Tuesday, March 3, 2020

What I've Learned on the Coronavirus COVID-19 Based on Being Extremely Sick

Due to being really sick recently I've managed to learn an enormous amount about coronavirus. If you want to read why I'm behind on work emails, messages, and so forth, you can read about my adventures of being incredibly ILL in the land of COVID-19.  I've isolated myself for the past 7-days and have decided to stop taking Seattle sessions for the next two weeks while I work on my recovery. I am unable to share this message with all my friends, spankos, and fans personally, hence the reason I do hope that everyone will read this blog post, which goes into great detail about what I have been and still am going through at this very moment.

Friday
I had been having some mild symptoms for the past few days including cough and sore throat. With my Chicago spanking trip on the horizon, this was of course concerning to me, so I decided rather than waiting to see if my symptoms progressed it would be best to go in to see the doctor right away in case I needed to start a treatment. I called up my doctor's office and got a last-minute appointment within an hour!  Went to the doctor's office and everything was normal at the office. Doctor wasn't too concerned with my health at the time, said it was "a viral thing", no prescriptions needed. Told me to rest, take some ibuprofen, and DayQuil.

By Friday afternoon things had changed, I got a fever, sinus pain, and major ear pain.

Saturday
My fever continued to get higher and higher until it got to 103.3 and my ear pain was still happening. I emailed back my doctor letting them know about my updates and they said not to come in unless my fever got above 103.5 degrees. In the early evening, I ended up fainting not once but twice and managed to bang myself up pretty good going down. I ended up writing quite a bit about this day on my Twitter if you want to read that, you certainly can.  Let's just say that was a really ROUGH day for me.

Sunday
My fever went away & at the time it seemed like I was improving.  I had great hopes that I'd still be able to go on my Chicago trip at this point.

My day on Monday:

- woke up and tried to call my clinic for about 2-hrs to get an appointment, the phone just rang and rang, which alerted me that something was up. Normally you get a message that goes something like "Press 1 to schedule an appointment, Press 2..."

- I finally got through & found out that due to people watching the news about the latest Washington State deaths and cases of coronavirus that people were starting a MASS PANIC & that over the weekend, a massive amount of people were calling in wanting to be seen. So many phone calls that it overloaded the phone system and the system went down for numerous hours. I explained that I had gotten a "walk-in" appointment via the online scheduling but it was not till 6:30pm and that my cough was much worse at night & was it possible to get seen earlier? She said she would need me to talk to the consulting nurse.

- 30 min later I finally got to talk to the consulting nurse on the phone. She told me that she couldn't do anything personally to get me a sooner appointment, that people were lining up outside the clinic to be seen and waiting in their cars. But that based on my symptoms she urged me to go in sooner than my evening appointment, and that they would triage me and I'd get in sooner. I was baffled as I'd just been in the clinic on Friday and nobody was lined up outside, what on earth was going on? She explained that once the media released the information about more deaths in our state, people were panicking & all the clinics were being swarmed. I told her if I didn't have an upcoming trip, I would definitely wait to be seen, but in this case, I had a decision to make and needed to reassess how bad things were "out in the real world" as well as my own health. She made mention that they were not testing for coronavirus at the clinic, which made me think. Now I'm not concerned about coronavirus thinking that I'm going to die & I need to panic, but I am concerned about the older generations as well as what information is known about it. So I asked why. The nurse told me that because of limited testing supplies the ONLY people being tested for the virus are people who are currently hospitalized & have respiratory issues (on top of the other symptoms like fever and cough of course). This regulation is for sure on a state-level, but may even be on a "National-level". This tells me that all those people who could potentially have the coronavirus but don't have extreme symptoms like respiratory problems (and most will not) are not being tested. If people aren't being tested (unless they have extreme symptoms) then there is no way that the data that's floating out there about how many people in the USA have COVID-19 is accurate.

