Forum Members with COVID-19

[Mountaineer]

Good to hear, Ad. Glad you are feeling better. Thanks for the updates.

[Maddy]

So sorry you're going through this, Ad. Best wishes for a quick and uneventful recovery!

[Ad Orientem]

Self Quarantine Log 03-26-20

No cough, no fever, no aches or pains, no shortness of breath. Still a bit tired, but that could just be a side effect of living in voluntary house arrest for the last several weeks. This really is getting old. I am so looking forward to just being able to go to a service station and pumping gas.

[I Shrugged]

How will you know when you are no longer contagious?

[Ad Orientem]

I am going by the rule of 1 week w/o symptoms.

[Tortoise]

There haven't been any updates to this thread in almost two weeks.

Is it really true that none of us other than AdO have experienced Covid-19 symptoms (fever, dry cough, tight chest, shortness of breath, aches) in the past two weeks?

I find this very interesting.

[WiseOne]

1) Few forum members in the worst-hit areas. I'm in one obviously, but my neighborhood is one of the least affected. I'm so happy I moved here!!! It's an insulated little corner, protected by geography and limited road access, and has a suburban feel and relatively low density for this city.

2) Forum members are not representative of the general population. for example, "SES" (learned a new abbreviation today, from another thread) are disproportionally affected. Lots of reasons for this that remain to be studied, although it's not hard to guess the major risk factors.

[Tyler]

I suffered a sore throat and cough with a bit of chest tightness while feeling really hot. But I never had a temperature, and eventually I noticed that it usually happened after dinner. It turns out I have a few food allergies I wasn't aware of. Benadryl did the trick. And now that I'm staying in and making every meal, I'm better able to manage food intolerances that cause acid reflux. So the symptoms that scared me under the circumstances are actually completely controllable.

Nothing like a bit of intense paranoia to dig to the bottom of little issues you ignored for years.

[Tortoise]

It's true that most of this forum's members probably aren't "low-SES," but we do have a lot of older members. And my understanding is that older people are much more susceptible to Covid-19 just like "low-SES" people are turning out to be.

That's mainly why I was expecting to see more reports of Covid-19 symptoms among our forum members. The age factor.

[vnatale]

It's true that most of this forum's members probably aren't "low-SES," but we do have a lot of older members. And my understanding is that older people are much more susceptible to Covid-19 just like "low-SES" people are turning out to be.

That's mainly why I was expecting to see more reports of Covid-19 symptoms among our forum members. The age factor.

In my case though I fit into the age category I have other factors.

The major one is that 3 weeks ago Tuesday had been the last time I had been in the presence of any humans or bought any food.

However, yesterday while working in my garden area, my neighbor poked his head over his fence and started talking to me.

At first I was startled and shocked after 22 days of not doing anything like this, i.e, interacting with another live human! We talked for about five minutes and then he went back to what he was doing and I went back to my heavy work of moving a lot of dirt around.

When he first started talking to me he asked a kid if he wanted to "say Hello to Vinny". Next thing I'm seeing him hoist a kid so the kid's head is also over the fence. I asked him, "How many do you have over there?" knowing that he had two young kids and that this one seemed much older. He said there were four. I asked if one of them was the kid who lives next to each of us. He said No that the other two were from about 20 miles away from here. I immediately thought by me asking that question and, perhaps, by the tone of my voice I was coming across like I was trying to gather enough information to report him! I tried to quickly ameliorate the situation by asking, "Oh, isn't your wife from there?" Turns out he was the one from there. When this is ALL over some day I'll ask him if in fact he did think I had been coming across that way.

After the brief time of chat was over I looked at that fence and where I was standing and asked myself, "Now far away is that fence?" I think I settled on 15-20 feet and also acknowledged that neither of had sneezed or coughed while talking to one another.

My only possible exposure is if during the day I get the mail and the newspaper. If I do I then immediately go to the kitchen to do a day (or two's) accumulation of dishes to wash. Seems that process is at least as cleansing as washing one hands, (if not more?).

Vinny

[dualstow]

Very similar to Tyler's experience above. I also get aches before it rains, and it's rainy now. Caffeine withdrawal, too.
Hey, for all I know I have the bug. So I'm behaving myself. But, I seriously doubt it.
I hope you get your full energy back, Ad O.

[Mountaineer]

Vinny, what are you doing to de-virus your paper and mail? Just washing after touching? If that’s your process, how are you avoiding shaking the paper or mail envelope contents when reading?

