Home caregivers, what's your plan if you get corona virus?

Just a little thing I saw today when I ran in the dollar store for cough drops ( sinus,, no fear!!) a lady was buying the "wipes",, and all peeved they were not Chlorox brand,, and only 20 in the container.. OMG, Its a dollar store!! Then she had a hissy they were out of hand sanitizer ( since last week the clerk told her) I told her I was at Bath and Body works yesterday and they hundreds of the little bottles they sell for a $1 each.. ( actually I was surprised they had them left.. LOL) She was not amused... But they had tons of bottles of bleach!

Rosered6, good point about the testing. I guess my thoughts about this have been geared more toward the next few weeks and months, when unfortunately we may be living in the midst of an explosion of cases, far more cases than the authorities are able to track or frankly cope with at all. When it's all "community transmission" beyond hope of containing and things are more chaotic.

In that case, if I and my sibling that I share caregiving with are obviously sick, do we continue caregiving to our vulnerable elderly parent? I am thinking yes, at this point.

Hopefully good, research-backed treatments and eventually a vaccine will make this whole subject less fraught soon. Can't be soon enough.

You won't know you have coronavirus unless you are tested. Once you get positive test results, you will not be able to keep them a secret. Nor should you be able to.

You would have to let outside officials handle it.

Another thing, plan ahead with grocery items. I know here in my area, if there is even a whisper that we will have snow, the grocery lines are out the door.

With the C-19, same is happening, and this is really hard on families who live from paycheck to paycheck to purchase a lot more groceries to have on hand.

I have already re-ordered my meds and have those on hand. Got a good supply of toilet paper and paper towels. And cat litter. Got a lot of cereal, and we use Lactaid milk which has a refrigerator shelf life of many weeks. If I need anything, I "go shopping" in my basement :) Learned that from my late Mom who always had the basement pantry filled to the brim at all times.

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4) Stock up now with zinc lozenges. These lozenges have been proven to be effective in blocking coronavirus (and most other viruses) from multiplying in your throat and nasopharynx. Use as directed several times each day when you begin to feel ANY "cold-like" symptoms beginning. It is best to lie down and let the lozenge dissolve in the back of your throat and nasopharynx. Cold-Eeze lozenges is one brand available, but there are other brands available. 

I, as many others do, hope that this pandemic will be reasonably contained, BUT I personally do not think it will be. Humans have never seen this snake-associated virus before and have no internal defense against it. Tremendous worldwide efforts are being made to understand the molecular and clinical virology of this virus. Unbelievable molecular knowledge about the genomics, structure, and virulence of this virus has already been achieved. BUT, there will be NO drugs or vaccines available this year to protect us or limit the infection within us. Only symptomatic support is available.

I hope these personal thoughts will be helpful during this potentially catastrophic pandemic. You are welcome to share this email. Good luck to all of us! Jim

James Robb, MD FCAP”

I received this in an email today. Looked it up on Snopes and it is true that this doctor wrote the email. There are a few tips I hadn’t thought of so might be useful to others.
In answer to your question I won’t know for sure what is wrong not having a test. I suppose it will appear to be a cold or flu which aunt doesn’t get nor do I historically so I would probably assume the worst. Call the doctor and ask for instructions. Some of us reading this post may already have it. I sure hope not.

“Dear Colleagues, as some of you may recall, when I was a professor of pathology at the University of California San Diego, I was one of the first molecular virologists in the world to work on coronaviruses (the 1970s). I was the first to demonstrate the number of genes the virus contained. Since then, I have kept up with the coronavirus field and its multiple clinical transfers into the human population (e.g., SARS, MERS), from different animal sources. 

The current projections for its expansion in the US are only probable, due to continued insufficient worldwide data, but it is most likely to be widespread in the US by mid to late March and April. 

Here is what I have done and the precautions that I take and will take. These are the same precautions I currently use during our influenza seasons, except for the mask and gloves.:

1) NO HANDSHAKING! Use a fist bump, slight bow, elbow bump, etc.

2) Use ONLY your knuckle to touch light switches. elevator buttons, etc.. Lift the gasoline dispenser with a paper towel or use a disposable glove. 

3) Open doors with your closed fist or hip - do not grasp the handle with your hand, unless there is no other way to open the door. Especially important on bathroom and post office/commercial doors.

4) Use disinfectant wipes at the stores when they are available, including wiping the handle and child seat in grocery carts. 

5) Wash your hands with soap for 10-20 seconds and/or use a greater than 60% alcohol-based hand sanitizer whenever you return home from ANY activity that involves locations where other people have been. 

6) Keep a bottle of sanitizer available at each of your home's entrances. AND in your car for use after getting gas or touching other contaminated objects when you can't immediately wash your hands.

7) If possible, cough or sneeze into a disposable tissue and discard. Use your elbow only if you have to. The clothing on your elbow will contain infectious virus that can be passed on for up to a week or more!

What I have stocked in preparation for the pandemic spread to the US:

1) Latex or nitrile latex disposable gloves for use when going shopping, using the gasoline pump, and all other outside activity when you come in contact with contaminated areas.

      Note: This virus is spread in large droplets by coughing and sneezing. This means that the air will not infect you! BUT all the surfaces where these droplets land are infectious for about a week on average - everything that is associated with infected people will be contaminated and potentially infectious. The virus is on surfaces and you will not be infected unless your unprotected face is directly coughed or sneezed upon. This virus only has cell receptors for lung cells (it only infects your lungs) The only way for the virus to infect you is through your nose or mouth via your hands or an infected cough or sneeze onto or into your nose or mouth. 

2) Stock up now with disposable surgical masks and use them to prevent you from touching your nose and/or mouth (We touch our nose/mouth 90X/day without knowing it!). This is the only way this virus can infect you - it is lung-specific. The mask will not prevent the virus in a direct sneeze from getting into your nose or mouth - it is only to keep you from touching your nose or mouth.

3) Stock up now with hand sanitizers and latex/nitrile gloves (get the appropriate sizes for your family). The hand sanitizers must be alcohol-based and greater than 60% alcohol to be effect

Outstanding advice ,and continue to wash our hands and carry sanitizer.

Well my mom told me today that if we get it,, I will probably bring it home from work.. Thanks Mom! No I told her we all use good hand washing and gowning.. and she has not caught anything from me in the 6 years she has lived here! We are more likely to get it from the community.. like the grocery store or dollar store she loves,, I just plan to keep her in ( not hard,, she hates to go out anymore) and go about my life. We are all homebuddies and live in the country.. My DD is a real estate salesperson and I worry more about her, but she is trained wash her hands!

I woke up in the middle of the night the other night thinking about this. My dad is actually very healthy for an 85 year old quadriplegic guy, has never ever been prone to colds or flus, but needs oxygen at night and has a compromised ability to cough up secretions due to his paralysis. Something respiratory for him would be horrible, and the idea of the sort of deaths people have suffered with this thing. . . It's unbearable to think of.

That said, my dad has a DNR and officially doesn't want heroic measures such as a ventilator. I think if I get this virus I would use masks and gloves just as I have when I had a cold or the flu. (Luckily we have a ton of N95 masks stockpiled since the wildfires in CA year before last.) Needtowashhair, I think your "Keep Calm and Carry On" stance is right on target!

I think your plan is spot on. Self isolation and keep on keeping on. My dad is so miserable with congestive heart failure that he’d actually welcome the virus, sad isn’t it?

Home caregivers are already living in self isolation so are probably the least likely people to catch anything. And like you I was sick a few times while taking care of my mother but managed not to pass my germs to her by following common sense procedures, but of course she was bedridden therefore easy to isolate.