yospos coronavirus wfh thread year 5 - working all day just isn't right

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syntaxrigger: Jul 7, 2011; Actually you owe me 6! But who's countin?

H.P. Hovercraft posted:

i'm hard of smell (hyposmia) and losing what little i have left would be completely awful

that article is p accurate, doctors don't take it seriously at all and it is a danger; i can smell that chemical they put in natural gas but spoiled milk is outside of my range and has made me sick before

I totally did the "paranoid that my kid has a full diaper and that makes me a bad parent" thing. Rotten food, gas leaks, and chemicals are generally my main concerns. I know sell by dates are garbage but that is all I have to go by unless I can borrow someone's nose. Something I will do and have done to complete strangers.

# ? Apr 14, 2020 17:37

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# ? Apr 20, 2024 03:46

Sagebrush: Feb 26, 2012

H.P. Hovercraft posted:

i'm hard of smell

goddamn political correctness run amok. back in my day we'd just tell a guy that he stinks

# ? Apr 14, 2020 17:58

Broken Machine: Oct 22, 2010

is anyone else finding it difficult to get things done? no matter what i'm doing, in the back of my mind i keep thinking about all the people suffering, much of it preventable and it's hard to focus on much else

# ? Apr 14, 2020 18:05

big scary monsters: Sep 2, 2011; -~Ｓｋｕｌｌｗａｖｅ~-

H.P. Hovercraft posted:

i'm hard of smell (hyposmia) and losing what little i have left would be completely awful

that article is p accurate, doctors don't take it seriously at all and it is a danger; i can smell that chemical they put in natural gas but spoiled milk is outside of my range and has made me sick before

syntaxrigger posted:

I totally did the "paranoid that my kid has a full diaper and that makes me a bad parent" thing. Rotten food, gas leaks, and chemicals are generally my main concerns. I know sell by dates are garbage but that is all I have to go by unless I can borrow someone's nose. Something I will do and have done to complete strangers.

my mother almost entirely lost her sense of smell after a head injury and yeah all those things (apart from the diapers part) were big concerns for her, and that she can't smell burning. also she lost most of her sense of taste, which sucks for a keen cook - she can't tell how much to season stuff any more, can't tell if new recipes taste good, she said that white wine tastes like water and red wine tastes like thick, astringent water

it seems like the covid anosmia is only temporary though?

# ? Apr 14, 2020 18:17

4lokos basilisk: Jul 17, 2008

Broken Machine posted:

is anyone else finding it difficult to get things done? no matter what i'm doing, in the back of my mind i keep thinking about all the people suffering, much of it preventable and it's hard to focus on much else

I have started making daily donations of 19 euro to the French red cross

I have seen local relief funds shared on twitter too. maybe try those or and also your local food bank

# ? Apr 14, 2020 18:47

H.P. Hovercraft: Jan 12, 2004; one thing a computer can do that most humans can't is be sealed up in a cardboard box and sit in a warehouse; Slippery Tilde

Broken Machine posted:

is anyone else finding it difficult to get things done? no matter what i'm doing, in the back of my mind i keep thinking about all the people suffering, much of it preventable and it's hard to focus on much else

i'm stuck at home with a newborn and a toddler and since my company has under 50 employees the lovely covid bill doesn't cover me for even 2/3rds pay so i'm getting fuckall done

# ? Apr 14, 2020 18:54

Jonny 290: May 5, 2005; [ASK] me about OS/2 Warp

shouldn't have hosed, dude. we warned you

# ? Apr 14, 2020 18:55

syntaxrigger: Jul 7, 2011; Actually you owe me 6! But who's countin?

big scary monsters posted:

my mother almost entirely lost her sense of smell after a head injury and yeah all those things (apart from the diapers part) were big concerns for her, and that she can't smell burning. also she lost most of her sense of taste, which sucks for a keen cook - she can't tell how much to season stuff any more, can't tell if new recipes taste good, she said that white wine tastes like water and red wine tastes like thick, astringent water

it seems like the covid anosmia is only temporary though?

It seems that may be true but only after months of therapy according to the article. Other than that idk.

These were the most wild bits of that article to me:

quote:

The neurons responsible for our experience of odor protrude down from the brain, pass through a layer of bone at the back of the nose, and then, in effect, dangle their cilia out into the air.

quote:

Taken together, the genes that encode our olfactory receptors constitute the largest gene family in our DNA, and it has been suggested that we are capable of detecting and distinguishing between as many as a trillion distinct odors. Our noses detect �virtually all volatile chemicals larger than an atom or two,� the Rutgers University neuroscientist John McGann wrote in a 2017 paper in Science, �to the point that it has been a matter of scientific interest to document the few odorants that some people cannot smell.�

quote:

One survey respondent, a patient who noted that he missed the smell of approaching snowstorms...

