welcome to the organic green doctor blog

i am a family physician who was diagnosed with
early mild cognitive impairment(mci) amnestic type on december 21, 2010
this is a precursor to alzheimers disease
because of this diagnosis i have opted to stop practicing medicine
this blog will be about my journey with this disease
please feel free to follow me along this path
i will continue blogging on organic gardening, green living,
solar power, rainwater collection, and healthy living
i will blog on these plus other things noted to be interesting

Monday, April 6, 2020

3rd day post quarantine

3RD DAY POST QUARANTINE
this is my face mask i am wearing if i go outside
it doesnt protect me much
it protects anyone i get near by preventing droplets from spewing out into the air
since coming off quarantine i have only gone somewhere once
that was to my garden plot
i went from our condo to our car to my plot only using my own garden supplies spraying down the lock on the gate with lysol coming and going
i washed my hands with soap in the garden and again as soon as i got home
then
i came straight home
i changed my clothes and took a shower
we wiped down our door knobs on both sides of the door

thats how you do it
wear some type of mask to protect others and maybe yourself some when you go outside
wash your hands

i had a n95 mask but i gave to a high risk person to wear if they go outside
if worn correctly this one blocks close to a 100% of any viruses in the air
this is the one medical folks wear to protect themselves

the surgical masks work second best but are not as good as the n95 ones
this n95 mask was left over from the thomas fires

its been a week since i last ran fever and chills
my biggest issue is my stomach still gets upset some if i overeat if i have an extra cup of coffee or if i have a half glass of wine
my initial presentation was mostly gi symptoms

i have a residual shortness of breath that i notice if i overexert myself
i was ok walking across our condos courtyard
but
when i went to my garden it really showed up
i had to sit and rest a couple of times when i was doing minimal activity in the yard

i really didnt have much respiratory symptoms that first day except for some shortness of breath when walking in the garden and up our stairs and when walking from the car to the emergency room
granted
until this saturday i only walked from our bedroom to the bathroom and back

yesterday was my worse day since i was sick that first week
i eventually as the day wore off figured out why
the night before i had a glass of wine
the next morning i had an extra cup of coffee
with both of those i know get a hot flash after i drink them

i had restarted my aricept (donepezil) since i know how important it is that i stay on this
i had missed about half of my doses the last two weeks
when you start aricept initially you have a lot of nausea and abdominal discomfort
thats what happened to me yesterday after i took it
i plan to do a every other day approach to see if i can continue to tolerate it

i also noticed i was dizzy headed when i stood up and walked around
so i took my blood pressure
i have lost even more weight this last 2 weeks
i realized that i may need to go off my blood pressure meds completely
so
i skipped last nights meds and my blood pressure last night and this morning was lower than it usually was on the meds
eg i usually run 130/78
it was 114/70
had i taken my meds it would have gone lower
i plan on staying off my blood pressure meds a few day to see how it does
its possible i may need to stay off them until i regain weight and become more active

so all those things made me feel better
in fact as i lay in bed i thought
man you feel like you did the end of that first week

yesterday i went back to bed in the morning and stayed down most of the day
last night i felt better

this morning i feel ok
i had my cup of coffee
i ate breakfast
my blood pressure is ok off meds so far
i do if i am too active here in the condo feel a little shortness of breath that resolves when i sit down and rest

i am amazed i have that shortness of breath since i really only had symptoms that first day

my plan is to be a lot slower in my activities

we did a 72 hour quarantine on stuff in our condo which was moved out onto our front porch
im sure i was breaking some sacred hoa rules
so today it can all be moved back inside and all our groceries can be put up
we put a 72 hour quarantine on our nonperishable groceries and our mail

all perishables are scrubbed before being placed in the refrigerator
i try only to buy perishable stuff that can be scrubbed in warm soapy water then sprayed with our peroxide spray

we are looking forward to the day when we can get tested to see if we have immunity to this virus
that will make us more comfortable as we move around outside knowing we probably cant catch it and give it to others

follow the rules
if you stay inside and dont let someone or something bring the virus into you house you will not get it
if you go outside wear your you made it mask
wash you hands coming and going
dont touch your face

you will catch this two ways
breathe it in
put it on your mouth and nose from your hands

if you are high risk or are around high risk people you have to do these things

the organicgreen doctor

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