A good interview with Dr. a Michael Saag, (Tulane graduate BTW Don)who caught COVID and what it was like. His best summation was “horror”.
What’s COVID like for a patient…this one is an infectious disease specialist
Published
Tidewater News and Opinion Forum
A place for civil discussion of the events of the day for Tidewater residents without the limitations imposed by media forums.
Interesting account, but note that it is a month old.
The treatment he received then is not what you would get now.
Little by little, doctors are refining their treatment regimens.
Hydroxychloroquine does not seem to be effective late in the disease, though it may help avoid the cytokine storm if given early, and pairing it with doxycycline instead of the Z-pack avoids the risk of arrhythmia. Other anti virals also are more effective early on.
In the later stages, the virus is already in decline but the problem is the cytokine storm from the immune system. At that stage, Interlukin 6 inhibitors seem effective.
Non-ventilator respiratory support, such as nitric oxide in oxygen and positional changes are keeping more people off ventilators.
That’s why it’s important not to quit on separation too soon. Every day we buy with precautions lets the doctors hone their approach short of a full cure.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I don’t think he was treated except as a patient riding it out at home. Of as a doctor, he was probably better off at home so long as his breathing was not clean compromised.
I agree on the continued separation policies. That fact is simple: absent a reliable, effective treatment and/or a vaccine, all we have is social distancing. Our testing is not near enough. Per capita rates are low. We are #42 at around 11,000/million, about 1%.
A troublesome part to me is that the tests vary in reliability from company to company. Data is whatever the lab says it is. That may be what we have to live with, I suppose. A second issue is that unlike many viral infections, contagiousness starts about 5-10 days before symptoms. If testing is relegated to the symptomatic because of lack of supplies or manpower, that has obvious problems.
LikeLiked by 2 people
He received HCQ and Z-pack, though he later regretted the risk inherent in that combination.
But that is the value of time. We learn a little every day.
The danger is that if you do nothing while waiting on double blind studies to be finished and peer reviewed, thousands who could have been saved will die needlessly
LikeLiked by 1 person
For whatever anecdotes may be worth, my second daughter (age 32) has been self-isolating in a Manhattan apartment. She thinks she has had the virus in spite of her precautions – maybe riding the elevator or joggers going up and down the stairs.
Anyway, she woke up in the middle of the night with trouble breathing and for about three days felt rotten and was very conscious of her lungs’ motions. Not much fever and no diarrhea or vomiting. She has a pulse oximeter and kept track of her blood oxygen. It stayed normal. She did not seek medical help and would have been wasting her time anyway. Unless blood oxygen is below 93%, they turn you away.
She is now fully better and has been for several days. Whether she has had it or not depends on testing. At the moment there are only about 100,000 tests available for the entire city of New York so until anti-body tests become widely available and affordable she will not know for sure that she had a case.
Anyhow, she did well, but she is young, female, non-smoker, no other illnesses and fit. The point of the story is that MAYBE there are many other people with similar experiences that are not yet part of the data needed to fully evaluate the situation. Widespread random testing is essential to gather that data.
LikeLiked by 2 people
“Anybody that wants a test can get one…”
I guess not in NY.
Or truth be known, anywhere else.
I am happy for both of you. And maybe she has the immunity now.
Is she the dancer?
LikeLiked by 2 people
@Len
No, my dancer daughter is the older of the two. She and her husband and new baby are hunkering down in a cabin in rural Pennsylvania.
Immunity would be great but no way of knowing yet.
LikeLiked by 2 people
It does sound likely, I am happy to hear she is doing well.
You now have a potential plasma donor in the family.
LikeLiked by 2 people