Thanksgiving and the turkeys

Thanksgiving 2019

Thanks to Covid-19 pandemic, Thanksgiving will be easier again this year.  Fewer family gatherings.

But for those of you who do attempt to gather together to ask God's blessing, good luck.

My brother in Colorado is rather ferociously expressing his fear of inflation if the Build Back Better Act succeeds in getting through the Senate.  But no danger of him showing up in Santa Monica for Thanksgiving.

My sister replied to him today with a meme from The Naked Gun, a film-spin-off of the 1988 television series Police Squad!

In the meme, police lieutenant Frank Drebin (played by Leslie Nielsen) shouts "Please disperse!  Nothing to see here.  Please!" in front of a destroyed building as bombs explode and voices shout.

I have no idea how this meme relates to Biden's Build Back Better plan, except that the building in it will need to be rebuilt.  

Does she mean nothing to see in Build Back Better?  Nothing to see in claims that inflation will result from spending for pre-K, child care, elder care, and extending the Child Tax Credit?  Nothing to see in efforts to combat climate change?  Nothing to see in expanding affordable health care?

Nothing to see in claims that inflation will not occur?  

I didn't hear objections from my family about Republican spending for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Of course, those wars didn't cause any inflation.  And Trump's tax cuts for the wealthy sure didn't cause inflation in anything but the stock market.

Little sis thought she could reply to bro without me seeing it, but her email went to all three of us.  She made the following comments:

They want us to sit quietly and say nothing.  And continue to vote for them while American Pravda tells us we're all good. (And the ruling class pelosis and aocs take the money and run.)

Speaking of SF there are now coordinated mass break-ins at high end malls--3 this weekend!  We're all going to be on Amazon (the new J.C. Penney's mail order catalog).

Good luck getting through to Anne.  If I say what you said, she bites my head off.

Confidential.

Fortunately, her family in San Diego won't be gathering together with us either.  That hasn't been safe for years.  

I pray that someday the political tensions in this nation will ease enough for us all to meet face to face and agree to disagree.  Family values, right?  I do love my sister and brothers. 

Now to do an internet search to find out what she means by "American Pravda."  And why she thinks Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a bartender by trade, is ruling class.  And why Trump and his friends Rupert Murdoch, Sheldon Adelson, Joe Ricketts of TDAmeritrade, etc. are not ruling class and have not been taking the money and running.

Oh my God, American Pravda: My Fight for Truth in the Era of Fake News  is a book by James O'Keefe, whom Wikipedia describes as an American right-wing to far-right political activist and provocateur. He produces secretly recorded undercover audio and video encounters in academic, governmental, and social service organizations, purporting to show abusive or illegal behavior by representatives of those organizations.

Amazon says: The "American Pravda" title is a play on the name of Pravda (meaning truth in Russian), a long-term Communist Party publication in the Soviet Union,

I didn't know my sister supports right-wing Republicans.  I was hoping she was a Bush/Cheney moderate these days.  I don't know whether she means the words "American Pravda" to refer to American newspapers like the New York Times and Washington Post--or to the Biden administration. Or maybe Democrats in general.  

I see that O'Keefe is a 37-year-old who twelve years ago made false claims against ACORN and caused its bankruptcy.  He had to pay $100,000 in a settlement with one of the workers he misquoted.  Apparently, he's a darling of Breitbart.  Clearly he's making money off the fake news flames fanned by Trump.

Well, folks, happy Thanksgiving.  If you share a big dinner with family, keep your mouth shut.  Except for helpings of turkey and stuffing.   

Julius Jones' life matters

 "I've made mistakes, but I'm not a killer.  I'm not a murderer," says Julius Jones from his jail cell, where he awaits execution tomorrow.

His impending death hangs heavy over this nation.

"That people are only hearing about it today is evidence that black lives don't matter," say many observers.

I didn't hear about it until yesterday.  

Today I called the office of the governor of Oklahoma: 405 521 2342.  You can call too.

My message:

Please tell the governor not to execute Julius Jones.  Give him more time in jail or commute his sentence.  Free him.

The governor could make a terrible mistake that he will regret later.

A life hangs in the balance.

The state of Oklahoma did not allow Julius to hug his mother today, the day before his death.  They have not hugged for 22 years.

Black lives matter.  

House shames Gosar

Rep. Jackie Spears introduced the bill to censure Gosar

"As a woman Speaker of the House I want to be clear," said Nancy Pelosi.  

"These threats specifically target a woman, a woman of color, which is part (as the resolution states) of a global phenomenon meant to silence women and discourage them from seeking positions of authority and participating in public life."