That smelling or being aware of phenomenon beyond sight feels like voodoo magic to me. That seems like the coolest part of being able to smell.

# ? Apr 14, 2020 18:57

syntaxrigger: Jul 7, 2011; Actually you owe me 6! But who's countin?

Jonny 290 posted:

shouldn't have hosed, dude. we warned you

i am hard headed

# ? Apr 14, 2020 18:58

carry on then: Jul 10, 2010; by VideoGames
(and can't post for 10 years!)

the smell of approaching storms in the desert (which is really the smell of dust in the air) and the smell the plants down there make after getting rained on are some of my favorite memories, would really suck to lose that

# ? Apr 14, 2020 19:02

Jonny 290: May 5, 2005; [ASK] me about OS/2 Warp

in denver the same winds that usually bring snow to Denver pass over the Greeley cattle farms, so when you smell manure in downtown Denver, snow is almost guaranteed to be <24 hours away. It's a critical front range living skill

# ? Apr 14, 2020 19:03

H.P. Hovercraft: Jan 12, 2004; one thing a computer can do that most humans can't is be sealed up in a cardboard box and sit in a warehouse; Slippery Tilde

Jonny 290 posted:

shouldn't have hosed, dude. we warned you

feels good man

# ? Apr 14, 2020 19:03

echinopsis: Apr 13, 2004; by Fluffdaddy

smell is amazing. you�ve seen every colour. you could easily smell ten new things tomorrow you�d never smelt before.

colour is a way for our brain to see three different planes of light or whatever you might call them (the three different kinds of rods) at once at a single time without needing to see three sets of data, and that�s pretty impressive

but smell, while you can only experience one smell at a time, the potential for new smells seems unending. there may be new smells no human has ever smelt we wouldn�t know. incredible

# ? Apr 14, 2020 19:07

echinopsis: Apr 13, 2004; by Fluffdaddy

I couldn�t get the article to load, does smell function return?

# ? Apr 14, 2020 19:07

Jonny 290: May 5, 2005; [ASK] me about OS/2 Warp

echinopsis posted:

I couldn�t get the article to load, does smell function return?

eventually. mostly. more or less. we think.

we dont know how corona survivors do a year out because a year hasn't passed. its tough

# ? Apr 14, 2020 19:11

big scary monsters: Sep 2, 2011; -~Ｓｋｕｌｌｗａｖｅ~-

your olfactory bulb contains a shitload of different olfactory receptor neurons, cos each and every smelly molecule needs a unique type of receptor to bind to it. i assume that's why so many genes encode for it. by comparison the sensors for vision and hearing are way simpler - you've got a handful of different types of photoreceptor and i guess auditory perception is a specialised sense of touch. that's not to say that there isn't insanely complex encoding and processing on the other senses too, but just the ability to detect a given smell, with no additional integration and meaning given to it, is dependent on these thousands of different types of receptors

# ? Apr 14, 2020 19:16

Sagebrush: Feb 26, 2012

There's a teeny little airstrip out in the central valley called Harris Ranch where you can fly in and go get a steak and if you show your pilot's license you got 10% off.

It is of course a cattle ranch, with a huge feedlot, so you can smell when you're approaching the airfield well before you can see it. I usually start noticing it about 20 miles out at 5000 feet

# ? Apr 14, 2020 19:18

big scary monsters: Sep 2, 2011; -~Ｓｋｕｌｌｗａｖｅ~-

of course a "smell" like the smell of a rose or the smell of dogshit is a complex combination of a load of those receptors going off in a particular way, because each of those smells depends on dozens or maybe hundreds of chemicals. so i bet olfactory processing is pretty complicated too

# ? Apr 14, 2020 19:19

Sagebrush: Feb 26, 2012

apparently the reason we like the smell of gasoline and benzene and other solvents is because those chemicals trigger many of the same receptors that are triggered by ripe fruit

# ? Apr 14, 2020 19:21

syntaxrigger: Jul 7, 2011; Actually you owe me 6! But who's countin?

I wonder if I can get a dog and just train it to tell me the cool smelling things. A Smelling Nose dog if you will

# ? Apr 14, 2020 19:22

syntaxrigger: Jul 7, 2011; Actually you owe me 6! But who's countin?

Sagebrush posted:

apparently the reason we like the smell of gasoline and benzene and other solvents is because those chemicals trigger many of the same receptors that are triggered by ripe fruit

Wait what?!?! people like the smell of gasoline?!?!?

# ? Apr 14, 2020 19:23

Scope: Jun 6, 2003

Sagebrush posted:

There's a teeny little airstrip out in the central valley called Harris Ranch where you can fly in and go get a steak and if you show your pilot's license you got 10% off.

