"SPECIAL." Especially for RE-PLUGS and FOX NEWS Fans!

[KCFlyer]

They did. Today they are called "Republican".

 

[NewHampshire Black Bears]

LOOOO - UIE Gohmert.

It's a close-call-toss-up, as to who is the DUMBEST SOB, in TEX - ASSS. LOOOOO-UIE, or Greg Abbot !!!

 

[Kev3188]

Bears I just don't know.

I mean you know.... how many small businesses are going to be driven out due to COVID?

It is easy to say close the bars down however, you need to remember that bar is someone's livelihood. Someone sacrificed to open that bar and I am just not comfortable allowing the government to decimate small businesses.

You might feel differently if you invested in that bar, struggled for 2 years to make money, and made it into a success only to have a no mask mandate shatter your finances and your dream.

To me there is no right answer here. Right now I am of the opinion I don't want run our economy into the ground over this thing.

If we want that bar to stay open...

If we want to go to football games again...

If we want our kids back in school...

If we want to stop the needless dying of fellow Americans...

Then we have to collectively agree on short term sacrifice. We have to agree that this is common ground worth coming together over. We have to collectively agree to wear masks. We have to agree to limit gatherings for now. And yes, we have to agree to support that bar/shop/whatever (AND their employees) until we get to the other side.

 

[delldude]

If we want that bar to stay open...

If we want to go to football games again...

If we want our kids back in school...

If we want to stop the needless dying of fellow Americans...

Then we have to collectively agree on short term sacrifice. We have to agree that this is common ground worth coming together over. We have to collectively agree to wear masks. We have to agree to limit gatherings for now. And yes, we have to agree to support that bar/shop/whatever (AND their employees) until we get to the other side.

That is what caused the recent spike here and globally. Cooped up for four months then throw caution to the wind.

 

[Kev3188]

*Stay open in the general sense (as in not close forever).

 

[NewHampshire Black Bears]

That is what caused the recent spike here and globally. Cooped up for four months then throw caution to the wind.

I Concur, my OLD Grouchy FRIEND !!

 

[La Li Lu Le Lo]

If we want that bar to stay open...

If we want to go to football games again...

If we want our kids back in school...

If we want to stop the needless dying of fellow Americans...

Then we have to collectively agree on short term sacrifice. We have to agree that this is common ground worth coming together over. We have to collectively agree to wear masks. We have to agree to limit gatherings for now. And yes, we have to agree to support that bar/shop/whatever (AND their employees) until we get to the other side.

I might be more comfortable with a forced shut down provided the local community offered financial relief (to be approved by tax payers) to those small businesses affected.

However that is NOT what we are seeing. We are ONLY seeing government support for large corporations.

I mean you have to laugh at the absurdity of the government financing payroll for airline employees the airline says it does not need but letting small businesses that provided services to he community fall one after the other. Seems like a misalignment of resources to me.

 

[NewHampshire Black Bears]

I might be more comfortable with a forced shut down provided the local community offered financial relief (to be approved by tax payers) to those small businesses affected.

However that is NOT what we are seeing. We are ONLY seeing government support for large corporations.

I mean you have to laugh at the absurdity of the government financing payroll for airline employees the airline says it does not need but letting small businesses that provided services to he community fall one after the other. Seems like a misalignment of resources to me.

Right Again, La' !!

 

[Kev3188]

I might be more comfortable with a forced shut down provided the local community offered financial relief (to be approved by tax payers) to those small businesses affected.

However that is NOT what we are seeing. We are ONLY seeing government support for large corporations.

The CARES Act should've been much more focused on people, rather than companies. For businesses, aid should've gone on an inverse sliding scale (smaller businesses helped first, and need based). I had some hope that this next version would be different, but seeing the GOP quibble over the $600/week piece to UI tells me it'll be more of the same.

 

[NewHampshire Black Bears]

LOOOO - UIE Gohmert.

It's a close-call-toss-up, as to who is the DUMBEST SOB, in TEX - ASSS. LOOOOO-UIE, or Greg Abbot !!!

