Well, the day began with Gary stomping around, demanding that he could drive himself to urgent care center where he was supposed to get the chest X-ray to rule out Covid pneumonia. The stomping wore him out so much that he said I’d have to drive him: he was too weak. We expected to get the chest x-ray at the urgent care, and then be sent to the hospital if needed for a swab test.
The access to the Urgent Care was complex. We had to drive to the back service door, park, call a phone number, a nurse came out, asked some questions, and then led Gary into the building.
Half an hour later I got a text from Gary I did not expect.
Surprise! In addition to administering the chest x-ray we expected, the nurse offered a nasal swab. Gary said she actually discouraged it … she said if he’d been sick for three weeks there probably wouldn’t be any virus left in his nose. He said “No, my wife has a compromised immune system and I need to know everything.”
When he came out, I asked if the nasal swab was as bad as they say. According to Gary, yes, it’s bad. His right eye was still watering. I was going to kid him about having a long thing violate him in a sensitive, internal place and how he might get a bladder infection. I didn’t, though, since it seems swabs are his new love language.
He actually got three tests: the chest x-ray, the nasal swab, and the antibody test. So far the chest x-ray did not show any covid pneumonia: the doctor called with those results a few hours later. Gary’s pulse oxygen was at 93%, which was a little lower than expected. (The home pulse oximeter has said 95-97%.) I don’t know when the swab and antibody tests are expected. Probably sometime Tuesday or Wednesday.
15 responses to “Gary’s Visit”
Hooray for no COVID pneumonia! and double-hooray for him advocating for the test due to your immunocompromised state!!! That is Good Husband Behavior right there. 🙂
I hope he’s on the mend soon (and hope you stay well, whatever it is that he has! even if his Plague is not COVID, you don’t need it…).
KC – he is still asleep at 2:43 pm, and the one minute he was up he was cranky. So I dm;t think he is well yet.
No, doesn’t sound like he’s well yet, but not too sick if they sent hime home. It would be nice if he’s got the antibodies after a relatively mild case.
Be nice if we knew when all things Covid would end. Or if it will.
Arlene – well now, come to find out he was mistaken and the blood draw was not for antibodies but for a liver test. So the antibodies remain a mystery.
Oh, phooey. Sorry he isn’t getting an antibody test. (not that we know, yet, what the antibodies are good for at what levels and for how long, but it’d be nice to know… I did find the “277 person study” and actually, what it was: they had found 277 people who they *thought* had COVID again, but it turns out that those 277 people actually just had virus remnants in their system and their COVID tests weren’t discriminating against “no, it’s dead, but it’s still floating around in pieces” COVID vs. “live” COVID. So: not actually useful, except insofar as it negates whatever people had concluded from the existence of 277 theoretical twice-infected people.)
KC – well, the antibody test isn’t all that effective anyway. And I guess they have to start with 277 people studies before they invest in 10,000 people studies.
It wasn’t actually a 277-person study – it’s just that the government had thought that these specific 277 people were infected twice, since they tested positive again, but then discovered that the test they had been administering wasn’t adequately specific and still turned in a positive result if there were still dead bits of the virus floating around, even if the virus was kaput in your system.
But yes! We need small studies before big ones. There just hasn’t been one yet, as far as I know… (although this *does* mean that South Korea, which has probably been doing the best job at testing All The Cases, does not have any twice-infected people, which would be more suggestive if they hadn’t also put in place an actually reasonably-effective lockdown such that people are basically not getting infected, period, let alone reinfected.)
KC – turns out the blood test was a complete blood panel. It showed he has some anemia which could explain some of the fatigue. Or it might have been the flu causing the fatigue.
That’s interesting! As I understand it, regular ol’ iron-deficiency anemia in non-vegetarian males who don’t donate blood is pretty substantially rare (as is anemia in vegetarian males who pay any attention at all to nutrition). So… that might be worth investigating a bit further at some point, to check if it is iron-deficiency anemia or not, etc.
But yes, flu causes fatigue (or it could have been flu-fatigue plus a layer of anemia-fatigue making it Ultra Fatigue?), and hooray for him not being infectious with COVID at present! (but sigh for the departed antibody test, that would have settled the Was It Or Wasn’t It household question)(or has he quit that since the swab came back negative?)
KC – oh, he knows he has b-12 deficiency. He gives himself shots, but it looks like he may need to increase the dose. I don’t know. You know, I wonder if he would consent to a telemedicine visit. Perhaps I could spring one on him. “Hon, the doctor’s on the phone. He wants to ask you a question.”
They expected the swab to be negative because he had been ill so long. It’s all immaterial – he shouldn’t not have been around me with whatever he had, or his parents, and he needs to be sure any virus, non-novel or not, is gone.
That’s great! An explained source of anemia is fine; it’s the mystery ones that are not ones you want to have…
Did they give him a “this many days with no symptoms or fever and you can assume it’s gone” estimate, or is it just handwavy?
KC – he’s decided everyone says two weeks, so he will be safe and avoid us all for three weeks.
Aww, he’s just like a driveway!
KC – he wouldn’t allow us in the drive way for six weeks. Worse, had a fever last night so the count has restarted.
Oh, man. Sorry he is sick, hope he is All Better soon, hope no delivery trucks park on him at any time.