COVID

My sister, who lives less than a mile away, sent me a message that today she has a bad cough and other flu-like symptoms. As with any infection she gets it also triggers a high temperature because she has lupus. She went to book an appointment for a Covid test and was informed there were no appointments available and a home test kit would be sent out. It arrived within 2 hours so she has done it and sent it back. Hopes to hear back in a day or 2.  Her last day at work was on Friday before the company shut down for until January.  We haven’t actually seen her in weeks although I chat with her most days.

Keep us posted! 

She got a text today telling her that she tested positive for Covid and has to self isolate for 10 days along with her husband and adult daughter.

She continues to have flu-like symptoms so fingers crossed she doesn’t get worse. She sounded short of breath on the phone tonight so I will drop off my oximeter at her house tomorrow. I have had an oximeter for 2 or 3 years on recommendation by the cardio folks at my local hospital as I monitored the episodes of Atrial Fibrillation. (The AFib was fixed over 2 years by an outpatient ablation procedure)

She got a text today telling her that she tested positive for Covid and has to self isolate for 10 days along with her husband and adult daughter.

She continues to have flu-like symptoms so fingers crossed she doesn’t get worse. She sounded short of breath on the phone tonight so I will drop off my oximeter at her house tomorrow. I have had an oximeter for 2 or 3 years on recommendation by the cardio folks at my local hospital as I monitored the episodes of Atrial Fibrillation. (The AFib was fixed over 2 years by an outpatient ablation procedure)

Hoping for the best but make sure she knows how important it is to call for help if her condition starts to worsen.

Lots of love to her, and best wishes for a very speedy complete recovery.

And what larrabee said - if she gets worse absolutely do not hesitate to get help.  Do not try and power through it if it's getting bad.  Speaking from personal experience here.

I’m sure she will call for help if she gets worse. She was admitted early on with suspected Covid which turned out to be pleurisy. Back then they didn’t have tests available outside of hospitals.

When I give her the oximeter tomorrow I will remind her to call a doctor if her blood oxygen drops below 90%.

Keep us posted durhamland. Hopeful it’s a mild case but she builds the antibodies. Also make sure she checks her oxygen after she’s been moving about and not resting. 

Lots of love to her, and best wishes for a very speedy complete recovery.

And what larrabee said - if she gets worse absolutely do not hesitate to get help.  Do not try and power through it if it's getting bad.  Speaking from personal experience here.

@Aquila  Great to see you back.

@Aquila  Great to see you back.

Thanks, nice to be back for a bit.  Still fighting, but at least I can be home for Christmas.    Small wins.

Thanks, nice to be back for a bit.  Still fighting, but at least I can be home for Christmas.    Small wins.

Great job! Keep doing what you're doing! 

@jfkimberly My angry young teenager thanks you. 
More details if anyone is interested:  It's Romeo's 18th birthday and they've planned some kind of special thing.  Previously, we had allowed them to go to each other's houses even though it was against the rules, mostly because they were at school all day and took most classes together.  It just didn't seem to make much sense to be strict about home rules when they spent all day together anyway.
Now, school is out and there is a new tier.  Rome and Juliet of course think that since we broke the rules before, we have to keep breaking them.   And they both recently tested negative.  And they hung out together just a few days ago, so why does it matter?  And it's his 18th birthday and he may die of a broken heart, and it's raining outside and zoom is not enough and they have to study together and don't you know this is actually going to hurt my exam results if we can study together. 

Romeo's parents have sent us a text saying they don't mind and they've all had negative tests recently, and it would make Romeo happy. I'm not super happy they aren't more careful about following the rules, but it's a bit hypocritical now since I broke them before.

Because everyone is against me, I have agreed to a few hours at Romeo's house with the window open as a one-off, instead of the sleepover everyone else is planning. 

This whole thing sucks and I want to speak to the manager.

I was speaking to a friend yesterday, because the case rate in our area has increased exponentially since the lockdown ended (It's 500/100k residents right now when at end of lockdown it was something like 70/100k). We've been tier 4 since last Sunday. Apparently one of the local people she goes walking with decided that she should continue with her plans to attend a spa in a tier 2 area for Xmas. None of them are following the new lockdown rules. No one cares, so your daughter is in line with the rest of them. It's hard to feel like a year of social isolation and having my health deteriorate because of lack of care was worth it, when no one else cares and are throwing in the towel while the end is in sight. We owe it to the healthcare staff and front line workers to follow the rules and protect them a bit. The government needs to improve their economic help so that people actually take it seriously.

And if I see one more job advertised as "temporarily remote" I may scream. If you can go remote now, you can when this is over too. They are screening out people who ask for that, so I don't even feel safe trying to establish the expected post-covid culture in interviews. If anyone knows of low stress remote jobs, I would be open to anything at this point! I am happy with my volunteering and hope it leads to paid work, but I also need to start seeing docs privately to address the health stuff that has added up over the last year.

I also hope your sister is feeling better by now @durhamlad.

Margo, genuine curiosity how would you improve the government help? 

Seeing the USA fighting over $600 after 9 months makes me very grateful we have the protection we do here. 

We had a couple of close friends, late 70’s, just down the coast from us in Whitby and today they told us that their adult son, his wife and their teenage son have all tested positive for Covid (they are both teachers and the son has been attending school). Our friend had been talking to his son the other day, from the doorstep and thought he was at a safe distance. However, once their son entered the positive test code into his NHS app his app sounded the alert. They have now both been tested for Covid but were negative.

Meanwhile my sister slept for over 12 hours last night and feels much better today. Her husband, also with Covid, told me it just feels like a bad cold. He took a test on Christmas Eve and got the result Christmas morning.

It is getting uncomfortably close. Still a couple of months before the vaccinations get down to our age range. (65)

Margo, genuine curiosity how would you improve the government help? 

Seeing the USA fighting over $600 after 9 months makes me very grateful we have the protection we do here.

Encouraging remote education for secondary schools, providing the support to the schools needed to do that since head teachers can't magic funding and educators out of no where, and ensuring full sick pay for people who need to isolate. That would be a start anyways.

I have a feeling things will change in the US when Biden takes over, especially if Dems win in Georgia. And Trump will go to jail shortly thereafter.

One can hope.

Hand in there, Margo.