Whisper Posted December 30, 2020 Report Share Posted December 30, 2020 COVID-19 has been detected in your saliva sample. Please contact your primary care physician and inform him/her of your test results. That right there is the world's least surprising lab result. There are 5 people in this house, and 3 of them had already tested positive before I went to get my test Monday morning. I've had symptoms since last Wednesday, but if all that wasn't proof enough that i have it, losing my sense of smell last night really sealed the deal. A quick rundown of the cast of characters. I'm Whisper, 36 years old. I work as a maintenance technician in a manufacturing plant. I play the violin at my church, and play with our bell choir. I have narcolepsy and a smattering of mental health issues and am really just trying to figure out this whole "being a functional adult" thing. M is the person that I care more about than anyone else in this world. Lots of people assume we're married; we did date for a time but the columination of both our issues made things really, really bad. She has a lot of physical and psychological struggles, and I try to help as best I can. Lots of people have referred me to books on boundaries when I start venting about her. She also has covid right now, and is alone in her little apartment. I'm trying to keep as close an eye on her as I can. My Old People. I rent a basement room from an elderly couple from my church; I've been here nearly two years. The husband, 83, was the first person to get sick; he tested positive last Tuesday. His wife, 82, just had surgery to get a pacemaker the Friday before that. She's the only person in the house that hasn't gotten a positive test result, but she is sick, and took a turn for the worse today, so we'll be keeping a closer eye on her tomorrow. Their Daughters. They've got like, 7 kids or something, but the most relevant right now are two of their daughters. One works as a "traveling nurse" and lives with us when she has a local assignment. She's been back with us for a couple months. The other daughter lives locally, and basically moved in when their father got sick to help take care of him. They both tested positive for the virus on Saturday. So, I've got the plague, now what? My goal for the last several months has been "don't get my old people sick". That hasn't really worked out, but no one is dead yet, and I'm going to do my best to keep it that way. The daughter's are the point care givers, but I am, by a fair margin, the least sick person in the house. I'm helping out where, and as much, as I can, but if I don't take care of myself, I won't be able to take care of others. So, that is my goal this challenge; take care of myself. I'm not really sure how to measure most of that right now. I'm taking my meds, I'm keeping hydrated, I'm moving around throughout the day. I did notice a few days ago that the souls of my feet were in really bad shape, dried out and painfully cracked. I don't like the feel of lotion, but I've been putting it on my feet twice a day and they're in much better shape, so I'm going to keep doing that too. 8 We are not sinners trespassing in the garden of an angry God. We are prodigals come home; fully seen and deeply loved. Put together enough small wins over a long enough period of time, and you’ll find yourself in high level gear fighting dragons before you know it. Spoiler Unused for now, Quest Log: Not Silence in the Library but a Whisper in the Academy Link to comment
fleaball Posted December 30, 2020 Report Share Posted December 30, 2020 Wasn’t sure if I should like the post or sad face it tbh. Sending good vibes to you and your old people. ❤️ 2 Level 69 Battle Kitten Battle Log | Current Challenge MyFitnessPal | Fitbit | Duolingo Ici je vis la vie que j'ai choisie Je suis partie pour reconstruire ma vie C'est dit, c'est ainsi Link to comment
sarakingdom Posted December 30, 2020 Report Share Posted December 30, 2020 Pulse oximeter and thermometer. Monitor temp and oxygen. Good luck, comrade. 3 I felt like I could run forever, like I could smell the wind and feel the grass under my feet, and just run forever. Current Challenge: #24 - Mrs. Cosmopolite Challenge Past: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11a & #11b, #12, #13, #14, #15, #16, #17, #18, #19, #20, #21, #22, #23 Link to comment
Whisper Posted December 30, 2020 Author Report Share Posted December 30, 2020 3 minutes ago, sarakingdom said: Pulse oximeter and thermometer. Monitor temp and oxygen. Good luck, comrade. Didn't like how the wife was looking when I went upstairs to get something for dinner. Put the pulse ox on her and she was down at 88, so let the daughters know and they got her back on O2. Was really glad we have one in the house. Need to figure out how to get one over to M. 3 We are not sinners trespassing in the garden of an angry God. We are prodigals come home; fully seen and deeply loved. Put together enough small wins over a long enough period of time, and you’ll find yourself in high level gear fighting dragons before you know it. Spoiler Unused for now, Quest Log: Not Silence in the Library but a Whisper in the Academy Link to comment
