Sorry to read this, Drac ! Glad it was a quick stay. This is definitely of the time to be in the hospital. Hope your feeling better.

Drac, I am so sorry to hear this! Sending positive thoughts your way!

Well, it's good they caught it Drac, and I'm glad you're back. We'll keep you in our thoughts as well. Care to send a few tomatoes up our way?

TM

Hi Draclvr, Sending positive thoughts your way! And I hope you stay healthy to enjoy your tomato plants.

Take care of yourself Draclvr. I hope they got the dosage right so you don't need to go back there and you get yourself better.

Drac, I too am sorry to hear about this! Here's to staying healthy and out of the hospital.

Thank you, everyone! Saw my primary care doctor yesterday and he just shakes his head at me. After yet ANOTHER thorough exam, I have no restrictions and can go back to normal. Just have to be careful with the blood thinner.

You don't even get into this doctor's building without a temperature check and you must wear a mask and use hand sanitizer before you enter. There is a Safety Office at each entrance to enforce it. If you don't have a mask, they have a pile of them and will give you one. It was the same at every entrance to the hospital and especially the ER. While I was waiting for my appointment yesterday, I saw a Safety Officer walking around making sure everyone was keeping their mask on. It's good to know at least the medical community understands this thing and is taking it seriously.

At my hospital things are going back to relatively normai. All our outpatient departments are open. Only 1 person without a family member or friend unless needed (kids, etc). Our blood sampling department is only open to patients from our own specialists. The gp blood sampling department is now appointment only (they are located all over our province). Hand disinfection is required, masks only when keeping 1.5 meters is not possible.

My dentist is back to work since earlier this month. Masked. We can visit museums (distance plus hand disinfection).
Slowly things are going back to a new normal.

Jarkeld, that is such good news for your country!

Not a very pleasant experience for you, Draclvr ....

Hope you keep safe and well now and can stay at home !!!!

We are keeping a close eye on things. Can't let this kind of pandemic surprise us again.

Draclvr: Hope you are feeling better. Thrombosis is definately not fun. Which type/brand of blood thinner did they prescribe?

This time I'm on Xareleto. I had a PE in 2016 too, but that time they attributed part of the reason for the DVTs to a 11 cm ovarian tumor! It was benign, but was wreaking havoc. That time I was on Eliquis for 3 years. It's very hard to get these drugs even if prescribed by a doctor. Then have to jump through all kinds of hoops with insurance companies... it's disgraceful, but that's our medical system.

Unbelievable that it's so hard to get those drugs. Over here the insurance companies pay up when the doctor prescribes them.
I had 2 dvt's, left lower leg in 2013, 6 months of coumarins (acenocoumarol), got a second DVT in 2015 (right lower and upper leg) and have been on fenprocoumon ever since. My hematologist reckons a third event would be very likely and probably big enough to get a PE so he recommended that i should take them for the rest of my life.

Sometimes the cause is difficult to find (got a few risk factors including heterozygous Factor V Leiden (found it a few years before when using my own blood for testing a new machine) but nothing definitive, no further testing was performed) but a tumor is quite a risk factor. Luckily they found it and removed it. Even benign tumors can be very dangerous.

Yes and in 2016 my doctor sent bloodwork up to the Mayo Clinic - considered a world class research facility - to check for things like heterozygous Factor V Leiden... everything including several hereditary factors was negative. Maybe it's in the water since I've had two PE's!

Knowing you had DVTs had to be worrying when COVID 19 was more prevalent where you are. VERY glad to hear you are doing so well now.

Here in Illinois, some things have returned to semi-normal. My dentist and acupuncturist both opened their offices after a month of being closed. Hospitals are open for 'regular' business. The college I retired from is trying to work toward opening the college building in the fall, but I just don't see it happening. My friends that have been doing their work from homes are not eager or comfortable returning there with a lot of people around. Right now, when given permission, they an go to their workspace for an hour or so to do things they can't get done at home, like finding and/or filing paperwork. So much normal work material was left behind when things shut down. They like it because they can work in peace with no interruptions.

No matter how much things try to return to normal, it wouldn't surprise me if things go back to getting shut down again before we start finding our way out of this mess. I just don't feel safe without knowing they've found a successful vaccine. If that means limiting my travel for another 6 months, I'd rather be safe than not.

I totally agree with you, butterflybabe. I don't think we'll ever go back to the way it was before and I don't look forward to how bad this is going to get before it gets better.

I think we will get back to some semblance of what it was like pre-virus, but it could take years. If things work out that a vaccine is available within the next year, it will take time for everyone to get vaccinated, and if they use an egg-base as they usually do, not everyone will be able to tolerate. It won't be safe to be in a crowded room for a long time. The health problems and deaths relating to the virus will continue for a while. It wouldn't surprise me if the life span for those who survived the virus is shortened. Makes me sad and sick that our everyday language and lives have been affected so much by this.

Covid19 being an RNA based coronavirus like SARS and some of the family of viruses that cause the common cold, can be problematic when building a preventive treatment. The main reason is the rate that those type of viruses sometimes mutate.

That said, it's not impossible because we have vaccines for a number of RNA based viruses that work great. I agree that it will take years for things to return to normal, and I wonder if they are being overly optimistic when they say we'll have an effective vaccine by winter, or by next year. That seems really hard to estimate until they truly determine that the virus mutations are relatively similar or when it turns "stable". I do have hope that they will find some sort of treatment soon due to the sheer number of resources investing time into this. I just hope they are looking outside of the vaccine box when trying to develop a preventative.

In the mean time, I also hope people finally learn to help each other as opposed to duking it out over the last roll of toilet paper. On a selfish note, I also hope the internet stays up, and that safe harbors like Gameboomers stay running through it all. Also, so I can continue to binge watch Star Trek when I get depressed

Well said, Trail

Well, hair salons were just shut down in my county again (along with some other restrictions) by order of the governor, so it looks to me like my decision to cancel my dental cleaning appointment was the right decision to make. I would be surprised if the dentists around here did not revert now to emergency visits only.

Hear, hear, Trail! The prevalent mutation right now seems to be fairly stable, but they are really worrying that it's going to stealthily mutate again.

Was talking with a friend of mine who said something that made sense to me. A vaccine will take time, the trick/hope is to find an antivirus/antidote to curb/stop the virus from affecting people who catch it. This could allow some easing of the social distancing. If you get it, a hospital can give you a 'cure'. Something has to be found to assist in this way because, from what I gather, covid is just the start of a new line of the most potential virus that we've ever faced.

I still can't believe this is happening. Who'd thought any of us would have to face something like this in our lifetimes?

Yeah, it's some crazy stuff. Reminds me of sci-fi novels I've read...


On a lighter note, you guys might be familiar with Zfrank's YouTube channel. He does those Morgan Freeman style, parody docu-vids. He did one back in April that I missed about pets in isolation, when the lockdown was going everywhere. It's pretty funny, although the last one with the dog was so cute and true it made me tear up a little.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5Ejup_nfPY

That was too cute, Trail!

My town is now a covid hotspot. 28 people have tested positive in the last few days. It started with a bar. My stepdaughter has to spend a week in quarantaine (her hairdresser tested positive), and my wife has lost her sense of taste and smell. She has an appointment to get tested on friday. Looks like the second wave is coming.