COVID Quarantine - FML

"ZHP Sparky, the 5th" (e30s2k) 09/30/2020 at 19:04 • Filed to: None

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You guys may remember that I went to see a camper earlier this week, link -

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Well...the guy emailed me last night saying that his uncle whom he had spent a lot of time with this past weekend ( indoors, unmasked, across a table from each other) just got hospitalized with COVID.

The guy himself is working with his doctor to get tested...but looks like tests early on can be pretty unreliable. So since last night I have been self quarantining in our guest room (also conveniently my office...so I’m just working 24/7 at this point). Feeling fine so far.

Not exactly sure what my next move is. Wait to hear back when he gets a test and how it comes back I guess, and go from there. We were both masked, in a large barn with the door open, and were conscious about keeping our distance as much as possible while I looked over the camper.

Super shitty that this is literally the *ONLY* time since the start of the summer that I’ve gone out and interacted at length with anyone outside our bubble .

Have a 2 year old daughter and wife whose health is my highest priority, and I also feel bad that they’re fending for themselves right now with no breaks for my wife. We’ve been socially distancing like crazy because of some medical concerns and the fact that we have zero support system out here, so if one of us were to actually fall ill that would be pretty shitty for all of us.

WWYD, Oppo? Given how variable COVID I’d go crazy trying to stay confined to this room for the next 2 weeks.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > ZHP Sparky, the 5th 09/30/2020 at 19:24

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I’m one of the anti-Trumpers, pro-maskers, paranoid liberal weanie, and based upon how you describe the interaction, I’d guess the odds are in your favor. Sounds like you are taking the right steps also. Good on that guy to do his own contact tracing and let you know.

lone_liberal > ZHP Sparky, the 5th 09/30/2020 at 19:25

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I almost had to go through the same thing but luckily in my case the timing worked out in my favor. I was planning to get tested as waiting for the results means a few days of isolation instead  of two weeks.

Captain of the Enterprise > ZHP Sparky, the 5th 09/30/2020 at 19:32

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I’d talk to your doctor and get tested but would quarantine for now. I did it for 3 weeks in just my bedroom and leaving to go to the bathroom and to the garage to get food I could microwave in my bedroom. I had symptoms but tested negative but this was at the beginning so it took 2 weeks to get tested. 

Svend > ZHP Sparky, the 5th 09/30/2020 at 19:33

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Great that the guy contacted you to be on the safe side though.

It’s a stressful and awful time for you right now but sounds like your safe and did the right thing while you were looking at the trailer , but better to be safer than sorry and your doing the right thing, get in touch with your local testing site and book an appointment.

The Snowman > ZHP Sparky, the 5th 09/30/2020 at 19:33

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I can tell you masks work quite well in open areas. My good friend is a nurse who had a patient transfer to her floor with undiagnosed covid but prexisting lung problems and a anti mask attitude. After a few days in the new department with nurses constantly working in his maskless face they got him tested and he was positive. They then tested all employees who interacted with this guy and only one person from the floor was positive. This is actually lower than you would expect if you just picked the same number of the people off the street here and tested them.

onlytwowheels > ZHP Sparky, the 5th 09/30/2020 at 19:35

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Get tested, even if you don’t have any symptoms. I got tested Friday last week, because I may have had close contact with someone who had close contact with a person that tested positive. My results came back last night, negative, which what I expected, but it’s best to know for sure. I wear a mask wherever I go, and sanitize my hands to the point of excess, but one never really knows without scientific test results.

Spanfeller is a twat > ZHP Sparky, the 5th 09/30/2020 at 19:36

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To be honest, I told all of my contacts when I had covid and none of them caught it, some got tested and also nothing . Not even my family members. Granted, I only had one symptom, headache.

ZHP Sparky, the 5th > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 09/30/2020 at 19:36

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Right, my wife and I both agree that my likelihood of having contracted it are low given the precautions we took, but still certainly disturbing.