sarakingdom Posted December 30, 2020 Report Share Posted December 30, 2020 5 minutes ago, Whisper said: Didn't like how the wife was looking when I went upstairs to get something for dinner. Put the pulse ox on her and she was down at 88, so let the daughters know and they got her back on O2. Was really glad we have one in the house. Need to figure out how to get one over to M. Glad you've got a nurse and oxygen in the house. Try Amazon for the pulse ox; they were hard to get in March, probably better now. I think some phones can do it. 1 I felt like I could run forever, like I could smell the wind and feel the grass under my feet, and just run forever. Current Challenge: #24 - Mrs. Cosmopolite Challenge Past: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11a & #11b, #12, #13, #14, #15, #16, #17, #18, #19, #20, #21, #22, #23 Link to comment
Rookie Posted December 30, 2020 Report Share Posted December 30, 2020 Oh no. Sorry to hear this. Definitely important you take care of yourself right now. Wish I could offer advice but I have zero. 1 {Chase the wind and touch the sky; I will fly} Link to comment
fleaball Posted December 30, 2020 Report Share Posted December 30, 2020 30 minutes ago, Whisper said: Didn't like how the wife was looking when I went upstairs to get something for dinner. Put the pulse ox on her and she was down at 88, so let the daughters know and they got her back on O2. Was really glad we have one in the house. Need to figure out how to get one over to M. Order from Instacart or shipt to leave it at her door? 1 Level 69 Battle Kitten Battle Log | Current Challenge MyFitnessPal | Fitbit | Duolingo Ici je vis la vie que j'ai choisie Je suis partie pour reconstruire ma vie C'est dit, c'est ainsi Link to comment
Bean Sidhe Posted December 31, 2020 Report Share Posted December 31, 2020 I am sorry this is all going down. Hopefully everyone does okay and this is over quickly. Good luck taking care of everyone and make sure to take care of yourself. 1 You are never too old to set another goal or dream a new dream - C.S. Lewis Link to comment
Whisper Posted December 31, 2020 Author Report Share Posted December 31, 2020 M had a phone call with a nurse. Nurse told her to go back to urgent care, so I got her and took her down. Urgent care put her on O2 and had me take her to ER. ER wouldn't let me go in with her, so been waiting out in the parking lot. Looking like they're going to be sending her on home oxygen. 1 We are not sinners trespassing in the garden of an angry God. We are prodigals come home; fully seen and deeply loved. Put together enough small wins over a long enough period of time, and you’ll find yourself in high level gear fighting dragons before you know it. Spoiler Unused for now, Quest Log: Not Silence in the Library but a Whisper in the Academy Link to comment
sarakingdom Posted December 31, 2020 Report Share Posted December 31, 2020 17 minutes ago, Whisper said: M had a phone call with a nurse. Nurse told her to go back to urgent care, so I got her and took her down. Urgent care put her on O2 and had me take her to ER. ER wouldn't let me go in with her, so been waiting out in the parking lot. Looking like they're going to be sending her on home oxygen. I'm glad you were able to help her. Fingers crossed the home oxygen does the trick, and keeps her recuperating at home. It should be a big help. 1 I felt like I could run forever, like I could smell the wind and feel the grass under my feet, and just run forever. Current Challenge: #24 - Mrs. Cosmopolite Challenge Past: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11a & #11b, #12, #13, #14, #15, #16, #17, #18, #19, #20, #21, #22, #23 Link to comment
Whisper Posted December 31, 2020 Author Report Share Posted December 31, 2020 Got her back to her place with her own pulse ox and got her air set up. Back home now; going to try and rest. 2 We are not sinners trespassing in the garden of an angry God. We are prodigals come home; fully seen and deeply loved. Put together enough small wins over a long enough period of time, and you’ll find yourself in high level gear fighting dragons before you know it. Spoiler Unused for now, Quest Log: Not Silence in the Library but a Whisper in the Academy Link to comment
Whisper Posted January 1, 2021 Author Report Share Posted January 1, 2021 3 We are not sinners trespassing in the garden of an angry God. We are prodigals come home; fully seen and deeply loved. Put together enough small wins over a long enough period of time, and you’ll find yourself in high level gear fighting dragons before you know it. Spoiler Unused for now, Quest Log: Not Silence in the Library but a Whisper in the Academy Link to comment
Bean Sidhe Posted January 1, 2021 Report Share Posted January 1, 2021 19 hours ago, Whisper said: Got her back to her place with her own pulse ox and got her air set up. Back home now; going to try and rest. A) get some rest and B ) I am glad that M was able to go home to her place instead of being stuck in the hospital. I hope all feel better soon. 2 You are never too old to set another goal or dream a new dream - C.S. Lewis Link to comment
