September 15, 2020, 01:34 PM
sigmonkeysigmonkey ain't dead. (he just smells that way)
2020 Yeesh!
Well, I got the Chinese Bat Flu in the middle of August. (The day before, my computer HD died. Great...)
Thought it was either seasonal allergy (I am affected spring and fall), bronchitis or perhaps a summer cold.
Started with a light irritation between the area below my thyroid to the bottom of my sternum. Very mild, like when you work or jog in cold dry weather, and a thing I have had enough times in life to not give it much thought.
So, I "Zinc'd an vitamin C'd up" and the next day I had muscle/joint ache, not as bad as the flu, but more like a cold, no fever, I was 96.8 which is pretty near my normal temp. (I've always been cool...).
Two days of that, and when I am sick, I always hit the bed and start hoarding sleep, drink lots of water and do not eat, and I usually recover quickly that way.
On the third day, I am feeling pretty good, no aches, and decided to spend the day pulling all the weeds in my front and side yards.
Got enough to fill a 39 gallon bag, so mission accomplished. After shower and eating supper, I went to bed early.
Next morning, I am having muscle/joint pain again and think it is from the yard work. (I've had chronic pain/fybro and muscle/connective tissue and joint pain all my life, so I just soldier on).
Have a cup of coffee, no real appetite, but I normally "skip breakfast" anyway, and after about 2 hours, I think I just need a nap and go to bed.
I stayed in the bed sleeping around the clock, except to drink and make water until the 28th of August. During that time, I was having very bad neck pain body aches and headache, and thought it was from too much sleep, but I just felt crappy.
Still not feeling much worse than a cold, certainly not as bad as the flu I have had before (but, in the "moment" I did not realize how bad I was actually feeling, compared to "memory" of past illness).
I am still thinking it is bronchitis, and had started taking musinex, had ate some soup before I ended up hiding in the bed, and on the 28th, I called my ex to tell her I was pretty sick and needed to go to get seen. By this time, I could hear the "rattle/crackle" when I breathed, and I figured I likely had pneumonia.
(I have had it about a dozen times in my life, thanks to 8 weeks premi, double pneumonia, 6lbs and 2 months living in the aquarium with oxygen, so lungs have never been the best units).
Flashback to end of 2019...
I resigned my job at an "at will" company the first week of October 2019, left a letter on a Friday, (employee handbook stated that "2 week notice is requested, and if not, one will be put on the "no re-hire" list), and went through 7 months of legal bullshit that would make a wall of text that nobody wants to read.
The Corona Crap came on in March, a week after the issue was settled out of court, and that pretty much screwed up my efforts to get work. (Being old as fuck does not help, even in the IT world).
So, no income, only 401k, no medical and I also pay 24k a year permanent alimony.
Back to the present. Ex called me back after a couple of hours and stated she had been on the phone and calling "everywhere" (Urgent Care, Walk In, Doc-In-a-Box, etc. and cannot find anywhere, so she called the local ER and they said they would take me.
I was in no condition to drive, so she called me a cab, and I went to the ER at 2PM, put my first initial and "Respiratory Distress" on the list, with about 8 others in front of me, a minute later a nurse walked over, looked at the list and looked around, looked at me and said "M?" I nodded and she said, come with me, and then did the intake, and put me in an exam room.
Nurse came in took vitals asked a few questions and said, "Doc will be in shortly", then Doc came in, did a quick exam and asked questions. Said, "your lungs sound bad, likely pneumonia, we'll X-ray" and left.
Nurse came back in and put in a hydraulic quick disconnect in my wrist, took blood, and did a nose swab for the flu, and said "Doc did not order a 'rona test, just flu", and said X-ray tech would be by in a bit.
Had X-ray, then waited about 2 hours, and Doc came back, said, "It looks like what we see with 'rona, and I'll have you tested for that, you have bi-lateral pneumonia and since we believe it is Covid, we want to CT with contrast to look for blood clotting in lungs, as that is something we see and is the thing that pretty much drags people down fast."
