Congratulations what!!! If someone is at your mother's age the should definitely not wait for their symptoms to get severe before they go to a hospital, I have said it already in the other thread. No matter what the CDC is saying, because the deterioation could happen very fast. That's why every risky group should have an oxymeter so they should know when it is time to hurry and go. Looks like all your family will be immune except from you. Soon instead of you bringing them groceries they will be the ones who can go out freely while you are scooped up inside.
Yeah, that was a true pain in the butt, honestly, because I get something that isn't what they wanted after they give me a list of like 35 items, plus my grandmother and uncles list. It was terrible.
Great to hear! Regarding he Hydroxychloroquine debate it is sad that this has become politicized. I certainly don't think you should take it because the President says so but it also shouldn't be dismissed out of hand because the President says so. From what I've been reading it does appear to have efficacy and there are doctors who are having good results with it. There are side effects to it and one of them is severe cardiac problems. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3760572/ Hydroxychloroquine cardiotoxicity presenting as a rapidly evolving biventricular cardiomyopathy: key diagnostic features and literature review I'm not going to repost the text of the article as it is very technical but the gist of it is this, "Cardiotoxicity is a rare but serious complication of hydroxychloroquine" As noted this appears to be a treatment but not a cure and treatments work best when applied early. That has to be balanced with the risk of cardiac toxicity. It seems like if the decision was given to me (not as a doctor because I'm not one but as a relative) if it was for someone with an existing heart condition I wouldn't do it. The truth is we need to know much more about this.
Yeah my mom has heart issues, but she also has a cardiologist that's been with her for over 20 years and so when he said go ahead with it we did it. He also has specific requirements with the other medication she was taking so, he knew what he was saying.
Glad your Mom is doing better. As far as the hydroxychloroquine. I suspect that many people have recovered without taking hydroxychloroquine. Others may have died while taking hydroxychloroquine. And others, like your Mother, recovered after taking hydroxychloroquine. Without a good solid study we really don’t know if it helps, hurts, or makes no difference. With the positive outcome for your mother, I can understand why you believe it is beneficial. If my mother was seriously ill with covid-19 I would probably ask the doctors to consider anything and everything. Desperate times call for desperate measures. As far as your mothers oxygen saturation levels. My mother is 90 years old and has COPD. My mother uses oxygen and monitors he oxygen levels. Oxygen levels can move up and down within just a few seconds. Many things can have an effect on oxygen levels. How deeply the person is breathing, the posture of the person, standing vs sitting etc etc. Sometimes you might get a different reading depending what finger the oximeter is placed. Also, it’s not unusual for someone with a low oxygen level to feel completely fine. They may not feel like they are out of breath, but the low oxygen level could be putting a stress on various organs. And, oxygen levels frequently do drop when people sleep. I’ll really be glad when this whole covid-19 thing is over. I have both of my parents in quarantine until I feel it’s safe for them to get out. At their age I don’t think they would survive this virus. A bad cold can send them to the hospital, so this pandemic is pretty frightening.
She wishes she would have had the treatment too, but otherwise she is not in real danger other than general recovery. It took a lot out of her.
My point was not that I believed that it helped my mother or not: and many people have recovered without it: the point though is that this is all you have to block onset symptoms at this time, and if you get really bad off, this is all they will give you other than trying to keep you alive on a ventilator, so knowing that: my advice is to take it before the virus can really do damage to your internal organs. I am not saying that it is: THE cure, we don't know that. I am saying that it is the ONLY thing you can do other than just hoping and praying you are one of the lucky ones that survives: so my advice was demand to get tested, and then request the treatment, early. One thing that people are not aware of is that once one person in the household tests positive, the hospital will say that they assume that you are as well: which happened to my mom, but that assumption will be balked at if they admit you to a hospital. They will spend 24 hours waiting for a test before they do any treatment. So my thing is: even if you know you are positive, you need to get tested, which will open up treatment options for you and will also catalog you in the system for tracking purposes. At this point: that is all that can be done, but I am saying this is the smartest route to take.