I was supposed to go get a hitch installed today and drive over to potentially buy a different trailer from another guy. Given what I learned about potential exposure no way I could go through with that and put others at risk.

We’re thinking once we hear back with the guy’s test results, maybe give it a few days until the end of the week or so, and from there I’ll venture out of my room in a careful way to interact with my family...mask, keep my distance, eat a meal outside, etc. And slowly ease restrictions from there over time assuming all goes OK.

And yes the guy is being very considerate and serious about it. I feel for him - he’s older (probably 60s) and overweight...his uncle who is hospitalized must be truly old. Much higher risk for both those categories than me - and everyone else in that family must be feeling sad and worried for all their health too. 

Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo > ZHP Sparky, the 5th 09/30/2020 at 19:39

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I agree with Rusty. Good news is most of the data we’re seeing is masks work pretty OK as long as both parties are wearing them. Being outside adds an additional layer of protection and physical distance adds more on top of that.

I think you’re taking the right steps for sure though.  Good luck!

ZHP Sparky, the 5th > Svend 09/30/2020 at 19:40

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Yes I appreciated his concern for me. But also goes to show that folks really shouldn’t be interacting as much as they do right now - apparently they had a little family reunion people travelled for (I only learnt this yesterday).

We’re doing OK, I mostly feel guilty letting my wife fend for herself (and deliver food to my door)! I called my doctors office and they said they wouldn’t order a test for me at this point. Only if I hear back from the guy that his test is positive (guess I could lie?) or if I develop symptoms. 

ZHP Sparky, the 5th > Captain of the Enterprise 09/30/2020 at 19:41

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Called doc office first thing this morning, they said wait it out for now at least until I hear if the guy’s test is positive, or if I develop any symptoms.  Not reassuring given how unreliable these tests can be, especially early on.

Svend > ZHP Sparky, the 5th 09/30/2020 at 19:50

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Keep your vitamin D and vitamin B12 levels up (e.g. fish, milk, eggs, cheese, etc...), if any symptoms start, take plenty of paracetamol for the aches and pains.

But hopefully you hear back soon and can get a test yourself, even if it's just for piece of mind. 

ZHP Sparky, the 5th > Spanfeller is a twat 09/30/2020 at 19:50

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That’s reassuring, and sounds like you had a full recovery. Yes it sounds like people who develop more serious symptoms “shed” the virus at higher rates...which makes sense I guess if you’re coughing all over the place and stuff. 

barnie > ZHP Sparky, the 5th 09/30/2020 at 19:51

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Us old farts here in the yard, 3 guys over 60 with compromised immune systems, all go out once a week for a decent lunch and shopping. Sonny’s, Longhorns, Applebees, and some local places for food. Always eat inside. Then we go to Lowe’s, WalMart, Dollar Tree, etc. In the stores, we wear masks. But we know so many folks here that conversations occur. Shopping, heck, guys go buy, not shop... We’ve been doing this since last year. Add Doctor and VA visits, and impulse dinners. None of us have gotten sick. We’re  in the most problematic groups and just nuttin’. Yer a strapping young feller so don’t worry. Live life and wear a mask (if for no other reason than to keep others from complaining). Don’t sweat this stuff.

If you do get sick, yer chances of surviving are great. You won’t survive life so don’t waste it by worrying so much!

ZHP Sparky, the 5th > onlytwowheels 09/30/2020 at 19:53

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Great to hear about your test result! How long after exposure did you test? It sounds like tests reach about 95%+ accuracy for negative tests after 11 days or so...up to 5 days after exposure it can be inaccurate up to half the time, especially if you’re not showing any symptoms. Not trying to alarm you, sounds like you’re in the clear since you’ve gone a while since your test too with no symptoms it sounds like.

