Dr. : do you experience any of these (Covid) symptoms?
Chronically ill people:
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#fortunately Canadian quarantine laws later added a pre-existing-condition exemption #(although thanks to my pollen issues being degenerative I *still* ended up #calling off sick for two days for what turned out to be a new pollen manifestation) #((lesson learned: pinch your masks shut *very* tightly! tape them if you have any doubts! #autumn pollen will get in through the slightest crack and it will fuck your shit *up*!!)) #(((it sure is convenient though that COVID and pollen take the same primary preventative treatment‚ very efficient))) #even after it stopped being Literally Illegal to show up to work while having an allergy attack #I still really didn’t want to deal with confusion/uncertainty about what I had (including internal uncertainty) #not counting commuting I’ve spent…maybe two or three cumulative hours outdoors this entire year? #(although really I suspect most mask ”failures” back in the day were actually from not wearing a mask at work) #(which is no longer an issue and I will *never* let the franchise owner take my mask away from me again) #((I’m glad I finally consulted my doctor about options in November 2019 even though I haven’t really been able to follow up on it properly)) #((I have official medical records dating back to before the pandemic #indicating that I require a mask in areas with sufficient air mixture with the outdoors!)) #((*suck* on it Meta-Boss!)) #anyway‚ I’ve noticed my co-worker with the chronic cough #(who‚ perhaps not unrelatedly‚ is also my only co-worker who seems to genuinely give a shit about the plague) #has not coughed in my hearing once since he returned to work in May #but he *does* clear his throat a lot more often #I infer that he is consciously suppressing his cough so as not to freak people out #tag rambles #covid19 #allergies #illness tw #in which Brin has a job
#the nosepieces on both of my masks are starting to wear out #a couple weeks ago I started taping them shut with bandaids on this post’s advice #it’s working great and I want everyone to know about this method #illness tw? #covid19 #allergies #the more you know #(I’ve already shared this tip with one receptive-looking customer and she called it ”brilliant”) #(I hope she makes good use of it)
me when I hear my family making big Christmas plans that ignore the state’s mandate that says no more than 10 people in a space
Somehow I don’t think your heart is going to grow three sizes if you see them gather with a large group of people to all sing together.
I’m trying to plan tomorrow’s grocery trip around the possibility that I will not dare to go back for quite some time. And if I *do* go on the 22nd, it will be planned likewise: December 22nd being of tolerable risk does not at all mean January 5th will be.
(I guess if January turns out terribly we might be able to drive out to one of the expensive grocery stores that offers curbside pickup. I still have all of my CERB money (if only just), and they gave it to me for a reason.)
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#reply via reblog #covid19 #illness tw #Christmas #food mention #101 Uses for Infrastructureless Computers
#I get that they’re making some kind of catboy joke but I don’t actually care about that bit #to me the striking bit is Famine #today in Apocalypse Memes‚ we bring you a nearby branch of the multiverse #–(or even just a poorer country‚ I suppose)– #where things are going basically the same except worse #when I contemplate ”the personification of Famine depicted as wearing a surgical mask” #I feel passing over me the shadow of what might have been #what might still be‚ next time #Among Us #death tw #starvation cw #covid19
On GoodRx, a month’s worth of sildenafil 20 mg costs $17.25
On the same site, a month’s worth of sildenafil 25 mg costs $507.24
Does anyone buy the 25 mg version? You bet – I saw a patient who was on it yesterday (don’t worry; he’s since been switched over).
What’s going on here? Sildenafil has two FDA approvals – one, under the name “Revatio”, for hypertension. The other, under the name “Viagra”, for – well, you know.
The FDA only approved Revatio at doses of 5 and 20 mg, and only approved Viagra at doses of 25 and 100 mg. So sildenafil 20 mg has “Revatio” on the box and sildenafil 25 mg has “Viagra” on the box. Revatio is generic and dirt-cheap; Viagra is still on-patent and expensive.
But can’t people who want Viagra just buy Revatio?
