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我覺得病人做錯了兩點： 1是VC開始太晚，2 是退燒藥從Tylenol換成了ibuprofen (Motrin).
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注定無眠的十二月--領導被確診新冠的十八天
領導12/4和朋友喝咖啡，脫口罩講話四十分鍾，12/5朋友出現症狀，12/7領導出現症狀，12/8朋友被確診，12/11領導被確診，從此開始烏雲密布的十二月，一直被誤導的我以為就是個大號流感，每天信心滿滿的告訴他明天會更好，但是一天比一天糟糕，直到領導去急診，我才開始手足無措......,以下是領導今天下午剛剛寫的，為了紀念這十八天的無眠夜，也是我華人的處女貼，希望大家不要輕視新冠。祝大家聖誕快樂！
Please note I am piecing this from memory, chats, messages, etc. I have tried to be as factual as possible while noting how I felt. The earlier days (until the hospital stay) were pretty hazy. I tried to indicate my state of mind as well since the psychological factor of the disease was particularly prominent.
Day 1, Monday, December 7, 2020 [Symptoms start]
- Over-weekend contact establishes positive Covid test result
- Symptoms begin
- Light cough
- Fluctuating fever between 100 and 101
- Headaches
- Chills
- Still worked for remainder of day
- Received antigen + PCR test for self and family
- Spirits: OK, anticipating a week of “coldlike symptoms” based on anecdotes from colleagues and online.
Day 2, Tuesday, December 8, 2020
- Antigen test comes back negative
- Work stops
- Fever climbs to 101-102, controlled by Tylenol
- Night sweats
- Oxymeter readings fluctuate between 90% and 96%
- Spirits: Still OK although fatigue setting in and making work difficult.
Day 3, Wednesday, December 9, 2020
- Fever continues to be 101-103, controlled by Tylenol
- Began to take Vitamin C, Vitamin D, Quercetin, Zinc, and Chinese-medicine supplements
Day 4, Thursday, December 10, 2020
- Fever continues to be 101-103, controlled by Tylenol
Day 5, Friday, December 11, 2020
- PCR test confirms positive Covid-19, family tests negative and remains without symptoms
- SpO2 reading reaches 93% during night
- Fever reaches 103.2
- I call the hospital for some advice, and the nurse was very considerate and asked me to control with Tylenol
- Spirits down since fever seems uncontrollable with initial forays into lower oxygen. The inability to sleep due to cough increases the fear that one feels that things may not get better (or quickly).
Day 6, Saturday, December 12, 2020
- Second oximeter arrives
- SpO2 reading reaches 93% during night
- I tried calling the hospital again, but there was no nurse advisor or doctor available to talk.
- Instead, I tried calling my PCP’s on-call; I left a message, but no reply came back
Day 7, Sunday, December 13, 2020
- Cough getting much worse
- Fever reaches 103, drops to 99.7
- Oximeter reading drops to 92% overnight, fever at 101.6.
- Spirits down as there seemed to be no way that this was going to last only for a week. Reading online, it seems days 5-10 were very crucial as complications tend to happen during this time if they happen at all.
Day 8, Monday, December 14, 2020
- Decided to stop Chinese medicine
- Began to switch to Advil (Ibuprofen) for longer-lasting fever reduction
- I asked a friend to drop off another oximeter as the two I had were very similar. As you can see, the readings are all the same.
- PCP prescribes codeine to help with cough and sleep.
- Spirits still down as no drug seems to be able to quell the feelings and fears at night; constant coughing, sweating, and chills make one subjectively feel things are not improving.
Day 9, Tuesday, December 15, 2020
- Fever, 101.4 - 102.1.
- Oxygen readings fall to 90-91%.
- Spirits down as it’s difficult to know when one should visit the hospital. It’s possible there is nothing wrong and going will make it worse since I may catch something there or spread Covid to others. On the other hand, the readings keep falling.
Day 10, Wednesday, December 16, 2020 [First ER Visit]
- 16th year anniversary
- Fever, 101.8.
- Drove to ER at night, fever drops to 98.4.
- They quarantine me in a small room to avoid spreading Covid-19. I am in the room waiting for ~2 hours waiting for a room to see the doctor.
- I finally see the doctor, and they take a chest x-ray. The notes indicates minor atelectasis (lung collapse) but no pneumonia
- I asked for water 6 times throughout my visit but was never given water once.
- They gave me a steroid shot, which caused instant chills and let me drive home with 98.1 and 92% on the SpO2.
