Covid variant; The Delta virus is alive and thriving

It all began one week after the granddaughter spent the weekend with a friend. This 15 yr. old returned home and 1 week later her friend called and said she tested positive for Covid. Soon the granddaughter was feeling exhausted, weak and c/o of a headache and sore throat. Two weeks later I was having the same symptoms and another week passes and the husband is now c/o of the same symptoms.

I was vaccinated as soon as it was offered here; back in the day when you had to make an appointment and age based or medical worker was the first it was offered to. The husband refused the vaccination; he wanted to wait to see how it affected those that took it. Finally he voiced he was going to get vaccinated but it was too late. He was ill. 

Originally I thought I just had a serious ‘cold’. That was until the husband got sick and I knew from monitoring him, there was no doubt now that we had Covid. Weak and unable to get out of bed the days and nights dragged on. As an RN, I was concerned about his being hospitalized and being intubated. Every two hours I was taking his temperature and doing 02 sats on him. Reading of 88 on sats had me holding back panic. 

The next days were spent encouraging him to cough and take deep breaths and to get out of bed and sit up. As husbands go, they are lousy patients. Listening to me was just his wife nagging. He grumbled and complained and was not on his best behavior. Frequent checks on his 02 and temperature left him angry and complaining that I had woke him up. Many times I would stand quietly by the bedside watching his breathing patterns while he slept. Again at the two hour mark it was time for another assessment and my 2 hour ass chewing. Holding my tongue, I didn’t respond but using my best nurse voice I would softly tell him this had to be done. I was trying to keep him out of the hospital.

Each time he got a dose of Tylenol for fever, I would ask him if he was in pain. Loudly he would tell me “of course I hurt”. In hind-site I realize I should have explained to him that with each intervention on a patient we had to assess the efficacy of the action and chart it. If no relief from the complaint we tried something else or called the physician for further orders. This is just natural operating procedure in nursing but I think he didn’t know so each time I assessed him was a point of bother to him.

As the days passed, getting him out of a bed was a challenge. Every day I asked if he felt any better and the answer was a weak “no” followed by a “I just want to die”. Big alert…when a patient says that, you know it has to be bad.

Today on day 9 he got out of bed without me nagging and sat in a chair in the living room. “Are you feeling any better?” I asked. His reply “a little”.

We may have turned a corner. That “a little” reply was a reason to hope that there was recovery in the near future. I’ll have to wait and watch for the next days to see if he is really on the recovery route. 

I may be able to get in bed soon before 4AM. I’ve been operating on a few hours sleep a night as I was to afraid to not at least stand by the bedside while he slept to monitor his breathing pattern. 

That’s all I have for now. A nap today is in my future. Close monitoring on his status…and my final words…GET VACCINATED. My bout with Covid was much easier and quicker on recovery.

Stay safe, stay masked and get vaccinated!

July 3rd, 2021

A very rainy Saturday, but then it has been raining every day for weeks now. The lawns are saturated in bright green, mowing every 3 days has been the norm. 

Carrie is with Grace and her family in Destin. She left on Thursday to return this Monday. I hear from her occasionally but I'm sure she is busy enjoying herself. This is her second trip this summer. I'm happy she is out and about. She spends way too much time in her home in Iowa as her mother works midnights and sleeps during the days which leaves Carrie home most of the time.

Tropical storm Elsa has made her appearance in the Carribean though not expected to enter the Gulf but we are keeping a vigilant eye on it.

The frequent rain storms here have kept the temperatures in the high 80's; a much appreciated respite from the normal temperatures that plague this southern most state. 

I'm browsing the internet for a replacement vehicle for the car I lost in October. The prices are shocking. Even a used vehicle  cost is obscene. One wonders how anyone can afford a car and a house. 

This ends this listless post for today which also describes the humid fetid weather here.

 

Adventures with Carrie and Grace part 2, 2021

 Part 2 of this log described Day 1 of my June 4th, 2021 trip heading to Sioux City, Iowa.

Reaching Sioux City on June 5th, the laundromat was my Saturday. The daughter works midnights so Carrie and I loaded all the laundry into the Dodge and spent the next hours washing, drying and folding. 

The remainder of Saturday was a rest break and the following Sunday also. Monday we headed to Omaha in my rental Corolla to collect Grace from the airport. Grace is Carrie's friend and she was to accompany us on Adventure 2021. 

