Monday, March 23, 2020

UH-Oh....Kung Flu is Here.....

Last I'd heard, we had two confirmed cases here in town. I haven't heard any stats for Larimer County, and last week I think there were 80something cases state-wide.

Today it got a bit closer.

I was scheduled to have my Cardiology appointment tomorrow, but the office called and said that "they" had gotten together and decided that "non-essential" office visits would be conducted on a "virtual" basis to limit exposure fot all involved.

SO...bust out my laptop, and fire it up so it's all updated and ready to go tomorrow.

I have a USB webcam, but I don't know if it's supported on this (Ubuntu/Debian based) platform, and I also don't have/can't find the little desk mic I used to use. Since my laptop has a built-in camera and microphone, it's a whole lot easier to get it up and running at this late hour vs scrambling around trying to jury-rig an older USB camera and some kind of microphone on this Linux rig.

Besides talking with my Cardiologist about whether I'm sturdy enough to do a hip replacement, I have a couple of other things I need to talk to him about, namely the blood pressure drops I seem to be having every afternoon. I noticed I was light-headed at times, and needed a nap around 1600. I got the BP cuff out of the closet, put some new batteries in it, and started monitoring my BP. Sure enough, around 1600 every day it would drop down to about 95/65 for an hour or so. It "normally" runs around 118/70, and my Primary Doctor had indicated last summer that she might cut the BP meds back a bit, so this needs to be addressed.

No word yet if the PT session will be cancelled. The exercises seem to be helping; it still hurts, but not as much.

Speaking of batteries, they seem to be in good supply in the stores here. I remember when batteries would go flying off the shelves at the first sign of an "emergency". Guess people are used to having extremely reliable power here. This might be a good time for all of us to check our battery stocks, and replace those that are stale. If you have the room in your refrigeration devices, cold-storage will extend their lives considerably.

Be safe out there!

12 comments:

  1. I'm able to have my pacemaker checked remotely. They still charge me the same as if I came to the office.

    Looks like I'll be living with the prostrate issue for another two months or so.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hang in there. Just got off the conference with my Cardiologist, and he thinks will be "over" in about 6 weeks.

      Delete
  2. A bunch of self-indulgent elitist socialist-marxist college students decided common sense was not for them and went spring-breaking and brought the Wu Ping Cough (thanks to Angus McThag for that one.) Along with, quel surprise, a bunch of actual communist Chinese in the form of students, and, we have discovered, some of their relatives escaping the quarantine in Communist China.

    Yay.

    Friggin yay.

    Yay I say.

    Somedays I just don't know how these people remember to breathe.

    So, of course, because of actual communists and a bunch of socialists-in-training, our county is in lockdown as of 3:09 hours ago.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Never been good at the whole skyping thing, and have duct tape over the camera on my laptop...lol
    Hope you are able to get the info you need from your docs.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I rarely use it myself. This conference required me to install Google Chrome, which I don't care for. I know I could make it work with Firefox, but went the easy way to Git 'Er Done!

      Delete
  4. "I haven't heard any stats for Larimer County, and last week I think there were 80something cases state-wide."

    34 confirmed cases in Larimer County, according to here (Johns Hopkins, so I'm reasonably sure the data is trustworthy):

    https://www.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6

    Keep safe. Holler if you need any help, as I'm just up the road.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for the update and link, Jeff.

      Since you're a neighbor, feel free to let me know if I can do something if you need it.

      Delete
  5. Do what you gotta to be safe...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Except for the aggravation of installing Chrome, it all went smoothly.

      Delete

Keep it civil, please....

Gloomy, Gritty, Grey Day

 At 1700 local it's as described in the headline; 30*F, 88% RH, completely overcast, snowing like crazy (small flakes, but lots of them)...