[shekels]

Allergy season here. So a lot of the same symptoms
I guess we will Know when Antibody tests are run.

[CT-Scott]

Just to confirm...Ad Orientem never got tested, so he/she may not have had COVID-19, correct?

I've been getting a little worried about me and my siblings, as more data is coming out that, aside from the elderly, a common theme among many of the non-elderly deaths is obesity and hypertension. While I am not overly obese (but probably technically fall into that bracket), I am definitely overweight, and I do have high blood pressure (which I finally gave in and started taking medication for about 6-9 months ago).

[Ad Orientem]

Just to confirm...Ad Orientem never got tested, so he/she may not have had COVID-19, correct?

Correct. I wouldn't mind getting tested for the antibodies if they ever come up with one that is not too expensive. But I was not tested so it is possible that I had something else, though I think it unlikely. I can't think of anything that wold have produced those symptoms for so long. But for the record, it's going on 2 weeks since I've had any symptoms. If I had it, I am assuming I'm over it and likely immune. :-)

[Mountaineer]

Just to confirm...Ad Orientem never got tested, so he/she may not have had COVID-19, correct?

Correct. I wouldn't mind getting tested for the antibodies if they ever come up with one that is not too expensive. But I was not tested so it is possible that I had something else, though I think it unlikely. I can't think of anything that wold have produced those symptoms for so long. But for the record, it's going on 2 weeks since I've had any symptoms. If I had it, I am assuming I'm over it and likely immune. :-)

Glad you are better.

[dualstow]

You'll be pumping gas soon, Ad.

[Xan]

Just to confirm...Ad Orientem never got tested, so he/she may not have had COVID-19, correct?

Correct. I wouldn't mind getting tested for the antibodies if they ever come up with one that is not too expensive. But I was not tested so it is possible that I had something else, though I think it unlikely. I can't think of anything that wold have produced those symptoms for so long. But for the record, it's going on 2 weeks since I've had any symptoms. If I had it, I am assuming I'm over it and likely immune. :-)

How's your mom?

[Ad Orientem]

So far so good. Thanks for asking.

[ochotona]

I think I should be in the NIH undetected cases study... a doctor has told me it sounds like classic mild COVID, and when the antibody test comes out, I should get it.

To: clinicalstudiesunit@nih.gov

Dear NIH,

People in my shared office suite were traveling to China in late 2019. I haven't seen them around - I think they maybe have not been allowed back into the USA since the travel ban?

Around December 10, 2019, I came down with a dry cough and crushing fatigue. But, no fever, although I felt feverish and had body aches. For several days, I basically slept. I took days off from work. I was kept up all night by hacking and coughing. I saw a doc on 12/15/2019, she took a chest x-ray and saw early signs of pneumonia. Also she said I had pink-eye. I was given Amoxicillin.

Over the next few days I got better, but then, unexpectedly, the cough came back December 27-28, a week after finishing Amoxicillin. Then I was given Doxycycline. That didn't work. Finally, I was given a Z-pack, and that seemed to work.

--- Feeling much better by Friday, 1/24/2020. Recovered.
--- Chest x-ray clear on 1/31/2020

Other people in my company also had a bad cough for weeks after I became sick. It became a subject of discussion at work. All have recovered w/o treatment.

I had not personally traveled to any place in December or January with known COVID outbreaks, indeed, I hadn't traveled at all.

The Ochotona

[dualstow]

Interesting about the pinkeye. I wonder if that’s on the list official symptoms. I’ve woken up with it a couple times this month and wondered about it.

[Mountaineer]

Interesting about the pinkeye. I wonder if that’s on the list official symptoms. I’ve woken up with it a couple times this month and wondered about it.

Our daughter is a nurse in Washington state. She has been screening people for the virus at the clinic where she works. She says pinkeye is one of the COVID-19 symptoms.

[dualstow]

Thanks!

I see it can be spread by tears: https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/2020040 ... covid-19#1

[Vil]

RIP John Conway

Hm, was not aware John passed away due to Covid. RIP, "Game of life" is one of the first funny things that most of Computer science students around the globe are asked to implement ... Still can recall 'gliders' moving around when space button is pressed - we used to press it continuously to observe how its moving around ...

[dualstow]

It wasn’t easy to find this thread.

Adding mathjak and Tortoise to the list.