Covid 19 and Your Life #2: It's Personal

[BigFatCoward]

It turns out that the noise outside my house overnight was linked to an air bnb property, not the pubs reopening.

Sometimes my career is very limiting. If I wasn't in the job I would have went outside and thrown a bucket of ice water on them, but I cant risk my pension for a moment of gratification. 

[Guest]

My brother just called me to tell me he found out that his ex died this morning of suspected COVID. He was 38.

[Zorral]

8 minutes ago, The Great Unwashed said:

My brother just called me to tell me he found out that his ex died this morning of suspected COVID. He was 38.

This must be fairly devastating for him, even if 'ex.'  I'm so sorry.

 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Zorral said:

This must be fairly devastating for him, even if 'ex.'  I'm so sorry.

 

It has been. They were only broken up because of circumstances. 

[Zorral]

7 minutes ago, The Great Unwashed said:

It has been. They were only broken up because of circumstances. 

O no. That's a tragedy.

 

[Guest]

So I'm not even sure how to assess the risk for the situation I've found myself in.

As I posted about previously in the Exercise thread, I've been experiencing some noticeable atrophy in the tricep of my right arm after an injury. After having an EMG test, it was confirmed that the nerve leading to the lateral head of my right tricep has simply stopped working. The other heads of my tricep appear to be functioning normally, but the loss of strength is considerable and concerning. It even affects my ability to work on the computer for extended periods of time due to increased muscle fatigue.

So, an MRI revealed that there was a slight narrowing in the space between my C6 & C7 vertebrae, but the doctor who conducted my EMG admitted he didn't have a clue as to what could be causing it. So, for now, the treatment is PT for two months, after which I need to decide if I want to have surgery on my spine.

I'm not very comfortable with PT right now, because there's not exactly a lot of social distancing in those places. I'm also not very comfortable with surgery, because of the pricetag, recovery, and possibility that the surgery won't resolve the issue. Also, the whole coronavirus thing.

However, the downside of putting off treatment is permanent partial paralysis of my right arm, and there's a quickly narrowing window to be able to stave that off. It wouldn't really affect my ability to do my job or anything, but it would definitely have some kind of effect on my ability to do a lot of the active stuff I like to do. I know that's a small issue in the grand scheme of things right now, but being able to be really active has helped a lot with my mental and physical health over the past 18 months or so, and being sidelined lately because of all this has really been weighing on me. Add the pandemic and stuff I posted about my brother (it's still indeterminate whether it was due to COVID, which I find odd), I'm desperately needing to work myself into exhaustion.

Obviously I'm going to get a 2nd opinion, but what are some of the questions I should ask?

One thing that kind of surprised me is that I was fairly sure they would have concluded that the nerve impingement was most likely due to an injury to my brachial plexus, due to the area where I was injured, but instead the doctor was confident that it was indeed due to the, I guess, spinal stenosis I'm experiencing. Is that a valid line of inquiry? 

What else could I ask?

[S John]

@The Great Unwashed

my non-medical opinion as a random dude on the internet is that you should definitely seek treatment.  You would be taking a small risk of exposure to the virus, yes, but permanent partial paralysis of a limb?  I think that weighing that potential outcome in the balance, it is worth the risk to go ahead and at least do the physical therapy. I would maybe ask them what kinds of precautions they are taking at physical therapy and go with the place where you feel most comfortable.  My wife is pregnant so we are in and out of Drs offices all the time and I’ve generally been happy with what little I’ve seen in terms of precautions being taken in the medical community.  And part of the reason I’ve only seen little is because generally I’m not even allowed In the building.   The point is, though, that the situation made me realize that even though Covid is out there there are still everyday medical things that need to happen.  Maybe we could push back that teeth cleaning or routine physical, but something that requires active treatment I think I would err on the side of addressing that issue over virus concerns.
 

[Guest]

6 minutes ago, S John said:

@The Great Unwashed

my non-medical opinion as a random dude on the internet is that you should definitely seek treatment.  You would be taking a small risk of exposure to the virus, yes, but permanent partial paralysis of a limb?  I think that weighing that potential outcome in the balance, it is worth the risk to go ahead and at least do the physical therapy. I would maybe ask them what kinds of precautions they are taking at physical therapy and go with the place where you feel most comfortable.  My wife is pregnant so we are in and out of Drs offices all the time and I’ve generally been happy with what little I’ve seen in terms of precautions being taken in the medical community.  And part of the reason I’ve only seen little is because generally I’m not even allowed In the building.   The point is, though, that the situation made me realize that even though Covid is out there there are still everyday medical things that need to happen.  Maybe we could push back that teeth cleaning or routine physical, but something that requires active treatment I think I would err on the side of addressing that issue over virus concerns.
 

