Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2 / COVID-19) and Tinnitus

[lymebite]

Would now be a bad time to take Prednisone? Given that it lowers your immunity system?

I had an appointment with my doctor yesterday to discuss immunosuppressive meds, including Prednisone and CellCept. His opnion was that unless there was a critical need, better to wait for COVID-19 to resolve.

 

[Jack V]

Would now be a bad time to take Prednisone? Given that it lowers your immunity system?

That's a pretty good question.

I suppose it depends on the need.

If the need were great, perhaps, but followed by rigorous isolation.

 

[Lane]

Would now be a bad time to take Prednisone? Given that it lowers your immunity system?

@Jaysterk -- My understanding is Prednisone will only lower immunity if taken over long periods of time (perhaps several weeks). My best guess is that to lower immunity, it would have to be taken longer than the length of time people normally take it for treating tinnitus. -- To be clear, these are my best recollections from having read about it many years ago. Wanted to bring it to your attention however, in case you'd want to research this angle further.

 

[Jaysterk]

@Jaysterk -- My understanding is Prednisone will only lower immunity if taken over long periods of time (perhaps several weeks). My best guess is that to lower immunity, it would have to be taken longer than the length of time people normally take it for treating tinnitus. -- To be clear, these are my best recollections from having read about it many years ago. Wanted to bring it to your attention however, in case you'd want to research this angle further.

Yea most definitely. I was just about to take it and this thought crossed my mind.

If anyone wants to help me research/start a thread for this it would be great. I think it might come in handy in the next few weeks.

 

[Lane]

As a veterinarian, I would love to know more specifics about the case and why Vitamin C was chosen instead.

Hi @FGG -- I got a chance to ask my wife about it this evening, and we spent some time going back over a story she first told me about 20 years ago. Not surprisingly, I got a few details wrong, and had completely forgotten others. Sorry for the inaccuracies. So here's a more accurate story.

Though she had had concerns about her dog (Wonder) being exposed to heavy metals from the transformer, what actually made him really sick was him eating some some badly spoiled food that had been thrown into the back yard by an "untidy" neighbor. My wife was able to see that Wonder had eaten this spoiled food, and watched as he gradually got sicker throughout the day. By evening, Wonder started to have seizures, at which time he was taken to the vet.

He was immediately put on some kind of blood filtration device using charcoal. My wife requested that he add an IV Vitmain C drip at the same time. Though the vet wasn't in the vein of what you would called a holistic or "alternative" vet, he knew what my wife's "bent" was, was fine with it, and he readily agreed to add the Vit. C drip.

When my wife checked in the next morning, the vet was very pleased to see that Wonder had stabilized, but his heart was still "weak", and was still unable to sit up. So my wife got back to her research (before the internet), and found some literature that indicated adding Vit. E and calcium to the drip might help. So she asked that they be incorporated into the Vit. C drip, to which the vet again readily agreed.

Within an hour, the vet called back and was pretty excited by Wonder's sudden dramatic improvement. He was now able to sit up quite easily, and was ready to come home. The vet apparently made a comment something like, "I'm a believer now!" So, a happy ending to the story. -- But there was another heartwarming "ending" a few years later.

Wonder was nearing the end of his life, and it had become time for him to move on. He was again taken to this same vet, this time to be "put down" (I think that's how it's normally put). My wife had quite a touching dream that night. She found herself close to an ocean, and could see a number of dolphins swimming around. In a pool right next to the ocean was Wonder, looking looking somewhat imploringly back at my wife. My wife could strongly feel the same strong love connection they'd had while he was still in the physical world.

At that point, my wife woke up, but soon realized she needed to go back to that "dream" scene. When she went back, she again saw Wonder looking toward her. This time, my wife realized that Wonder was looking for her to give the OK for him to "move on". When my wife encouraged him to do so, he jumped into the ocean, and became an exuberant dolphin! Still kinda chokes me up when I think about that "happy ending", even though I had never known Wonder. It actually seems it might be more accurate to call it a new "happy beginning".

 

[FGG]

Hi @FGG -- I got a chance to ask my wife about it this evening, and we spent some time going back over a story she first told me about 20 years ago. Not surprisingly, I got a few details wrong, and had completely forgotten others. Sorry for the inaccuracies. So here's a more accurate story.

