COVID-19 Check-in Thread Part II

[Mamorien]

Still here. Haven't talked to my therapist since April. Should probably make an appointment at least as soon as possible.

[Jenova_Silverstar]

Checking in. Getting ripe tomatoes in the garden now. The honey crisp apple tree is absolutely loaded with apples this year.

[Dragonflight]

We're all still here. The roommate has been moved from ICU to the ACE ward (used to help the disabled and elderly deal with loss of basic functionality, like eating and going to the bathroom.) While the Dexamethasone they have him on has cut his fever for five days now, he's still having oxygenation issues. He commented on having to get help taking care of basic needs so as to avoid falling unconscious from overstrain. Still has pneumonia in both lungs.

The two of us at home are back to normal now. Our greatest challenge was catching a deer mouse living in our stove, and relocating it to somewhere on the far side of the community near the forest. We still need to get Minto to replace our washing machine and the stove. One, because it's been broken since February, and the other because successive deer mouse infestation the last couple of years have wrecked the insulation and wiring. We don't use it anymore because of that. Thanks to Covid, it's uncertain when either will be replaced. That depends on if their 3rd party contractors feel safe working in houses yet.

[Dragonflight]

Life here has taken a turn for the worse. That roommate is now on a ventilator. Apparently the oxygen saturation wasn't improving, and they've decided the best way to keep him alive is to put him on a machine. Right now, we're just waiting and hoping.

[robkelk]

Aw, fuck.

Hope he's going to be okay... (crosses fingers)

[Bob Schroeck]

Crossing fingers and all for him...

[Star Ranger4]

... That does not sound good at all DF.

Still here, still mostly Okay, but worried... Nephew borrowed my car last night and he's not here this am. No good can come of this, I hope he mentioned something to mother that he was going to be gone because I don't remember him saying anything to me.

Then again, I spent yesterday in a hide in bed and ignore the whole world mode...

[classicdrogn]

That sounds a bit short of okay, Star, but goodness knows there's plenty of stuff going on to want to hide from. I'm probably not the best person to try to help with that but I'm certainly willing to be a sympathetic ear if you need one, and I'm sure many more here would as well.

[Star Ranger4]

Well, he showed up middle of the day yesterday, intact, etc. Spent the night with a friend who was having a hard time emotionally. Both mom and I looked at him and said "you could have texted!" Cant fault his giving a friend support, but yeah, a message would have been nice.

As to the other... On medications for it; but between Isolation, etc... been really up and down this last month in that department.

[Dragonflight]

We got a post earlier today that our roommate is off the ventilator. He apparently sounds hoarse, is confused about what's going on, and is clearly traumatized by the event, but is apparently doing better.

[Matrix Dragon]

Glad to hear it. Here's hoping for continued progress.

[Star Ranger4]

Doubly so here. If you believed the major news media, getting 'ventilated' was akin to a death sentence.

[Inquisitive Raven]

Still here. Used the last of my disposable masks today. I have a bunch of reusable masks that I got from Staples over a week ago, but I refuse to wear them as-is. The game plan is to crochet a bunch of masks and sew the Staples masks inside them as liners. That should solve the main problems that I had with them which were too-tight ear loops and excessive pressure on my nose.

[LynnInDenver]

OK, proper check in inside the proper thread. Still ticking along myself. My husband finally got a job (after more than four months), and it's back in the corporate world he vacated over a year and a half ago... and unfortunately, he's probably going to stick with corporate employment for a while, which sucks because he was happier until the place he was working decided it was better to let everyone go than to try to figure out a better way through this.

[Dragonflight]

Roommate posted a message on Discord late last night. He says the experience was hellish, which makes me think he was mostly conscious while on the ventilator. That would have been less than pleasant, I can imagine. But he's certainly sounding less panicky in his subject matter, so hopefully his lungs are on the mend.

[classicdrogn]

Doubly so here. If you believed the major news media, getting 'ventilated' was akin to a death sentence.