I guess it's thinking that the PT might not actually help anything, so taking the risk for little or no reward.

"Partial paralysis" is probably a lot more scary-sounding than it is in reality. No one would notice anything just by looking, and the only real impacts on me are getting fatigued easier when sitting at my computer and not being able to bench press nearly as much as I used to be able to.

[Fury Resurrected]

I still think you should take the PT on the chance you retain better mobility. Less benching and more fatigue might be the things it does right now, but that could be a huge difference in quality of life and time out of professional care when you’re elderly. I’d make sure you distance from the elderly and at risk around you as much as possible, shower after PT, and do the physical therapy.

[RhaenysBee]

@The Great Unwashed You don’t write about these but your location’s coronavirus situation and your own personal risk factors might be worth considering as well. Would you be high risk if you were to conduct the virus or would you statistically expect a relatively smooth recovery?
I don’t know if it’s an option in your area but in my country it’s possible to get a personal PT at one’s own home (if one meets certain criteria - or pays for private PT, per se). 
Over here we have a relatively steady and controlled virus situation, I’ve been visiting doctors’ offices quite a bit these past weeks and both private and public facilities were all right in terms of precautions, I didn’t feel unsafe. I think it’d be worth a couple phone calls to see what precautions are in place at your facilities and if it’s possible for you to be even more cautious. 
Hope you come to a decision and get your arm sorted out soon and safely! 

 

We had a little surge of cases at a country school but other than that, we seem to be in a calm before the storm state. My mum is on vacation (a local one), and even though it’s something she badly needed emotionally, I’m a bit worried about her staying at a hotel and going to a thermal bathhouse... I mean the chances she catches something she didn’t catch in the city are minuscule. But still, I’ve been a worry-worm for some 25 years, why would I stop now? 
 

[DireWolfSpirit]

 Great Unwashed perhaps you could do the majority of the PT on your own without a lot of exposure to a place that isn't practicing social distancing? Maybe do a consultation and see if that's an option since it sounds as if you have experience working out?

I totally get your anxiety though, I don't want to go anywhere near a clinic or HC worker right now. I just keep thinking about the stories I've heard over the years of people getting staph infections from hospital visits and it makes me think one could conceivably catch the virus from a hospital setting as well? I don't believe the risk is nothing, put it that way.

Either way you definitely need at least that 2nd opinion, that's when I would try to find if there's any DIY exercise that could assist your situation. Good Luck with this.

[Fragile Bird]

My brother and I just had a great day yesterday (sarcasm).

A couple of years ago I bought a new (used) car, another Toyota Avalon. My old one, a 2006, had a lot of value still and relatively low miles, about 160k km iirc. But my brother's Cadillac DTS, also a 2006, was literally falling apart, so he said he'd take over my Avalon because he really liked driving it. And three years later, it's still a great car.

Yesterday he decided to do a quick run to a shop. He got to an intersection that's very confusing to some people (one main road does a change in direction from N to W, and the other has a huge dog-leg because of a railway underpass) and the person in front stopped in the intersection, perhaps wanting to make an illegal left hand turn. The person behind my brother didn't realize traffic ahead had stopped, tried to swerve, and took out the passenger side corner of the car. The trunk and rear fender are mangled, and the bumper, the trunk hood can't close, the muffler is dragging.

There was construction just south of the intersection and there was a police officer present to manage traffic, so there was instant response. He told my brother his car had to be towed to the Collision Reporting Centre, a requirement in my province if the damage is over a certain dollar amount. My brother called me and I drove over and picked him up at the accident scene. The tow truck driver wanted to take him there and then bring back the car to 'a garage I work with just down the block!' No thanks! I warned him we'd be there for three hours, because the province shut down some of the collision centres in the city and consolidated them way out in the suburbs.

Long story short, I warned him there was so much damage I doubted the insurance copany would repair the car. We will find out today or tomorrow.