Though she had had concerns about her dog (Wonder) being exposed to heavy metals from the transformer, what actually made him really sick was him eating some some badly spoiled food that had been thrown into the back yard by an "untidy" neighbor. My wife was able to see that Wonder had eaten this spoiled food, and watched as he gradually got sicker throughout the day. By evening, Wonder started to have seizures, at which time he was taken to the vet.

He was immediately put on some kind of blood filtration device using charcoal. My wife requested that he add an IV Vitmain C drip at the same time. Though the vet wasn't in the vein of what you would called a holistic or "alternative" vet, he knew what my wife's "bent" was, was fine with it, and he readily agreed to add the Vit. C drip.

When my wife checked in the next morning, the vet was very pleased to see that Wonder had stabilized, but his heart was still "weak", and was still unable to sit up. So my wife got back to her research (before the internet), and found some literature that indicated adding Vit. E and calcium to the drip might help. So she asked that they be incorporated into the Vit. C drip, to which the vet again readily agreed.

Within an hour, the vet called back and was pretty excited by Wonder's sudden dramatic improvement. He was now able to sit up quite easily, and was ready to come home. The vet apparently made a comment something like, "I'm a believer now!" So, a happy ending to the story. -- But there was another heartwarming "ending" a few years later.

Wonder was nearing the end of his life, and it had become time for him to move on. He was again taken to this same vet, this time to be "put down" (I think that's how it's normally put). My wife had quite a touching dream that night. She found herself close to an ocean, and could see a number of dolphins swimming around. In a pool right next to the ocean was Wonder, looking looking somewhat imploringly back at my wife. My wife could strongly feel the same strong love connection they'd had while he was still in the physical world.

At that point, my wife woke up, but soon realized she needed to go back to that "dream" scene. When she went back, she again saw Wonder looking toward her. This time, my wife realized that Wonder was looking for her to give the OK for him to "move on". When my wife encouraged him to do so, he jumped into the ocean, and became an exuberant dolphin! Still kinda chokes me up when I think about that "happy ending", even though I had never known Wonder. It actually seems it might be more accurate to call it a new "happy beginning".

There is still a lot that I don't understand about this clinical history and treatment (blood charcoal filtration device? Did she mean oral activated charcoal and IV fluids? Did the non alternative vet have vitamin C stocked for Guinea Pig treatment or did they go to a feed store for this in order to acquire it on emergency?) but it is definitely a tangent and it sounds like it was long enough ago where it might be hard to get those kind of details.

In any case, I always love hearing stories about the human/animal bond so thanks for sharing that. Isn't it amazing with all the differences humans have, you can be so close to another species who doesn't even "speak" you language? There is something so pure about that. Your wife's dream sounds like such a fitting good-bye to her friend.

 

[Ed209]

My mom was confirmed to have Covid-19 in the early hours of this morning after she called an ambulance due to breathing difficulties. This pretty much confirms what my wife and I already know, that is we all have the Coronavirus including my 2-year-old daughter (who also has the cough). My mom is now stuck in the house with my 80-year-old father who has other serious medical problems.

I could talk for a long time about the number of roadblocks we have run into. It has been incredibly frustrating as we have been given the runaround even though we are following the 111 protocol. Over two weeks ago my wife went to her GP to get assessed for her breathing problem and this was during the containment period as well. He asked whether she'd been to Italy or China and my wife said the Dr said it whilst half laughing as if to say you haven't got Covid-19 because at the time there would only have been about a hundred cases. Because my wife said no, no test was conducted which means they didn't contain the spread at all. He diagnosed sinusitis and gave her antibiotics. My wife is concerned about the health of our unborn baby, but they have cancelled her upcoming scan. The guidelines clearly state that a pregnant woman who is suspected to have had covid-19 should be tested after 2 weeks to make sure the baby is ok. This is not happening and we are being messed about by being passed from one department to another.

Our GP's practice shut down last week; it's telephone consultations only but nobody ever rings back. It's anarchy. The people we ring don't know what the hell is going on. My wife is still coughing up hard green stuff and she can't get access to a Dr for help, and we can't get our baby checked as the guidelines state we should. The 111 helpline went down earlier as well.