- I did as the nurse advised and went to the clinic. I'd been there on Friday (my symptoms had changed drastically since Friday & with my trip looming, hence the reason me going back so soon) and there was a HUGE difference in procedure. There was a tent set up & 2 staff people manning the tent outside my doctor's office.  They stop you so you can't go inside and ask you if you have an appointment & what your symptoms are. They give everyone a mask. Based on my symptoms they told me that I would need to wait in my car (smart procedure. They obviously don't want very sick (possibly with coronavirus) germ-infested people contaminating their waiting room and other patients any longer than necessary) and that I'd be seen "quickly" due to the nature of my symptoms.  Quickly turned into an almost 90-min wait, not really quick, but they are in crisis mode...

- When they were getting close to having my room ready, they called to let me know it would be soon. Maybe another 15-min or so, I got a call back and was told to come into the clinic and where to go.  I asked "What about paying my co-pay?". New procedure in place due to the virus, they'll bill me later. I go to the waiting area, sit down and maybe 2-min later they came to get me.  Poor guy had to wear what basically was a one-time use hazmat suit (I've seen hazmat suits in my previous vanilla job, and yes this was a pretty good replica just done much cheaper since they are only allowed to wear it once). His nose, eyes, and majority of his face covered with various masks, hands covered with gloves. And his clothes covered with what looks similar to raincoat (the cheap kind you can buy at amusement parks like DisneyLand for when it rains and you weren't prepared)  but made for the medical community. He asked me questions, did some tests and then when it was time for him to leave my room, he had to strip of all his PPE (Personal Protective Equipment - aka the hazmat suit), throw them in the garbage and leave the room.  The doctor came in wearing the same gear, asked me questions, did some tests and told me he was going to run a flu test on me. He eventually came back and told me that I had the flu. I said "GREAT! So does that mean, I don't have coronavirus?" and his answer was "I don't think so". With an emphasis on the "think". Me being curious followed up. "So you don't think so because I don't have the symptoms of coronavirus?" and his answer was "I don't think so because you haven't traveled outside the US & you haven't been near someone who has been confirmed to have coronavirus".  Sounds to me like a politician answering a question, not that I blame him, I'm sure there's a lot he can't say or speculate based on the fact that he could probably lose his job or his license if he did so (that is only my thoughts and NOT a fact).  But the doc knew that I'd been on 6 flights in the past 2 months, so it's very possible I was near someone who had coronavirus and not known it, I also went to a spanking party where there were hundreds of people from all over the US and some probably from other parts of the world, now, of course, the doc didn't know that part ;)  There is no way anybody can be certain if I was near someone who had the virus.

Now I don't actually want to be tested as I don't want to be quarantined when I've already isolated myself the past 6-7 days, and they can't actually DO anything for me.  Since there is no cure, all they can do is "manage my symptoms" which they are already doing with the prescriptions I've got.  If someone had breathing problems, well that's another story and yes they should definitely be managed in some kind of facility with medical staff.

Now I definitely think the number of coronavirus patients in the US is wayyyy underreported based on this information, but I also don't think there needs to be any kind of mass panic. The virus doesn't really affect children, it's just like "any other flu" for them. Most adults will be affected by it in that there's a good chance they'll catch the flu this year, it will hit them harder and possibly longer. If you knew you were going to get the flu, there is still no reason for people to be going to the store & stockpiling frozen foods, first aid supplies, toilet paper, cold/flu supplies, and other foods like they think the zombie apocalypse is coming. The people who will be most affected by this will be the elderly and people with life-threatening health conditions who can possibly die from it.  So yes if your mom or elderly neighbor gets it, please bring them supplies, but people need to stop overreacting and hoarding supplies so that the people most in need can't even get it because there are so many doomsdayers out there taking them all.

- The doctor did give me the ok to fly & go on my work trip under the condition that my fever did not resurface.

Tuesday
Despite not having a fever since Sat, I'd been waking up every morning having soaked through all my clothes and my hair soaking wet.  I would literally have to dry my hair after waking up. This was still happening today. Also some of my other symptoms that had gone away, have now resurfaced. With my flight on Thursday I had to make a really hard choice about my trip.