My doc office outright refused to test me at this point. Which I kind of agree with given that its only 2 days since potential exposure...I wouldn’t trust a negative result too much right now. 

onlytwowheels > ZHP Sparky, the 5th 09/30/2020 at 20:01

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Seven days after I first learned that there was an outbreak of 3 covid positive individuals, who may have been in co ntact with someone I had close contact with. Days later the 3 became 13 covid positive and today the number is 31. I am glad I got tested, and happier that the test was negative.

Manwich - now Keto-Friendly > ZHP Sparky, the 5th 09/30/2020 at 20:08

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“Not exactly sure what my next move is.”

Your next move is to get yourself tested ASAP so you can get your results ASAP.  Don’t wait for the other person.

“but looks like tests early on can be pretty unreliable.”

No test is perfect. But if you get tested and it’s negative, it’s very likely you don’t have it.

Spanfeller is a twat > ZHP Sparky, the 5th 09/30/2020 at 20:17

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I still have like a wei rd sense of smell... for some reason coffee now smells sort of oily or fatty to me. It’s slowly returning to normalcy but it’s still odd.

But yeah, I did obsessively keep tabs on the 4-10 people I had direct contact with i n the week prior to being diagnosed and none of them caught ill. Of course, I had no cough, and I wash my hands often, and in the office I’m always wearing a mask even when alone... so I’m pretty certain I didn’t spread it. If whoever you were with was asymptomatic and was also wearing a facemask (and both of you kept proper hand hygiene ) I think it’s pretty unlikely that you caugh it. 

Beefchips > ZHP Sparky, the 5th 09/30/2020 at 20:57

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Sounds like you need a test ASAP. If it comes back clean you can relieve your wife of kid duties. Did you buy the trailer? Send her camping with a nice bottle of whiskey in the trailer storage

dumpsterfire! > ZHP Sparky, the 5th 09/30/2020 at 21:02

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Fyi , my hospital isn't doing asymptomatic exposure testing anymore (western Colorado with <5% positive tests at this time). There is so much variability in all the testing scenarios from place to place, and state to state, for various reasons. Good luck.

ZHP Sparky, the 5th > onlytwowheels 09/30/2020 at 21:18

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Wow that’s scary seeing the multiplications like that first hand. Goes to show how easily this spread has gotten out of hand at a macro level. 

Chariotoflove > ZHP Sparky, the 5th 09/30/2020 at 21:21

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We quarantined my wife in the office on a blow up bed early on, before testing was widely available. She was running a low grade temp and is high risk. She tried to enjoy the time alone. I picked up the house chores. I joked that I was a single dad for two weeks. My daughter made her meals and left them at the door. She called my wife “the inmate”.

In all likelihood you’re fine. I think you can relay on the test result, whatever it is. Certainly do practice appropriate caution, but I wouldn’t be overly worried.

ZHP Sparky, the 5th > barnie 09/30/2020 at 21:22

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That’s certainly understandable and I do agree that the odds are absolutely in my favor given this fact pattern. My wife does have one of those medical conditions you hear about only affecting a minute fraction of people - so at least I understand how when its happened to you once you start losing faith in the comfort of such statistics. But more so, given her medical history I certainly don’t want to risk her getting a COVID infection that could cause issues for her. All things considered being stuck in a comfortable room with the internet at my fingertips, being able to do my job from my desk here, food dropped off at my door...it’s the least I could do to be considerate to my family and those around me I might interact with. 

ZHP Sparky, the 5th > Manwich - now Keto-Friendly 09/30/2020 at 21:24

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My medical provider won’t even order a test at this point. A COVID test is absolutely not recommended as soon as 1-2 days after exposure. So in any case I’d be waiting a few days...by which point I’ll probably have some info from the other guy. 

barnie > ZHP Sparky, the 5th 09/30/2020 at 21:35

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I understand. A lot of my view is based on that I’m old and have lived a good life already. I’ve completed my bucket list except to see the Southern Cross again . You have a good set up there. And think of how good the reunions will be when this is over. :)

BlazinAce - Doctor of Internal Combustion > ZHP Sparky, the 5th 09/30/2020 at 21:39

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Medical opinion: keep calm, stay hydrated, s tock up on cold medicine and wait it out, since t he vast majority of covid cases are bland or asympt omatic. Personally, I wouldn’t get tested or even recommend it. Most tests are unreliable until you’re well into a flu like syndrome too, so it’s really kinda messy, and even then you may get negative results depending on how your body deals with the infection. I’ve tested IgG positive multiples times already, and haven’t had anything worse than three episodes of light short colds this year, so one of those was probably covid.