The woman who hit him, hit him hard enough so that he was pushed into the car in front. There was no visible damage to his rear bumper and no visible damage to my brother's car front either, but who knows what will be claimed.

Going out and looking for a new car with the pandemic on is just about the last thing on the face of the earth either one of us want to do. If his car is not going to be repaired, I might give him the Avalon I'm driving now (it has better bells and whistles, it's loaded) and I might buy the first new car I've bought in 30 years, because the Toyota Corolla Hybrid is of great interest to me. It's also almost as big as my original Camry, a car I bought the first week they were available in Canada. Still, I'm not sure if I can adjust to a smaller car again, lol. I'd like to get an electric, but you really can't charge it in front of the house. I have a garage, but snow clearance in the laneway during winter is not something I want to get into. It's also full of file boxes from my brother's years of practicing law.

My brother is so pissed off. The guy in front, who really caused the problem in the first place because he stopped where no one is supposed to stop, basically sufferred no damage, and my brother has likely lost a really good car which he won't really be fully compensated for. 

What a PITA!

[Zorral]

10 hours ago, DireWolfSpirit said:

 Great Unwashed perhaps you could do the majority of the PT on your own without a lot of exposure to a place that isn't practicing social distancing? Maybe do a consultation and see if that's an option since it sounds as if you have experience working out?

I totally get your anxiety though, I don't want to go anywhere near a clinic or HC worker right now. I just keep thinking about the stories I've heard over the years of people getting staph infections from hospital visits and it makes me think one could conceivably catch the virus from a hospital setting as well? I don't believe the risk is nothing, put it that way.

Either way you definitely need at least that 2nd opinion, that's when I would try to find if there's any DIY exercise that could assist your situation. Good Luck with this.

Ya -- a second opinion, and maybe an MRI?  And if the virus is currently flatter where you are, the sooner the better.  And if you did go to a gym, don't shower there, get in and get out, and be sure you wear gloves and mask, and bring lost of sanitizer and disinfecting wipes of whatever kind.  But I definitely wouldn't rec going to a gym -- or even a physical therapist, if at all possible.

I was thinking the same thing as DireWolfSpirit, particularly as I have many damaged vertebrae which have eaten away at the discs and have caused many pinched nerve clusters.  Pain is chronic, but I've been (mostly) been able to manage it with the help of legal medical cannabis (not the getting high sort), which is far more healthy for the entire system than taking the liver and stomach destroying ibus and advils regularly.  Plus a constant regime of worked out routines to keep stretching out the back and strengthening the core, which I perform about 2 - 2 1/2 hours a day at least 3 times a week, at home.

It's tricky.  You have to learn your own body in lots of ways and you have to stick with it, and be very patient.  I'm very fortunate as before the Back kicked in, so to speak (a cumulation of lots of accidents starting as a kid, and also from beating from my dad), I loved to dance and took lots of dance classes, and loved to be active -- ran and rode bike, and hiked.  So I get miserable when I don't do my routines whether or not the pain.

Another tip -- don't let that area get cold!

 

[Larry of the Lawn]

@The Great Unwashed

I'd echo the other internet rando's saying to explore PT further.  My dad and uncle (not related to each other) both had spinal stenosis diagnoses, my uncle around age 55 and my dad at age 60.  My dad was basically paralyzed from the waist down for 2 months.  He ended up losing about twenty lbs and getting an injection, and with PT was able to be on his feet and working again (at a very physically demanding job) within a couple months.  

My uncle had a less severe case and just losing ten lbs *and doing PT for a couple months his symptoms subsided.  

I know that stenosis can have different effects and treatments depending on where the constriction is, but couldn't hurt to explore non surgical options, which, from what i remember when my dad was looking at it, didn't necessarily have great outcomes either, and come with a bunch of other risks.

Hang in there man.

 

ETA:  5 years later my dad has not had more stenosis symptoms, and is very active.  He still works a few days a week as a mason and he's gutted and remodeled his entire kitchen and built an addition on his house this year.  

[Guest]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I've decided to call around to PT places to find what kind of measures they're taking to mitigate spread. 

I'm hoping I can keep visits down to once a week if I do most of the exercises at home.

[Iskaral Pust]

1 minute ago, The Great Unwashed said:

Thanks for the advice everyone. I've decided to call around to PT places to find what kind of measures they're taking to mitigate spread. 

