Covid Report, Day 18

Gradually Fidel’s strength is returning. Must be all those trips to get his own water and whatever else he use to request of me. I wasn’t being mean but it was the only way to get him up  and moving. 

His appetite is getting better though he has lost 24 lbs. during this illness.  He walked out to the little house today and made some phone calls. He still needs rest periods during the day but I expect that.

Tuesday he went for his vaccination. He asked the pharmacist “You aren’t going to hurt me are you?” She said “Not much”. LOLOL. I think me must be really afraid of getting injected, regardless of what it is for. He did say afterward in amazement “I didn’t feel a thing. Do you think she really injected me?”

(Sigh)

Covid is all around us here. I just heard that the neighbor a few houses away is now infected. She was feeling bad all last week and thought, as I did, that it was allergies. Friday she got her injection and by Sunday was feeling worse so she got tested. POSITIVE…..She was one of the hold outs on getting vaccinated but decided she would go that Friday. Too late. She was already infected. Her husband still refuses to get vaccinated. (Sigh)

The rate of vaccination here has increased but I watched our local TV channel last night as the Army medics arrived at our hospital to assist the staff in all the patients that have been admitted.

A local city meeting was held a couple of days ago. Everyone there was told to leave as all of them were unmasked and there to protest the masking of their children in school. 

(Sigh)

We are very close to being moved back to phase 2. Thank you Lafayette and our local congressmen for that.

I’m done here. It’s time for my nap too.

Covid Report Update Day 12

“I’m hungry” he said. “What would you like to eat?” I asked. The guessing game had begun. I use to suggest different things that he might like. That game has gone. I now tell him “I’m not playing a guessing game. You tell me what you would like to eat.”

Him “Bologna, do we have bologna?” “No” I replied. The next question left me wondering if Covid had damaged part of his brain. It’s 10PM. He said “Bearclaws. Do we have bearclaws”. 

Every day I’m off to the market to fulfill special request of which he eats barely a few bites. I now have a half gallon of Blue Bell country vanilla, 1/2 gallon of  Blue Bell Strawberry w/vanilla ice cream and today 1/2 gallon of Blue Bell Strawberry ice cream added to my already over filled freezer. 

Yesterday was beef and noodles. Today was a roast with onions and potatoes and glazed carrots. Each day I try to tempt his appetite. He eats but very small portions. 

My refrigerator looks like the patients snack fridge in the hospital. Small individual containers of jello, jello with fruit cocktail, rice pudding and vanilla pudding. Very little of it was tempting to him so I enjoyed them. 

This update is to say he hasn’t spiked a temp in 3 days, his 02 sats are in a safe range and he is awake most of the day. His only complaint is weakness which is to be expected after spending 8 full days and nights in bed. 

Today I requested he walk to the mailbox and get the mail. After a little grumbling and sighing and proclaiming his weakness, he did as requested. It might be time to give him “child chores” as my daughter suggested. Vacuuming,  dusting and cleaning the glass top coffee table to get him moving. 

I’m ready to go back into retirement. This patient, non compliant and stubborn, has been a full time job.

Covid Variant Delta and Day 10

 Day 10 creeps in and that exactly describes my assessment of my husband as he battles Covid. He remains ‘afebrile’ but his sats are not staying in a safe range. His appetite is nil and he complains of nausea and eats very little. 

He still spends a great amount of time sleeping, occasionally sits up and watches TV. I administered some Zofran for the nausea last night and will follow up with another dose today.

I was contacted by the Health Dept. of Louisiana from Shreveport for an interview on tracking the infection. I answered her questions and she shared with me some of the reasons the people she had interviewed  on refusing to get the vaccination. One lady told her they were injecting tracking devices in the medicine they were injecting! I’m thinking she had better throw her cell phone away if she is in fear of being tracked; don’t go out in public. There are cameras everywhere that are constantly watching you. A bit of paranoid ideations I’m thinking. This woman might need observation and medication.

Another friend here refuses to take the vaccine reasoning is it was ‘rushed’ to market. She is in fear of what her future will be should she be vaccinated. Let me tell you here what her future is for the next couple of weeks. She contacted Covid about 4 days ago. Severe headache, severe fatigue and uncontrolled temperature spikes. She quickly scheduled an appointment to get the monoclonal antibody infusion and went in yesterday to get it. She had an appointment at 9AM but had to sit in her car for 3 hours before she was called in for her treatment all the while feeling miserable. 

I questioned her about getting the vaccine in the future and she was still adamant about not getting vaccinated. I asked her what she would do if she survived this bout and got it again. Her reply was she would just go get the monoclonal antibody again!

This infusion is very expensive and in many places in short supply. We are fortunate that we have it here and are able to get it. Like abortion not being used as a form of birth control, this infusion should not be used to treat and retreat people that refuse the vaccination. That’s just my opinion and noted but I think that is a very selfish way of looking at treatment for Covid. 

After the Infusion, she returned home and at midnight last night she was in the ER. Her temperature was at 106. She is amazed that the infusion didn’t immediately cure her. Her fear of the vaccine damaging her organs is now shifted to what this high extended temperature will do to her organs. 106 is very dangerous.

I’m waiting to hear from her today on the tests they took to rule out pneumonia. Chest X Rays and lab work was done. The last time I communicated with her was at midnight. I don’t know if they admitted her nor if she has changed her mind about getting vaccinated.

I’m still waiting on a call from the hospital to get an appointment for Fidel for the infusion but I guarantee that he will be taking the vaccine as soon as he qualifies which is when he is asymptotic from this bout.

Mandatory vaccination is now being required as a condition of continued employment. Large companies, airlines, and the military are requiring vaccination. Hospitals are following too.

I’ve talked to nurses that are refusing to vaccinate. Methodist Hospital in Houston terminated those nurses and of course there was a big outcry from this. As an RN, I would never think of entering a hospital without being vaccinated. 

It’s time for my 2 hour check on the husband. His recovery will not be easy but guaranteed to be a long affair.

And on the 9TH Day……

And after 8 days of total exhaustion, low 02 sats, Tylenol for temperature, the husband has rounded the corner..or at least in my opinion.

For the first time in these “since infected” days, he, without prompting, walked to the living room and sat in a chair. When asked “do you feel any better?”, his response was “A LITTLE”. I sighed. A minor sign but. I’ll take it. His next response  was to ask for some toast. Another sign. He stayed awake most of the day and didn’t have to have Tylenol. His sats were at 92. 

He has rounded the corner …YES! 

A few times I thought I might have to take him to ER. Every 2 hr. Monitoring his condition, but a few times got scary.

When he went back to bed last evening and was awake watching TV, I told him “you are getting better” but he didn’t agree with me.  “How do you know?” He asked. “Just staying awake, asking for food, sats acceptable, afebrile” I said. 

I know he has a ways to go before he feels strong and is able to resume ADL’s but the danger of hospitalization, I feel, is gone. I will continue to monitor him closely in the following days but I think we are in the recovery phase!

Get vaccinated..please. It’s very important…just ask Fidel. He will tell you how important it is. 

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!