As if all this wasn't enough to deal with, our beautiful daughter fell and face planted a mug on Tuesday and completely knocked out her front incisor and chipped another tooth. This absolutely devastated us. We are aware of how lucky she was that it was just her teeth that were damaged but at the same time it's so hard to look at your daughter and see her damaged smile. It still hurts now. We couldn't leave the house because we are all in lockdown which made it ten times worse.

What can I say about this year? It's been unthinkably cruel and I can only hope that something positive awaits us.

 

[Gabriel]

It's interesting that many people use the number of dead people divided by the number of cases to compute the death rate. It's like computing the probability of getting "heads" when we flip many coins by dividing the number of coins that landed on "heads" by the sum of the number of coins that landed on "tails" PLUS the coins that are still in flight. The fallacy is that it assumes that all the coins that are still "in flight" are going to land on "tails". We don't get to count the coins that haven't landed because we don't know what their outcome is going to be. Strangely, this metric is used in many places.

Accordingly, computing death cases over number of cases is going to yield a lower bound to the actual figure.

The one number we can compute without assumptions is the number of people who died divided by the number of outcomes (death or recovery), which, as of right now, worldwide, is 9843/(84962+9843) = ~10%.

No, you are wrong.

Because you are comparing a coin that will land 10 times faster if it's heads (death) than if it's tails.

People die faster than they get cured and are marked as so. Which means at a given time the number of dead can't be compared to the number of cured because the cured ones started to be ill way before the dead ones.

Also, in many countries like in France, people without symptoms, or with soft symptoms are not even being tested. Which means they are not even in the sick data and won't be in the cured data either.

If you want good data you should take south Korea, as they have been testing massively, not just severe cases.
And you should not calculate the way you do because it's wrong.

 

[Ed209]

Just to add to the above, once they got my mom's vitals to where they needed to be, they released her without any means of transportation at around 3:30 am. She booked a taxi but the driver wouldn't let her in the car which is understandable. I picked her up shortly after.

I've just been told that our main city hospital has had more cases than any other hospital outside of London. It's a real hotbed here, but I can see why, as the attempts to contain the virus were pathetic.

Coming back to the initial purpose of this thread: now that I can pretty much confirm that I've had Coronavirus, I can say that it's had no effect on my tinnitus.

Watch this:

https://news.sky.com/story/coronavi...e-inside-italys-hardest-hit-hospital-11960597

 

[all to gain]

@Ed209

Ed, hang on in there and all the very best to you and your family.

It seems like it's every man for himself in your part of the UK. Let's hope you can get your wife and unborn baby checked out as quickly as possible.

There are going to be some serious questions asked in the future about how this has all been handled. Dismally, if you ask me.

 

[FGG]

My mom was confirmed to have Covid-19 in the early hours of this morning after she called an ambulance due to breathing difficulties. This pretty much confirms what my wife and I already know, that is we all have the Coronavirus including my 2-year-old daughter (who also has the cough). My mom is now stuck in the house with my 80-year-old father who has other serious medical problems.

I could talk for a long time about the number of roadblocks we have run into. It has been incredibly frustrating as we have been given the runaround even though we are following the 111 protocol. Over two weeks ago my wife went to her GP to get assessed for her breathing problem and this was during the containment period as well. He asked whether she'd been to Italy or China and my wife said the Dr said it whilst half laughing as if to say you haven't got Covid-19 because at the time there would only have been about a hundred cases. Because my wife said no, no test was conducted which means they didn't contain the spread at all. He diagnosed sinusitis and gave her antibiotics. My wife is concerned about the health of our unborn baby, but they have cancelled her upcoming scan. The guidelines clearly state that a pregnant woman who is suspected to have had covid-19 should be tested after 2 weeks to make sure the baby is ok. This is not happening and we are being messed about by being passed from one department to another.

Our GP's practice shut down last week; it's telephone consultations only but nobody ever rings back. It's anarchy. The people we ring don't know what the hell is going on. My wife is still coughing up hard green stuff and she can't get access to a Dr for help, and we can't get our baby checked as the guidelines state we should. The 111 helpline went down earlier as well.

As if all this wasn't enough to deal with, our beautiful daughter fell and face planted a mug on Tuesday and completely knocked out her front incisor and chipped another tooth. This absolutely devastated us. We are aware of how lucky she was that it was just her teeth that were damaged but at the same time it's so hard to look at your daughter and see her damaged smile. It still hurts now. We couldn't leave the house because we are all in lockdown which made it ten times worse.