@what you have provided a great public service here to our community. People need to truly understand the journey of this virus. I think folks saw Gobert and Donovan Mitchell on their first couple days saying they felt fine and think you can just assume if you’re not old with health issues you’d be the same. However we didn’t hear from Gobert and others on days 7 to 12 which is the danger zone time when things go up and down and waaaayyy down if you draw the short straw. Glad they can read this and truly understand the journey. Glad your family is out of the hospital and on their road to a full recovery. FYI on treatments I’m following a few doctors online who do really good updates and yes you really should be getting treatments between days 7 and 10 to understand if they are having any affect. Hydroxychloroquin is doing things doctors don’t really understand because it’s not studied yet in the correct placebo testing needed. However I would never tell someone in the state your mom was in to reject it if a Doctor said it’s time to try something. We know it will at least change your PH levels which probably as least makes you feel a bit different even if not technically better. We just need time and studies to really know the right treatment which is what social distancing is proving more than anything... time. Take care and best wishes to your loved ones. I’m going to do my best to keep my family out of harms way until the professionals gets this under control.
There is a lot we do not know about what this virus does: My sister has a nurse friend and her husband, who is in his mid-thirties and he began peeing blood, and took him to the hospital: to which, they said it was not covid-19, but he was in bad shape, so she took him to the emergency room again and found that he had an enlarged heart and needed a heart transplant. A few days later, I found out that they don't believe he was born with it, which is usually the case and they think it was due to a virus. I don't know exactly where they are at this point: but the point is that this virus is a wildcard and is doing many many things we don't know as of yet.
Yes. What we have been doing is buying time. The entire medical and scientific world is trying like hell to wrap their heads around this virus. We are trying to do 5 years worth of research in 5 months. Everyone just needs to do their part to be resourceful and respectful to the health care professionals. Just imagine what the experience would have been like for your mother if there was another 3,000 Covid patients going to that one hospital at the same exact time. That’s the level you could expect if there was no social distancing in place. Even if you think it’s not that bad and just want to get back to “livin” you should still do your part for our medical community. They are the ones that are going to figure out treatment over time. Not politically motivated snake oil salespeople on YouTube.
which is why it’s silly to take this lightly, whatever your age or your health Take for example, even mild cases may have life long condition such as liver damage.. there is already some indication of that ... we just don’t know enough yet.
Familiar whaaa behavior, right? Easiest ignore decision I’ve had in a while. @Nook - details of the virus genetics show its primary target will be the lungs but, disturbingly, it also has biochemistry inclined toward the heart and the liver. So that explains many patients getting heart inflammation. Ugh, this beastie.
Hi @what How is everything? Any updates? I hope your family is doing well and they are well into the road of recovery. This has been bothering me all this time This just seemed very very strange at the time. Pneumonia and yet only hypoxia. But after reading more and more about the clinical evidence so far guess what.. This is a TYPICAL pneumonia of Covid19 and is very different than the usual pneumonia. People with Covid19 who get pneumonia even bilateral, are often found to be able to speak, walk with little dyspnea while their lungs are full of fluids. Many doctors in ICU are describing patients who even are able to answer back to them and after 1 hour crush and are intubated. That's why we all need to get an oxymeter. It may be the best and even only way to tell if we have pneumonia. Very scary stuff. So glad that your mom insisted that she got a CAT scan and that your sister had an oxymeter what. You managed to nip it in the bud and get the treatment in time. Thank god.
My mom is going to be seeing a pulmonary specialist probably tomorrow. Basically because her oxygen levels are terrible when she gets up and does anything. She is on oxygen and when she is sitting down it's like 92 with only 2 liters, but when she gets up she has to turn it up to 3 and it's like 86. And if she didn't have the oxygen it would probably be in the 70s. Unfortunately it's going to be a very difficult recovery for her. My sister hasn't really fully recovered but she's okay as far as oxygen level. Again this disease is terrible.
