Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm failing to find a list of recommended OTC drugs for covid19. All I'm finding is a generic statement that OTC drugs may help with symptom management. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/if-you-are-sick/ca... Ventolin is an inhaler. It opens up the airways during asthma attacks or similar. Pseudoephedrine is a decongestant. The article under discussion indicates the author was given an inhaler and cough medic…
> Amphetamine salts are apparently used to treat ADHD. Some people use them illegally to concentrate for mid terms and finals at college or similar. I'm not personally aware of any valid reason to think they are appropriate for covid19. There is a study that shows in vitro, it helps fight the flu: https://covid19data.com/2020/03/06/meth-may-fight-flu-virus-... There are also many reports from meth users that they alm…
Fear and beauty: two weeks living with Covid-19
161–170 of 232 posts
Re: Fear and beauty: two weeks living with Covid-19
#162When I was in high school I was deeply afraid of death and thought about it daily. Then a few times over that period I got sick. Not unusually, or deathly sick, but feeling like utter garbage and perhaps enough to wonder if there was a very remote chance that the illness could threaten my life. And everytime I wondered that I realized that I had no fear of death which struck me as really odd given that I would otherw…
When I was younger, I was like you describe. I'd lay awake nights kinda freaked out that I would die some day. I remember looking up life expectancy and comforting myself that I had more than 75% or whatever left. When that wasn't enough, I'd think about how far away I was from graduation, and how, even after that, I'd have whatever-percent left. I knew it didn't work that way, and it was irrational, but it helped me…
I started getting what I now think are probably anxiety attacks a few years ago. I have asthma and now some GERD symptoms, so every once in awhile, I get symptoms that mirror the online warning symptoms for heart attack: numb left arm, tingles throughout my body, lightheadedness, skipped heart beats, chest tightness, chest is painful to the touch, etc.
I'd go to urgent care and they'd always be like "well you have a normal EKG but you should go to the hospital to be sure" and then the emergency room will talk to me, take my blood, monitor me for a few hours and take my blood again (sometimes it takes awhile for the markers of a heart attack to show up), and then tell me it was probably just heartburn.
I've gone five times in the last 2 years for this same song and dance (I skip urgent care now). I have had these feelings happen about 20 times besides that, so I'm not even going every single time, there's just some especially scary ones that make me go "It's probably nothing, but just in case!" Last time I was driving and could barely focus on the road, which was new. I was pretty close to an ER and even then I pulled off the side of the road and tried to calm down for 20 minutes before finally deciding to go in.
I'm only in my 30s, but I have seeing more and more stories of people dying from heart attacks that young (I know it's still rare, but it can happen), so that doesn't help. And if for some reason it ever does become a heart attack, I probably won't tell the difference and might not go in for it, and end up dead.
So yeah, anxiety over heart attacks can be no joke. I have real symptoms that manifest over it. Sorry you're going through this. I don't know if it'll ever go away for me, myself. Worried it might just be something I have to live with from now on.
But I'm fine normally except for the rare attacks. Even this pandemic isn't really bothering me too much, although I'm doing my best to avoid getting it, especially since I have other issues that could lead to a bad outcome (like the already mentioned asthma).
Re: Fear and beauty: two weeks living with Covid-19
#163But for those of us with Covid-19, the full force of modern social technologies that enable cooperation, communication and specialization among billions of humans around the world has been applied and come up snake eyes. For the record, I don't think this is an accurate representation of the situation. The world has done a remarkable job of coming up with ventilators, masks and new practices on the fly in the face of…
Not to mention the delivery and curbside pickup programs that are only possible with tech logistic systems. E-commerce and work from home are all small miracles of this age. Video chat is another wonder of technology when in recent memory a long-distance phone call could easily cost more than a nice dinner, and much more if international.
Re: Fear and beauty: two weeks living with Covid-19
#164I think there's an interesting conversation to be had about the psychological nature of this pandemic. The author of the article is 39 years old, I'm quite surprised by the severity of the experience that he reports. There was a similar article in the NYT recently by a woman whose husband contracted COVID, had a relatively 'normal' pneumonia, but the article read like a war report out of an Ebola zone, allusions to C…
I know, it's amazing to me the number of people that are blowing the risk way out of proportion. I think there is a degree of "survivorship bias" in the news. People who get covid-19 and have a mild case dont get reported because it's bland and everyday.