More needing to be, but finding that they're already full up. If the care is available, most people still recover.

Speaking of which, though, anyone know what became of that open source ventilator design that used a couple of 3d printed parts and cheap off-the-shelf components for the rest? I suppose it's far too short a time frame to have gotten even through emergency testing and approval, but any news of progress?

[DHBirr]

No real change in my status.

[robkelk]

Roommate posted a message on Discord late last night. He says the experience was hellish, which makes me think he was mostly conscious while on the ventilator. That would have been less than pleasant, I can imagine. But he's certainly sounding less panicky in his subject matter, so hopefully his lungs are on the mend.

Good to hear.

(relaxes somewhat)

Speaking of which, though, anyone know what became of that open source ventilator design that used a couple of 3d printed parts and cheap off-the-shelf components for the rest? I suppose it's far too short a time frame to have gotten even through emergency testing and approval, but any news of progress?

Even if they pass, they wouldn't be good for use against anything except this particular virus. And people would still need to be trained how to use them. And health-care money is tight right now - buy 10 of these that can only be used for one thing now, or five of those that can be used for multiple things now and later?

EDIT: Oh, yes - still alive.

[classicdrogn]

It's a ventilator, though - you can use it for anything requiring a ventilator. (Fake edit: Well, around 80% of the things, apparently.) And at $300 for the "buy parts at full retail price" version, even ten of them is still peanuts in health care dollars.

More searching turned up the name of the device - ApolloBVM - and a little more news, as of April 22 a license agreement had been signed with Stewart & Stevenson to produce them and emergency FDA approval applied for. We'll just have to see if anyone but the US is surging so badly as to need them before the glacial pace of even emergency bureaucratic action can get through.

[Wolff]

Still here.

[Labster]

As far as I know, Canada isn't facing the problem of running out of ventilators and ICU beds now.  Healthcare equipment is overpriced, but there's a (partial) reason for it when mistakes cost lives.

Still well.  Walking the puppy every day -- she likes that.  In our walks, we come across a lot of "free little libraries", which are wooden book boxes people put in their yards.  There's about one every other block.  Most of them have have boring pop fiction, presumably outside because no one actually wants to read it, but I found one box with Terry Pratchett.  Score!

Other than that, it's been a cool summer, with our June Gloom lasting far into July.  It's been 30 years since we've had so much cloudy weather.  I'm appreciating it -- haven't even considered putting the air conditioner back in the window, with this nice breeze coming through.  Is this coronavirus related?  Um, well, I guess there will be less people on the beach.  Anyway, infection rate is up locally, but not too bad.  Just 60 cases in my zip code in the past 2 weeks, only 71 total deaths in my county, which is roughly Iceland-sized in population.  Positive test rates look like they're declining, even without another stay-at-home order.

[SilverFang01]

Reporting today. I have been absent due to my father passing away on Friday, and yesterday a childhood friend died of Cervical cancer.

2020 can go frell off.

[Bob Schroeck]

Our condolences, SilverFang.

[hazard]

Other than that, it's been a cool summer, with our June Gloom lasting far into July.  It's been 30 years since we've had so much cloudy weather.  I'm appreciating it -- haven't even considered putting the air conditioner back in the window, with this nice breeze coming through.  Is this coronavirus related?

It might be. Exhaust emissions from chimneys, cars, aircraft and more puts a fair chunk of contaminants in the air. The massive, months long slow down of the economy also resulted in the production of those contaminants dropping off, while what was in the sky kept falling out of it, as normal.

I'm sure we'll see a number of papers written by meteorologists and climate experts over the following decades about the weather of 2020 and why it's odd.

Reporting today. I have been absent due to my father passing away on Friday, and yesterday a childhood friend died of Cervical cancer.

2020 can go frell off.

Sorry to hear that, my condolences.

[Jenova_Silverstar]

Checking in. Mask requirement went into effect last Saturday here in Minnesota. Work has a "Mask Required" sign posted as per the Governor's order.