COVID 19, CPAP, Ventilator MEGA THREAD...everything go here please

[ChicagoGranny]

It isn't a breakthrough until it is PROVEN to be a breakthrough.

I don't share this skepticism. Dexamethasone has become the standard treatment drug for severe cases at the three major hospitals in my area. (Patients are also checked for blood clots and treated with blood thinners if warranted.) Both the death rate and hospitalization length have dropped significantly

But, treatment with corticosteroids is not being called a breakthrough - just a matter of finding an existing drug that has lowered the death rate among severely infected individuals. A breakthrough would be a safe and effective vaccine or a treatment drug that quickly and directly attacks the SAR-COV-2 molecule in the human body.

Advances in disease treatment are not limited to randomized double-blind research trials.

[ChicagoGranny]

Contact:
Donald J. Trump
The White House
Washington, D.C.

hydroxyq tablets.jpg

[Pugsy]

The science behind steroids is well established. Speaking as someone who just got another joint injection today of a different and stronger steroid in my thumb joint. Hoping to avoid surgery.
If I had Covid and was sick enough to be in the hospital....I understand the science behind steroids and would gladly ask for them straight away. Risks are minimal and potential for rewards are great.
I also understand the risks and it's a new (sort of) idea for Covid treatments but then everything tried for Covid is technically "new" at least for this virus. It's all "new" until we have years of proven data....not months. Proven science takes time.
I predict we will have lots of time to prove it though. Covid is going to be with us for more than enough time to prove or disprove anything.

Or hell...wouldn't it be nice if when we got a positive diagnosis of Covid we could get a script for a Medrol Dosepack and take it home and that would help shorten or lessen symptoms.

[jnk...]

would gladly ask for them straight away. Risks are minimal and potential for rewards are great.

Whereas I personally would feel that timing and severity of illness are key enough judgment factors that would make me very cautious about weighing risk with potential benefit, even if hospitalized. On O2? Maybe. On a vent? Sure. In ER for evaluation? Nope. Not yet.

Hey, just me.

I consider this caution from June still valid, despite the new WHO guidelines for the sickest COVID-19 patients:

Corticosteroids are hormones that are often used to suppress inflammation. But they can sometimes have serious side effects. If they are given too soon in the course of an infection—or given to someone with only a mild infection—they could prevent the body’s own immune system from fighting the virus effectively.--https://www.scientificamerican.com/arti ... -covid-19/

I discontinued my nasal-corticosteroid use at the appearance and progression of the pandemic.

Just posting for sake of variety of opinion. I have no direct issues with other stated opinions in the thread on steroid use.

[chunkyfrog]

Cortisone is a miracle drug, but the side effects need to be considered.
I avoid it whenever possible, because I know it makes my blood sugar go totally berserk.
High blood sugar is bad news in the presense of Covid.

[Pugsy]

I hear you Jeff but as someone who is 68 years old with BP issues and packing on a few more pounds than she needs and 35 years in the medical field blah blah blah.....Covid scares me more than steroids scare me. If I am sick enough to be in the hospital...you can bet your sweet ass I will be asking for everything including the kitchen sink be thrown my way.
Except that hydroxychloroquine crap.

Now everyone....cross your fingers that the injection in my thumb today works a miracle. I really need a miracle here. I don't want surgery but it's my right thumb that is f....d up and it's messing with my sleep....and I am right handed. I can't even open a bottle of water.
You don't realize how valuable your thumb is until it doesn't work right or hurts like hell.

[ChicagoGranny]

Science ain't quick. But rushed science is bad science, and bad science is as likely to kill as to heal.

Here you go. This is an effective and safe vaccine that will suit you. ---->

Do It Yourself Vaccine

The key ingredient: tiny bits of viral proteins, or peptides, which the scientists ordered online. If all went well, the peptides would train the immune system to defend against the coronavirus, even with no actual virus present.
...
To make his vaccine, he used a genetic sequence for the spike protein on the outside of the coronavirus to make a synthetic version. He put it in a saline solution, injected himself just under the surface of the skin of his upper arm and then took a so-called titer test to look for antibodies in his bloodstream. “It took me 12 days from downloading the sequence to being titer positive,” he said.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/01/scie ... e-diy.html

[jnk...]

