beat it.

Paths of Disease

The asymptomatic (no symptoms) form is as if you had nothing, maybe a little sniffle at most. You get better on your own but hell… you didn’t know you had it. You remain infectious.

The mild form is the at home version that you hear about… Chris Cuomo on CNN and such. It looked awful, and it is, but the fevers and shortness of breath are survivable.

There’s the moderate reaction to the virus which is like the mild form but with the extra added attraction of hypoxemia (low blood oxygen) and shortness of breath that often leads people to come to the ER. These folks are usually admitted, given oxygen, vitamins, whatever the cocktail (of medications and vitamins) of the day, made to lay down on their bellies (the prone position) and watched to see if they get better or not.

From there it splits:

1) You get better and are sent home on oxygen to recover.

2) It Gets Worse.

If you get better, you get better. If it gets worse you go one of two ways (generally):

The Long Slow Burn:

You cough and get low blood oxygen. Over time the lung damage causes you to need higher doses of oxygen. The lucky ones eventually heal and are weaned off the oxygen. If you are not lucky, you get stuck at this level. There are many people stuck in the hospital at this level.

The Long Blaze:

Your lungs can’t supply the body with oxygen and you get intubated and put on a ventilator. This can be for a long time. Since this whole deal has only been going on for around two months we don’t know how long, but the longer you are on a ventilator, the worse it is. There are many people who come off so there is hope, its getting better the more experience we get.

Anticoagulation

So there is talk online about Covid – 19 causing abnormal blood clotting and people taking blood thinners. Whenever someone is seriously ill, there is a chance of blood clots. This bugger has a chemical that causes the clotting system to go haywire in its envelope, so during critical illness there are blood thinners used. DO NOT TAKE BLOOD THINNERS TO PREVENT COVID – 19.

Medications

Hydroxychloroquine (Plaquanil) – NO

Zithromax – Not for Covid

Zinc – 50 mg of elemental Zinc for maximum of 12 weeks max

Vitamin C – Maximum of 2,000 mg a day

Multivitamins – Sure why not?

Plasma – plasma from people who have had the disease. We don’t know dosages and we don’t know if it works.

We are giving it in hospital only.

Remdisivir – Developed for Ebola and has been shown to decrease time of active disease. It is only IV and we don’t yet have the actual correct dosages yet.

But this is actually looking good.

Bottom Line

• – Wash your hands

– Wear a mask in public

– Practice Social Distancing

-Exercise

-Stop Smoking

-Eat Right

-Stay Away from stuff that can stress you out (I’m looking at you News and Facebook).