I'm hoping I can keep visits down to once a week if I do most of the exercises at home.

Sorry to hear the MRI produced the diagnosis you didn’t want.  Best of luck with PT.  Definitely don’t accept the kind of nerve damage you described in the fitness thread.

[Paladin of Ice]

TGU, good luck with PT. I did some earlier in the year for my left shoulder, (it wrapped up right about when the pandemic started hitting NY) and it did a lot of good for me after I'd been suffering in silence for awhile. Hopefully it helps you too.

I got sick back on this past weekend and thought for awhile that it might be some of the less common/well known COVID; fever, nausea, extreme fatigue. (I was probably asleep 16+ hours on Saturday, on my normal sleep cycle I'd probably only get 6-6.5 hours of sleep a night) muscle weakness, etc.

It only took a day for the fever to break, so I figured out pretty quickly (and with a lot of relief) that it wasn't COVID, and an initial tests came out negative. Still, because of workplace policies, (especially strict in a healthcare setting) the fact that I had a fever at all now means I have something of an unplanned vacation.

Aside from that we've been pretty lucky at my job, a young guy (around 25) that I worked with for about a year and change but has since moved to another one of our locations got a bad case and was laid out for awhile, but nobody else has gotten it. We've been both careful and lucky thus far.

[Zorral]

That's good to hear -- rest well.  You probably need the rest regardless of your illness.  You all must still be working very hard, with all of it looming again.

At least in this region, Tropical Storm Fay, may keep people inside today and postpone some of the spreading.

 

[DireWolfSpirit]

Here's more from Live Science on UV lights potential against the coronavirus.

https://www.livescience.com/uv-light-kill-coronavirus.html

From the article-

There are ongoing conversations in the field about installing UVC units in ceilings to decontaminate circulating air, Kohli said. And others are researching another wavelength of UVC called UVC-222 or Far-UVC, which may not damage human cells, she added. But that will require more research, Kohli said.  Still, it's clear that "used accurately and responsibly, UVC has enormous potential."

[Zorral]

I cannot describe the sensations that poured through me when I first read this headline late this afternoon -- a combo of relief, joy and -- still, almost disbelief, disbelief that after all these cases and so much death -- that nobody died of this in the last day. Breathless.

New York City Without Coronavirus Deaths Four Months After First Report
By Jennifer Peltz, Michael R. Sisak and Marina Villeneuve • Published 4 hours ago • Updated 1 hour ago

https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/new-york-city-without-coronavirus-deaths-for-first-time-since-start-of-pandemic/2511864/

Quote

 

New York City health officials reported zero deaths related to the novel coronavirus four months after the state's first official death was recorded on March 11.

According to initial data reported by the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, no one died from the virus in New York City on July 11. Officials recorded no confirmed deaths the day before as well, but did have two probable deaths.

The department's data shows there hasn't been a day without a coronavirus-related death since March 13, two days after the first reported death.

Each sign of progress in New York has come in the shadow of an ever-growing national spike that continues to plague the U.S. crisis. On Sunday, Florida reported more than 15,000 positive cases of the virus. It's the highest single-day number for any state and cleared the record previously set in New York back in April.

[....]

At the same time, the Democratic governor has ordered travelers from more than a dozen states to quarantine for 14 days, while urging New Yorkers not to let up on wearing masks or social distancing.

Yet with the virus tearing through the South and West, Cuomo warned Friday it would eventually rear up again in New York.

We’re doing everything we can,” he told WAMC radio, but “I can feel it coming.”

A widely cited University of Washington model doesn’t project spikes — at least through its Nov. 1 time frame — in New York, New Jersey or Connecticut, whose Democratic governors have coordinated on traveler quarantines and, earlier, some shutdown policies. But that doesn’t mean the densely populated tri-state area is in the clear.

[....]
 

 

 

If only we would be allowed to keep this up, you know, with even fairly decent, intelligent leadership and action on the city, state and federal levels.  But I have no faith in de Blasio whatsoever, for reasons maybe rather different than having no faith in the feds as they are in These Times, but not so very different.  He's thinking only of himself, not the city -- and certainly not teachers and students.  Only about the real estate people who are determined to have the bars and restaurants and theaters fully opened, inside and out.

At least we have a governor who is canny and not stupid, and has the cojones to stand up.