Some rogue docs obviously never take the hippopotamus oath: the promise to stay submerged until they have something sensible with which to go public.

[jnk...]

How'd the injection go, Sister Pugsy?

[Pugsy]

How'd the injection go, Sister Pugsy?

Too soon to know if it will give long lasting good results. I got a mix of a stronger steroid and lidocaine. Typical joint injection mix.
Now if I could self inject with the lidocaine, that numbs things for a while, every day...I would be happy.
It felt great that night...no pain.
Next morning (yesterday)...hurt like hell. Lidocaine had worn off. Damn.
Today...doesn't hurt like hell so maybe promising. It takes a bit of time to see if the steroid can reduce the arthritic inflammation in the joint and have it hold and see how much final pain relief I will get or not get.

I will need to give it about 2 weeks before I can finally figure out if it helped enough or not. Patience is not one of my virtues but since I am not sold on the surgery option I guess it doesn't matter. Surgery would be way in the future anyway.
It's my right thumb and we don't know how much we rely on our thumbs until they don't work right or they hurt...and I am right handed.
I don't expect 100% fix....I would be happy with just tolerable pain and return of semi normal function. Like hooking my bra or unscrewing the lid off a water bottle without excruciating pain.

Or I can try to self inject lidocaine..... I can do a lot of things but self injecting into a joint isn't one of them even if I could talk a doc into giving me the lidocaine. I don't really like needles going into my body and it's not something that is easy for me to do. I gave myself allergy shots for quite some time. It wasn't easy. Now putting needles into someone else.....easy peasy. Didn't hurt me one bit.

The surgery involved is the removal of the trapezoid bone in the wrist since it is eat up with arthritis and causing chronic inflammation.
They re route a couple of tendons as well. 2 weeks total non use of the thumb and then 3 months of minimal use (very restrictive brace) while things heal up and get strong. Plastic bag over the hand when showering kind of thing. On the plus side...no dishwashing though..
Except what I can do with left hand alone.

[jnk...]

I hope the injection does the trick.

I am just starting to get some joint inflammation pain (not diagnosed yet), which panics me as a guitar player doing a couple of gigs a week. I have changed technique so I can play well enough when it unpredictably comes and goes. I fast before major gigs, which somehow seems to help pain, or at least my perception of it.

Patience is not one of my virtues

I would beg to differ, based on the methodical, reasoned approach you demonstrate on this board dealing with confused strangers. You react to some things, yes. You are emotionally engaged so that you feel impatient, yes, I'm sure. But when it comes to the raw stuff true, real patience is made of, you appear to me to be well above average in that category. (See, I KNEW I could find something to argue with you about. )

I don't mind needles going into me; I have difficulty seeing them go into others. I am odd that way. Same thing with blood. Don't mind seeing my own; hate seeing heavy bleeding in others. I don't get light-headed; my stomach gets knots seeing it. I can barely stand to see my left-handed wife even using a cooking knife. I cringe. So she lets me do all the culinary knife-work in the family.

Tell your husband I said you need a dishwasher. Even more than a backhoe.

Lidocaine can do it's own damage. But you know that.

Thanks for the update. Sorry you have to deal with that.

Please know that you make a difference in the lives of those of us silently reading what you accomplish on this board, beyond your making a difference in the lives of those you help directly with your posts--not to mention your thankless behind the scenes accomplishments with forum maintenance and protection.

Forever a fan.

-Jeff

[Pugsy]

Tell your husband I said you need a dishwasher. Even more than a backhoe.

