On Saturday, cousin was off oxygen, starting to walk around, ate a little bit. Last night he was intubated and on a ventilator due to cytokine storm syndrome. His doctors got him into a trial to try and reverse it. They’re trying to remain positive.
My nieces, their families and my ex-SIL all live in a large old house together (they pooled their money to buy it as they couldn’t scrape a deposit together for their own homes). Ten people in all - five kids, five adults. They’ve all got Covid except 3 of the kids. So far.
They seem ok though - flu-like symptoms but no sign of anyone needing hospital treatment. I hope!
My SIL is a teacher and my niece is a manager of a children’t nursery, so we’re guessing one of them started it.
Both doing better, last I heard. Hope the improvement continues.
And hope for improvement and recovery for everyone else’s relatives and friends, also.
My 16-year old niece in Houston tested positive a few days before Thanksgiving. She went back to school last month, so that’s probably where she got it. No real symptoms so far. She’s been confined to her room since being diagnosed. The rest of the family have been masked since then, even at home. Everyone else in the family (including her parents and two other younger siblings) had Thanksgiving dinner at home in separate spaces, such as their rooms and the back yard.
Despite this, my sister came down with symptoms Friday night. She’s now positive as well. She’s lost her sense of taste and smell, feels very fatigued, and is congested.
Well the aunt is now on 60% oxygen - I don’t know how signficant that is, I have seen posts quoting rather higher numbers.
Hospital have said that they are not yet certain if this is partly due to COPD or some other chest infection or Covid - but they think that since this is day 10 since admittance the worst might be over.
This past Sunday night he was put on ECMO. He partially woke up yesterday, complained about the tubes, so they put him back under. So far his brain function remains good and ECMO is doing it’s job. Family was told if he pulls through, he may be lucky to be home mid-January.
What’s so scary is how up and down it has been - it’s not a gentle wave of improvement / back steps, it’s sharp edged ups and downs.
Brother-in-law and younger niece both tested positive last week. BIL and sister were posting pictures of themselves at a bar with a bunch of other people with no masks in sight. BIL had mild case, niece was pretty sick for a few days but is on the mend now. Sister and older niece never had symptoms at all. My 70-something mother lives with them and she probably had a mild case too but never got tested. BIL now posting on Facebook about how he’s not going to be a sheep in a mask because “it’s not that bad”. I’m so pissed at him right now.
Four-plus weeks ago, I still did not, personally, know anyone who had tested positive for COVID; I had one friend who thought he had it back in April, but it turned out to be a blood clot in his lung (and repeated COVID tests were negative).
But, I now know 9 people who’ve tested positive since the end of October, which I guess is indicative of how case numbers have spiked in that time:
- Husband-and-wife friends of ours, who live a block away from us. He was quite sick (fever and nausea) for a week, but has recovered; she had brief, mild symptoms
- A colleague and his wife. My colleague mostly suffered from fatigue, but his wife was hospitalized for six days. Both of them are recovering.
- Another colleague, who had a very mild case (head congestion, loss of taste), and appears to have fully recovered.
- My cousin, his wife, and their adult daughter (who is currently living with them). All of them are fervent Trump supporters, and anti-maskers, so I wasn’t at all surprised when I learned that they had come down with it. I have not heard any updates on their conditions.
- A friend I know from an MMORPG that I play. She’s been very sick for over a week, and was diagnosed with pneumonia on Saturday. She’s still at home, though now with some supplemental oxygen, and she’s feeling a little better.
As I mentioned in the Pod thread, my brother and his wife are the only people I socialize with. Other than that, it’s just the two kittens and the fish.
Lil bro, SIL, and I had brunch on Thanksgiving morning. We were going to do dinner originally, but her mom threw a fit, so they had dinner with her and the three sisters. Probably the mother’s boyfriend too, but not a big crowd.
One of the sisters and one of my brother’s coworkers were diagnosed on Saturday. And both my brother and his wife were diagnosed yesterday.
Sigh
So, not only am I worried about them, I’m worried that they didn’t get it after I saw them. But fortunately, I was already concerned about how much cases have shot up this month even before Thanksgiving so the only times I’ve been out of the house since visiting them were to drop off the trash and didn’t come within 15’ of anyone, and to get groceries as curbside pick up, so at least even if I’m pre-symptomatic I haven’t been infecting anyone.
This sucks. The only two people I’ve been around without a mask on since freaking March got it. It feels literally unavoidable and we’re still days away from is likely to be a surge that dwarfs the current one
My wife’s great uncle in-law (did I just make up a new relationship name?) and his wife came down with it.
She is back out of the hospital, but he passed away. Sad.
She has gone - around 1:00 am. They were not able to use a ventilator due to other lung issues - I doubt it would have helped anyway.
She seemed to be recovering but suddenly took a turn for the worse, all downhill from there, at least there was family there so she didn’t die alone.
I’m so sorry.
I’m so sorry for your loss.
We are sorry you and your family are being put through this.
This seems to be a very common pattern: the patient rallies a bit then COVID rallies back. Sometimes the seesaw only lasts once, sometimes 2 or 3 times. A particularly cruel emotional rollercoaster for all concerned even if the patient eventually recovers. And far more so if not.
Peace, Brother @casdave!
So sorry. My MIL’s residence has staff who are positive and the place is on lockdown.
Our old and good friend Phyllis and her son went into the hospital yesterday with Covid-19.
This evening, at 6 pm, Phyllis died.
I’m very sorry for your loss. Best wishes to your dad.
I’m sorry.
Oh wow, I’m so sorry for your loss. And sorry that somehow i was weeks behind this thread and didn’t realize i hadn’t read it to the end.
That’s awful, my condolences.
Really sorry about your loss.