I live in in Nassau county in NE Florida (between Jacksonville and Georgia if you're familiar with the area). There are sooooooooooooooooooooo many sick and dying people that I know! It's terrible. Here is a news story about a family I know: https://www.news4jax.com/news/local/2021/07/30/nassau-county-woman-loses-fiance-mother-grandmother-to-covid/ - https://www.news4jax.com/news/local/2021/07/30/nassau-county-woman-loses-fiance-mother-grandmother-to-covid/ Within 5 days, this woman lost her grandmother, fiancé, mother and her fiancé's father (he passed away from COVID the day this story went out). Ms. Ruth (the grandmother) was one of the sweetest ladies I know. She was fully vaccinated. I know another family where two of the adult daughters are currently hospitalized (one on a vent) and their sweet mama passed away from Covid this weekend. It's just so very sad. My husband and I are fully vaccinated (Pfizer) as is my 84 yo mama (Pfizer). Most of my mama's friends are also fully vaccinated - which allowed them to finally start getting together again. The isolation for widows in their 80s was terrible to witness. It was so nice to see my mama's two best friends back at her house for their weekly card game on Thursday nights! Until the week before last - when Ms Joyce tested positive for COVID. :( She was the one little old lady in Mama's social circle who hadn't gotten her vaccine. She was able to get into the hospital for some sort of outpatient antibody infusion a couple of days after her positive test. She ended up in the ED over the weekend with COVID pneumonia and dehydration. They gave her fluids, steroids and sent her home with antibiotics. She is now on Day 15 and is still so very sick. My daughter is a 33 yo nurse who works from home doing utilization review for a major insurance company. She and her husband are not vaccinated. She really doesn't go out into the community very much - church on Sunday mornings, grocery store and food take out. She is currently on Day 12 of her battle with COVID. She, too, has been terribly ill. Headache, fever, chills, loss of smell/taste, body aches, cough, diarrhea, nausea. She had a headache for a couple of days...and some nasal congestion...and thought it may be allergies. It's Florida. There's always something blooming. So she didn't really think much of it until last Saturday and she realized that she couldn't smell her shampoo or body wash. The local news talks about all of these vaccines that are available - and testing sites. Make an appointment! Walk-ins are welcome! Total BS. I found one site that was doing testing and confirmed they accepted walk-ins. She got there and it was a 4 - 6 hour wait. They had only been open for 30 minutes. There are no rapid tests available outside of hospitals in our area. I was able to find a CVS that had testing appointments available - in a small town nearly 70 miles from her house. She went. We knew she had it - and it was confirmed on Monday. So over the course of the week she dealt with what seemed like a new symptom du jour. I had provided her with a stash of immunity-boosting supplements (Vitamins C, D3, Quercetin, Zinc, Famotidine, Melatonin, Low Dose Aspirin) and a pulse oximeter. On Saturday, she too ended up in the ER because she desaturated upon exertion - her o2 dropped into the mid-80s while she tried to shower). She did not want to be admitted and has been at home on supplemental o2 when needed (primarily upon walking/standing). She still struggles. My younger daughter took her x-ray in the ED. She is not vaccinated either. She and her husband have been trying to conceive their first child for a year - and there just hasn't been studies about the impact of the vaccine on fertility or in early pregnancy. Over the last 3 weekends her ED has been full of people in their 20s and 30s - so very, very sick with COVID. People that were otherwise healthy. She and her husband got their first dose of the Pfizer vax today. I pray that they have protection until they get the next dose. I've tried to schedule people to get vaccines - but appointments have to be scheduled several days in advance. My son-in-law stopped at 3 different pharmacies (all saying 'walk-ins welcome') and was turned away and told to make an appointment. My nephew and his roommate have COVID. They have been fully vaccinated. They aren't nearly as ill as my daughter or Ms. Joyce. Primarily fatigue, loss of smell/taste, stuffy head. One of our local hospitals (Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville) announced over the weekend that they were over capacity with in-patient admissions. It was one thing to watch the outbreaks in Wuhan and across the globe. It is something else when your community is hit so hard.
|