Couch 223: Jan 4: Darn Tootin'!

So, if anyone needs to get a COVID test, I recommend CVS if there's one near you. Did the swab myself in the car, only had to go in until "I felt resistance," 10 seconds each side (I did 15 because that's what the online instructions said). Was the PCR kind, but I could have signed up for rapid test (fewer appointments available for those). Seemed safe and efficient, didn't leave my car. Results expected in 2-3 days. I know I'll likely be negative, but I still feel better knowing (and then I could also look into other reasons for my more recent symptoms, though maybe it's all stress or I just managed to pick up a common cold somehow. Or reactivated Epstein-Barr, which I've been diagnosed with before, but was years ago).

What difference would it make whether you are positive or not? I am not being flippant -but they don't really have treatment for it and unless you are going somewhere to be around outside your pod --what do they do for you if it is positive?

Spit tests for my money.

So, Info found my check, which is good because I hadn't gotten around to mailing a replacement yet.

And the office I use for psychiatry is closing permanently, which explains why they have not responded either to my request for a 6-month check-up appointment or my prescription refill. Might be a sign it's time to go off Pristiq, so I started cutting my 50 mg pills in half this morning. Before when I skipped a dose, I'd get dizzy, but nothing like that yet today.

One less medication, one less doctor in my life.

Fewer is always better, I think.
I had one for two hours this month and now am back to zero

Except for me. Im still sticking pins in my little vudu SD. Does it feel better when i do this?

Well, if I *was* positive (and then H and maybe D got tested), I'd feel a bit better about my D going back to school in a month. I know antibodies aren't 100% in preventing having it again, but I'd still rather know. Plus then we'd definitely avoid our respective parents for a couple weeks.


Also, I know that at times, people can feel better, then suddenly go downhill, like if it shifts to pneumonia. So if I'm positive, I'd want to be doing things like checking my oxygen levels (I got a pulse oximeter a while back), etc. Plus I've read it can help to avoid sleeping on your back (so harder for lungs to fill with fluid). If I'm negative, I don't have to think about those things.

I hope we do the 2020's, 30's, & 40's better than they did in the 1900's, but idk. Doesnt look like we learned from history. I dont know WHAT to make of Gamestop in terms of the stock market crash of 1929.

Oh, another reason is to help track rates in my area, so we know what spread is like.

It's really hard right now.. I mean really hard. You are helping people and in doing that ... helping you too? (Platitude sorry) I hope you can find some peace.. I'm struggling too.

Those are things I would not have thought of. Maybe the tracing, but the other stuff would not have been on my radar as reason to test - I just would isolate for 3 weeks from anyone not in actual home. Of course, I refused everything on the form at the mds office, did not give them a contact, and gave a formal statement revoking consent to treat because their form had me consenting for a year. We may simply have different approaches to health. My family has compared me to the Black Knight - it is only a flesh wound, and have threatened to have a pre-prepared tombstone reading "it is probably just a sinus infection, I am fine"

I had an older student (40s) who had it right when school started back but that is the only person that I know of in the last couple of months who has had it. She described it as feeling pretty flu-ish. Everyone else I know that has had it had no symptoms

No change - more pins

Quick couch poll
Who puts salt in their porridge?

If grits are the American version of porridge, then I do.

If it's more like oatmeal or Cream of Wheat, then i have no answer.

I do - salt and pepper. I like it with an over easy egg mixed in as well.

Part of why I'm aware of it is having a friend whose whole household got it in December--parents, kids, and the wife's father, who was living with them. And the father, they kept monitoring his blood oxygen and had to basically force him to go the hospital because it got really low. With COVID, it can get really low, without someone realizing it. Like with a typical illness, they'd probably pass out or get dizzy or something, but apparently can happen without that in COVID (but still be dangerous). He's since gotten out of the hospital and recovered (friend and wife just had flu-like symptoms, kids brief GI things). And he's unsure how they could have contracted it aside from when they were buying a Christmas tree because they were really careful (and I believe him--unlike some other people I know who might be like "Oh yeah, we were really careful" yet I know they went to a big indoor holiday gathering and stuff like that.

And yes, pretty sure we're approximately opposites in pursuing health things, as I tend toward being a bit of a hypochondriac. However, I don't tend to run to the doctor for every little thing, mainly just worry about it, research it, monitor it, etc.

And lol to Black Knight comparison--I guess we both appreciate that movie, at least?

Ordered a different dish than I usually get from a Turkish place that we frequent in an attempt to branch out. It has both a vegetarian and a meat version. The correct version was listed on the receipt, so I wasn't thinking much of it when I bit into one--of course it was the meat version. Ugh... Not sure why I didn't cut it in half first, but this place tends to be very reliable with carryout (unlike a couple other places we go to). We called, and they apologized and offered to remake it, but I didn't want H to drive back over there (I imagine they'd have also driven it to us, as they use their own employees for delivery), so just opted for refund of that item. Sigh...

My husband is in the ICU on bipap struggling to breathe. Fortunately the bipap is enough at this point - they haven't discussed ventilator beyond getting consent to do so if needed but it doesn't appear it will be needed.

Doctors call me a couple times a day and update me on his condition. I am not nearly as sick as my son and my husband were. Son is pretty much recovered after about 5 days of misery (he's 21). Husband just kept deteriorating to the point where he had to be transported by ambulance and admitted. We think so far that he will eventually recover and come home, but right now he's very, very ill.

My husband and I had the first vaccine about mid-January. Doctors suspect my husband was already COVID positive at that time - just not showing symptoms yet (he was the first of us to get sick). I didn't get sick until early this week, and I am not nearly as ill as either of them were. My main symptom is a constant nausea that just won't go away even with the meds they've given me. Had a bit of congestion and cough, but nothing too terrible thus far. Doctors theorize that while the one vaccine didn't prevent me from getting COVID, it may very well be helping me not get quite as sick.

Where did we pick this up? Who knows? I teach full time in person. My son has college coursework - about half of it in person. Oddly, my husband was the one who stayed home and he got it first. Might have come home on our clothes or something for all we know.

Don't let anyone tell you this is just like the flu. It might be for some people, but we can all profess to this being much more severe in symptoms for us. That's the unknown - everyone seems to display different symptoms and severity - even in our own home. Get vaccinated. We'll complete our vaccinations when told we can do so.

Hugs, Artley (if wanted). I hope your husband will improve soon and won't need the ventilator. And hope you feel better soon, too.


In response to some of your other comments, it seems like it's just really random how COVID will affect people. And to me that's one of the most scary aspects of it. There's just such a range of symptoms, too. As you could attest to.

Do you cut the egg up first or just put it in whole and break it with stirring?

Artley that sounds terrifying. Hugs