blindguy: I saw your post that family members have contracted Covid. So sorry to hear that. I hope they are mild cases and that everybody feels better soon.

Are you still feeling OK?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/20/2023 06:26PM by Nightingale.

I agree with Nightingale. Blindguy, we are thinking about you. I hope that your family members make a good and quick recovery. You are one of my favorite posters, by the way. You always write very thoughtfully and with great common sense.

My brother and sister-in-law are getting on in years, and I often fret about them, mostly in private. I hope that we all have a good winter. Being no spring chicken myself, I will be getting all of my vaccines. I work with young children, and it can often be quite difficult to stay healthy.

Be well, my friend. :)

Hey! You beat me :) I was going to ask too. I have my fingers crossed for you Blindguy!

Wow! And I didn't see this post until after the SSL certificate for this site had expired, I had to change browsers, and tell the "new" Firefox (actually, I use Firefox for most of my websurfing outside of this site) to ignore the warnings about expired SSLs and the possibilities of passwords being taken, etc. (Actually, one of my favorite radio airchecks sites had this problem for many months, but it's now fixed).

But back to the matter at hand. Sadly, I did catch the COVID-19 virus again (I had it last in January of 2022), but I've been doing my best to keep up with the vaccines, meaning that its effects on me were milder than they otherwise might have been. I did lose appetite, my sleeping problems became much more problematic (I've never discussed this on the Board), and I had nose and throat problems. On the other hand, unlike my sister, I didn't develop a stubborn cough (which she still has), and unlike my niece who gave it to my sister, I didn't develop nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea issues. Interestingly, it's recommended now that if you do get COVID today, you should wait at least three months after you've had it before getting vaccinated for both the natural defenses developed by your body and the vaccine used to keep those defenses to perform for the longest period of time. This means that, unlike last year, I will be seeking to get my flu shot separately this year from my COVID shot. There is a third shot now in the U.S. for RSV (if I Remember correctly it's a breathing disease) and I'm considering getting that at the same time I get my flu shot (I know that it's not recommended at the same time you get your COVID shot.)

One thing that may interest you, Nightingale (because of your background as a nurse) is what my sister attempted to give me on Monday. She called it Fluid IV, and it's supposed to assist in rehydrating you by adding carbohydrates and sugars back into your body mix. Having an A1C score of 6.3 as measured in late June of this year, I knew that I was in the prediabetes range. And when I tasted that drink, it was awfully sweet--I could only finish about a quarter of the glass before I handed it back to my sister--I was very concerned that drinking it was going to send my next diabetes score through the roof, something that someone with existing heart and stomach issues doesn't need.

I also tried researching fluid IV on the web. Unfortunately, my first search with just those two words brought back only sites, including Amazon, where I could purchase the product. It also lead me to believe that fluid IV was considered a dietary supplement in the U.S., meaning that there were no rregulations on its useage and no information on its actual effectiveness and safety.

Yesterday, after thinking this over, I searched for fluid IV again online but this time added the specific site mayoclinic.com to my search inquiry. What that turned up was a physician-prescribed medication called Dextros that performed the same functions as the fluid IV that my sister tried to get me to drink but with warnings that if the prescribing physician knew that you had hypogleceimia or diabetes, he/she would lessen the dosage you received. I now suspect (and please correct me if I'm wrong) that fluid IV and Dextros are essentially the same thing and that I was probably right in limiting the amount of it I drank.

Anyway, I'm going to try to go back to bed again (I'm sweating at the moment but I'm feeling a whole lot better than I have for the past couple of days). Hopefully, by tomorrow, the expired SSL for the website will be corrected, and I can go back to my usual responses and more occasional postings.

And, thank you all for thinking about me.

Still thinking about you blindguy. Hoping today is bringing some relief from your unpleasant symptoms.

I can't give actual medical advice but it sounds like you figured it out well for yourself.

Yes, with diabetes you have to be cautious with everything you consume, as you know. Indeed some of the Oral IV fluids do contain sugar and may not be indicated for people with diabetes.

If you are not feeling at least somewhat better each day you may want to check in with your physician to get some official and knowledgeable advice. You definitely don't want to become dehydrated. With diabetes, or really for anybody, that is not good for your kidneys. You don't want to start having kidney issues as diabetes can exacerbate those.

Your experience demonstrates how easy it is to contract Covid or any virus before you even know it's around. Avoidance is the best tactic but not always possible and if you succumb then taking every reasonable measure to look after yourself is the best course, obviously. It sounds like you're doing that, bg.

I hope you're all well again very soon.

+1

Yes, going without food is no big deal but you have to keep pushing fluids. That sweet drink sounds dreadful. I don't like Gatorade but the plain Pedialyte isn't too bad. I always keep some on hand for dogs and have used it on occasion. Sleep propped up too. Let us know how you are getting on :)

Blindguy, I got my updated Covid booster shot (the Moderna Spikevax) Friday afternoon, and I was down all day yesterday feeling ill from the effects. I always need a one-day recovery after the booster due to fatigue, but it seemed a bit more this time, and was combined with nausea. I feel improved today.

I keep telling myself that the sacrifice of one day is worth it in order to prevent or minimize the disease. If the vaccine is hitting me this hard, I can only imagine what Covid would do to me.

My flu and RSV vaccines will have to wait until October. The flu vaccine normally doesn't affect me, so I'm hoping that will hold true.

Continued best wishes to you for a smooth recovery and good heatlh!