My decision regarding Chicago
I decided to cancel the trip which was not an easy decision by any means. I knew I would be letting down some of my clients enormously. I also knew that many of my fans would be wanting to meet me at CAPCon and I'd be letting them down. I'd be missing out on spending time with my girl in Chicago 😥. And I'd also be missing out on the ABDL conference that I had planned to attend and missing out on some very educational classes, this is also only a once a year opportunity. So even though I will be rescheduling my Chicago trip, there's obviously no way to reschedule CAPCon. Although of course, I try to reschedule everyone, sometimes the new dates that I end up picking don't work for everyone, meaning I may NEVER get to meet someone.

Some thoughts that went into why I decided against going to Chicago:
- my symptoms were changing daily and other than on Sunday, it didn't seem like I was really improving. I'm pretty weak and having to do laundry, pack for my trip, send out confirmation emails, etc, plus the long flight, I just didn't think my body could handle it

- I couldn't bear the thought of me passing along this virus to anyone else. Up until now I've been in isolation.  Going on this trip would take me out of isolation and there is no way to know if I am still contagious or not. I had to think about all the people who would be coming into contact with me and the fact that I might be getting them gravely ill, and for people who are older, well, we all know they are at the greatest risk. Just a few of the people I would be coming into contact with if I went on the trip that could be exposed to my virus:

- Uber drivers      - Airline check in reps       - TSA agents       - flight staff
- all the people on my flight         - hotel staff     - restaurant staff    - CAPCon staff & attendees
- my clients     - friends who give me rides to the airport   - the list goes on...

- Part of my being a Professional Disciplinarian is making HARD decisions on someone's BEST interest, not necessarily what they want.  This decision is really in everyone's best interest despite a lot of people being very crushed by my not coming. But just as when parents tell their kids they need to go to bed when they are having fun playing with their friends because going to bed at a reasonable hour is what's best for them, this is the same thing.

Professional Disciplinarian

UPDATE:
After writing this blog post, I was contacted by a spanko who works with the coronavirus who follows my blog and read my post. Here's some info in blue font below, which has been passed on to me by this person:

The media is blowing this all way out of proportion, causing unnecessary public anxiety and panic.

There’s a term being used called reverse isolation Miss. Ultimately meaning you put a surgical mask on the person infected. You could essentially have a young man or woman who is positive COVID, over your knee, bare naked and in a surgical mask. Carry out a 30-minute session and go wash your hands, don’t touch your face or mouth and you’d be fine Miss. Transmission is through close and prolonged exposure. 

50,000 people die in the US each year from pneumonia. Yet the media doesn’t hype that one up. 


So try to stay safe by not touching your face (this is actually impossible for me to do, I can't go for more than a couple minutes without touching my face) when out in public, washing your hands good (30 seconds or longer with soap + water) if you have come in contact with a person or even things like a doorknob, credit card machine, etc where you could pick up another person's germs.

4 comments:

  1. Hi Jenn, THANKS for the detailed 'blog post' about what's been going on with you and how you're feeling. GOOD FOR YOU Cancelling your trip to Chicago, no need to risk possibly getting anyone else sick. I'm SURE you don't have the 'Coronavirus' (heck, do even drink Corona beer?.....LOL), MAYBE it's just your body telling you that you need to slow down, or the regular flu. Either way I hope you feel better soon ;)

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  2. DITTO to what 'Tom' Said....hope you feel better soon. I've had the flu Twice in my life, once when I was about 13 then again when I was about 21 and in College both times no fun....but I got through it and so will you! ;)

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  3. Thanks very much for that informative account. There are some nasty flus going around and obviously you have one. Calling off your trip was the only prudent thing to do, for yourself and for others.

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  4. I worked with COVID-19 you must cover yourself and others keep washing your hands let’s say in a public restroom before and after to minimize the infection. Happy spanking

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