Covid is mostly manageable at home if you get light symptoms, such as the typical Flu syndrome, and you shouldn’t really risk hitting up a clinic or hospital until you start experiencing persitent fever or difficulty breathing with no apparent cause or prior respiratory disease.

Finally, I can’t stress how important it is to just stay calm. Anxiety is one of the leading factors in thoracic discomfort, tachypnea or dyspnea, which most people associate with either a heart attack or, at this day and age, covid.

smobgirl > ZHP Sparky, the 5th 09/30/2020 at 22:31

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I think that sounds like a reasonable plan. With the amount of traveling I’ve done, there’s no way I haven’t come into contact with someone who was carrying it, but when I’m home I generally stay home and I always wear masks if I need to go anywhere. So far I’m fine. (No financial way of knowing if I’m just a symptomatic, but I haven’t felt sick at all). I think your odds are good given what you described, but I guess we never know anymore do  we?

ZHP Sparky, the 5th > smobgirl 09/30/2020 at 23:09

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Right and as weird as it sounds, the knowing makes it harder. Like if I didn’t know about the guy’s exposure I’d be living my life as usual knowing that I put myself in some amount of risk, and most likely will end up just fine. But now knowing makes you worry and take additional steps - which is absolutely the right thing to do, but as we all know the right thing is rarely the easiest! 

ZHP Sparky, the 5th > barnie 09/30/2020 at 23:12

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Tell me about it! We’re on the other side of the country from one half of our family, and on the other side of the world from the other half. With our kid getting past being a blob we were just so excited to start travelling and generally doing more fun things again...but of course that’s all on hold right now. So many dreams of things to do when this is all behind us.

You’ve got me researching the Southern Cross now. I know nothing about stars but am fascinated by staring at them. Need to more of that and learn more about all that is out there. Will probably help put our lives in perspective a bit better too.

Haven’t come across your posts on Oppo before but nice to se you on here! Something tells me you’ve got many great stories to tell.

ZHP Sparky, the 5th > BlazinAce - Doctor of Internal Combustion 09/30/2020 at 23:20

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Damn, now THIS is what I come to Oppo for! Can I get you on speed dial? :)

Seriously, thanks for the input. I’m glad this is me and not my wife - we’d both be more concerned if it was her going through this. Any recommendations on cold medicines? Other than even half a dose of Nyquil knocking me out for an entire night I haven’t really paid much attention to them. Pretty sure we have a stock pile of Mucinex somewhere in the house. Also for fever reducers remember seeing stuff earlier on about ibuprofen having adverse complications with  COVID patients...did that turn out to not really be a concern ? I typically take tylenol anyway due to stomach acid issues.

ANYWAY, this is not what you come to Oppo for so please feel no obligation to respond. More than anything at least right now I just feel guilty getting to hang out in a room by myself watching TV and having meals delivered to my door.

ZHP Sparky, the 5th > Chariotoflove 09/30/2020 at 23:22

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Hope your wife had a full recovery (whatever it was)? Earlier on I had a similar episode as well in mid-March as this was all breaking, and spent a few days locked up. It was nice, but like you said I just feel bad having my wife turn in to a single parent of a toddler while I just hang out (outside of working too many hours today). 

ZHP Sparky, the 5th > dumpsterfire! 09/30/2020 at 23:23

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Thanks for the info! Yup my doc office just shooed me away (on the phone of course) and said come back if you actually have something of concern. Did seem like they’d test me if I said the guy ended up testing positive though. 

