Mostly Apolitical Thread for Discussing/Venting our Rational/Irrational COVID-19 Fears and Experiences in 2020

The loss is unnecessary, not the anger, that is very appropriate right now.

Also Dan, I am sorry for your situation as well.

So sorry Jaq.

Thanks Ed and table. It's horrendous this administration and so many citizens of this forsaken country are fine with letting hundreds of thousands of people die and countless others suffer long-term disabilities.

Oh, Jaq, sorry.

Not just one, but three people you care about? Damn, Jaq! The tripled sadness is more than enough to cope with. Adding anger over the injustice of the situation makes it that much harder. Take care of yourself. We don't want to lose you, too.

Miserable indeed, and condolences to you, Jaq. The stories creep closer around me in general all the time -- friends of friends like Jaq's -- and it's the not knowing where it will stop that's the horrid part.

so sorry to hear that. that is horrible. :(

one of my good friends, who has terminal Stage 4 colon cancer, just found out his mother in assisted living was diagnosed with COVID-19 yesterday. the patients are all quarantined so it's staffers who are bringing it into the community. he's...notably worried and upset.

I am afraid of just how many people will lose someone due to COVID...nobody deserves to go what you're going through, Jaq

Also thinking of yr friend, Neanderthal! Stage IV colon cancer is no joke, I should know!

Thanks all. Neanderthal, exactly that - the grandmother of one of my team died in April and I feared it would be the first of so many such losses. And it has been :( How will any person be untouched by this, with so many deaths to date and so many more on the fall horizon?

Strength to your friend through all this rough time.

Sympathies to you both, Dan and Jaq.

My own situation just got more real as well. On Tuesday evening my mother (in an assisted-living facility) was complaining of shortness of breath and pain (pressure, not stabbing) high on her back. She went by ambulance to the Amory ER and was admitted. I spent time with her at the ER and the next day in her hospital room, masked the whole time. The hospital didn't do a COVID test, got her breathing a little better, and the whole time my mom just begged to go back to her room and her recliner, so they discharged her Thursday a.m. No improvement, so this morning my brother and sister arranged for her to be taken to the Tupelo ER, where she got a COVID test which came back positive about an hour ago.

Not sure where she'll be admitted -- the Tupelo COVID unit is full. She might wind up back here in Amory, but my sister wants her transferred down where she lives, 2 hours south.

so sorry wmc

Fucking hell, I’m so sorry to hear that. I hope they find a place for her and her condition improves soon.

That's fucking awful, WmC. Wishing you all the best.

Yikes WmC. I'm so sorry.

Jaq you too.

And Dan somehow I missed that before. I can't even imagine how you must be feeling.

best wishes y'all

Oh shit, Wm - best to you and your siblings in the coming days.

God WmC. So sorry for everyone's situations here. Best wishes all.

Best wishes to yr mom and all of your kin, WmC!

Dang this is all horrible

Fucking hell. Sorry about all the horrible news.

Let me pile some more on: our nanny who has been staying with us 9-5 m-f just tested positive. Asymptomatic, the only reason she got tested is because her boyfriend had to get tested for a job. We scrambled and the wife, two kids, and I all got tested a few hours ago. Results back in 3-5 days. Wife has been depressed and overwhelmed for a while now, this is officially Too Fucking Much.

My stupid place of work reopened a while back and I had to write HR a list of everyone I’ve been in contact with while on the job. It was a long list.

There’s no conceivable way 2021 can be worse than this is what I keep telling myself.

It's hard to think of any reason why it would get better. Brexit is going to crash in harder than anyone modelling options even conceived of, Lukashenko looks unlikely to stand down, fire season starts in Australia in a month and the entirety of the QAnon-believing PM's plan to beat COVID is to increase fossil fuel mining and consumption. Maybe Bolsonaro will die, but I dunno anything about who or what would replace him.

WmC - thinking of all y'all, hoping for the very best.

Dan, feeling awful for you and your kids, sucks so so much.

And my god Cow_Art :( Very last straw, I can't imagine.