Believe me if I had a place to put a dishwasher in this tiny kitchen of mine...it would already be there.
There is simply no cabinet room for one without giving up a cabinet space that is critical for storage. Even a smaller apartment sized dishwasher just wouldn't work well but I do sometimes eyeball them to see if I could work a miracle and find a space without giving up precious storage.

That's okay...if I have the surgery hubby will probably stay home from work to care for me anyway for that first 2 weeks that is the most critical...and he can wash the dishes. He already does that a lot of the time for me anyway.

My kitchen is teeny tiny...the whole house is 720 sq feet and 120 of that is the laundry room which was originally a back porch that got enclosed. More along the lines of one of your New York City apartments. I just last year got rid of the 24 inch stove for a grown up 30 inch stove and gave up cabinet space to get it. Finally found a cabinet pre built (so avoided custom cost) that would work to the right of the stove which holds all the drawers.

[jnk...]

That's more square footage than we have in our apartment. We use a 24" stove. But yes, we do lose a lot of storage space to the dishwasher.

No room in the laundery room for a dishwasher? You couldn't use a small cart for wheeling dishes from the table? Just brainstorming. These days a good dishwasher can actually save on water and power, I think.

Or I'll see what's available in a backhoe with a built in dishwasher.

[Pugsy]

That's more square footage than we have in our apartment. We use a 24" stove. But yes, we do lose a lot of storage space to the dishwasher.

No room in the laundery room for a dishwasher? You couldn't use a small cart for wheeling dishes from the table? Just brainstorming. These days a good dishwasher can actually save on water and power, I think.

Or I'll see what's available in a backhoe with a built in dishwasher.

I could have dealt with the 24 inch stove if it had been newer and not 50 plus years old and I could have had the grates (gas stove) over the entire surface and in fact was planning on a newer sealed burner 24 inch version when I stumbled onto the smaller pre built cabinet at a price I could afford. Then it got me to looking at grown up stoves where I could really get what I ultimately wanted at half the price of a 24 inch stove that only sort of made me happy. It's not fair that smaller costs more. Like twice as much. I gave up 6 inches of drawer space with the smaller cabinet. I love this stove and the grates over the entire space effectively increases my countertop. I just stained the new cabinet to match the old cabinets with a little mixing of staining colors. Looks like it was always there.
It involved only the removing of one lower cabinet to the right of the stove. Easy DIY job. We did it ourselves.

A portable dishwasher...been there and done that many years ago. Not interested and no real space in the laundry room to put it anyway (every space consumed with shelves and cabinets since I don't have storage available anywhere else and we all know I am a hoarder) and my faucet isn't of the kind that you can really attach what is needed for a portable dishwasher.
What I did do though was just last spring I replaced the crappy formica counter top with granite and gave myself a new big single basin granite composite sink.
A dishwasher install would require essentially new cabinet design and storage. Redo of all the cabinets. Pricey for one thing and I actually like these old 60 year old cabinets. Well made hand constructed and they have character. They don't make cabinets like that now.

So I whine about the lack of dishwasher but we have been here 10 years now and I am okay with things now that I have a countertop, sink and grown up stove that I am happy with. The big large basin single sink has actually made clean up fairly easy and quick. I have a dish drainer that sits over one end of the sink (rests on the counter top) and I just try to keep things cleaned up on the go as much as possible. Most of the time the dish drainer rack sits in the bottom of the sink out of sight. Hubby is gone a lot and most of the time it is just me here anyway. I don't have an enormous amount of stuff to wash most of the time anyway.
I keep asking the dogs to do my dishes since most of the stuff relates to their food anyway and they promise to try but then I get "but mommie I can't reach the sink" excuse.
When we do have a big meal or people over....the kitchen cleanup is a multiple person effort.
What I don't get to do is hide dirty dishes in a dishwasher until it gets run. Which is actually sort of a good thing anyway. I clean as I go most of the time. I have learned to adapt.

[jnk...]

I keep asking the dogs to do my dishes since most of the stuff relates to their food anyway and they promise to try but then I get "but mommie I can't reach the sink" excuse.