ZHP Sparky, the 5th > Beefchips 09/30/2020 at 23:27

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Funny story about the trailer. Didn’t end up wanting the one from the guy. But an identical one that looks to be in much nicer shape popped up an hour away too. Was actually supposed to get a trailer hitch installed on our car today and drive down to check it out this evening...but of course this happened.

The guy was thankfully very accommodating and took a $200 deposit from me to hold it. More than happy with that arrangement given how this specific model is exactly what we’re looking for and we haven’t seen too many out there for sale.

As some others (esp those in medical field) have chimed in, testing isn’t really an option or recommended given stage I’m at currently. Funny that my wife has been tested 3 times already just to be able to go to a routine check up, and I’ve had an antibody test done earlier in the year (came back negative, even doc said he wouldn’t put much faith in what that means), but here I am actually concerned and not able to get a test. Understanda bly it makes sense as I would likely test negative right now even if I did have the bug. .

Beefchips > ZHP Sparky, the 5th 09/30/2020 at 23:30

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Bummer dude. I hope you’re healthy  and also secondarily that you pick up that trailer.

DipodomysDeserti > ZHP Sparky, the 5th 09/30/2020 at 23:42

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I doubt there’s anything that will make the other guy’s test measurably more accurate than yours. I would just  go get tested. 

smobgirl > ZHP Sparky, the 5th 10/01/2020 at 00:01

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I think it must be much harder worrying about a family, too. 

pip bip - choose Corrour > ZHP Sparky, the 5th 10/01/2020 at 05:58

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get tested.

onlytwowheels > ZHP Sparky, the 5th 10/01/2020 at 06:17

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That’s why testing needs to be done. So many people are asymptomatic, I think I heard a statistic yesterday of 45%. Stay safe.

Chariotoflove > ZHP Sparky, the 5th 10/01/2020 at 10:05

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Yeah, a toddler changes the equation. I’d feel bad about not being able to help too. Fortunately I think the PCR tests are supposed to be pretty reliable now. Even if you practice an abundance of caution, you should be out of lockup soon. 

BlazinAce - Doctor of Internal Combustion > ZHP Sparky, the 5th 10/02/2020 at 01:37

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Haha, you sure can! :D don’t worry man, I love to help any way I can, even if it get a bit difficult to log in Mondays, thursdays and every other saturday, I’m pretty easy to find lol. As for the cold medicine, I’ll have to take a look at what’s exactly available in the US, since here in Brazil we mostly turn to generics and actually prescribe the compounds themselves, so I’m not toally familiar with the brand names... but I’ll check it tomorrow and have somethinf ready for ya ;)

ZHP Sparky, the 5th > BlazinAce - Doctor of Internal Combustion 10/02/2020 at 11:37

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Mucinex I mentioned is Dextromethorphan + Guaifenesin, cough suppressant and expectorant.

Anyway, much appreciated. Didn’t realize you were in Brazil. You guys are having quite a time of this craziness too, hope life isn’t too hectic for you, especially being in the medical field . I’m forever trying to convince my wife to visit Brazil, I have a few good old friends from/who live there and have always wanted to visit (I also find interesting correlations with my own homeland I grew up in - Sri Lanka - combination of tropical living + Portuguese influences, that have always fascinated me ). Hopefully someday once all this craziness is over.

BlazinAce - Doctor of Internal Combustion > ZHP Sparky, the 5th 10/02/2020 at 13:33

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Ah, I see. Yup, that works, we tend to use a cetylcysteine as an expectorant, mostly because it’s cheaper and available for free down here. As for fever supressants, the two most popular medications are p aracetamol/acetaminofen and d ypirone/metamizole. IIRC, i buprofen was also found to be safe for use in Covid patients after all, and ketoprofen is also a pretty great alternative to dypirone, even it’s a little more expensive.