What can I say about this year? It's been unthinkably cruel and I can only hope that something positive awaits us.

Are they denying community spread?

This sounds so stressful. I am glad you and your family seem to be pulling through, though.

 

[hans799]

...at least we can put the "it's just the flu, don't panic" bullshit to rest. Whoever believed that, whether people or countries, are going to reap what they have sown.

Heavens help us all throughout the next few months... it's gonna be like 1918 and 1929 neatly foil-wrapped into one enormous package of pain.

 

[MBH]

Can you sneak to another country? And use their health care. I find it crazy not to have proper health care for unborn baby. You do not need that stress on top of everything else. I hope you receive the care you need.

 

[Michael B]

I thought the stress from all this would have a negative effect on my tinnitus, particularly since CA is on lockdown but so far so good.

 

[Lane]

After reading this, I was even happier I've gotten into the habit of ingesting at least a bit of bentonite clay every day.

12 Bentonite Clay Benefits — for the Skin, Gut and More By Dr. Josh Axe, DC, DMN, CNS

In one study using cows, scientists found that bentonite clay molecules bound to bovine rotavirus and bovine coronavirus, two major viruses that contribute to gastroenteritis (referred to as stomach flu in people). Variations of both of these viruses can also be present in human beings.

Thanks to its ability to neutralize bacteria in the gut and kill viruses, BC helps to alleviate many digestive problems. Some people use bentonite clay as relief for nausea and vomiting (including pregnant women), constipation, and to help with IBS.​

 

[Ed209]

After reading this, I was even happier I've gotten into the habit of ingesting at least a bit of bentonite clay every day.

12 Bentonite Clay Benefits — for the Skin, Gut and More By Dr. Josh Axe, DC, DMN, CNS

In one study using cows, scientists found that bentonite clay molecules bound to bovine rotavirus and bovine coronavirus, two major viruses that contribute to gastroenteritis (referred to as stomach flu in people). Variations of both of these viruses can also be present in human beings.

Thanks to its ability to neutralize bacteria in the gut and kill viruses, BC helps to alleviate many digestive problems. Some people use bentonite clay as relief for nausea and vomiting (including pregnant women), constipation, and to help with IBS.​

I'm not sure how this is relevant as it's an entirely different strain that is limited to cattle and wild animals.

I say this in the most respectful way, so please don't think I'm being rude.

 

[linearb]

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/20/health/covid-19-recovery-rates-intl/index.html

However, the impact on men appears to be worse, at least among those who were part of this initial study. While 2.8% of the men diagnosed with the disease died, only 1.7% of women did.

This also shows a 0.4%, or 1:250 death rate for people in the 40-49 age range.

The influenza death rate for that age range is 0.0047% (source: https://www.livestories.com/statistics/us-influenza-flu-pneumonia-deaths-mortality)

Therefore, the numbers in the CNN analysis could be off by a factor of ten, and this would still be ten times as deadly as the flu to people in the 40-49 range.

The flu comparisons needed to stop a month ago.

 

[El BUZZ]

What's sure is that it is fu#ked up to have to stay locked in home due to this COVID-19 situation and having your head FULL of noise. This makes it extra sci-fi and extra rough.
(Writing from Spain).

 

[GregCA]

No, you are wrong.

Because you are comparing a coin that will land 10 times faster if it's heads (death) than if it's tails.

Time doesn't matter... I want to know the probability that I'll die if I get the virus. How long it takes before I die (3 days? 2 months?) doesn't change my level of worry. I'm interested in a number that represents my outcome.

The impact of the "how long to die" factor will be reflected in the death rate as the new data evolves and the rate converges to a longer term value.

You can argue that the rate should be lower because of the lack of testing, that is an acceptable argument: as we do more testing, we'll get more accurate.
You can also argue that the rate is going to increase sharply once we run out of hospital capacity: as we reach that point (in some places, it looks like we've already hit it), we'll also get more accurate.

 

[linearb]

Time doesn't matter... I want to know the probability that I'll die if I get the virus. How long it takes before I die (3 days? 2 months?) doesn't change my level of worry. I'm interested in a number that represents my outcome.

unless you're elderly, or immunocompromised, I don't think it makes mathematical sense to be worried about one's own mortality too much; ten or even 100 times as deadly as the flu, the odds are still vastly in your favor. But, if you don't follow correct protocols, then your odds of your behavior killing other people skyrocket.

