Ontopic Find all your Covid-19 needs here!
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Dory Berkowitz-Bukowski
Clam whisperer
I'm not fussed about me. I contacted a large supermarket first thing this morning and they've given me bags full of tampax for free and will do the same next weekend. Gonna drive round the food banks Monday to distribute. Period poverty is a huge thing here.
Petunia
COVID POSITIVE FOREVER
I've resorted to locking my kids out of the house. There's a garden hose, so it's all good.OMG i hope that shit doesn’t go down here in Ontario
without traveling out of the country how TF i would keep this boy entertained for 6 months
well we can always go swimming at grandmas pool for 6 months i suppose
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Petunia
COVID POSITIVE FOREVER
ok so Kikos symptoms came back with a fierce double ear infection so off to get tested we went ..
1st, i called the local covid health hotline, they instructed me to go to urgent care/walk in clinic.
we arrived, the door was locked and we had to call first ..
they assessed us over the phone and denied us entry ...
because he had exhibited SEVEN of the symptoms below but mostly cuz i had been out of the country in March (stupid atlanta + dallas trip).. so i went to the pharmacy (kiko waited in the car) and i got him ear drops and went back home and he suffered another night.
the next day (yesterday) we needed him to get antibiotics for the ear issue BUT our family doctor is MIA and we can’t get a hold of her, it’s been about 10 days with no doctor.
so because no one would see him we were told we had no choice but to go to the ER so he can get treatment for his ears cuz they have proper protective gear
so we drove to toronto (it was about 25 min away) to be seen. he was in good spirits and just super happy to have been able to leave the damn house after 10 days
we went to like 4 different entrances that were all wrong and turned away and directed to the COVID TESTING CENTRE at the back of the building.
1st they made us throw our gloves away, take our masks off and we had to wear new masks they provided. NO GLOVES
we went through 4 check points that ALL had portable sinks + hand sanitizers and we had to wash + sanitize our hands at every check point ..even tho we literally just walked down an empty hallway, we had to wash + sanitize our hands everywhere
then they took us into an old gymnasium where we had to stand apart in the blue lines on the floor while we waited to be called
after this last check point we went into the testing area. at 1st i wanted to sneak a pic but i honestly felt wrong about it. the staff were covered up like i’ve never seen before and they all looked so stressed and it broke my heart into a million pieces so i put the phone away and went over the timeline of kikos symptoms.
i noted it all on a calendar i printed and i was praised over + over on how helpful this was and how more ppl should do this (stickers covering the names of every one he came into contact with)
so after a kajillion questions they decided NOT to test Kiko which was frustrating but i get it.
1) probably should have brought him in to get tested on the 17/18th
2) kiko had NOT left the country and since i wasn’t showing any symptoms then he didn’t qualify HOWEVER he could have caught it via community spread but by the time i took him in yesterday he’s considered “almost done”
3) because he was breathing ok, they need the tests for people who are having trouble breathing
regardless if Kiko has tested positive or not, the outcome is the same: go home, self isolate and ride it out. the covid doctors said he most likely had it (mild) and we have to make sure everyone he came into contact with isn’t showing symptoms
so now they send us to the ER to get treated for the ears
back to the opposite side of the building they had several “waiting areas” and the ER was EMPTY AF and the rooms had these HEPA thingamajigs everywhere. it smelled like bleach.
then in the final room to get treatment for his ears. every single surface was bleached down
Kiko has a nasty double ear infection and he got penicillin.