WELL fellow 'cooler' folks, the unquestionable results are in, as to WHO is the Dumbest S O B in Tex-asss, between LOOOOOO - IE Gohmert or Greg Abbott.

It's LOOOOO - IE, "I got COVID", Gohmert !!!

 

[Insp4]

Bears!...... Get your finger out of your nose!

 

[lineguy43]

It started as Flu like symptoms. My body was aching and I was feeling light headed. I had what they call a non productive cough. I knew I was coming down with something by Sunday of that week but I was on scheduled vacation for the week afterward so I figure just work sick for the week (I had a fairly light week) and recover the week I was scheduled off.

I did OK Monday work wise (though it was exhausting even with a light work load) but both Wednesday and Thursday I had to hand my work over to a relief tech.

Anyway I spent the next 4 days in bed (Fri-Mon). I was more or less totally incapacitated. I could not stand up for more than 30 seconds at a time without being completely out of breath and having extreme fatigue. I had serious issues even going to the restroom. I lost taste and smell for about 2 hours for no apparent reason (remember my cough was "non productive so no congestion).

Tuesday night came and I knew I was in trouble. I told my wife I need to go to the hospital. She wanted to take me in our SUV but I told her there was no way I could make the trip that we had to call an ambulance.

The fire department were the first people to show up. They refused to enter the house until we were all masked up. Then they came in and looked me over a bit. Afterward the ambulance showed up and put me on oxygen.

When they (the ambulance) SUSPECT you have COVID they treat you as a COVID patient and they call the hospital and tell them to expect to receive a COVID patient.

When you get there you expect they will give you some sort of pill, shot, inhaler..... something to get you breathing but they don't. They stuck a bunch of tabs on my chest with monitoring equipment and left me in a room by myself for the next few hours. There was no way to call a nurse or anything and no one came to check on me for hours.

Eventually a nurse came in and said they were waiting on testing equipment for COVID and that after the test it would take up to 48 hours to get the test results back.

The testing equipment involves taking something similar to a Q-Tip, shoving it up your nose, twisting it, then pulling it back out. She told me not to pull away or I WOULD have a nosebleed. This is a very uncomfortable, painful procedure.

Next they move you to the COVID ward.

Two Tulsa police officers and 2 nurses showed up to take me to the ward. They say the police are there to enforce the 6 foot distancing rule during transport but you start feeling more like they are there in case someone get's it in their head they don't want to be put into quarantine. Seems like they picked a couple of bulls (these cops looked more like linebackers than cops).

Once you get to the COVID ward the first thing you notice is it is HOT. You see they have "negative pressure" on that floor. I have been told that was to eliminate spread of VIRUS and try to keep it out of the A/C system but to me that only meant no air conditioning. So there I am, can't breath, in a non air conditioned hospital room in the middle of an Oklahoma summer. One thing to note, they told me don't bother wearing a mask in the COVID ward because the type of mask I was wearing was useless anyway.

Now normally in a hospital they stop by your room every so often to take vitals and check on you. In the COVID ward they tell you upfront the doctors will see you ONCE a day and nurses will only come IF you call them. They tell you upfront they want to minimize exposure to YOU. However with Nurses being so busy it can take hours for them to respond. This was of particular distress regarding the water situation. Mind you I was breathing oxygen (which I felt dried my mouth and throat out) in a room with no air conditioning. It took hours to even get me water. Part of this is because they are required to trash and resuit in PPP every single time they enter and exit a room. So if they have a patient just right next door they can't just go room to room. They have to change. Also anything outside of the norm has to go through a process. I had to have a portable toilet beside my bed (again I could not stand for more than 30 seconds) and that took about 2.5 hours because of the process they have to go through to bring anything into the COVID ward.

The COVID ward consist of 2 sides. The "non confirmed side" while they await your test results, and the confirmed side post test results. If you come back negative they get you off the ward asap. If you test positive you go to the "confirmed side".