 

[Ed209]

Are they denying community spread?

This sounds so stressful. I am glad you and your family seem to be pulling through, though.

I don't think they're denying it, they were just clueless a couple of weeks back. Testing simply hasn't been rigorous enough. The fact they were only taking it seriously if one had been to Italy or China says it all, unfortunately. They didn't screen for a community threat.

 

[Lane]

I'm not sure how this is relevant as it's an entirely different strain that is limited to cattle and wild animals. ... I say this in the most respectful way, so please don't think I'm being rude.

@Ed209 -- I'm surprised you don't see any relevance, because it was pretty easy for me to do so. If you go to the article, and do a search on "virus", you'll notice it comes up 11 times. It seems clear from the article BC has been shown to be effective for treating quite a variety of viruses, including one that is a cornoavirus (bovine). It doesn't prove it would be effective against the current coronavirus, but it seems there's a good chance it would.

If it didn't affect it directly, bentonite clay just might have the potential to treat it indirectly. It was thought for quite a while that the one distinguishing feature that set apart coronavirus symptoms from regular flu or cold symptoms was the associated respiratory aspects, like shortness of breath, tightness in chest, etc. They're apparently now aware that GI symptoms often arrive before any other symptoms. There's much in the article I linked that connnects bentonite clay to improved gut function by addressing various pathogens causing those problems.

I ran across an interesting article many years ago, describing how bentonite clay was used by cleanup workers at Chernobyl. They were using the best radiation protection suits at the time, but it was still clear the workers were suffering from radiation exposure. Somehow they got the idea to cover their entire skin surface with a bentonite clay slurry before putting on their suits, and their radiation exposure symptoms went away.

They apparently knew clay had the capacity to absorb/adsorb radiation. Which doesn't surprise me, because it has an amazing ability to absorb/adsorb all kinds of extremely toxic materials. The reason for this is apprently because clay particles are negatively charged, and toxicities of all kinds are positively charged, so there's a natural attraction. That same negative/positive dynamic is also apparently the same reason clays can be so effective in neutralizing most viruses and bacteria.

I'm no scientist, so I hope nobody asks me a bunch of scientific questions about this. But I am an experimenter. I've experimented with applying a clay slurry over my entire body, and notice everytime that I feel better as a result--though I can't say exactly why that's the case. I'm also a decades along (fairly diligent) health researcher, and know that many holistic or alternative health care practitioners regularly use it in practice. There's tons of information about it online for anybody who would want to do more research for themselves.

For me, it would be totally sensible to incorporate inexpensive bentonite clay into a coronavirus prevention or treatment program (along with other things as well). What I've been able to discern so far about where this coronavirus situation is at, and where it's likely headed, is that we're probably mostly on our own when it comes to taking care of ourselves. I think your own experience would bear this out. Most health care systems are simply not going to be up to the task of adequately caring for everybody that becomes infected.

BTW, when you mentioned how your wife was coughing up green gunk, my first thought was she would likely benefit from the hydrogen peroxide inhalation therapy I mentioned in an earlier post. I tried that as well, and even though I didn't have any known disease at the time, it was amazing how it stirred up some gunk in my lungs, allowing me to expel it. And my lungs felt much healthier after doing it for a few days. -- All the best to you and your family!

 

[FGG]

@Ed209 -- I'm surprised you don't see any relevance, because it was pretty easy for me to do so. If you go to the article, and do a search on "virus", you'll notice it comes up 11 times. It seems clear from the article BC has been shown to be effective for treating quite a variety of viruses, including one that is a cornoavirus (bovine). It doesn't prove it would be effective against the current coronavirus, but it seems there's a good chance it would.

If it didn't affect it directly, bentonite clay just might have the potential to treat it indirectly. It was thought for quite a while that the one distinguishing feature that set apart coronavirus symptoms from regular flu or cold symptoms was the associated respiratory aspects, like shortness of breath, tightness in chest, etc. They're apparently now aware that GI symptoms often arrive before any other symptoms. There's much in the article I linked that connnects bentonite clay to improved gut function by addressing various pathogens causing those problems.