It is of course a cattle ranch, with a huge feedlot, so you can smell when you're approaching the airfield well before you can see it. I usually start noticing it about 20 miles out at 5000 feet

Do you have to show your pilot's license if you fly in?

# ? Apr 14, 2020 19:23

big scary monsters: Sep 2, 2011; -~Ｓｋｕｌｌｗａｖｅ~-

all of this brings me to sadly conclude, smell-o-vision probably isn't coming any time soon

# ? Apr 14, 2020 19:26

unpacked robinhood: Feb 18, 2013; by Fluffdaddy

syntaxrigger posted:

Wait what?!?! people like the smell of gasoline?!?!?

I used to associate it with summer childhood road trips

# ? Apr 14, 2020 19:29

Methanar: Sep 26, 2013; by the sex ghost

When it comes to the smell of gasoline, less is more. A little whiff can be nice.

# ? Apr 14, 2020 19:31

haveblue: Aug 15, 2005; Toilet Rascal

syntaxrigger posted:

I wonder if I can get a dog and just train it to tell me the cool smelling things. A Smelling Nose dog if you will

we already do this with various animals. drug dogs. truffle pigs. there's an NGO somewhere that trains rats to detect landmines, they're too small to set them off themselves so they can just run wherever and signal when they find one

# ? Apr 14, 2020 19:32

TerminalRaptor: Nov 6, 2012; Mostly Harmless

syntaxrigger posted:

Wait what?!?! people like the smell of gasoline?!?!?

As a kid I did. Not in the, "I'm going to huff this" sense, but filling up a lawn mower or driving by a gas station it was not an unpleasant oder.

# ? Apr 14, 2020 19:33

TerminalRaptor: Nov 6, 2012; Mostly Harmless

Methanar posted:

When it comes to the smell of gasoline, less is more. A little whiff can be nice.

Yeah if you linger around it gets unpleasant pretty fast.

# ? Apr 14, 2020 19:35

President Beep: Apr 30, 2009; i have to have a car because otherwise i cant drive around the country solving mysteries while being doggedly pursued by federal marshals for a crime i did not commit (9/11)

syntaxrigger posted:

Wait what?!?! people like the smell of gasoline?!?!?

heck yeah

# ? Apr 14, 2020 19:41

TOOT BOOT: May 25, 2010

echinopsis posted:

smell is amazing. you�ve seen every colour. you could easily smell ten new things tomorrow you�d never smelt before.

You haven't taken enough psychedelics if you think you've seen every colour

# ? Apr 14, 2020 19:42

syntaxrigger: Jul 7, 2011; Actually you owe me 6! But who's countin?

unpacked robinhood posted:

I used to associate it with summer childhood road trips

Methanar posted:

When it comes to the smell of gasoline, less is more. A little whiff can be nice.

TerminalRaptor posted:

As a kid I did. Not in the, "I'm going to huff this" sense, but filling up a lawn mower or driving by a gas station it was not an unpleasant oder.

TerminalRaptor posted:

Yeah if you linger around it gets unpleasant pretty fast.

President Beep posted:

heck yeah

Fascinating.

While on this sort of topic can someone tell me what they think of when they read a story involving a murder and the dead body is described as "sickly sweet" ? I never know how to parse this other than 'the dead person smell'

# ? Apr 14, 2020 19:48

EIDE Van Hagar: Dec 8, 2000; Beep Boop

Methanar posted:

When it comes to the smell of gasoline, less is more. A little whiff can be nice.

a little gasoline whiff, as a treat

# ? Apr 14, 2020 19:48

FMguru: Sep 10, 2003; peed on;
sexually

Sagebrush posted:

There's a teeny little airstrip out in the central valley called Harris Ranch where you can fly in and go get a steak and if you show your pilot's license you got 10% off.

It is of course a cattle ranch, with a huge feedlot, so you can smell when you're approaching the airfield well before you can see it. I usually start noticing it about 20 miles out at 5000 feet

theres a similar effect approaching coalinga on the i5 - you smell that feedlot long before you see it

# ? Apr 14, 2020 19:48

President Beep: Apr 30, 2009; i have to have a car because otherwise i cant drive around the country solving mysteries while being doggedly pursued by federal marshals for a crime i did not commit (9/11)

syntaxrigger posted:

While on this sort of topic can someone tell me what they think of when they read a story involving a murder and the dead body is described as "sickly sweet"

that poo poo's just weird op.

# ? Apr 14, 2020 19:50

TOOT BOOT: May 25, 2010

syntaxrigger posted:

While on this sort of topic can someone tell me what they think of when they read a story involving a murder and the dead body is described as "sickly sweet" ? I never know how to parse this other than 'the dead person smell'

I assume like roadkill but stronger. There's a hint of sweetness in the foulness of that smell.

