Yes, really. My stepmother in NY was stable until a couple of hours ago, but is now in the ICU and sedated on a ventilator. She is at an excellent hospital and in good hands, but well, things are not looking fabulous.
My 79-year-old asthmatic father is still not able to get a test because he is asymptomatic (hallelujah for that last bit, anyway). Luckily he has the sense to self-quarantine. I am several hundred miles away, and he says he doesn’t need anything, which is good because I feel like there’s not a damn thing I can do.
AAAARGH. Can’t think even where to look for data. Thoughts?
He doesn’t need convincing; he is neurotic about his health even under normal circumstances.
Is there anything else he can do to protect himself? I already told him to suit up and strip the linens, towels, laundry, etc. and put them in a spare room and not touch them for 2 weeks, then jump in the shower and scrub down.
I’d recommend a wash with detergent and high heat drying cycle if he has a washer dryer in his house or flat; he’s going to be handling them anyway and then at least there won’t be a pile of linens reminding him.
Beyond that…stay inside, no close contact with delivery people, wash hands after handling packages or food containers, et cetera. All the stuff you’ve been hearing in the past week or so. Short of magically transporting to the middle of the Yukon Territory, there is not much more that can be done to prevent infection.
There may not be a lot of data available out there but the fatality rates for those who required mechanical ventilation, the data that came out from Wuhan, China is pretty bad, to be honest with you. It’s from Wuhan, not Italy, Spain, South Korea, or the United States.
It’s entirely possible he’s been exposed already. I would have him contact his PCP immediately and go over a game plan for what to do when A, B, and C happen. And then follow up and find out what that plan of action is.
This disease can move very, very fast. You can go from being relatively okay to fighting for your life with little warning.
Unfortunately he lives in a typical gigantic co-op building that has laundry in the basement. He says he is not worried about laundry for a long while - it’s not like he is going anywhere, and he has plenty of clean T-shirts.
Fortunately there is a doorman who can leave deliveries outside his door for him.
My girlfriend is a nanny for two doctors. The anecdotal information out of one hospital here along with what other information they are getting is not good either.
Good point about having a game plan, although I suspect he has already done that - he did say that if he ended up with symptoms, he would be in the same hospital where his wife is.
I just asked him to send the number for the front desk in his building so we can have someone check on him if we can’t reach him.
He just texted me back that he has someone checking in on him daily. I don’t know that daily is often enough given the other facts here, but Dad is a neurotic and logical guy, and I am sure he will act on it the minute he suspects he might have symptoms.
(And despite the asthma, he is a pretty healthy guy for his age - doesn’t smoke, eats healthy food, goes to the gym regularly, etc. His parents lived to almost 92 and almost 98. I come from a long line of very stubborn people!)
My stepmother is another story - she has lupus, her mom died young of cancer, her dad died not long into retirement of a sudden heart attack. Things for her are really not looking fabulous.
I don’t want to presume to know how your stepmother will respond to treatment, but having a serious autoimmune disease like lupus is really not a good indicator. Start preparing yourself and your father now for the potentiality that she isn’t going to pull through, and realize that in this kind of situation you likely will not have the luxury of being able to view the body or hold a funeral.
Not that I am aware of. Dad is the one with the respiratory issues. I am crossing all available body parts that he hasn’t been infected, because he gets pneumonia and bronchitis at the drop of a hat under normal circumstances.
Thanks. I think all concerned are aware of all these things already. Dad doesn’t really emote much, but from my Facetime chat with him earlier, he knows what the odds are.