I ran across an interesting article many years ago, describing how bentonite clay was used by cleanup workers at Chernobyl. They were using the best radiation protection suits at the time, but it was still clear the workers were suffering from radiation exposure. Somehow they got the idea to cover their entire skin surface with a bentonite clay slurry before putting on their suits, and their radiation exposure symptoms went away.

They apparently knew clay had the capacity to absorb/adsorb radiation. Which doesn't surprise me, because it has an amazing ability to absorb/adsorb all kinds of extremely toxic materials. The reason for this is apprently because clay particles are negatively charged, and toxicities of all kinds are positively charged, so there's a natural attraction. That same negative/positive dynamic is also apparently the same reason clays can be so effective in neutralizing most viruses and bacteria.

I'm no scientist, so I hope nobody asks me a bunch of scientific questions about this. But I am an experimenter. I've experimented with applying a clay slurry over my entire body, and notice everytime that I feel better as a result--though I can't say exactly why that's the case. I'm also a decades along (fairly diligent) health researcher, and know that many holistic or alternative health care practitioners regularly use it in practice. There's tons of information about it online for anybody who would want to do more research for themselves.

For me, it would be totally sensible to incorporate inexpensive bentonite clay into a coronavirus prevention or treatment program (along with other things as well). What I've been able to discern so far about where this coronavirus situation is at, and where it's likely headed, is that we're probably mostly on our own when it comes to taking care of ourselves. I think your own experience would bear this out. Most health care systems are simply not going to be up to the task of adequately caring for everybody that becomes infected.

BTW, when you mentioned how your wife was coughing up green gunk, my first thought was she would likely benefit from the hydrogen peroxide inhalation therapy I mentioned in an earlier post. I tried that as well, and even though I didn't have any known disease at the time, it was amazing how it stirred up some gunk in my lungs, allowing me to expel it. And my lungs felt much healthier after doing it for a few days. -- All the best to you and your family!

I think things like this can help but I would like to weigh in a bit on the animal assumptions.

To use animal examples: Bovine Coronavirus and Feline Coronavirus are extremely different in virulence, clinical course, mutation rate etc etc. And these depend on genetics of the individual, too (most cats are asymptomatic, others develop the nearly always fatal disease, FIP).

Which brings me to this point, treatment depends on organs/systems affected, not just etiology.

Bentonite Clay is a good binding agent. It could be used as an adjuvant therapy to a lot of GI disease for this reason. But because it may help cattle Coronavirus-related diarrhea that doesn't mean taking it would prevent feline Coronavirus-related liver and kidney failure.

I think the same is true for people. I don't see Bentonite Clay doing much directly for Corona-related respiratory illness (unless you had concurrent allergic disease due to food intolerance) but if you had Coronavirus diarrhea, I think it would be a safe thing to try as an adjuvant therapy.

It's possible (but I have seen no evidence yet of this) it could help in other ways if somehow binders decreased fecal/oral transmission (which is less common than respiratory) but, again, I haven't seen any studies on this. Or, I suppose, if you had pre-existing GI disease, the virus would put additional strain on your gut and immune system.

I think it's good to incorporate alternative therapies when it makes sense to. I have used some in practice myself (L-glutamine for Parvo cases to help rebuild flattened intestinal crypts faster, Slippery Elm Bark paste for feline oral ulcers etc etc) But I do think there are a lot of broad sweeping claims about alternative therapies and I think it hurts the movement which is seen as promoting "cure-alls."

 

[valeri]

My mom was confirmed to have Covid-19 in the early hours of this morning after she called an ambulance due to breathing difficulties. This pretty much confirms what my wife and I already know, that is we all have the Coronavirus including my 2-year-old daughter (who also has the cough). My mom is now stuck in the house with my 80-year-old father who has other serious medical problems.

I could talk for a long time about the number of roadblocks we have run into. It has been incredibly frustrating as we have been given the runaround even though we are following the 111 protocol. Over two weeks ago my wife went to her GP to get assessed for her breathing problem and this was during the containment period as well. He asked whether she'd been to Italy or China and my wife said the Dr said it whilst half laughing as if to say you haven't got Covid-19 because at the time there would only have been about a hundred cases. Because my wife said no, no test was conducted which means they didn't contain the spread at all. He diagnosed sinusitis and gave her antibiotics. My wife is concerned about the health of our unborn baby, but they have cancelled her upcoming scan. The guidelines clearly state that a pregnant woman who is suspected to have had covid-19 should be tested after 2 weeks to make sure the baby is ok. This is not happening and we are being messed about by being passed from one department to another.

