(covid-19, weather, health, fina, kol, amuse)

[elainegrey]

Wednesday, beginning before 4 am with discomfort throughout the day, dissolved into a long engagement with the an online game. When i was introduced to Blaseball late last week it tickled my memory, "This is mildly entertaining but what was that game...", kept up as my response until dug up Kingdom of Loathing, found my character and blasted through years of accrued gifts as i recalled how to play. Christine corrected my descriptions of both from Surrealist to Dadaist. Fandom, i am embarrassed to say to my Dreamwidth friends, is not my thing, so the engagement in Blaseball just doesn't click for me. But i've managed to completely avoid any player vs player engagement in KoL and find it a just fine diversion.

The doctor called just after 5 to discuss diagnosis and treatments and now i have yet another chronic annoyance, Irritable Bowel Syndrome. I have suspected but, having determined that it wasn't bad enough to complain for any prescription solutions, never pursued. The lifestyle changes aren't really a solution for me as i like vegetables and the high fiber ones at that, beans and whole grains are a regular part of my diet, and i drink water all the time. Anyhow, we've got a plan to deal with the acute issue that began seven days ago, and i have my fingers crossed.

I'm cranky about this too, because i think back to this same doctor's "You're quite healthy!" after discussing the other skin conditions, allergies, asthma, and -- no, there's nothing that miracles of medical science can do, no heroic interventions, and in no way am i going to die from anything (*cough* except depression *cough*, and my asthma has never been severe enough to worry about).

So i think about those of you wrestling with cancer or with severe allergies or chemical sensitivities, those of you watching loved ones with dementia, those of you recovering from COVID and -- yeah -- that's serious. And i feel like a wimp and a malingerer for not pushing through this. But. It's not either-or. I can take a little time to let my body get over insult, disruption, while still acknowledging the seriousness of other types of physical and mental disruptions.

At work, many of us have been given a bonus. I was feeling very uncomfortable about it up until a moment ago. I've been so fortunate through out the pandemic, and i've tried to use the stimulus checks in such a way as to put them to use: and now a bonus? But -- no -- my employer cut everything back at the beginning of the pandemic, no merit increases, no this, no that, so i spent my own money on conferences that normally i would have asked my employer to cover. The bonus covers that, and i know where the amount goes. We have a savings pool for the inevitable need to replace computers, and that's where i pulled the conference fees from. That's where this goes back.

Meanwhile, temperatures the past few nights have gotten down to 39°F. Well, it's better than the two 30°F nights around April 21st. I did get many of my okra planted Thursday night along with long neglected greens seedlings and the tromboncino squash.

I am confused by the changed CDC mask guidance for vaccinated people and wish i could find something that could help me like this calculator: https://covid-19.forhealth.org/covid-19-transmission-calculator/ -- except that calculator bottoms out at "less than 1%" and https://bestpractice.bmj.com/info/toolkit/practise-ebm/understanding-risk/ has a 1% chance a "high risk". Some old data (2014?) had 12 per 100,000 chance of a transportation death. I'm going to assume the chance of a transportation accident that causes some significant side effects is ten times that: 120 per 100,000, 1.2 in 1000 which is what BMJ.com would label a moderate risk. That's an average American which i am not (even pre pandemic i had low transportation use). I did think about transportation injury risk when living in California and did try to adjust my life to minimize that. A blow-out on I-280 drove that home to me.

Anyhow.

Moderna per https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/different-vaccines/Moderna.html is 94% effective at preventing laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 illness. The problem with that number is -- was that in addition to masking and distancing etc? https://health.ucsd.edu/news/releases/Pages/2021-03-23-though-risk-is-minuscule-infection-after-covid-19-vaccination-possible.aspx suggests that in a hospital worker context (frequently tested, in a situation around people with COVID) the chance of testing positive after was "higher than the risk identified in the Moderna " trials. The "absolute risk of testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 following vaccination was 1.19 percent for health care workers at UC San Diego Health and 0.97 percent at UCLA Health, both higher than the risk identified in the Moderna and Pfizer clinical trials." The CDC says, "Moderna vaccine was 94.1% effective at preventing laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 illness in people who received two doses who had no evidence of being previously infected." This leads me to wonder about the difference between "testing positive" and "laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 illness." UGH Math.

I wish we had better numbers about Long COVID.

Comments

[arlie]

I'm somewhat cynical about the reasons behind any CDC guidance, along with most of the other political decisions about covid. At a guess, the calculus involves providing an inducement for the vaccine-hesitant to get vaccinated, and/or risks from vaccinated people being low enough that they won't swamp ICUs even if they all revert to pre-covid behaviour. But that assumes there's a reason related to covid risk, rather than e.g. politics as usual.

Meanwhile, I'm finally going to get my first covid shot, about a month earlier than I'd have preferred, because avoiding other people's assumptions that "everyone has been vaccinated" is getting more difficult locally.

With regard to IBS - I picked up that diagnosis a decade or so ago, and when it manifested, utterly out of control, I was off work for a considerable period while I learned to manage it. (It wasn't the only thing wrong with me, but the only other diagnosis I picked up was "depression".) It's worth taking seriously. If it's anything like mine, it does mild, unnoticeable periods - and then it does varying degrees of worse. It often flares if I'm otherwise ill, and reliably flares in the presence of job stress.

As someone currently struggling with cancer, I hereby officially inform you that I don't think you're a wimp. The accumulation of little things can too easily add up to misery. Growing older is not for the faint of heart. And simply coping with all the things can be exhausting even when they are individually minor.

I'd offer my personal set of IBS coping strategies, but the truth is, bodies are all different, and IBS covers a wide range. My strategies probably wouldn't be useful to you.

[elainegrey]

Thanks for the official notice: it does help a little. I grew up with a "you are not sick if you can move" attitude from my parents. It's made a rational judgement of my day to day physical condition hard. And i watch it be hard with my aging father who can't accept his decline with age.

[weofodthignen]

Commiserations on the IBS, hope you can find good strategies to manage it as you do with the psoriasis and the cough asthma ... modern medicine isn't as helpful as it should be.

I don't know whether the statistics and the expert explanations in this April article are helpful to those of you who are good with numbers. It struck me as giving useful context. Meanwhile, if only getting vaccinated were as easy as they seem to think it is. Every vaccinated person helps, even every one who's only had one dose so far. But there must be so many who can't jump the hurdles.

[elainegrey]

I think this is what i have understood:

All of the approved vaccines provide protection against the known variants circulating in the U.S. That said, it’s still important to keep your guard up even after you’re fully vaccinated, especially if there’s high community transmission where you live (right now, that’s most places in the U.S.). You’ve heard it before, but it bears repeating: Keep wearing masks, social distancing, and avoiding large gatherings—whether indoors or outdoors.

The CDC guidance seems surprising, although perhaps it's a focus on only considering mortality. "You might get it but it won't be serious," seems to continue the dismissal of long chronic conditions like long COVID.

[annie_r]

I had IBS flares for a long time. It was worse when I was under the most stress, but not correlated exactly. What seemed to help was low-dose prozac. Gut-serotonin link of some kind. I've stayed on it, even though I have more effective meds for depression now, since the IBS has stayed mostly quiet.
and yeah overall it's not serious, but I spent a lot of time being afraid to leave the house when I didn't know for sure where I could get to a bathroom. Or would just feel too exhausted by symptoms. It impacts daily life.

[elainegrey]

I'm sorry to hear. I think this was my first really serious flare, with the general condition being just something i could live with. It is interesting to consider the linkage to depression and SSRIs. Not enough for me to want to go back on one though. Yet.