- I was initially glad since they told me my vitals were looking OK, but the experience overall was poor since I didn’t get any water and I waited for a very long time to be seen. I had to call the ER (while I was in the ER) to let them know I was still in the initial quarantine room. I had resolved to not go to the ER again unless I absolutely had to.
Day 11, Thursday, December 17, 2020
- Oxymeter readings continue to fall to 91/92%.
- Fever rises to 100.5.
- Before sleep, temperature is 98.6 and SpO2 is 93%; the former rises so 101.7 and oxygen drops to 90-91.
Day 12, Friday, December 18, 2020
- Oxymeter readings continue to fall to 90/91% in the morning.
- Fever rises to 102.7.
- Begin trying prone position to improve SpO2.
- Night SpO2 drops to 88%.
- I felt considerable alarm since the reading would consistently land on 88% without moving. I made the decision to go to the ER despite my prior experience.
Day 13, Saturday, December 19, 2020 [Second ER Visit, Admitted]
- All supplements, medicine, etc. stopped.
- Drove to ER at 3am. I picked the closest spot to the front ER door and was barely able to walk to the entrance due to shortness of breath. I showed them low SpO2 reading, get put into ER room immediately with 2L of supplemental oxygen.
- 6AM, I am admitted but there are no available nurses and/or room capacity, so I remain in the ER ward. The room I am in does not have a bathroom, so I had to use a hand urinal multiple times and a “bedside commode.”
- This isn’t an exact picture, but it’s close enough. I wonder what options females have.
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Day 14, Sunday, December 20, 2020 [Hospital Day 2]
- Fever remains at 99 throughout night; I took a Tylenol.
- I am still on 2L oxygen and am using the hand urinal since I did not want to leave the oxygen.
- A routine that would happen for the next several days:
- Morning:
- A shot of steroids through my IV
- A blood thinner injected into my stomach fat
- Breakfast around 8
- Blood draw
- Noon:
- Daily dose of Remdesivir (total 5)
- Lunch around 1
- A doctor’s visit
- Evening:
- Dinner around 6
- Every 4-8 hours:
- Measure blood pressure, pulse, SpO2, temperature
- My oxygen requirements do not go up, and I am stable at 96% SpO2.
Day 15, Monday, December 21, 2020 [Hospital Day 3]
- In the morning, they wean me to 1L oxygen, SpO2 stabilizes at 95%.
Day 16, Tuesday, December 22, 2020 [Hospital Day 4]
- They later wean me off the oxygen entirely. I begin to take walks back and forth to exercise my legs, and I am able to go to the bathroom by myself.
- They introduce me to incentive spirometry, which is a lot less fun than it sounds. Basically, one needs to inhale at a constant rate and try to hit certain numbers. With a lot of pain, I was able to hit 1000 mL Inspired Volume, which is the minimum. During healthy times, I should be able to hit 3000-3500, so this goes to show how much the disease has affected my breathing ability.
- My last elevated temperature was 99.0 at 7:06PM.
- Day 4 in the hospital is when I began to have some hope. I began to take walks back and forth inside the room, and I could see that my oxygen levels were not dropping despite having gone off the oxygen.
Day 17, Wednesday, December 23, 2020 [Hospital Day 5]
- I received my last dose of Remdesivir, but it’s not clear if I’ll be discharged today.
- I settle in for another night when the doctor decides to discharge me, so I am excited to get dressed in my old clothing and gather my belongings. I was given the option to stay for one more night for observation, but I hadn’t showered for 5 days, my body was responding to treatment, and I had already begun to do better on the spirometer (hitting 2400 mL). I opted to go home.
- It took about another hour to get all the paperwork ready, after which they wheeled me back to my car under the crispy Fremont night air. I had a lot of cleaning to do at home since I left in a hurry and had knocked over my cough medicine, leaving a sticky mess everywhere, plus I desperately wanted to shower.
- I arrived home at 8PM, cleaned, showered, and took my measurements. I still had insomnia, but at least I was home.
Day 18, Thursday, December 24, 2020
- The sleep during the night was poor, but fever remained nonexistent (in fact, temperatures were depressed in the 96-97 range) while SpO2 levels remained fine at around 97%.
- The night sweats and chills are still happening. The cough is still there although less pronounced.
- Appetite remains good throughout the day. Spirometer maxed out at 2700 mL today.
- I was able to walk twice outside today, once with a 100-ft descent/ascent and without losing breath.
- Spirits are improving. Mental health is as big a part of this disease as is the physical part. It is so easy to pinpoint in the past “if I hadn’t done this or that” and feel immense amount of regret. It’s easy to let the scary Internet anecdotes get to you and let your mind wander into the horrors of this disease. I have also discovered there is only so much on-demand video one can watch:
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