Coronavirus Scare... Need Help

Post Reply New Topic

So, recently, there has been a lot of news surrounding the Coronavirus that is spreading through the U.S. I haven't been too concerned about it, though I have been keeping up with its spread and all of the information online. It can be quite hard to process all of the information at times.

Anyway, all of this information seems to have taken a toll on my mom. She has been concerned about it for weeks now (she is a former nurse), and has recently fell into panic mode. She is worried about me going into crowded places (basically, being up close to any one human) and that I would come home carrying the virus. For context, I am in my mid-20's and live at home with my mom, who is in her 60's.

Another concern for her is the environment I work in. I have a job working freelance at various events, usually in semi-large gatherings and functions, but I don't want to call out because I am too dedicated to my job and love what I do. It's what keeps me going. This issue has not come up with my boss.

Like I said, this hasn't been easy for me to process, and it has made me a bit anxious. I don't want to completely isolate myself from the rest of society; I don't think I could tolerate it and I would go insane if I didn't have contact or social interaction with any of my friends.

What can I say and/or do to re-assure my mom and help put her at ease with the situation?

If you don't live in a hotspot such as Wuhan, China then the probability that you will contract this particular virus is low. Those individuals that die from the coronavirus are generally the elderly and those with severe medical conditions. So off hand speaking in generalities, if you caught this coronavirus, you would be sick for awhile but then you would recover. You mom on the other hand falls under the category of elderly, therefore she might get the coronavirus and pass away. So the best approach is for your mom to shelter in place if the coronavirus become endemic in you local. And if you should somehow contract the virus outside the home, ensure that you do not pass it onto her. Since your mom was a nurse, she probably already knows the protocols for caring for a patient should (YOU) become infected with a coronavirus. She will quarantine you in a separate space in the house and follow the protocols of frequent hand washing, medical gloves, face mask, etc as she comes in close contact with you.

I had a chance to think about your problem last night. It really has two parts. These are:

1. The possibility that you and/or your mother contracts the coronavirus.
2. The fear that your mother has about this coronavirus.

So I will address each separately.

1. Unless you are living in a current hotspot for this virus; the probability of contracting this virus is fairly low. Where are the hotspots: certain parts of China, North Korea, South Korea, Iran and Northern Italy. You can get a sense of the hotspots by looking at: INTERACTIVE CORONAVIRUS HEAT MAP

There are some community elements where the infections are relatively high, such as nursing homes, cruise ships, hospitals and the homeless. Generally to minimize becoming infected, those areas should be avoided.

With springtime and increasing humidity levels on the way, I suspect the infection rates will drop dramatically over the next couple months. It will go the way of other coronaviruses such as SARS and MERS.

2. The fear that your mom has. The fear is very real. It is a fear about being trapped with no way out. A fear of DOOM. This fear can lead to anxiety, stress and even a nervous breakdown. It is dangerous in and of itself. So how do you minimize it. The answer is to become UNDOOMED. To become untrapped. It has 2 parts.
a. Work with your mom and develop a plan for the possibility that you or your mom becomes infected and what you will do.
b. Implement the plan.

I created a good plan and linked it below in my signature line. You might start there or create your own. The plan list a variety of supplies needed to deal with the possibility of becoming infected. So you might start there and take part in a scavenger hunt for these items. Work together with your mom. Since she was a former nurse, she will have key knowledge that can be very beneficial. Some of the items on the list are going off the shelves at a rapid rate and becoming OUT OF STOCK. For example face mask. But not all face mask are equal. You will need a certain type for example N95s and these have been unavailable for about 3 weeks now. Your mom may have some suggestions where you can find some. Another item is hand sanitizers. These are also becoming unavailable rapidly. If you react quickly enough you still may find some. The other possibility is to make your own.

There is a thread on this website. Here is a link. Emergence Of A Deadly Coronavirus This thread discusses the coronavirus from our Aspie perspective. On page 42, it contains the formula for making hand sanitizer gel. So if you cannot buy hand sanitizer gel, perhaps you and your mom can make some. It is made using 99% rubbing alcohol (isopropyl alcohol) and aloe vera gel. So if you buy these two ingredients and mix them together you can make your own. But you may have to search for these ingredients. Most of the rubbing alcohol is either 70% or 91%. 99% is not very common. A quick search shows that it might be available in a hardware store rather than a pharmacy or places like Walmart. So it may be a true scavenger hunt.

Other items on your list may be relatively easy to procure. But there have been some runs on toilet paper. Try living without toilet paper for a month. It is a very useful item. So stock up with the easy to obtain items and then search for the rarer ones.

It is the act of doing that will help your mom overcome her anxiety. IMPLEMENT YOUR PLAN

Maybe it would ease her mind a bit if you got facemasks and such for the both of you? It's not like you'd necessarily have to use them yet; you can save them for the time the virus reaches your area (if it does.)

I am quasi-obsessed too. And to make it worse, I felt I was getting sick. So, I cleaned out all my parts to my CPAP machine and it got better. Also allergy meds and Vitamin C... Spring is our Fall in North Florida, leaves are falling off trees in bucketfulls. I don't dare rake, it's pointless.

But, I've been using this constructively and washing everything. My hands, my clothes, If I don't have access to hand sanitizer immediately I rub my hands vigorously on my pants. I probably look like a nut, but idc. Wash, wash, wash... spray, spray, spray Lysol. Every flat surface is getting it.

Apparently the number of people in the UK with the coronavirus has doubled in the last 48 hours. It seems to be spreading like wildfire.

