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649848 tn?1534633700

Sunday Weigh In May 17, 2020

Good morning.  How is everyone getting along these days?  My state's stay at home order has expired and things are opening back up.  Last week, beauty and nail salons, barber shops, etc were allowed to open. This coming week (starting tomorrow), gyms and other businesses will be allowed to open so long as they can maintain safe social distancing procedures, along with the extensive cleaning that will be required.  All stores are allowed to open at 50% capacity and restaurants can also begin inside dining at 50% capacity.  

We still aren't going out except to buy food and other necessities, go to the doctor, etc.  I almost forgot my husband did go get a haircut the other day.  A lot of people in my area refuse to wear masks and many don't practice social distancing, so I feel it's still pretty risky.

We've had plenty of things to do to stay busy - I have enough shop projects to keep me busy for months and months - all things I've put off for ages and now have time to get done.  

I've been having a tremendous amount of pain in my neck... it started last fall and has kept getting worse.  My neurologist touched my neck lightly and told me I have arthritis.  He gave me pain pills and said if they didn't help, he'd do a trigger point injection.  I just saw my pcp and, after some painful probing, he said my cervical spine is out of place...  Oh yay - one says arthritis, the other says cervical spine out.  My pcp ordered a neck x-ray and he's right... Some vertebrae are out of place going in one direction, others are out of place going in the other direction.  Also, the openings in my vertebrae, through which nerve roots go, are narrowing, which also contributes to pain.

I think I've mentioned that I joined a calligraphy guild last fall and have take a few calligraphy classes... I've had a terrible time with the whole process, no matter which calligraphy hand I've tried.  Doing the research on my neck issues, I learn that it can cause handwriting problems as well as the pain.   Add my cataracts (not being able to see properly) to the equation and that could explain why I've had so much trouble with the calligraphy.  I've also had a lot of trouble with muscle cramps that keep getting worse, for which every doctor says "take magnesium" which hasn't helped, so far.  I've more than doubled my dose of magnesium (per doctor's orders) but now find out these cramps may be part of my neck issue.  

Anyway, we'll see what direction my treatment takes now that I've had the x-rays and we know what the issue is.

This past week, I've really tried to clean up my diet, but still not doing well enough.  Nor have I gotten a lot of exercise, because I've been in a lot of pain.   I've actually gained weight - but it's fluctuating a lot, so it's somewhere between 3 and 5 pounds over the past couple of weeks... grrrrr!!!  As much as I hate to say it - that's a total of almost 10 lbs gained since this time last year, when my MIL passed away - several of them within the past couple of weeks.

You may recall that, at the end of April, I saw a new endocrinologist who changed my thyroid medication to a lower dose because he insisted I'm hyper (I'm not) - I believe my recent weight gain is a combination of the lower dose of thyroid medication, not eating well and not enough exercise.  I'm not going to be able to do anything about the too low dose of thyroid medication, but I do need to get my eating/exercise habits back in shape.  

I've read that a lot of walking, standing, etc may not be good for my neck condition, buy yoga might be, so, as I've been saying for ages, I need to get back into that, but will wait to see what direction my neck treatment takes and what's recommended.  Right now, a good massage would be just the thing...  :-)  

So, that's me - how are you doing?  I hope you're doing well.  

~~Wishing everyone a wonderful, successful week~~

*Stay safe and wash your hands!!*
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649848 tn?1534633700
COMMUNITY LEADER
I wondered if these could be cases in which the patients hadn't completely recovered, but they said they all had to test negative on 2 separate occasions in order to be considered "cured" and to be able to reboard the ship.  

I hadn't read of someone getting a fresh case after being declared well, either... I'm wondering if this is a new quirk with this virus or if, as you say, the virus being shed was no longer contagious.  I wonder how they'd determine that.
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I think they would need to grow it in a petri dish and then try to infect someone (a lab animal probably) with it. You can bet nobody is going to those lengths when a more plausible explanation is available, such as, it was lying dormant in the person's body. (Like the virus for chicken pox/shingles.) It sounded on the news last night like they are pretty sure you don't get it twice in a row.
No, I think you're right - they aren't going to grow something in a petri dish and infect someone/something if they can find answers another way - even if they're different answers.  

Lying dormant?  That's an interesting concept, too.  

Another idea is that the COVID-19 cells they were shedding may have been dead cells, hence not making them or others ill again.  

Here's an interesting article about it:  https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-05-covid-coronavirus.html

There's just so much information out there, it's hard to know what's right and what isn't.  
134578 tn?1693250592
Here is from an NPR report about those sailors: "Health officials have said they believe the virus may be capable of becoming dormant and later reactivating in some people's immune systems." The article also said that maybe if someone had a mild case, they would be capable of getting it again, like a mild cold it doesn't protect from the cold virus all winter. Interesting but not cheerful if true.
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"The article also said that maybe if someone had a mild case, they would be capable of getting it again, like a mild cold it doesn't protect from the cold virus all winter. Interesting but not cheerful if true."

