Pulse Oximeter and the Virus

[mars]

This may be of use -

https://www.health.state.mn.us/diseases ... imetry.pdf

At our age - that is many of us older ones - we need as much early warning of possible infection as we can get.

I have experienced a highly infectious disease called Tuberculosis, and spent nearly 3 months in hospital (1976) recovering. Amazingly, in the 6 months prior to hospitalisation, whilst coughing up blood and phlegm all day (using many many tissues and handkerchiefs), I never infected anyone. However, I do believe that this current virus is more virulent than Tuberculosis.

Today I work on the premise that I can only be reasonably certain I did not have the virus 2 weeks ago. For today, although I have no signs, I may be asymptomatic and infectious. So I take care not to potentially infect anyone else.

I have also made arrangements for my cats to be looked after should I have to leave home suddenly, temporarily or permanently.

Stay safe

cheers

Mars

[chunkyfrog]

Best wishes, Mars.
Stay well.

[Julie]

Taking care of the cats is good, having TB not so much.

[Pugsy]

Hey there Mars. Good to see you are still alive and kicking. Take care of yourself.

[mars]

My thanks to Chunkyfrog, Julie and Pugsy for their kind remarks. My active time on the forum was always interesting, and there was such an variety of information and opinion that is was never boring. Not to mention the disagreements that regularly took place

It occurred to me that other members of the Forum may be living in similar conditions to myself - ie living alone with pets, with no immediate family. So I want to share a helpful system that that I now belong to, run by the Australian Red Cross.

They have a number of volunteers who telephone registered people like myself every morning between 8am and 9am to see if we are still alive, and capable of answering the phone. It is certainly nice to start the day having a pleasant exchange with a volunteer, mainly women. If the phone is not answered, then they call again after 10 minutes, and again after 10 minutes if still not answered. They then let the Supervisor know, who has a list of 3 contacts (my neighbours) who can enter my place and see if I am alright. Being that there are 3 contacts all together, it is likely that at least one of them will be home.

If I am alive but disabled in some way, the contact will phone for medical help, and also phone my cat person contact, who will come over and pick up my cats. They will be looked after on a temporary basis if I am expected to return home sometime. If I am dead, then they will come over and pick up all my cat stuff (currently includes a lot of food to last out the pandemic) and look after them until a suitable home is found. Bonnie is currently 18 years old, and Cheeky 5 years old.

I had been looking for something like this regular phone call for years, and had been relying on a daily email to a friend. When that was no longer viable I came across the Red Cross help. So I mention all this just in case there are others in a similar position, who may have that kind of help out there.

AS for the virus - I am reminded of the main thing I learned, and practiced, when I first went to Alcoholics Anonymous in 1974 - half measures availed us nothing !

Take care everyone

Mars

[kteague]

Hi Mars. Thanks for the article about the pulse ox. Need to pull mine back out. That program by the Red Cross sounds amazing. Going to check and see if there's anything like it here. Good to see you around and hope we all stay well.
Kathy

[Julie]

The Red Cross here does a similar phone thing, but a one line e-mail between my bro. and I first thing also works great (cat info included), and has been going daily for years even if we're almost 1,000 km apart. Everyone should have something like it to count on.

[Madalot]

Hi mars! Great to see you post. Thanks for sharing all this information. Glad you have plans in place for all this.

Stay safe and healthy.

[jnk...]

Thank you for your posts, sir.

[SleepGeek]

Late to post here.

There is a town that has 'Seniors' call in each morning (non-emergency line) between certain hours. If they don't hear from someone they will call them or send patrol out for a well-being check.
A Local hospital that has forms you can fill out with personal info ie. med list, docs, family contacts, etc. provided with a (magnetic) plastic envelope which can be placed on the fridge EMS to grab in case of emergency. Also you can keep it in the fridge or freezer which will keep it in case of fire. Think cold cash. Also worth mentioning to have a will and a living will in the fridge or freezer posting a note on the outside there are documents inside maybe a picture of the container or at least a written description of it and the location. Most hospitals today ask if you have a "Living Will" on file with them, always a good idea in case you are unable to speak.