Here's a good article on which symptoms indicate which respiratory illness, sorting it out between Covid, a cold and the flu:


https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/how-to-tell-if-your-symptoms-are-from-covid-a-cold-or-the-flu-1.6571927


Not much is written in stone though. If your symptoms are severe or prolonged it would be a good idea to contact a medical practitioner for some input.


What was that old cop show whose tag line was "Be careful out there"? (Hill Street Blues?) That just came bouncing back into my head. It certainly applies to The Age of Covid.

Hi again blindguy. I hope you and your family members are all improving steadily from your recent infection.

You mentioned that you want to get the fall vaccine as soon as possible once you've recovered. I read recently that it may be better to wait a bit longer for that if you've recently had Covid. The reasoning is apparently that if you've been infected with the virus, that bestows some immunity for a while so if you wait and get the fall vax a bit later you can extend out the time when you have a good level of immunity, which takes you through the fall and winter season with the best protection possible.

They can say it more succinctly than I just did but hopefully my paragraph above is making sense.

Of course it is also recommended to follow the other measures they suggest such as masking up when necessary, avoiding those who are ill (as far as that is possible) and keeping one's recommended vaccines up to date.

Just a thought but obviously it's best to ask one's own physician for the current recommendations in each case.

I hope you're up and about and enjoying the weekend.

...and I continue to improve. I certainly feel much better now than I did Monday and Tuesday, and I'm greatful for that.

There is one odd thing, though. I went to clean my braille display earlier today, using rubbing alcohol and Kleenex. Finding the Kleenex was easy; finding the rubbing alcohol not so much. My sister found it for me--it was in a bottle that I thought it was in but couldn't smell, something I certainly was able to do in the past. I checked some food items, and the same thing seems to have happened with them as well, though curiously, there has been little, if any, effect on my taste buds.

I think I'll wait a couple of days to see if the sense of smell returns; if not, then yes, I will make an appointment with my primary care physician.

Good news on the improvement front b.g.!

Unfortunately, I don't know what an MD can do for the loss of sense of smell or taste that many people do experience post-COVID. It may have to be a wait-and-see kind of thing, with the sense/s returning at some point in the not-too-distant future after a COVID infection.

Here’s an article (June 2022) from UNC about loss of sense of smell after COVID. It’s interesting and useful information I think.

https://healthtalk.unchealthcare.org/still-cant-taste-or-smell-since-covid-19-it-may-take-time-to-recover/

Excerpts:

“A loss or disruption of the sense of smell is a well-known symptom of COVID-19, says UNC Health rhinologist Brent Senior, MD. As many as half of all people who had earlier variants of COVID-19 lost their sense of smell. With omicron and its subvariants, about 1 in 5 people lost their sense of smell.

“The good news is that people do recover,” Dr. Senior says. “But it can be quite disturbing for patients, especially since it’s unclear what the time frame is for improvement.”

“Disruption to the sense of smell can happen to both vaccinated and unvaccinated people with COVID-19, but vaccinated people tend to have milder symptoms overall and are much less susceptible to serious illness.

“People with COVID-19 also report being unable to taste food, Dr. Senior says, but that problem may be caused by the inability to smell.

“Taste goes hand in hand with the sense of smell,” he says. “We haven’t found any damage to cells that directly support the sense of taste. But to really appreciate flavors, you need to be able to smell.”

“On average, patients report losing their sense of smell for two or three months after they have recovered from other COVID-19 symptoms, Dr. Senior says. However, doctors don’t know yet how long it will take people infected with omicron variants to recover, though it appears to be shorter.

“Dr. Senior says that the virus that causes COVID-19 seems to affect cells that support the olfactory nerve, the nerve that transmits messages about smell to the brain. This nerve is found high in the nose. When the supporting cells are unable to remove toxins and provide nutrition to the olfactory nerve, then the messages about smell don’t get to the brain.

“It’s not unusual for a viral infection to disrupt a person’s sense of smell, Dr. Senior says, but that’s typically because of nasal congestion, and less commonly from involvement of the cells around the olfactory nerve or damage to the nerve itself.

“The thing that is unusual here is the degree of loss of the sense of smell,” he says. “It’s almost complete loss and occurring in a large percentage of COVID-infected people and for a long time.”

-----

I've been complaining for a while that food doesn't taste as good as it used to. Everybody automatically tells me that means I must have had COVID. I don't think so as I haven't been noticeably ill and have had all negative tests since the pandemic started.

But it's possible to have a mild case that doesn't signal itself as being COVID and then still end up with some of the side effects.

I may never know whether to blame COVID or if it's a coincidence about the taste thing. For now I'm mostly thinking that somehow the food producers/makers/chefs, whoever, aren't using the same quality ingredients or have changed their preparation techniques or any one of a number of other possibilities to explain the before-and-after differences I'm experiencing.

One example is a local bakery my family's been going to for a long time and loving their sausage rolls, meat pies, bread and baked goods. Suddenly one weekend nothing tasted the same, or as good, as it always has, and since then the situation has remained the same. It did make me think I must have had COVID and that it had killed my taste buds. But then a more tangible explanation became obvious: the married couple who had owned the place for decades has retired and now their kids have taken over. They may use the same recipes as their dad the baker did but somehow they don't have his same fine hand. Maybe it's something they'll develop. I sure hope so.

Interesting to try and dissect all the ins and outs of these things.

Glad to read you're feeling better b.g. Keep it up!