I think I now have the new COVID!

[DonTom]

I would rather die than suffer through ALS

The one way where I would prefer to blow my head off instead of dying naturally.

I watched one of my coworkers, Bill, slowly die of ALS. When he was at home dying, all he would do is to beg others to kill him. At that point, he could no longer use his voice but had other ways to communicate. Anyway, nobody did and he died miserably, and very slowly.

IMO, he should have blown his head off while he had the chance. Later, he was way too weak to move anything other than his fingers, which was the way he was able to communicate.

Bill's very first symptoms were difficulty in talking and he had to talk very slowly. This was before he was diagnosed with ALS. There is no test for ALS, they test for all other possible things and when they all turn up negative, it is ALS.

ALS attacks the outer muscles first. Then it works on the inside, so you can no longer breathe. Otherwise, you feel perfectly normal. Probably makes it even worse.

BTW, Bill was married to a Jamaican woman. He developed the symptoms of ALS as soon as he got back from vacation in Jamaica. I hear the same thing happened to Lou Gehric. Right after a trip to Jamaica.

Coincidence?

BTW, since then, CA has PAD (Physician-Assisted Death). Was way too late for Bill. but that would have solved the problem. It is NOT considered suicide by the laws of CA.

ALS is 100% fatal. Nobody has lived long with it yet. I think that is a requirement for PAD and why it is not considered suicide for any purpose, including life insurance.

BTW, I do not know if NV has PAD. But it makes no difference to me. I have a CA REAL ID (but a NV driver's license) so if I got ALS I could legally use the PAD in CA. That is all that is required is the CA ID.

Yes, I am a BIG coward when it comes to ALS!

-Don- Reno, NV

 

[Chef Duane]

With the vaccine, I am likely to suffer less. Without it, I am more likely to suffer more.

You are contradicting yourself. In Post #97 you said "My choice would be to die. No need to stay alive just to suffer." Now you say you'd take a vaccine to suffer less (the degree is irrelevant). Why not just exercise your choice and let yourself die?

 

[DonTom]

You are contradicting yourself. In Post #97 you said "My choice would be to die. No need to stay alive just to suffer." Now you say you'd take a vaccine to suffer less (the degree is irrelevant). Why not just exercise your choice and let yourself die?

Listen to what I mean, not to what I say!

It depends on the degree of suffering. I will not want to die over the common cold which I know will soon go away. Same with COVID. If my COVID symptoms were bad enough with a little chance of recovery then my decision would be similar to my getting ALS.

IOW, I would want to get it over with, either way, death or getting better in a reasonable time if it involved severe long-term suffering.

So far, my catching COVID, perhaps twice, has not been a big deal. Nothing worth dying over.

-Don- Reno, NV

 

[Chef Duane]

Listen to what I mean, not to what I say!

Just say what you mean and mean what you say. So much easier. Like telling the truth. It's so much easier than trying to keep all the lies straight.

 

[DonTom]

Just say what you mean and mean what you say.

Now that I re-read it, I would say I did say what I meant, based on what you asked--maybe. Wasn't clear, IMO.

You asked:
"Would you rather get violently ill"

Or:

"die from whatever disease you have in the first place"

Neither one sounds like a good choice to me. But "violently ill" needs clarification. That can mean serious lasting effects for life and a very poor quality of life. It can also mean very ill for two days and then I fully recover.

That would make a difference in my decision.

-Don- Reno, NV

 

[old RV guy]

BTW, Bill was married to a Jamaican woman. He developed the symptoms of ALS as soon as he got back from vacation in Jamaica. I hear the same thing happened to Lou Gehric. Right after a trip to Jamaica.

What coincidence? Carefully thought out post hoc gooberology studies
like that, involving two samples, are definite proof going to Jamaica causes ALS.

 

[DonTom]

What coincidence? Carefully thought out post hoc gooberology studies
like that, involving two samples, are definite proof going to Jamaica causes ALS.

Airline pilots as well as those who have served in the military have a higher rate of ALS. But why is unknown--it involves some guesswork--but could it sometimes be related to travel?

-Don- Reno, NV

 

[Oldgator73]

Airline pilots as well as those who have served in the military have a higher rate of ALS. But why is unknown--it involves some guesswork--but could it sometimes be related to travel?

-Don- Reno, NV

And maybe football players. Don’t know about airline pilots but military and football players maybe incur a higher rate of TBI which might be an underlying cause of ALS.

 

[old RV guy]

Airline pilots as well as those who have served in the military have a higher rate of ALS. But why is unknown--it involves some guesswork--but could it sometimes be related to travel?