Re: Fear and beauty: two weeks living with Covid-19
#165Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you are elderly than you should definitely fear death. But yes if you are under 50 it's more likely you will be killed driving to the hospital than by the virus.
> if you are under 50 it's more likely you will be killed driving to the hospital than by the virus. Apologies if this was intended to be hyperbole, but it is not true according to our current knowledge. Estimated fatality rate for adults 20-30 is 0.03%, 30-40 is 0.08%, and 40-50 and 0.16% [1] The probability of dying from one single vehicle ride to the hospital is several orders of magnitude less than 0.1% or even 0…
Fair enough, it was just an offhand comment I should have run the numbers. It looks like if you are under 50 and have COVID, you are ~3x more likely to die of COVID then to die of a car crash in that same year. So that's probably the better comparison when looking at risk, although it probably says more about how we underestimate the risk of car crashes rather than overestimating the risk of COVID.
Rough average COVID deaths per 100k infected under 50 (using average death rate from categories 0-50): 36
Deaths per 100k by car crashes in a year in the US: 11.2
Re: Fear and beauty: two weeks living with Covid-19
#166> So I had a higher chance of dying from this disease than winning a raffle at a small concert. I know this is not the main topic of this article, but I’ll steal this sentence to convey the importance of taking precautions against COVID-19 to people who feel that it’s statistically irrelevant.
Hehe. Just before this started I was named a finalist in a board game design contest where there was enough entries that my chances of being selected as a finalist were just a little bit higher than the likely death rate of me getting Covid-19, with my higher risk factors.
I'm using that as a bit of a self-reminder. If I can win that, then I can "win" (i.e. die) from Covid-19.
Re: Fear and beauty: two weeks living with Covid-19
#167At this rate I'm fast approaching the point where I would rather have an infection positively confirmed and roll the dice that is heavily loaded in my favor. Not knowing if you properly decontaminated that last batch of groceries is nerve wracking.
that's an interesting take. The words be careful what you wish for come to mind when your reading your comment.
Re: Fear and beauty: two weeks living with Covid-19
#168Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm in my 40s and haven't had to deal with any really crazy situations like this. It isn't just that there's a possibility that 1 person I love could die from this, there's a possibly that any of them could. And the older they are, the more likely that they could die from it. On top of that, I can't spend time with them in the way that I would if I knew they were at risk. I have to stay away from them instead. It's t…
Anyone could die in a car crash, but that doesn't really get people worried. There's a million ways to die at any moment, but people just don't worry about it.
We have accepted the other tigers. We are still painting this one.
Re: Fear and beauty: two weeks living with Covid-19
#169I think there's an interesting conversation to be had about the psychological nature of this pandemic. The author of the article is 39 years old, I'm quite surprised by the severity of the experience that he reports. There was a similar article in the NYT recently by a woman whose husband contracted COVID, had a relatively 'normal' pneumonia, but the article read like a war report out of an Ebola zone, allusions to C…
It helps to take a historical perspective. Throughout most of human history, occasional wars, epidemics, and famines were just a normal part of life. In the US many people assumed those crises could no longer impact us, but of course our luck couldn't last forever. Reversion to the mean.
Re: Fear and beauty: two weeks living with Covid-19
#170Earlier quoted context omitted.
What exactly is this dull chest pain? I've had symptoms of lower chest and back-pain more than a month ago, with a strange feeling of not being able to get sufficient air through my nose as well as seemingly high blood-pressure and heart racing in late afternoons. This all lasted just short of a week, but took a couple of weeks in total until I could say it was gone, with a persistent minor dry cough. No idea if it w…
I experienced the same. I even did gym at home with good performance but i felt weird sensation on my chest. I don't want to think i had covid, but so many people had it that I am surprised i don't.
This is availability bias. Because you hear it in the news so much, whenever you have some weird pain in the body, the bias make you think "covid-19".
I'm not saying you don't have it, but I'm saying your mind is making it seem much more likely than it actually is.