But to be honest, I'm more frightened about being in quarentine than actually contracting the virus. The virus is probably hardly a big deal if you're healthy, but the world is overreacting and putting people in quarentine and wearing full radiation-like suits to treat or test the isolated patients is going over the top to the point where it is laughable.
And I bet a lot of people who have developed a cough or cold-like symptoms are keeping quiet about it and hoping that it's not coronavirus, because of the threat of being in quarentine for 2 weeks.

My mother is freaking out that I need to stock up on feminine hygiene products (lol) and medicine. Then she says "but you know all your medications are made in China and the chemical ingredients need to be decontaminated in China before they can be shipped, and the decontamination process isn't foolproof so you will likely get sick and die from Corona if you take your meds. But, stock up on them -- even though you can't buy multiple repeats on prescriptions all at once".

Like seriously? People are freaking the hell out and it's really got my mother close to collapse. She's so worried.

Incubation period is 14 days. In my country a guy came back from Northern Italy infected and went to work in his toy store. Now people who were in the toy store are seriously ill and thousands have been exposed and are in quarantine. Quarantine just means staying at home for 14 days, nothing to be afraid of. All people here have recovered or are not in critical condition so far. It needs to be taken seriously.

It's already a pandemic. The virus itself will spread more and more and I guess it will kill a lot more people.
There is no real way to prevent an infection except buying a lot of food before it's even near to you and prevent any contact to other people for about half of a year now. Who of you can do this?
Because most people can't really prevent the infection you should prepare yourself a bit for it. For instance take a little bit vitamin C every day. It doesn't prevent the infection but reduces the subsequent inflammation which is a dangerous result of the infection. So you'll more likely survive.

I have tons of food here and I seldom leave the house anyway. 14 days would be no problem. I can't take Vitamin C because I have a condition with too much iron in my system, and it feeds the iron. Not everyone can take Vitamin C.

Yes it also boosts the immune system. If you can't take vitamin C issy then anything that boosts your immune system will help.

I understand how your mother feels though, because of the hype about it on the TV and the way everything's going way over the top for what it is. So people are going to panic.

And I'm so glad quarentine doesn't mean being locked up in an isolated room with several other possible infected patients for 2 weeks.

Can't tell anything about this. I would take it at least on first symptoms then and care about food that countains less iron during this time. Coronavirus is no fun.
It's around here in the region in Germany already. Many people don't skip public transport. The schools are still open. One infected child and nobody is able to find all possibly infected people anymore. No country except China did already prepare additional hospitals.
There was a nurse in an emergency nearby infected. The didn't allowed a quarantine of all other people in the hospital. Many people who fear an infection once the have a flu run to the doctors and may meet some really infected people there. The doctors lack protection themself. I doubt that they are able to stop the pandemic anymore. May be they can buy us some time. Hope that they find some meds against it soon.

There was an article today titled: Is it coronavirus or a cold? How to safely care for a sick relative. The article said:

Health officials are urging anyone who feels ill to isolate and stay home as cases of the novel coronavirus continue to spread in the U.S., but what about those who already require care assistance or are too young to care for themselves? For those patients and their caretakers, the guidance may be murky, as is trying to tell the difference between COVID-19 symptoms and the cold and flu.

“The flu and COVID-19 are both respiratory illnesses that have similar symptoms,” Dr. Macklin E. Guzman, DHSc, MPH, epidemiologist, global health expert and medi-weightloss principal clinical scientist, told Fox News. “If a family household member falls ill and starts exhibiting symptoms that resemble a respiratory illness (e.g. fever, cough, shortness of breath), it is important that his or her health care provider be contacted so that they can be evaluated.”

Guzman said health care providers can determine whether a COVID-19 test needs to be administered and that you should not assume that a family member has coronavirus without a laboratory-confirmed test. He added that those who are healthy and do not have a compromised immune system can continue to safely care for these patients as they are not considered to be at high risk for developing complications.

Even if the patient does test positive, it can be considered safe to continue supporting them with some extra precautions.

“It is generally safe if you follow safeguards to minimize the spread of infection and keep a safe distance from your family member that is ill,” Guzman said.

The precautions, as described by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Guzman, can include making sure the patient is following their health care provider’s instructions for medication and care, helping them with getting groceries or prescriptions and helping to monitor their symptoms for any signs of worsening illness.

Household members should wear a facemask around the patient and stay in a separate room and be separated as much as possible. Visitors should also be prohibited in the home, and patients should not care for household pets while sick.

“The best way to protect yourself and your family from COVID-19 is to follow all the same basic practices that are important to protecting yourselves from the flu,” he said. “These practices can apply both inside and outside of the home.”

According to the CDC, those include washing hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds or using an alcohol-based hand sanitizer with at least 60 percent alcohol, avoiding touching your eyes, nose and mouth, and covering your cough or sneeze with a tissue. It’s also advised to practice cleaning and disinfecting frequently touched objects and surfaces.

Once the patient has begun to improve, it’s still important to take steps in minimizing secondary transmission.

“The decision to discontinue home isolation precautions should be made on a case-by-case basis in consultation with health care providers,” Guzman said. “If you are living under the same roof as a family member with confirmed COVID-19 it is best to continue to follow distance precautions as mentioned above by the CDC.”

As always, Guzman said, if you suspect you have been exposed to COVID-19, you should make an effort to stay away from people whose immune systems could be compromised in any way, including newborns, toddlers, those who are on immunosuppressive drugs, cancer patients, elderly patients, those who have had major surgery or are chronically ill, and those with chronic respiratory issues.

Source: Is it coronavirus or a cold? How to safely care for a sick relative