THIS DOCTOR told us: i don’t think he had the virus and he should go out and ride his bike..
and i’m like: COVID DOCTOR said he’s still contagious + needs to stay home !! and he said: oh ya that’s right, stay home little guy
(what a tool)
and we left ... so that was our super conflicting experience.
he’s back home resting and taking his meds and feeling a bit better.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
1st, i called the local covid health hotline, they instructed me to go to urgent care/walk in clinic.
we arrived, the door was locked and we had to call first ..
they assessed us over the phone and denied us entry ...
because he had exhibited SEVEN of the symptoms below but mostly cuz i had been out of the country in March (stupid atlanta + dallas trip).. so i went to the pharmacy (kiko waited in the car) and i got him ear drops and went back home and he suffered another night.
the next day (yesterday) we needed him to get antibiotics for the ear issue BUT our family doctor is MIA and we can’t get a hold of her, it’s been about 10 days with no doctor.
so because no one would see him we were told we had no choice but to go to the ER so he can get treatment for his ears cuz they have proper protective gear
so we drove to toronto (it was about 25 min away) to be seen. he was in good spirits and just super happy to have been able to leave the damn house after 10 days
we went to like 4 different entrances that were all wrong and turned away and directed to the COVID TESTING CENTRE at the back of the building.
1st they made us throw our gloves away, take our masks off and we had to wear new masks they provided. NO GLOVES
we went through 4 check points that ALL had portable sinks + hand sanitizers and we had to wash + sanitize our hands at every check point ..even tho we literally just walked down an empty hallway, we had to wash + sanitize our hands everywhere
then they took us into an old gymnasium where we had to stand apart in the blue lines on the floor while we waited to be called
after this last check point we went into the testing area. at 1st i wanted to sneak a pic but i honestly felt wrong about it. the staff were covered up like i’ve never seen before and they all looked so stressed and it broke my heart into a million pieces so i put the phone away and went over the timeline of kikos symptoms.
i noted it all on a calendar i printed and i was praised over + over on how helpful this was and how more ppl should do this (stickers covering the names of every one he came into contact with)
so after a kajillion questions they decided NOT to test Kiko which was frustrating but i get it.
1) probably should have brought him in to get tested on the 17/18th
2) kiko had NOT left the country and since i wasn’t showing any symptoms then he didn’t qualify HOWEVER he could have caught it via community spread but by the time i took him in yesterday he’s considered “almost done”
3) because he was breathing ok, they need the tests for people who are having trouble breathing
regardless if Kiko has tested positive or not, the outcome is the same: go home, self isolate and ride it out. the covid doctors said he most likely had it (mild) and we have to make sure everyone he came into contact with isn’t showing symptoms
so now they send us to the ER to get treated for the ears
back to the opposite side of the building they had several “waiting areas” and the ER was EMPTY AF and the rooms had these HEPA thingamajigs everywhere. it smelled like bleach.
then in the final room to get treatment for his ears. every single surface was bleached down
Kiko has a nasty double ear infection and he got penicillin.
THIS DOCTOR told us: i don’t think he had the virus and he should go out and ride his bike..
and i’m like: COVID DOCTOR said he’s still contagious + needs to stay home !! and he said: oh ya that’s right, stay home little guy
(what a tool)
and we left ... so that was our super conflicting experience.
he’s back home resting and taking his meds and feeling a bit better.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
nukes
I Eat Buttholes Raw
Petunia
COVID POSITIVE FOREVER
there’s a NYC doctor, Dr Arnold Weg who ran the ICU department for 30+ years had caught the virus from a patient and is now being treated by his colleagues and is fighting for his life
ugh
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ugh
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Petunia
COVID POSITIVE FOREVER
Dory Berkowitz-Bukowski
Clam whisperer
Fly could make us t-shirts that read "Yup, I'm infected "
That should create distance.
That should create distance.
You’re operating under the assumption that the Chinese government has been forthcoming and honest about this. They haven’t been, at all.
Not everyone is as honest as the guy you get deals on pallets of Fleshlight knockoffs from.
Valve1138
I like the AB in the GB
A friend who's on the front line explains some of the problems
I'll be honest, as I see it due to working in Intensive Care. The lack of ventilators, which the government is falling over itself to sort, is not the biggest issue at the moment, it'll be the lack of suitably trained people to operate the ventilators effectively, as part of overall care for a critically unwell patient.
You can give (and we are) non-Intensive Care nurses basic training on ventilators but, as experience is showing, many Covid-19 patients that are being ventilated on Intensive Care Units are effectively in multi organ failure, requiring wider treatment than 'just' ventilation.