Our GP's practice shut down last week; it's telephone consultations only but nobody ever rings back. It's anarchy. The people we ring don't know what the hell is going on. My wife is still coughing up hard green stuff and she can't get access to a Dr for help, and we can't get our baby checked as the guidelines state we should. The 111 helpline went down earlier as well.

As if all this wasn't enough to deal with, our beautiful daughter fell and face planted a mug on Tuesday and completely knocked out her front incisor and chipped another tooth. This absolutely devastated us. We are aware of how lucky she was that it was just her teeth that were damaged but at the same time it's so hard to look at your daughter and see her damaged smile. It still hurts now. We couldn't leave the house because we are all in lockdown which made it ten times worse.

What can I say about this year? It's been unthinkably cruel and I can only hope that something positive awaits us.

Ed I'm very sorry to hear of all the trouble you and family are going through, it must be absolutely frustrating to be treated like that on top of already bad situation.

I hope you all get better soon.

If don't mind me asking, from your personal experience, is it worse or the same as normal flu?

Prayers and hugs from Australia!

 

[Ed209]

Ed I'm very sorry to hear of all the trouble you and family are going through, it must be absolutely frustrating to be treated like that on top of already bad situation.

I hope you all get better soon.

If don't mind me asking, from your personal experience, is it worse or the same as normal flu?

Prayers and hugs from Australia!

Depends how you're defining worse I suppose. In terms of its overwhelming and devastating effect on health systems, it's clearly worse, but I know what you meant is in terms of how it feels. To be honest with you, this question can't really be answered sensibly because everybody reacts to it in such a different way.

For me, I felt ill enough to want to stay in bed (but couldn't), however, it wasn't anywhere near as bad as having the full-blown flu in my case. I've had the flu in the past that made me feel far more ill than this did.

My symptoms started with a tickly throat that became a cough with a temperature hovering between 37.7 and 40. I remember on the first night having body aches and being hot and cold at the same time. I became short-of-breath and needed my inhaler more often and my cough steadily became worse. All my sinuses are blocked and I had a raging headache the one day, but the feeling of being ill subsided after about 4 days. I feel run-down still but not ill and my cough is still lingering on. After 8 days my temp is still hovering around 37.7 to 38.2, so I believe my body is probably still fighting the virus.

 

[Jack Straw]

Has anyone here with the virus experienced any congestion / change in tinnitus?

 

[Jack V]

It seems that a lot of energy in this forum is directed at cures, real cures that are in the pipeline, in universities and clinical trials, and that give us all hope.

Realistically, all of those of potential cures are likely delayed.

As the trajectory of coronavirus becomes clearer over the next few months, it might be good to evaluate its impact on timelines, particular for those therapies that seem the most promising.

 

[Lane]

This well-done 5-minute video made an awful lot of sense to me. In fact, it sorta feels like I found a gem.

How to kill Corona Virus at home, COVID 19 by Dr Dan Lee Dimke, PhD. Hot air therapy

 

[Ed209]

Another frontline Dr who works at one of the most heavily affected hospitals in the UK texted me today to say both her and her husband have to self-isolate as she is showing symptoms. She is annoyed because a test could verify whether she has it or not meaning they could both get straight back to work again. This is what I don't understand. To defeat the enemy you need to know where it is so that you can break the chains, and unnecessarily taking out frontline Drs makes no sense either.

Test, Test, Test!

I get a lot of my information from those who are on the ground, rather than the media, so I have an appreciation for the real impact this is having. It is like being in a movie right now, completely surreal.

From the things I've been hearing it seems this hospital might be heading towards breaking point.

I've just noticed that two ENT's are on ventilators after contracting Covid-19:

https://news.sky.com/story/coronavi...r-contracting-covid-19-from-patients-11961531

I think it's a disgrace that there are healthcare professionals having to work with no protective equipment.

 

[Ed209]

Look after yourselves people. Help those around you who may not be able to get food and supplies and don't be that person who empties entire shelves in shops and supermarkets. Let's be kind and support each other out there in the real world, as it's at times like these, more than anything, that we have to have a strong community spirit.