Grace lives in a 5 bedroom house with multiple bathrooms. Carrie lives in a rental with one bathroom. I wondered how Grace would deal with the living conditions of the old two bedroom, one bath aged Craftsman house that we would be inhabiting for the next week before moving on to our trip. Taking bids for who uses the bathroom next, sleeping on an air mattress and functioning in a small space, Grace was a champ. I also was a bit hesitant about taking someone else's child on a trip that Carrie and I take which sometimes has it's challenges. This trip was especially challenging as I had no rental for the first week or so and was using the daughter's truck in the daytime while at night she drove it to work.

 We explored Sioux City, the girls visited the park, walked around with friends, shopped and had their nails done. 

Eventually I was able to secure a rental (the Jeep Cherokee) and we packed everything into it, the girls occupying the back seat as I had the cooler in the passenger seat. It's early Friday AM and we are headed to Mount Rushmore. I had hoped to stay in Keystone, at the base of the monument but all the rooms were reserved. We rented a room in Rapid City. This room was 189.00 a night, a queen size bed. Most hotels were full or the rooms were over 300.00 a night. 

After many trials on sleeping arrangements which tried was one sleeping on the floor, or one in the Cherokee, we found the solution. Stripping the linens off the bed, we positioned ourselves ACROSS the bed.

 

Again I wondered how Grace was taking this "roughing it" but there was no complaints from her at all. I'm sure she was experiencing a different vacation then what she was use to. Usually Grace visits the beach multiple times in the summer, staying in a beautiful condo, and dining out every night.

Forewarned about "adventures" and my style of vacationing, and hesitant about including another person other then Carrie (who goes with the flow and without argument) again Grace was without complaint and still excited about the trip. The cooler was packed with water, cokes, pepsi and Mountain Dew. A loaf of bread and bologna and a squirt bottle of Mayo was available. 

Before reaching Rapid City, we visited The Badlands National Park.

As the girls walked to the edge and my fear of heights was now full blown and having warned them of the dangers of getting too close to the edge, I had to turn away and not watch them. My screaming wouldn't have helped so I refused to be an audience. 

We munched on our bologna sandwiches and sipped on cokes from the cooler and slowly drove around the park, stopping to collect rocks and take some photos. Our next stop was Wall, SD. where we spent some time at Wall Drug Store. This was my first visit to Wall, SD. The drug store is huge and comprised of shops displaying agates from the region, leather goods, clothes and a restaurant. The girls tried on cowboy hats, picked up agates, and Grace bought a "Badlands" crew neck shirt and we were off once again to Rapid City.

We checked into our "queen sized bedroom', unpacked and headed for Keystone to watch the lighting ceremony of Mt. Rushmore. With time to kill, we got hamburgers (not bologna) at a Dairy Queen and moved up the mountain to the monument.

Seated in the  outdoor amphitheater, we waited for the show to begin. I had warned the girls to take warm clothes as it would get chilly during the evening. This is not my first visit to Rushmore and the Black Hills. History of the faces of Rushmore, the visitors singing the national anthem and the lightning of Rushmore, and back to Rapid City for the night.

The girls are used to staying up till 3 AM. I hustled them out of bed at 7:30. There was no more late nights for them after that. They were happy to be in by 9PM. Early to bed, early to rise...lol.

We made our way back to Keystone. Carrie loves going through "Bear Country" so we paid our admission and took an hour cruise through that park. Plenty of bears to see and Grace was squealing when one walked right up to her window. Reindeer, antelope, fox, mountain lions and buffaloes were present.

Initially, had I not wrecked my auto, I wanted to go to Deadwood. I haven't been there in years and wanted to revisit. We instead went to Keystone again and did a tram ride

up the mountain then did the cave.

Here is where my trip became unpleasant. Losing my car I thought would be the worst part of this trip but that was only because I had never done a cave.

We climbed stair after stair after stair to get to the entrance, bought our tickets and waited for our group to enter. As soon as we walked down the narrow path into the cave, entered the cramped room with rocks and narrow pathways, I knew I was not going to be comfortable in the bowels of this mountain. Too late. I was trapped and trapped I felt. Uncomfortable in small enclosed spaces, I took some deep breaths and tried to calm myself. The girls were having a great time and excited to be trying something new. 