Even those patients who aren't in multi organ failure require more complex treatment regimes due to the nature of the high pressures required for effective ventilation and to keep patients as sedated as we can in order that they are compliant with the ventilation settings.
(My apologies but some 'shop talk' will appear now, I'll link to articles explaining what I'm talking about where I can)
We are having to heavily sedate patients far deeper than the levels we usually aim for.
Usually we try to sedate patients to a RASS of 0 to -2, which means patients are very lightly sedated, often able to breath spontaneously under the sedation. This helps maintain strength in muscle groups required for breathing and means that hospital stays are shortened, less rehabilitation is required and patients outcomes are overall much better.
With Covid-19 though we are having to ventilate patients with much higher pressures than we normally would in order to counter the effects of the pneumonia that it causes. These higher pressures cause issues with patients not 'sycronising' with the events, in short because the body finds it uncomfortable and triesto resist (desyncronising). As a result we're generally having to sedate patients to a RASS of-4 to -5 (so-called "flattening them out") and are very often also having to use paralysing medications to ensure total compliance.
This level of sedation then introduces other issues, predominately sedation-related hypotension (low blood pressure), for which we then have to give other medications (inotropes) in order to vasoconstrict the vascular system and keep blood pressure high around the core organs to keep them perfused (well oxygenated via blood flow).
Using inotropes though has a knock-on issue of it's own, or rather two predominate ones; lower blood pressure in kidneys and poor blood flow at the extremities. The former causes a reduction in urine production, leading to poor excretion of harmful waste products within the blood stream, the latter can lead (in extreme case) to necrosis (cell death from oxygen starvation).
To add to this, we are unable to directly treat Covid-19 as there is currently no cure, so we're relying upon patients own immune system to deal with it. This causes other issues, among them; the immune response requiring large amounts of glucose to be released into the blood system to 'feed the body' and, as a consequence of so much glucose being used metabolically, an increase in the amount of Ketones within the blood.
The large amount of glucose needs to both be supplemented (through Nasogastric Feeding) and controlled (with Insulin) to try and restrict the levels of blood glucose. If left unchecked the body will just keep glucose (causing Hyperglycemia) and 'burning it' metabolically and in doing so releasing increasing amounts of Ketone (which is an acid, so causing Ketoacidosis). This rise in acidity, compounded by a drop in urine output, causes a drop in blood Ph, which is incredibly damaging to all parts of the body at a cellular level.
Whilst there is far more involved in looking afte a patient on Intensive Care I hope that this brief explanation shows that 'merely' putting someone on a ventilator has a knock-on to multiple organ groups, all that in turn have a knock-on to other ones.
Teaching someone to operate a ventilator is (comparatively) simple. Teaching someone how to titrate medications, adjust ventilator settings, when to give additional medications to address issues with observed patient 'vitals' etc is not. This is why, as I mentioned earlier in the thread, it can take 12-18 months of additional specialist training before a registered nurse can operate safely as an Intensive Care nurse.
We have to be able to keep the most dependant patients alive without the benefit of calling a doctor for advice all the time. Indeed, generally, the junior doctors will ceed to the knowledge of nurses with regards to Intensive Care patients as we're often far more experienced in such s specialist ares than they are (due to the nature of their training/placement program).
TL/DR - Ventilators are not the sole issue.
I'll be honest, as I see it due to working in Intensive Care. The lack of ventilators, which the government is falling over itself to sort, is not the biggest issue at the moment, it'll be the lack of suitably trained people to operate the ventilators effectively, as part of overall care for a critically unwell patient.
You can give (and we are) non-Intensive Care nurses basic training on ventilators but, as experience is showing, many Covid-19 patients that are being ventilated on Intensive Care Units are effectively in multi organ failure, requiring wider treatment than 'just' ventilation.
Even those patients who aren't in multi organ failure require more complex treatment regimes due to the nature of the high pressures required for effective ventilation and to keep patients as sedated as we can in order that they are compliant with the ventilation settings.
