Quarantine Diary #39 4/21/2020 How will you be different?

There are Lyrid meteor showers this week.

“The Lyrids have been observed and reported since 687 BC; no other modern shower has been recorded as far back in time.” (that’s from Wikipedia.

Len went out to look for them one night and didn’t find the fabled shooting stars of yore.

He did find some quiet late-night beauty.

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I read this interesting article in the NYT today. Read Here. 

Medical care people are discovering that people can be positive for coronavirus while feeling fine or close to fine. The sense right now is that there are many more carriers for COVID than we know. Some who will soon be deathly ill are feeling fine today and thus are going about their regular routines, able to shed virus willy-nilly if they are not in quarantine.

When a virus attacks a normal lung cell, the cell stops working efficiently fairly quickly. This means the person receives less oxygen that they need so they become weak, confused and generally fall into some deleterious state.

People with Covid-19 go longer with very low amounts of oxygen in their systems than professionals expect to see. When they finally show up at a clinic or ER they may be so low on oxygen they “ought” to be in a coma, but they are still talking, thinking, and acting. They are close to a serious medical episode or to their own death but they don’t quite act like it. Yet. 

The main clue they are presenting with is – fast breathing.  Because their lung cells can’t get in enough oxygen the person compensates by breathing faster.

The physician writing the article talks about the common oximeter which is that blue thing they snap on your finger at the doctor’s office; that gizmo measures the oxygen in your system.  Len looked online; one can BUY this thing for $30. It is not invasive, one doesn’t need to be a rocket scientist or respiratory therapist to utilize it (Hi, Pam and Jennifer who DID do respiratory therapies!).

We ordered an oximeter and now I’m curious. Will my oxygen level change after a long walk?  Does it change when there are scary scenes in movies?  If I go on vacation (will I ever go on a vacation again??) and don’t climb the stairs in my house 17 times a day, will that affect my whatever is my normal oxygen level?

And most relevant. If Len or I become ill, will this little thing give us another way to monitor our own health?  Obviously, we are not medical professionals and if we get sick, we call our medical office.  But can this tool help us sort out what’s going on?

The article has a paywall. If you can’t get past it and are curious, write to me at MB@MaryBethDanielson.com and I will email an abbreviated version to you.

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Have you seen the Before and After Quarantine Lil Debbie? You know that cute Lil Debbie girl who is on the box of the Lil Debbie junk food. (I gained 25 pounds in high school in the three years after my dad died. I’m here to witness than NO ONE should eat Lil Debbie cakes every day. Possibly no one should eat them ever, but that’s your call.)

The visual joke is Lil Debbie and then a very chunky Large Deborah post- quarantine.  Cuz she sat home eating those cakes.  It makes me laugh, although it is fat-shaming and I’m better than that. Yeah, I'm not laughing.

It does pose an interesting question. We are weeks into this. We now know we are probably not going to read War and Peace, or re-tile the bathroom, or go through those boxes (and boxes and boxes) of our parent’s vacation slides. There is a certain level of reality now. This quarantine is worse and easier than we would have thought.  We are seeing realities we didn’t understand before, such as: Did you know more than half of the people deemed “essential” are women of color?

How will you be different? How do you think this will affect you?

Will you ever take a hug for granted again? Have you changed some habits and you aren’t going back? Will you eat in more or are you so sick of your own cooking you will eat out more? Will you go outside more because you are getting used to it now? 

How will you be different?