-Don- Reno, NV

Correlation does not necessarily and in fact rarely equates to causation. "involves some guesswork", as in "assume" and that makes an " ass" out of "u" and "me"
Meantime, "could" also carries with it "could not". As in Katy Perry "could" knock on my front door tonight.

 

[dave541]

Got the latest doses a few days ago -- flu and covid. Arm was sore for a couple days.

DW makes sure I an current on all my shots -- just like the dogs are.

 

[old RV guy]

Got the latest doses a few days ago -- flu and covid. Arm was sore for a couple days.

DW makes sure I an current on all my shots -- just like the dogs are.

I got both in the same arm, felt like I'd been whacked with a 2x4 in that arm for a couple of days.

 

[rvlifer]

I just tested positive on my 2nd home covid test. No idea what strain it is but i did get 2 covid vaccine shots but not the latest booster. My symptoms are mild. It feels like a weird cold cause the symptoms come and go and seem to rotate among which is worse.

Flu and covid have a lot of similarities. Believe whatever you want but please dont try to convince others of your beliefs. Present evidence but each person has the right to make their own decisions.

The first flu wave killed tens of millions of people. They didnt have a vaccine at that point. Covid killed a lot less and they had vaccines. That is enough to convince me the vaccine helps.

There are so many variables that affect how effective they are for each person and a lot of things that could make them more risky for some. Everyone has to evaluate it for themselves but with so many people vaccinated and so few issues you have to conclude the risks are generally low.

 

[DonTom]

It feels like a weird cold cause the symptoms come and go and seem to rotate among which is worse.

That convinces me I do now have COVID. I felt great four days ago, lousy three days ago, felt all recovered yesterday, and feel lousy, sick, and weak again today.

I did not get the vaccine for the latest variant, but that was only because the VA ran out of it. However, I would still say my symptoms are on the mild side--so far. Just keeps on going away and coming back the next day.

Makes me wonder when it will all stop with all these false recoveries.

-Don- Reno, NV

 

[Chef Duane]

ALS diagnoses have been associated with those exposed regular higher levels of metals. pesticides, and low level magnetic fields.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/349...es) are associated with an increased ALS risk

 

[Oldgator73]

Correlation does not necessarily and in fact rarely equates to causation. "involves some guesswork", as in "assume" and that makes an " ass" out of "u" and "me"
Meantime, "could" also carries with it "could not". As in Katy Perry "could" knock on my front door tonight.

Harvard Medical thinks there could be a correlation.

https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/can-als-be-caused-by-traumatic-brain-injury-202202022680

 

[rvlifer]

That convinces me I do now have COVID. I felt great four days ago, lousy three days ago, felt all recovered yesterday, and feel lousy, sick, and weak again today.

I did not get the vaccine for the latest variant, but that was only because the VA ran out of it. However, I would still say my symptoms are on the mild side--so far. Just keeps on going away and coming back the next day.

Makes me wonder when it will all stop with all these false recoveries.

-Don- Reno, NV

The only way to know for sure is by taking a test. Symptoms will vary from person to person. In my case i never had a fever but my blood pressure spiked because of it. Some say i should quarantine for so many days after my temp gets back to nornal but that obviously wont work for me. I will go by when my bp gets back to normal and i have no other symptoms

 

[rvlifer]

When i read study results and scientific evidence i always keep in mind that real science never says x equals y. It only presents theories that match the evidence. Once there is enough evidence to support a theory it becomes accepted as causation but there are plenty of cases where accepted, very old theories have been proven not quite right and new theories are developed that match as much evidence as possible.

Scientific studies are worthwhile but it takes a lot of them over a long period of time before you can draw definitive conclusions.

Anybody that uses data to say that something is definitely related to something else is highly questionable at best and simply bogus at worst.

 

[Wasillaguy]

Another NIH paper here, if you put any stock in such things-

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17045808/

 

[rvlifer]

Lol. I dont understand a damn thing in that one so i will rely on trained scientists to read that and explain it in plain english once they have enough evidence to form an opinion

 

[DonTom]

The only way to know for sure is by taking a test. Symptoms will vary from person to person. In my case i never had a fever but my blood pressure spiked because of it. Some say i should quarantine for so many days after my temp gets back to nornal but that obviously wont work for me. I will go by when my bp gets back to normal and i have no other symptoms

Yeah, I realize that, but I assume it is now a bit late for me for any COVID testing. Or is it? But I just checked my BP with my Smartwatch (which I find to be as accurate and less hassle to use than my BP machine) and it reads 130/72 which is right in the middle of my normal readings. So this bug is not having any effect on my BP.

According to my web searches, we are not contagious after a week of the first symptoms. Here it says five days after a positive test. So I should not be contagious at this point.

-Don- Reno, NV