The next hour was spent following our guide, wiggling through tight corridors and descending deeper and deeper into this cave. Ducking to avoid rocks encroaching into the narrow passages with the guide calling out "watch your head"... Occasionally we would get to a small room where we all gathered to listen to our guide explain the rock formations above and around us. At this point all I can think about is getting OUT!

Stair after stair, steps taking us up to another level and stairs taking us down into more openings and then a warning from our guide that the next set of steps would take us to....WAIT FOR IT....a ladder we had to scale to get out of this cave. She said that this would be the worst part and that anyone not wishing to go further could turn back and go the way we came in. Really? Alone?  Not I!! Alone through those passages, I would have surely had a panic attack wondering if I was going in the right direction and not veering off into a dead end passage. Again with the deep breaths. Forward....and be damned,  I was exhausted, my legs were trembling as I climbed that ladder but the end was in sight and I was more then ready for this to be over!

I have done my first and last cave. The girls loved it and were having a great time. 

Stumbling out of that cave and down the stairs, we made it back to our car and headed south. 

1400 miles from home, we stopped two nights on the road on the way back. 

Home and the unpacking begins, the rental cleaned and returned to Enterprise.

I'm sure someone was waiting for a rental as Hertz has sold all their fleet during the pandemic, leaving Avis and Enterprise the choices of travelers. 

 

Adventures With Carrie and Grace June 2021

My blog has been seriously ignored. The reason? Maybe because the past year and part of this one has been one long Covid experience. As vacinations have begun and the death rate/infection rate has dropped, people have begun moving about. The motels are filled and car rentals are a near impossible thing to accomplish. 

Packed suitcases and a cooler full of shrimp, sausage and rice dressing mix, I left my driveway at 6AM, June 4th. My destination was Sioux City, Iowa to visit the daughter.

10 hrs later, driving through Fayetteville, Arkansas, rush hour and 5 lanes of traffic at 70 mile an hour, I crashed my beloved Mercury Grand Marquis. (this described in detail on my Facebook page). I staggered out of my car, walked to the front and took this photo.

Replacing this car will take some time. I'll scour the 'for sale' advertisements and who knows how long it will take to find another with low mileage at a decent price. You see, these autos were discontinued in 2011. The last time I had to look for an auto, I test drove what the market offered and was not impressed. Most SUV's were so small that you could rub elbows with the person in the passenger seat. The Rav4's were so squirrely on rough roads, the Subaru too tiny as most of the other ones I drove. The Tahoe and the Yukon were a mighty vehicle but I'm unwilling to pay the price of the privilege of driving something that depreciates as soon as you drive it off the lot. 70,000.00 for a vehicle is something my mind just can't deal with. 

For that much money, I want an appreciable asset such as land or house so I will be on the hunt for another MGM. The truck space, the roominess and the comfortable ride plus it being one of the most dependable autos on the road is what I'm looking for. 

I rented a Jeep Cherokee for the remainder of this trip. It must have been a 4 banger and was gutless. There was no 'passing' another vehicle. No guts to make it around and back in time. My 8 cylinder Merc  had those guts. Punching it into passing gear and that land barge would blast pass traffic. I felt safe knowing I could move out and beyond and back into my lane. 

As I was standing in front of my wrecked Marquis, which had climbed an 8ft. concrete wall and slid back down, all tires blown, the hood "V" shaped, the radiator laying on the ground and the front wheels folded back under the car, I mourned the loss as replacing her was going to be time consuming and difficult. The paramedics were impressed that I was alive and uninjured. 

Moving on, a rental Corolla was found and I was back on the highway. I did rent a room about 100 miles up the road and quickly showered to wash off the 40 oz. coke that I was wearing when the accident happened. Next order of business was to dump everything out on the bed that had been tightly packed in my Merc and organize it into something manageable and then to sleep. 

4AM in the morning and I was back on the highway headed for Sioux City, Iowa. I expected to be sore in mystery places but that didn't happen. The large knot just above my foot was the only bodily area that would witness the accident I had survived. 

After arriving in Sioux, I turned in the Corolla and drove the daughter's Dodge truck until I left Sioux City and rented the Jeep Cherokee.

This post is just a memory log of that day. A post will follow recording the days after arriving in Sioux City.