That might go along with one article I read that said having antibodies may not protect from future episodes of the virus.   Also not a cheerful thought.
Also, I suppose that there is also a question about the accuracy of the tests. Earlier there were articles saying the Navy was having trouble with false negatives, but one would hope they solved that by now.
Yes, there was that one whole issue with test accuracy - that one put out by Abbot.  It seems that it was catching the positives, but if one were negative, they had to be retested with a different type test.
News today said that they think these were either cases where the original virus was still ongoing, or the virus being shed was no longer contagious even though the tests found it. I haven't yet read of cases where someone got a new, fresh case two times after being officially "well" between the times.
134578 tn?1693250592
What do they do if the cervical spine is out of alignment? Do they push the discs around like a chiropractor does? I've always been a little afraid that a chiropractor would break my spinal cord, or I would have begun to use one years ago. My neck gets super painful.

I weighed in, sure it would be exactly the same as the past two times, but am down .8 of a pound. All I can think of is that I have regularly felt bloated lately -- I feel full quickly after eating and walk around feeling like my stomach is sticking out -- and today I don't feel that way, neither bloated nor stuffed. I had begun to worry it might be kidney problems, but now wonder if it's mostly my eating patterns. Will have to review what I had for dinner last night, what changes I've had in my supplements, or other things I did differently in the week, in hopes of continuing the non-stuffed trend. I don't think it's that I have been eating less.  : (

We're not "re-opened" in the Portland metro area, though parts of Oregon are. But with the virus still out there, "opening up" isn't going to cause us to go have leisurely meals at restaurants or stroll the mall, so I'm not sure what good it will do for the local economy. I guess they feel like it's better than nobody having a job. It's hard to understand how they think people won't start getting sick again if there is lots of contact, no testing, no masks, no treatment and no vaccine. Time will show whether "herd immunity" is in place enough to save us from a new boom in cases, I guess.

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3 Comments
Actually, my pcp recommended a chiropractor and I did see her last week... She wanted the x-rays so she'd know exactly what she was dealing with.  I, too, have always been leery of chiropractors because of a very bad experience by someone else, years ago.  I did mention this to the chiropractor and she simply said "That *won't* happen here."  I do feel more confident that my pcp recommended her AND that she didn't do anything until after I got x-rays, so she knows exactly what she's dealing with.  I don't think all chiropractors do that.  I'm not exactly sure what she will do in my case.  I know last week when I was there, she pulled on one place on my head and it seemed like it lifted a weight off my shoulders.  Unfortunately, that didn't last long, but she hadn't really "done" anything.  IDK if she can put the vertebrae back where they belong or not.  I'm also not sure what they do with the narrowing of the openings in the vertebrae through which the nerve roots pass.  I guess I'll have to see.  

Wow - you're doing well losing 0.8 lbs.  I'd love it if I could lose that... maybe this week. :-)  Do you keep a food diary so you can go back and review your meals and see what you can/did change?   I kept one for years, but stopped a couple of years ago.  I keep it in my head now... I can tell you what/how much I ate every day for the past week...

I've heard that some parts of OR are opening back up - my walking partner who is here in winter and in OR during the summer has been waiting for things to get opened out there so her family members can get back to work.   She said a lot of people are working from home, which I think is happening all over the country.   I agree with you about the advantage of having malls, etc open, but I'm sure there are people who are so tired of staying home they will be going out, even if people aren't practicing social distancing or wearing masks.   I'd think we're a long way from herd immunity, since the majority of the population would have to get the virus to achieve that and we're a long way from that number.  Also, I saw where some of the sailors on the aircraft carrier that originally had the virus, have now tested positive a second time - after having had the virus and testing negative twice in a row.  That could indicate that we aren't immune once we've had it.  

From what my doctor explained, a lot more of us will probably get it, but at least, it won't overwhelm the hospitals so they'll be able to handle it.  We'll have to see how it goes... we won't be out walking the malls either though...
I think the officials intent on opening the economy are banking on more people having been exposed and not gotten sick or not being symptomatic, so the number of actual cases would have been higher and herd immunity would be possible. We won't know until everyone in the country gets an antibody test, how many really got sick. I also heard about the sailors who tested positive again, but there are still questions about those, like, are the infectious now and whether they are just shedding residual virus cells that were in their body. It's a confusing illness, for sure.

Can't tell you how pleased I was about the loss, from the way things had been going, a gain of two pounds would not have been surprising, though disappointing of course!
You could be right about them banking on more people having been exposed and not actually have gotten the virus (been symptomatic).   Antibody testing will probably resolve that question, though it may be a while.  I haven't heard of any plans to do antibody testing on everyone - from what I've read, only those suspected to have the virus will get it, so those of us who have never had symptoms, been around anyone who's had the virus, traveled, etc may never get the test.   I hope, at some point, we all get the test.  
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