The non confirmed room was obviously not in a proper state. It looks like they were just trying to deal with the pandemic and put me in a room that was actually under a construction phase. The walls were missing paint, the clock had no power (don't know if it was battery or electric but the end result is the same, no time) and the TV (which I had very little interest in anyway in my current state) had no sound. I found this odd as our hospitals in Tulsa are usually very modern and clean. Again I assume this was simply due to them trying to deal with the pandemic. I guess I should feel very lucky after reading about some people being treated in metal buildings and tents.

The confirmed side was much better. An actual finished room, clock had power, and the TV had sound (which I only watched two shows, again too sick to really care about the TV). You notice it is a "private room" but it is obvious it was built for two people (by the divider curtain racks in the ceiling). I suspect they do that to keep you far from the room entrance but who knows.

You may wonder why I keep bringing up that clock. Well.... the clock is very visible. You are basically all alone and you can't sleep. So you just struggle to breath for hours not knowing how much time has passed because the clock does not work. It has a real psychological effect on you.

The first night in the "non confirmed room" was fairly quiet.

The second I heard 2 people go into "code". You start to wonder if they are going into code because of age, other health issues, or have simply been there longer. You wonder if YOU are the one going to be coding tomorrow.

Mind you the medical staff have not done anything to actually treat me as of yet except to put me on oxygen.

The next day they said they basically had 2 treatment options. They treated me with remdesivir and convalescent plasma. They had to get special permission from Oklahoma City to even use the Plasma. I guess it is limited and not everyone can get access. They said they had one more treatment as well but it was unproven, experimental, and very expensive. They also said I would probably not qualify for it anyway.

I started feeling better within 5 hours of the remdesivir and convalescent plasma. Before that I was wondering if I was going to get out of that place alive.

There are three things I learned about COVID during my stay.

#1 It is very important your mask is actually rated properly. Again, they told me to not even bother wearing one on the COVID ward. So please stop buying these homemade masks and wear a properly rated one.

#2 Don't expect immediate care when you go in as a COVID patient as far as medicine or anything like that until your test comes back positive. At least that is how it was for me.

#3 There are several strains of COVID. Just because you had it does not mean you are clear from "getting it". You can catch another strain, which puts you in extreme danger in the COVID ward because you have to assume that other people on the ward may have a different strain than you and you are already compromised.

I can assure anyone on here COVID is not a hoax. I have no doubt without that remdesivir and convalescent plasma I would either still be in the hospital or dead.

Even now after being out for a while I still have breathing issues (the Doc said I would have up and down days) and still get fatigued sometimes. I am able to keep my oxygen level up but my pulse has to raise high to compensate even now. Hopefully that will level back out over time.

I have made a commitment (despite my aversion to needles) to donate as much Plasma as I am able so they can use it to treat other patients. Again, I noticed a remarkable improvement within 5 hours. That is not to say I am healthy (even now) but I no longer feel I am slipping away, more like a daily struggle. I hope to be perfectly back to normal sometime next week.

Wow glad you made it out ok...I am high risk so I take it seriously. Do you mind me asking your age and if you had any pre exisiting conditions? Trying to gauge if this is survivable to people like me 56 years old with diabetes asthma and heart disease and overweight

 

[La Li Lu Le Lo]

Wow glad you made it out ok...I am high risk so I take it seriously. Do you mind me asking your age and if you had any pre exisiting conditions? Trying to gauge if this is survivable to people like me 56 years old with diabetes asthma and heart disease and overweight

I am mid 40's and besides being overweight (which I am currently working on a weight loss program) I have no preexisting conditions.

2 issues I see with the information you gave are

#1 Asthma: COVID attacks the lungs. If you have asthma I could see that putting you at extreme risk.

#2 Heard Disease: I was and still am suffering from Tachycardia (Tachycardia is the medical term for a heart rate over 100 beats per minute) since I got sick. If you already have heart disease I can see this putting stress on your heart. This is a common symptom of COVID patients.