Whisper Posted January 5, 2021 Author Report Share Posted January 5, 2021 Actually, I feel pretty good. No fever in several days, not much coughing. I think my sense of smell might even be starting to come back. Still not much in the way of stamina. CDC guidelines say that I should have stopped being contagious back on Saturday, so figured it should be safe for me to go to the store today. Might be safe, but even that much exertions nearly wiped me out. Probably not going back to work until next week. That'll eat up most of my PLT, but it won't take me down to zero, even with the 60 hours I cashed out last month. Everyone in the house seems to be recovering well. Lady of the house is still on oxygen, but she needed it sometimes before all this. Her husband is moving around more and getting back to his old self. The daughters are both doing fairly well; one went back to work today, but found it hard, the other goes back to work on Wednesday, and is happy that she'll only work two days this week. M is still on oxygen too, but from talking to her, sounds like she is doing a whole lot better. She had stopped taking all of her meds, which made things much worse, but she's back on everything, and hating everyone and everything much less. I'll see her for a little while tomorrow, which will be good; haven't seen her since I took her home from the ER, though we have spoken at least once every day since then. With the exception of the day with the ER, I have practiced Spanish on Duolingo every day. I haven't been doing more than one little session each day, so would like to step that back up. Still hoping to get my work to buy me Rosetta Stone, but since I met my goal for the last challenge, I went ahead and bought a year of Duo premium. 3 We are not sinners trespassing in the garden of an angry God. We are prodigals come home; fully seen and deeply loved. Put together enough small wins over a long enough period of time, and you’ll find yourself in high level gear fighting dragons before you know it. Spoiler Unused for now, Quest Log: Not Silence in the Library but a Whisper in the Academy Link to comment
Whisper Posted January 5, 2021 Author Report Share Posted January 5, 2021 Speaking of goals for last challenge, I said that if I was on time for work every day, I would buy myself a "sunrise simulator" type alarm clock. We'll prior to getting sick, I was on time every day! So, I need to do that. Anyone have experience / advice for these? Looks like amazon has several of them for around $40, but if anyone has a recommendation, that would be preferable to just going blind. 2 We are not sinners trespassing in the garden of an angry God. We are prodigals come home; fully seen and deeply loved. Put together enough small wins over a long enough period of time, and you’ll find yourself in high level gear fighting dragons before you know it. Spoiler Unused for now, Quest Log: Not Silence in the Library but a Whisper in the Academy Link to comment
fleaball Posted January 5, 2021 Report Share Posted January 5, 2021 I'm glad you and everyone else are all feeling better!! That's awesome. I'm not sure if you can do anything about it retroactively, but the federal bullshit package allowed (allows?) for payments if you're out of work due to a positive diagnosis. Idk if it's too late if you've already taken personal time but might be worth looking into? 1 Level 69 Battle Kitten Battle Log | Current Challenge MyFitnessPal | Fitbit | Duolingo Ici je vis la vie que j'ai choisie Je suis partie pour reconstruire ma vie C'est dit, c'est ainsi Link to comment
sarakingdom Posted January 5, 2021 Report Share Posted January 5, 2021 I'm glad everyone's on the mend. That's really awesome, especially with two older folks in the mix. Keep up the recovery work, slow and steady from here on out. Don't rush things. Covid is a hell of a stress test. 1 I felt like I could run forever, like I could smell the wind and feel the grass under my feet, and just run forever. Current Challenge: #24 - Mrs. Cosmopolite Challenge Past: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11a & #11b, #12, #13, #14, #15, #16, #17, #18, #19, #20, #21, #22, #23 Link to comment
Whisper Posted January 12, 2021 Author Report Share Posted January 12, 2021 Went back to work today. Would have been a particularly rough day at the best of times, but right now was downright brutal; I could barely stand or walk by the end of it. There were a couple times I needed to sit on the floor to reach something on a machine, and it was a huge relief not to be on my feet. The last few days I've gotten really bad headaches lasting an hour or so before clearing up. I think it might be sinus related, so going back onto some meds. If I get another one, I'll call my doctor's office. Feeling a bit better now, and hoping tomorrow is a lot calmer. 1 We are not sinners trespassing in the garden of an angry God. We are prodigals come home; fully seen and deeply loved. Put together enough small wins over a long enough period of time, and you’ll find yourself in high level gear fighting dragons before you know it. Spoiler Unused for now, Quest Log: Not Silence in the Library but a Whisper in the Academy Link to comment
