fluffy rambles: Current status

Current status

March 6, 2020 9:27 AM (4 years ago)

My shortness of breath has gotten somewhat worse, and my peak flow is around 400 L/min, which is somewhat lower than my average healthy level.

I had a video visit with one of the nurse practitioners at One Medical and while my symptoms aren’t severe enough yet that they think I need urgent attention, they do want me to come in this afternoon for a secondary screening so they can check out my lungs and see what’s going on with my asthma, at least.

Despite the current administration’s advertisements, there’s still no test kits available, and they’re not expected to be for a couple weeks. This h*cking country, am I right? And the CDC still only care about suspected direct exposure or people who have themselves traveled internationally, despite the growing epidemic and the fact that almost none of the confirmed cases (including deaths) fell into those categories.

If this were just an asthma flare due to a cold they’d be putting me on prednisone (which is a standard course of treatment which works well for me), but they’re concerned about the immunosuppressant effect if I do have COVID-19.

Anyway, just to further document my own symptoms/suspected exposure:

On Monday, February 24, I started a new job downtown, along with several other people. To celebrate we went to a local bowling alley, where there was much physical contact, shared bowling balls, and unhygenic finger foods. Many of the people present had traveled to Seattle by air, and the bowling alley itself also had plenty of other folks in it.

On Sunday, March 1, I walked to Uwajimaya, and took the streetcar home. I remember feeling vaguely fatigued and too tired to walk home. I don’t recall if I felt particularly short of breath at this time.

On Monday, March 2, I felt distinctly short of breath while walking home from work. I took albuterol, which didn’t have much effect.

Tuesday I worked from home due to being in pain (which I attributed to my crappy office chair, when a replacement chair was on the way). Around noon I had a migraine, and in the mid-afternoon developed intense feelings of nausea and near-vomiting. I also started to have a mild cough. I stayed inside all day. I took ibuprofen for the pain and it had no effect.

Wednesday I called in sick with the cough and a low-grade fever. I mostly slept all day, and only went outside late at night to get some last-minute groceries.

Thursday I felt better enough that I did some work from home, but still felt short of breath most of the day, and the pain gradually intensified throughout the day. Ibuprofen didn’t help.

Friday morning I woke up feeling even more short of breath, and I started measuring my peak flow, which I should have started much sooner. The pain persists.