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, March 21, 2022

covid 19 revisited-what a difference 2 years makes


COVID 19 REVISITED-WHAT A DIFFERENCE 2 YEARS MAKES

its been 2 years since i got what i think was covid
i reread all the blogs i wrote while i was in my 2-3 week quarantine
when i read the blogs this morning i realized how much we didnt know about covid and how much we didnt have available to really treat it if you got hospitalized

i wrote they were predicting 100k to die from covid
that prediction was off by about 900k deaths from covid

i felt good that saturday two years ago having just recovered from a gi bug and fatigue two weeks before
i got dizzy felt achy and was short of breath while working in my garden 
it only got worse as the day went on
it progressed to fever chills rigors shortness of breath nausea diarrhea and no appetite
by nighttime i was ready to go to the emergency room
my chest xray and labs and oxygen levels were all ok
my covid test was done but took almost 10 days to get the results
at this time 2 years ago the covid tests were not very accurate

mine was negative
several doctors feel like i probably had covid
so does this doctor
me

after the long quarantine which my wife was quarantined with me with milder symptoms we both got better
i was left with a residual fatigue loss of appetite shortness of breath irregular heart rate some chest pain some sore throat and a lot of nasal congestion
i also had daily headaches that gradually resolved

my weight went from 187 down to a low of 148 six months later
all my food that i could tolerate had to be pureed

i had a cardiac workup which showed i had real frequent premature atrial contractions which are usually benign
i was having 15 a minute which made me worry that i might have atrial fibrillation which is associated with causing strokes
my cardiac workup was normal except for these

it took me months to regain my endurance
i would work in the garden and have to sit down and rest frequently
it would take me 3 times as long to finish things
some like prepping a bed for planting i was not able to do

this gradually got better

several folks thought i had terminal cancer 

sometime in the fall my gi symptoms started improving so that eventually i was able to go off the pureed foods
i lived off of the organic soup kitchens nutritious soups for months

when this all started we didnt know much about the virus
we werent using n95 mask
we were wiping everything down
we were letting our mail and groceries sit for 3 days before using
as we learned more we eased up on some of these
later cloth masks and surgical masks were recommended then later n95 masks were recommended
we havent traveled in 2 years

mr hudson finally got his transplant that summer after having it delayed by covid
he still hasnt been able to get his covid vaxxine but hopefully will get it soon
he has had to live a restricted life for two years
he doesnt mind unlike some adults to pop on his mask without complaints
we look forward to some normalcy for him soon

eventually they figured out that high dose steroids helped
several antivirals were developed that helped
omicron threw a wrinkle in that some by not being slowed by some of them
monoclonal antibodies were developed that probably saved lots of lives
later some of them didnt work as well against omicron

the covid vaxxines got developed and made a huge difference in the number of people who were hospitalized and those who died from covid
without the vaxxines this pandemic would have been oh so much worse

its now such that everyone over 5 can get a vaxxine

vaxxxine boosters were recommended 
especially for those at risk for worse covid infection

the absolutely worse thing that happened in this pandemic is that this got all politicized
this cost us thousands and thousands of lives
plus
even more thousands of folks who will be permanently disabled from this disease

today
we are probably at the best we have been
most of us have either been immunized via vaxxines or naturally immunized with a covid infection

there arent near as many people left to get severely infected as before

there is on the horizon the risk for a new variant popping up that this immunity doesnt work good against

will our immunity wear off
probably
will we all need a booster
probably
will the outbreak if it happens be as bad as the last two years
probably not

today two years later
my weight is at 175
i feel better than i did before the pandemic
i have a few gi symptoms but i tolerate them
my appetite is so much better
i have no shortness of breath and my premature atrial contractions have mainly gone

what a difference 2 years makes
right

the organicgreen doctor

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