That being said lineguy43 my wife showed no more than very light cold symptoms. In fact COVID hit her no worse than having light summer allergies. You just don't know and some people show no symptoms at all, that is what makes COVID so dangerous.

You being high risk I want to repeat some info for your benefit. If you are not wearing a mask that is properly rated you are wasting your time. In fact while in the COVID ward they told me to just throw my mask in the trash and not even bother wearing one because it was ineffective anyway.

Now one should not take that to mean that masks in general are not effective in preventing the spread of COVID but here is the difference. Other masks prevent the wearer from SPREADING the disease but an N95 protects you from CATCHING the disease from others. That is the difference.

With you being high risk I HIGHLY recommend you not wear anything but an N95 rated mask. In fact with you being high risk you may even consider wearing a face shield on top of that. This serves 2 purposes, it provides yet another layer or protection, and secondly it keeps you from touching your face.

Please note lineguy43 this precaution from the FDA regarding N95 masks.

People with chronic respiratory, cardiac, or other medical conditions that make breathing difficult should check with their health care provider before using an N95 respirator because the N95 respirator can make it more difficult for the wearer to breathe.

Just be careful OK?

 

[La Li Lu Le Lo]

N95 Respirators, Surgical Masks, and Face Masks

https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices...n95-respirators-surgical-masks-and-face-masks

General N95 Respirator Precautions

• People with chronic respiratory, cardiac, or other medical conditions that make breathing difficult should check with their health care provider before using an N95 respirator because the N95 respirator can make it more difficult for the wearer to breathe.
• Some models have exhalation valves that can make breathing out easier and help reduce heat build-up. Note that N95 respirators with exhalation valves should not be used when sterile conditions are needed.
• All FDA-cleared N95 respirators are labeled as "single-use," disposable devices. If your respirator is damaged or soiled, or if breathing becomes difficult, you should remove the respirator, discard it properly, and replace it with a new one. To safely discard your N95 respirator, place it in a plastic bag and put it in the trash. Wash your hands after handling the used respirator.
• N95 respirators are not designed for children or people with facial hair. Because a proper fit cannot be achieved on children and people with facial hair, the N95 respirator may not provide full protection.

 

[lineguy43]

I am mid 40's and besides being overweight (which I am currently working on a weight loss program) I have no preexisting conditions.

2 issues I see with the information you gave are

#1 Asthma: COVID attacks the lungs. If you have asthma I could see that putting you at extreme risk.

#2 Heard Disease: I was and still am suffering from Tachycardia (Tachycardia is the medical term for a heart rate over 100 beats per minute) since I got sick. If you already have heart disease I can see this putting stress on your heart. This is a common symptom of COVID patients.

That being said lineguy43 my wife showed no more than very light cold symptoms. In fact COVID hit her no worse than having light summer allergies. You just don't know and some people show no symptoms at all, that is what makes COVID so dangerous.

You being high risk I want to repeat some info for your benefit. If you are not wearing a mask that is properly rated you are wasting your time. In fact while in the COVID ward they told me to just throw my mask in the trash and not even bother wearing one because it was ineffective anyway.

Now one should not take that to mean that masks in general are not effective in preventing the spread of COVID but here is the difference. Other masks prevent the wearer from SPREADING the disease but an N95 protects you from CATCHING the disease from others. That is the difference.

With you being high risk I HIGHLY recommend you not wear anything but an N95 rated mask. In fact with you being high risk you may even consider wearing a face shield on top of that. This serves 2 purposes, it provides yet another layer or protection, and secondly it keeps you from touching your face.

Please note lineguy43 this precaution from the FDA regarding N95 masks.

People with chronic respiratory, cardiac, or other medical conditions that make breathing difficult should check with their health care provider before using an N95 respirator because the N95 respirator can make it more difficult for the wearer to breathe.

Just be careful OK?

Thanks for getting back to me....Believe me I am being about as cautious as you can get I have been on a ventilator I have no plans on ever going back on one.