My brother: the biopsy of his lymph node shows no cancer, and his bile duct cells are abnormal but not cancerous. So … technically he’s fine. He hasn’t been told what might have caused the weight loss, or the constricted bile duct, but since his blood work is fine again I think everyone’s going to drop it until the Covid is gone.
My husband: Gary also has an undiagnosed something now. He sneezes a lot, is fatigued, coughs half as much as he sneezes, and his lungs do feel stiff. For two non-consecutive days had a fever of 99.1. He definitely has something. His toes feel stiff but are not blue like “Covid toes.” His eyes feel bleary but are not pink (pink eye is the new Covid toe).
In both cases, anything I say other than wailing “please don’t die” will be seen as heartless and dismissive. I want to go on record saying I don’t want anyone to die. I really don’t.
I do want one place to quietly whisper, “You might have bile stones, and you, Gary, you might have a really bad cold.” It could be. But I can’t say that, just in case.
11 responses to “Male Illness”
HOORAY for your brother not having cancer! But the medical professionals (rather than just WebMD) did suggest cancer, so there is that.
(and yes. there are many things one can have that are not COVID. How exactly he acquired any virus while in isolation is a mystery, unless the raccoons brought him something as a present or something. I do not know if your area is doing drive-through testing, but if so, that might not be a bad way to go, if but so that the Marital Argument Possibilities Now And Future are reduced?)(I mean, given other reports of his… non-enthusiasm… about the possibility of germs, I don’t think you’d have to argue with Gary that he needs to wear a mask and stop licking all the elevator buttons – since even if he *did* have COVID, it is possible to still get other things – but there are many “it was!” “we don’t know it was!” options even so.)(I know a couple who got sick – the husband had pneumonia, and when the wife had a COVID-y sounding cough after a while, even though she was not feeling like death warmed over [or, possibly, partly *because* she was not feeling like death warmed over], she hauled them both to the drive-in testing and, yep, COVID for both of them. Her fever didn’t get over the mid-90s. I feel very grateful that neither of them died!)
KC – I am more inclined to think covid after this morning when it was reported that 25% of people tested for antibodies in NY had the antibodies. He certainly could have it. I don’t have it though, and if he had it I would think I would get it immediately. Of course, he does have if nothing else a nasty cold, and I haven’t caught that.
The is a campaign among his Facebook friends to get him tested. He is not inclined to get a swab up against his brain. I think he’s waiting for the blood tests to become available.
Oooh. Seems like a test would be a really good idea for Gary. I guess he will get one when he feels worried or sick enough. Here in Nebraska (also in Iowa and Utah) they now have a website (TestNebraska.com). Our governor is basically urging everyone to go on and answer the site’s questions. I guess someone contacts you if they think you should be tested. Any chance Missouri has something similar?
I’m glad your brother isn’t cancerous and I hope your husband just has a cold.
Arlene
Maybe your immunosuppressive-medication-I-can’t-remember is doing its COVID-is-less-bad job! Or maybe you just haven’t caught whichever yet.
But yes, I suppose, swab against the brain is no fun. But GET IT ANYWAY, BUDDY.
Arlene – we have an online survey the doctor’s office has. At the point when it asks you to send a video of yourself, Gary bails. KC – and now today the news is that half the people who have it don’t have a fever. He still won’t get a test. Evidently in Germany everyone gets a test and cannot return to work without passing. The idea that we atrisk and elderly people should be put in camps is probably going to gain traction.
AUUUUGH. I have no idea how people think that could possibly work. I mean, nursing homes alone: how many workers and delivery people go in and out of them *all the time*? Unless 1. it turns out that it is something you *definitely* cannot catch again [unless your immune system is really weird][last time I checked, the WHO was not confident on this?] *and* 2. all health/nursing-home/delivery/etc. employees and volunteers and people who want to visit people deliberately get it *and* 3. they’re super-careful about surfaces as well, then the elderly/at-risk can’t all be cordoned off safely. There are just too many open pores.
And that’s not even counting all the households where some members of the household are at risk and others are not and will end up being required to work or otherwise expose themselves to the virus. and ignoring ER visits and other medical services. and… sigh.
I wish people would think through ramifications of Plans That Would Be Convenient To Them – you know?
KC – well, everyone’s working it out. I just keep hoping there’ll be some Andromeda Stain type of breakthrough. My brother called all excited that supposedly the Sabin-sugar cube polio vaccine might give some immunity, but I have noticed the time took down its article on that topic.
That would be really, really cool! (and honestly, it is really, really cool seeing the clinical trials network on the WHO; but, uh, we’ve had a lot of quack treatments/cures/preventions proposed at this point. For a while there, the WHO daily situation reports had a different “there is no clinical evidence that X has a positive effect against COVID-19” statement on the front page of them. Every day.)(really, the “mythbusters” section of the WHO website is… kind of horrifying; it keeps changing, but the one thing that does not change is the “no, no that would not work” of them all… https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public/myth-busters)
KC – whoops – your link isn’t working. I think you mean https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public/myth-busters
Yes. I all too often forget to leave a space between the end of a link and the (inevitable when I am writing) parenthesis.
Maybe I should try to train myself out of excessive parenthesis use during self-isolation? But the small pleasures in life… and it’s not a *harmful* addiction… and… hm.
KC – I should have realized that was the issue. I did like that page. That page may need to to be distributed on my Facebook.