(My apologies but some 'shop talk' will appear now, I'll link to articles explaining what I'm talking about where I can)
We are having to heavily sedate patients far deeper than the levels we usually aim for.
Usually we try to sedate patients to a RASS of 0 to -2, which means patients are very lightly sedated, often able to breath spontaneously under the sedation. This helps maintain strength in muscle groups required for breathing and means that hospital stays are shortened, less rehabilitation is required and patients outcomes are overall much better.
With Covid-19 though we are having to ventilate patients with much higher pressures than we normally would in order to counter the effects of the pneumonia that it causes. These higher pressures cause issues with patients not 'sycronising' with the events, in short because the body finds it uncomfortable and triesto resist (desyncronising). As a result we're generally having to sedate patients to a RASS of-4 to -5 (so-called "flattening them out") and are very often also having to use paralysing medications to ensure total compliance.
This level of sedation then introduces other issues, predominately sedation-related hypotension (low blood pressure), for which we then have to give other medications (inotropes) in order to vasoconstrict the vascular system and keep blood pressure high around the core organs to keep them perfused (well oxygenated via blood flow).
Using inotropes though has a knock-on issue of it's own, or rather two predominate ones; lower blood pressure in kidneys and poor blood flow at the extremities. The former causes a reduction in urine production, leading to poor excretion of harmful waste products within the blood stream, the latter can lead (in extreme case) to necrosis (cell death from oxygen starvation).
To add to this, we are unable to directly treat Covid-19 as there is currently no cure, so we're relying upon patients own immune system to deal with it. This causes other issues, among them; the immune response requiring large amounts of glucose to be released into the blood system to 'feed the body' and, as a consequence of so much glucose being used metabolically, an increase in the amount of Ketones within the blood.
The large amount of glucose needs to both be supplemented (through Nasogastric Feeding) and controlled (with Insulin) to try and restrict the levels of blood glucose. If left unchecked the body will just keep glucose (causing Hyperglycemia) and 'burning it' metabolically and in doing so releasing increasing amounts of Ketone (which is an acid, so causing Ketoacidosis). This rise in acidity, compounded by a drop in urine output, causes a drop in blood Ph, which is incredibly damaging to all parts of the body at a cellular level.
Whilst there is far more involved in looking afte a patient on Intensive Care I hope that this brief explanation shows that 'merely' putting someone on a ventilator has a knock-on to multiple organ groups, all that in turn have a knock-on to other ones.
Teaching someone to operate a ventilator is (comparatively) simple. Teaching someone how to titrate medications, adjust ventilator settings, when to give additional medications to address issues with observed patient 'vitals' etc is not. This is why, as I mentioned earlier in the thread, it can take 12-18 months of additional specialist training before a registered nurse can operate safely as an Intensive Care nurse.
We have to be able to keep the most dependant patients alive without the benefit of calling a doctor for advice all the time. Indeed, generally, the junior doctors will ceed to the knowledge of nurses with regards to Intensive Care patients as we're often far more experienced in such s specialist ares than they are (due to the nature of their training/placement program).
TL/DR - Ventilators are not the sole issue.
Dory Berkowitz-Bukowski
Clam whisperer
I did read but from my frontline friends, and Im not disagreeing with your medical talk, the issue really is trained staff. Our NHS are giving all medical staff half a day of training on end of life care so basically how to watch people die. The governments grand plan is to send these nurses or other staff with 4 hours training onto wards with no equipment to protect themselves regardless of whether they are high risk or have underlying conditions themselves. Essentially sending nurses in to hospital settings unprepared, unprotected and likely to then die themselves. Several nurses I know are terrrified but are being told to suck it up and do what they're told.
Who thought underfunding the NHS for ten years might create problems?
Anyway back to animal crossing.
Who thought underfunding the NHS for ten years might create problems?
Anyway back to animal crossing.
Valve1138
I like the AB in the GB
Dory Berkowitz-Bukowski
Clam whisperer