Whisper Posted January 12, 2021 Author Report Share Posted January 12, 2021 Headache came roaring back last night. I've sent an email to my doctor. We are not sinners trespassing in the garden of an angry God. We are prodigals come home; fully seen and deeply loved. Put together enough small wins over a long enough period of time, and you’ll find yourself in high level gear fighting dragons before you know it. Spoiler Unused for now, Quest Log: Not Silence in the Library but a Whisper in the Academy Link to comment
Whisper Posted January 12, 2021 Author Report Share Posted January 12, 2021 http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff3600/santa2020.png 1 We are not sinners trespassing in the garden of an angry God. We are prodigals come home; fully seen and deeply loved. Put together enough small wins over a long enough period of time, and you’ll find yourself in high level gear fighting dragons before you know it. Spoiler Unused for now, Quest Log: Not Silence in the Library but a Whisper in the Academy Link to comment
Whisper Posted January 15, 2021 Author Report Share Posted January 15, 2021 A wild update appears! So, Thursday is done, and I'm 43 hours in to my work week. I'll definitely be over 60 hours by the time Saturday is done. Fortunately, the last 3 days have been easier than Monday was, and at 50 hours, work starts paying double time, so I should get a nice check in 2 weeks. Had my first music practice in 3 weeks tonight. I get to play with the contemporary service this Sunday, and I'm really excited about the music. I had a whole lot of fun practicing with the group tonight. On a less fun note, I called to order more of my narcolepsy meds this morning, and found out that because of some stupid changes Cigna made, we have to go through the authorization process, again. And I'm almost out of meds. And I don't know how long this is going to take. I'm going to switch from two doses a night to one to try and stretch out my supply, but I'm honestly kind of scared. I had no idea that I was going to have to do this; I signed up for the same health care plan as last year, but now Cigna is adding some other company to the mix, so authorizations didn't cary over. Skipping a dose is bad, but running out is really, really bad. God, please keep the oil from running out. 1 We are not sinners trespassing in the garden of an angry God. We are prodigals come home; fully seen and deeply loved. Put together enough small wins over a long enough period of time, and you’ll find yourself in high level gear fighting dragons before you know it. Spoiler Unused for now, Quest Log: Not Silence in the Library but a Whisper in the Academy Link to comment
fleaball Posted January 15, 2021 Report Share Posted January 15, 2021 oooooof. you’ve said before this medicine is controlled right? So there’s no chance of getting like a sample from the doctor or just a couple days’ worth in the interim right? 1 Level 69 Battle Kitten Battle Log | Current Challenge MyFitnessPal | Fitbit | Duolingo Ici je vis la vie que j'ai choisie Je suis partie pour reconstruire ma vie C'est dit, c'est ainsi Link to comment
Whisper Posted January 15, 2021 Author Report Share Posted January 15, 2021 34 minutes ago, fleaball said: oooooof. you’ve said before this medicine is controlled right? So there’s no chance of getting like a sample from the doctor or just a couple days’ worth in the interim right? You are sadly correct; there are no samples of this stuff. I might be able to get a "bridge shipment " but apparently we need to be a few steps further in the process first. 1 We are not sinners trespassing in the garden of an angry God. We are prodigals come home; fully seen and deeply loved. Put together enough small wins over a long enough period of time, and you’ll find yourself in high level gear fighting dragons before you know it. Spoiler Unused for now, Quest Log: Not Silence in the Library but a Whisper in the Academy Link to comment
fleaball Posted January 15, 2021 Report Share Posted January 15, 2021 ugh that's so fucking dumb. I hate when insurance companies change things and don't tell you until it's already a problem. Fingers crossed it gets sorted asap. 2 Level 69 Battle Kitten Battle Log | Current Challenge MyFitnessPal | Fitbit | Duolingo Ici je vis la vie que j'ai choisie Je suis partie pour reconstruire ma vie C'est dit, c'est ainsi Link to comment
Emma Posted January 16, 2021 Report Share Posted January 16, 2021 I’m often able to call my doc and just get a few days emergency supply order for the pharmacist. Heard about this website for long haulers. https://www.survivorcorps.com/ 1 Link to comment
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