Take care, hold fast, everyone

i don't know the words to say other than......I'm sorry. whatever positive vibes I can send are on their way.

this is a Hell gone nuclear

Thanks, all -- Tupelo sent her to Corinth, which had an ICU bed available but is in the exact opposite direction from my sister's home, so they're 3 hours apart instead of 2 hrs. I got a call from her nurse, she's doing a little better and her oxygen level is improved. If she continues to improve they'll move her from ICU to a regular room (still extremely isolated I assume) in a couple of days. On a BIPAP machine similar to the CPAP she's been using for years, not a ventilator.

First thing tomorrow morning, we'll start finding out where, how, and how fast we can get tested.

Dan, Jaq, WmC, my heart goes out to all of you.

Seconded

Thirded

same. hang in there, everyone

yes. we have many more months for this to run its course before we regain some measure of relative safety. hang in there is right!

🏄‍♂️

much love to all of you

Likewise.

Much love everyone, this is horrible

Mom wants someone to bring her her teeth and a toothbrush, so she must be feeling some better. Thanks everyone for your good vibes, I heart you all.

All 3 of us have primary care docs at the same office, so I was able to talk them into testing us this morning even though we're asymptomatic. Rapid-results test, all negative. The sinus swab (both sides) is not so horribly unpleasant as it's made out to be.

so glad to hear good news from tests

These stories are horrifying and heartbreaking. I've had multiple friends the last couple of months lose family members - a grandmother, a father, a mother, a *son* - and it's just been a strange turn of events that *none* of them were covid related. On a positive, more hopeful note, I donated my bone marrow back in early October to a young girl who was probably going to die without it, and last week I learned that she was alive and well and into and enjoying all the things she should be enjoying at her age, which was just the jolt I needed.

In other neither positive nor negative news, virtual school is starting this week, and my high schooler is getting introductory emails from her teacher. My favorite might be from the the (for gym credit) World Dance instructor (whose initials are actual Ms. DJ):

"Yay! We see your face BUT… What’s behind you? What’s on the side of you? Is there talking in the background? Is that person in the background saying things that you would like for us to hear?
We will be dancing together. Do you have a small clear space to move? Are things in that space things you would be okay with us seeing?
We’re going to have a great time in class AND I’m not just saying that because I happen to teach it (*smile*). Let’s connect and build an atmosphere of community… ALL through DANCE.
I look forward to seeing you all in a few days. Dance, dance, DANCE!"

Gonna be some gym-class silliness going on in the house.

Related, and both sad and hilarious, my friend at the end of last year got a frustrated (group) email from his son's gym teacher, who complained that so few students had logged on to his class (which tbf was a virtual swim class; swimming is/was required at our high school) that he was taking the day off and starting fresh the next day. My own daughter has "adventure ed" later this year, which is rock climbing, kayaking, that sort of thing. No idea what that will entail. She also has an astronomy elective this year, since a couple of her lab-intensive science classes more or less got cancelled, but the way I read the email I don't think they even get outside to look at the stars.

So much sympathy for what folks are going through.

But I just have to say that "virtual swim class" has to be in the hall of fame for most pointless 2020 activities.

True story: I just got off a Teams call where I literally discussed with my son's occupational therapist whether 30 minutes a week was too much time to spend on "cutting a straight line with scissors."

I think we agreed that 15 minutes a week on virtual scissor lessons was probably adequate.

criminy

Here's a real-world math story problem for you: if my son's occupational therapist is spending 15 online minutes a week on using scissors, and my son is supposed to spend an additional 15 minutes a week on using scissors, how many minutes am I going to be spending on practicing using scissors?

Spoiler: Thirty. The answer is that I'm going to be spending 30 minutes a week on practicing using scissors.

tbf like math, you can never get enough practice with scissors. you can only get better!

http://www.alicia-logic.com/capsimages01/esc_056JohnnyDepp.jpg

My son in twenty years

and the guy on the left?

When my mom realized she'd never recover from this, she asked to be taken off the BIPAP machine as soon as possible. My brother, sister and I all got to the hospital as quick as we could and were able to be there with her. Mom was able to make a small joke about wishing her ice water was a bloody mary and I probably laughed louder than was appropriate. She passed very quickly yesterday afternoon, within 10-15 minutes of coming off breathing assistance. She'd been miserable for 2 years with a long list of health problems, so this was a relief...but it still didn't have to be fucking COVID.

Oh no WmC. I am so sorry. Fuck.

so sorry to hear this, all love WmC. Fuck covid.