Had the scan, back to the room, waited and about hour later Doc comes in and says, "no clots, bad pneumonia, but your oxygen levels are good enough you do not require supplemental so you can go home."
Gave me IV antibiotics, and anti-bacterial infusion, and script fro Z-Pack and ten days of anti-bacterial, said that they found a good side effect to this was suppression of immune system and that helps prevent the body over reacting and causing problems.
Went home, went to bed.
Next day I woke up and was feeling much better, still had no appetite, but continued to drink lots of water, drove and got my scrip from the drive through.
My daughter made soup and brought to me (drove by about 90 MPH and launched it out the window, cuz I got cooties...) OK, she left it on the porch.
Ate a bit, went back to bed.
Next day, feeling very much better (now I am an 8 on a scale of "dead to ten") so I start working on getting back to normal sleep, and stay up with no naps and get about 10 hours sleep a night.
Next two weeks, I get steady better, and then the "Almeda" fire in Oregon began.
My older daughter and my three grandchildren live in Medford (Central Point) and she had a fiance of five years, that she and the children lived with in Talent, but they broke it off and she moved back to her place about 6 months ago.
The talent fire came on so quick, he did not get any notice and he lived in the upstairs (two bedroom apartment) of his shop. He is a painter (airbrush/spray) and has a tremendous amount of flammables. He also rescues cats, so he had about 5.
When he realized the firestorm was coming in (estimates was it was moving almost 50 MPH) he went to herd cats first. He got all but one on carriers and out to friend's waiting outside, and went back in to get the last one (a semi-feral he had for 4 years, that was found in the road as a kitten). I hope the little guy managed to escape and evade, cats are pretty danged resourceful and the quintessential survivors. (but authorities will not let anyone in that area due to safety issues)
This one ran to his "hide" through a small cutout into an unused bathroom in the shop, behind a partition wall that paint lockers and compressors were in front of. He did not have time to move anything to tear the wall down, and by this time (fire was bout a mile away when he realized and started bugging out, and less than ten minutes later, his shop was on fire, and while he was trying to get the last kitty, he saw the cat stop, look at hem, then into his hide, and then the ceiling/roof came down.
He made it out, and left with his friends. All he got out was the 4 cats, lost the one and everything he owned.
My daughter was in level 2, and she gathered up the kids and headed north. While she was on the road, her area went to Level 3.
She got to a hotel and as soon as they got in the room, she got word of all that went down in Talent, Phoenix and Ashland. She has quite a few friends that lost everything in those three areas, so she was having a pretty rough go.
They stayed away for 2 days, and got back home, and the air quality conditions have been just above 500.
All that, has had my attention. I saw a couple of emails yesterday, and I am "checking in".
Oh, Hurricane Sally stopped by and is leaving some rain, but not much else.
I borrowed a computer so I could post.
(I tried to not be so wordy, but...)
Now to get caught up on all the threads.
And, I still am not wearing a mask (I did to go to the ER, cuz I was sick at the time. But am over it, so back to no mask. And I still feel as I have during this whole shitshow.
The over reaction, the bullshit policies and way all of this was mis-handled and all the fallout is and was still a clusterfuck.
Yeah, it was bad like the flu, like I have said in the past. People will get sick, people will die. Giving up liberty and freedom to the degree we have seen, is not worth the trade off in the hope that one will skirt past this crap.
Life is to be experienced, to be embraced, to live and be with people of our choosing, to come and go as we see fit. No one can get a guarantee of a life without hardship, pain, suffering (untimely) death, but to trade all that away for the "maybe", is simply gambling and the house always wins.
That does not mean, we do not use common sense in the dealing with things like this. Certainly be considerate of those who are in a compromised position, and if your sick, do the right thing and isolate.
But, fuck Karen. I do not like green eggs and ham...
-Ispitinyourfaceagaindeath-monkey