There are also a few combinations available locally, which should have their own analogs in the US, like paracetamol + pseudoephedrin, paracetamol + carisoprodol or dypirone + caffeine, those also work pretty great, specially in getting you up in the morning or down in bed at night. Rule of thumb is, use what works best for you, most times Covid acts up as a nasty cold for a few days then goes away. I guess that’s the thick of it, there’re really no meds that can prevent it getting worse as of now, even dexametasone, which seems to be the most promising, doesn’t seem to affect outcome in lighter cases.

And yup, it was hell here for a while. My state wasn’t hit as hard as some of the places up north, but once people started moving around more freely, we saw ourselves withe more severe cases than ICU beds available. What helped us out a little was the typical cold weather of southern Brazl, which means pretty harsh flu seasons every year, so we’re kinda used to it. But things are going back to normal-ish now, with less and less covid cases showing up and even less cases aggravating. What we’re dealing with now, are chronically ill patients that were left without support for the better part of the last 6 months, and had their diseases progress accordingly. Last night, I had a patient come in with all the symptoms of acute coronary syndrome, he had chronic high pressure and stopped taking medications in late March, after all his appointments had been canceled or postponed and he was left without prescriptions. Ran a couple quick exams, and he basically had the most massive heart attack I’ve ever seen in ER practice. I guess you can chalk this stuff up to Covid as well, even if indirectly

ZHP Sparky, the 5th > BlazinAce - Doctor of Internal Combustion 10/02/2020 at 14:20

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Yeah absolutely - the downstream/side effects of COVID can be devastating too...but once the cats out of the bag and COVID is rampant, you’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t as far as locking things down go. Glad to hear things are starting to improve out there.

BlazinAce - Doctor of Internal Combustion > ZHP Sparky, the 5th 10/04/2020 at 12:19

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Yup, that’s pretty much about it, I guess. I mean, I kinda like to think we held down as far as we could, even if many people didn’t care much for the containment measures from the get go, but, here in my state, for example, we had some early success in holding back the brunt of the pandemic and get working in improving our hospitals and ER units. Some of the places where I work got nearly torn down and rebuilt in the frame of one to two months, some doubled their ICU capacities, and so on and so forth. I guess the real issue is that our socioeconomic landscape has always been, since pretty much the country was founded, a hot mess, and people just couldn’t afford to stay locked in for too long. For example, some of the local bars I used to go to that barely even served any kind of food, the ones that survived at least, managed to upgrade to full kitchens and menus for delivery service because, even if you can’t go out to drink, people still gotta eat, right? And now that things are actually getting back to normal, or at least now that it’s become impossible to hold people inside for any longer, even with the risks posed by Covid, you just can’t not go support these businesses locally , it won’t do any good anymore, it’ll just get more places to shut their doors and leave more and more people unemployed :/

It’s really a delicate situation, whatever you do it’s lik you’re condemning someone...

ZHP Sparky, the 5th > BlazinAce - Doctor of Internal Combustion 10/04/2020 at 16:47

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Yup its a mess. How are things with Bolso naro’s leadership? I see him being compared to Trump a lot - and I hope that simple common sense safeguards haven’t become as much of a political issue there like it has here. Using masks never, ever had to become a political issue. Even without government mandates leadership here could’ve role-modeled and argued to their constituents that it’s simply the right thing to do in being a patriot at this point in time.

Much, much smaller country, and it’s easier when you’re an island - but for being a very poor country I’m shocked at how Sri Lanka came together and dealt with this. Absolutely heartbreaking what it did to many poor people, and even now with the borders shut down all the tourism, which was a big part of the country is pretty much entirely shut down (not enough locals who can actually afford to go to these businesses) - so the long term economic effects will be very tough to deal with. But at least in their case they have managed to get to a point where the virus itself isn’t out of control at all...so it’s a matter of getting the right kind of help and getting creative to help the economy and people (which arguably has been the country’s leadership’s failure all along simply due to rampant corruption).