Yes, totally. But the average patient doesn’t know this is going on. And the average doctor doesn’t really have any incentive to care because they’re not the one buying it (I’ve had patients who have asked their doctor to prescribe the cheaper version, and the doctor has refused because they want to do it the “proper” way). And I think it’s illegal for the insurance companies to insist, because technically the FDA only approved sildenafil 25 mg for erectile dysfunction but didn’t approve sildenafil 20 mg.
(also, some people are like “But I need a higher 50 mg dose of Viagra, and Revatio only goes up to 20 mg!” As the ancient rationalist proverb goes, have you tried thinking about the problem for five minutes?)
At the advice of my doctor, I’m on pseudo-prescription naproxen. Instead of one 500mg prescription pill, I buy the 220mg OTC stuff and take double the dose on the label: it’s close enough, and it’s somewhat cheaper per mg if you don’t have prescription coverage. She said if I ever do get prescription coverage I should let her know and she’ll write me an official prescription then.
I love my doctor.
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(Please do not take prescription-strength naproxen without medical supervision: you can fuck up your liver.)
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Side benefit:
People in the spring: “it’s horrible that they’re making *chronically ill* people go to a *pharmacy* *every month* and risk plague! patients aren’t allowed to keep buffers of medications they often need to *survive*!”
Me: *looks with a mixture of relief and awkwardness at my 200-pack of Aleve*
(Note: I only need it around the onset of menstruation, so 200 OTC-sized pills is about a ten-month supply.)
(Store-brand naproxen doesn’t come in 200-pack, and the bulk-discount benefit outweighed the name-brand penalty.)
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#other things my doctor has done: #prescribed prune juice for constipation #prescribed string for skin tags #used Big Pharma ”samples” to keep her poorer patients supplied with meds they would struggle to afford on their own #readily admitted that people in my situation don’t actually need gynecological checkups #and I should only see a gynecologist if something goes wrong or I decide to start having sex #reply via reblog #adventures in human capitalism #medical cw #illness mention #covid19 #menstruation #this probably deserves some other warning tag but I am not sure what
yeah it would be nice if they came with better nose pieces but they don’t
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Firstly: it can be easy to acclimate, and the different between surgical-mask and maskless is often best observed through comparison. When you take your mask *off*, especially but not necessarily outdoors, are you abruptly hit with a wave of scent?
(Taking off my mask for a solo picnic a couple weeks ago was a powerful experience. After all these months of worrying every time I smelled anything outside my house, it was bittersweet to be so viscerally reminded that yes, I really am missing a lot.)
Did you have the same problems with 2010s-made masks, back when they let ordinary people have medical-grade ones? I tried a 2020-made disposable mask a couple months ago and it was complete shit, absolutely did let all of those background scents through [link].
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I saw some random doctor recently saying that he supplements his nosepieces by putting a band-aid seal on over the top. Seems worth a shot: might try it at work tonight, I *have* been noticing early signs of nosepiece failure in both of my cloth masks. (So far I’ve just planted my glasses firmly over the top to help hold it down.)
#followup to the previous post #which I had been wavering on whether or not to reblog for a couple days #but seeing this one made me decide in favour #illness tw #fun with statistics #covid19 #oh look an update
Friends don’t let friends give their entire extended families COVID.
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#AAAAAAAAAAAAAA #today in We Live in a Horror Movie: the ”the call is coming from inside the house” edition #(personally I am *not* a clueless horror-movie protagonist and I have been keeping an eye (so to speak) on my sense of smell) #(when I was in quarantine I kept a bottle of peppermint oil on my bedside table) #(and opened it once or twice a day to check if my nose was still working) #((it was)) #(also remember that that’s for times when you’re *not* wearing a mask) #(if you’re currently wearing a mask having a sense of smell that’s *too good* is the bad sign because it means problems with your mask seal) #(if you’re wearing an N95 the correct level of sense-of-smell to have *is* in fact *zero*) #(for a surgical-shaped mask you should get occasional whiffs of stuff but little or no background scents) #(that includes cloth‚ though the occasional whiffs will likely be somewhat more frequent than they are with a well-made #–(not churned-out-for-2020 shit)– #disposable) #((yes‚ you can smell that surgical masks aren’t as good as N95s; yes‚ it’s scary)) #tag rambles #illness tw #covid19 #Yankee Candle #embarrassment squick?
Brinens and Things 