# ? Apr 14, 2020 19:51

President Beep: Apr 30, 2009; i have to have a car because otherwise i cant drive around the country solving mysteries while being doggedly pursued by federal marshals for a crime i did not commit (9/11)

itt: future cannibals

# ? Apr 14, 2020 19:52

syntaxrigger: Jul 7, 2011; Actually you owe me 6! But who's countin?

President Beep posted:

itt: future cannibals

read a book OP

# ? Apr 14, 2020 19:54

Fuzzy Mammal: Aug 15, 2001; Lipstick Apathy

advice from a doctor friend of mine

quote:

TLDR: If you have COVID19 and you need hospitalization, your best chance at survival is to be at a major tertiary academic medical center. Think before you call 911, they will decide which hospital to take you to, usually the closest.
Thank you to everyone for your support following the death of my uncle from COVID19. I have been trying to find the right words to convey my frustration with one of the factors that I think contributed to his death: he was being cared for at a small community hospital without the expertise or resources needed to really give him a true chance at survival.
The headline on CNN this morning reads "How a simple trick is helping doctors save lives." This is referring to proning patients, which means positioning them on their stomachs. It's what Pediatrics like to call "adult tummy time." This helps open up different parts of the lungs, and is what I always thought was a basic component of patient care in any intensive care unit in any hospital. I was wrong. The hospital where my uncle was being care for did not have the "appropriate equipment" or "training" to prone patients. Even when it was clear he had developed acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and needed intubation/mechanical ventilation (a tube down his wind pipe and a machine breathing for him), his care team did not attempt proning. It didn't matter how many education videos etc. were out there, they simple were not comfortable with the technique to even attempt it.

The doctors I spoke with were doing the best they could under terrible circumstances. They were genuine in their empathy and compassion. It is a war out there. I have a lot of respect for everyone who is trying to save lives with limited resources. However, this is just one example of many aspects of my uncle's care that I just know would have been done differently if he were at a major medical center like the places I have trained or worked at (Stanford and University of Washington). Here are some other examples:

-Not enrolling in clinical trials (so no access to potentially life-saving antivirals like remdesivir)
-Checking labs (blood work) every 24 hours (instead of every 6 to 12 hours)
-Extreme limitations, beyond what I think is reasonable, to how often members of the medical team would enter the room. (For my medical friends, at 3 hours after intubation they had not checked a blood gas).
-Significant reluctance to consider treatments that are not "evidence-based." Normally this makes sense, but we are so early in our understanding of COVID19 that basically everything is being attempted based on anecdote and expert opinion. He had already received hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin, and zinc. Since he was getting worse, I pushed for an immune modulator called tocilizumab. They initially declined to try it, saying "we haven't done that here." Then the next day they agreed to give it. But, again since this was at a community hospital, it took another 16 hours to get the drug to bedside to be administered. By then it was too late. I also urged them to increase his anticoagulation (blood thinners) from prophylactic to treatment dosing (small to medium dose) because COVID19 seems to cause a lot of damage due to blood clots. A genetic risk of increased blood clotting runs in our family, and I'm almost certain he has it. Despite this, they only increased his anticoagulation medication when it was already too late (for my medical friends, D-dimer was 15,000 and troponin was 1.8). At that point, with his blood pressure quickly dropping, they finally agreed to do an echocardiogram (heart ultrasound) that I had been begging for every day (since we are seeing that cardiac involvement is a major cause of death), and it showed evidence that there was likely a massive pulmonary embolism (blood clot in the lungs).
-Lastly, and this is the worst, most the family did not have a chance to say goodbye. This hospital did not have the iPad set-up that you hear about on the news, and the nursing staff would not arrange for a phone call to allow my uncle's siblings (including my mother) to say goodbye. The only reason my cousin was able to say goodbye is because one of the doctors used his personal cell phone to give her that chance. My uncle died alone in an ICU. I don't know how I will ever truly get past this aspect.

I recommended that everyone have a "go plan." If you have COVID19, or think you have it, and need to go to an ER and potentially need hospitalization, have a plan to get to major hospital. Do not wait until you are having trouble breathing and need to call 911. If you get in an ambulance, then the decision of what hospital you go to is completely out of your control. They will have protocols to determine which hospital to take you to, usually the closest hospital. Instead, figure out where the nearest major academic medical center is, and identify at least two people who would be willing to drive you there. That's just my advice as a doctor and as someone who just lost a member of my family to this terrible disease.
I know it is nobody's fault that my uncle got COVID19 (OK maybe there is one orangutan I can blame), or that he had severe disease. It was just bad luck that this happened *and* then he ended up at a hospital that is not equipped to handle the sickest patients. He knew he was positive for the virus, was doing OK at home, and then when his breathing because more difficult, he did the thing we all think we should do: call an ambulance. I will always wonder what could have been if that ambulance had taken him to a different hospital.