Speaker Pelosi called Paul Gosar's behavior "an insult to the house of Representatives." 

Then she spoke powerfully about the significance of his threatening anime video.  I present excerpts from the video of her comments, available on YouTube.  

"Again, this is about workplace harassment and violence against women. Yet the member has never apologized for his actions. 'It's a cartoon, relax,' he said. Really? A cartoon?  Relax?

"'I'm entitled to speak to the people and to do so in a manner that is engaging,' he said.  Really?  Is it engaging to depict killing a colleague or anyone?  It's not just about members of Congress--anyone threatening anyone?" she asked.

"Disguising death threats against a member of the Congress and a president of the United States in an animated video does not make those death threats any less real or less serious.  And indeed conveying portraying them this way makes them potentially more dangerous by normalizing violence.

"It isn't funny.  And yes, you have a right to speak, and so do we have a right to react to what you are saying when you are threatening the lives of members of Congress and the president of the United States.  

"It is sad that the entire House must take this step because of the refusal of the leadership of the other party," she continued.  

"The resolution on the floor before us today is about accountability.  It is about integrity in this House, and it will serve as a reminder to this House and to this Congress, that as is said in Rule 23, 'Shall behave at all times in a manner that shall reflect credibly on the House....'

"Again, a threat against anyone is wrong, whether you're a member of Congress or not, for this [resolution] is just about the example, again, that was a total violation--[needing censure] by the action of the members. "

After all the debating, just before 4:49 pm today, Paul Gosar stood below the podium of Speaker Nancy Pelosi and listened to her read the censure of his behavior.  His buddies stood with him.

"Gosar, flanked by nearly two-dozen colleagues in the hard-right House Freedom Caucus, stood in the well of the House as the censure resolution was read aloud" reported ABC News .

His crime?  Threatening to kill a person in his work place--the House of Representatives.

Anyone else would be fired for making such a threat, but he has not been removed from his post as a representative from Arizona.

After all the speeches by Kevin McCarthy and others defending his behavior, it was satisfying to hear Pelosi lay out the facts and name Gosar as guilty of threatening violence and acting in such a way that others may become violent.

Censure is essentially a public shaming; for the time being, he's allowed to stay in Congress.

NPR reported:
Under the censure resolution adopted by the House, Gosar had to stand in the well of the chamber and listen to the rebuke as it was read aloud. And he will no longer serve on the Natural Resources committee or the Oversight panel — where Ocasio- Cortez is also a member.

The Republican caucus refused to censure him in any way, but two Republicans voted with Democrats for censure: Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois.  

My infusion of monoclonal antibodies

Getting my infusion

If you are 65 or older and have any serious health risk, and you come down with Covid-19, consider getting an infusion of monoclonal antibodies, which nips the infection in the bud.  

My case of Covid-19 was relatively mild, so I didn't think I needed the top-of-the-line medical care that our former president got.  I was pretty sure I wouldn't take a turn for the worse.

But Dr. Bill, my brother, told me I should ask my doctor to give me a referral for the infusion. 

An infection with this virus can start out mild and then attack some organ that is vulnerable.  Or you can have an overreaction of your immune system, called a cytokine storm.  In any case, you have to be in the first several days of your symptoms and not hospitalized to qualify for this treatment.

With a referral, a Medicare panel will review a person's health situation and decide whether to pay for you to have this safeguard.

Anyone over 65 qualifies for the infusion if they have one other factor like diabetes or heart disease.  

But you have to ask for this treatment--the average primary care doctor may not know the latest on Covid care.  Or she may not regard your case of Covid as any serious threat to your health.

My brother told me this on a Tuesday night, and by Wednesday afternoon I had a virtual appointment with one of my doctor's partners.  She was skeptical about my need for the infusion, but she made the referral.  

Soon after, I received a call that Medicare had approved the infusion, that I would get a call from a local infusion center called IV League, Inc. the next morning.

On Thursday morning at 8:30 am, a clerk at the infusion center called and gave me a choice between an 11 am or 12 noon appointment.  

I chose 11 am, but the first step was to bathe myself and wash my hair.  I'd been sick for five days, but I wanted to look good for this big occasion.  I didn't realize how tired I was and slow.

At 10:45 am, I ran out the front door and typed "6706 Bristol Parkway, Culver City CA" into the Google maps app on my cell phone, but the address was actually 6076.  Instead of taking 20 minutes to get there, I got mixed up and took 30 minutes to find a small building tucked into a business park next to the San Diego freeway.

Drip, drip, drip

I arrived 15 minutes late, but the infusion techs were kind and patient.  

Apparently the right combination of monoclonal antibodies has to be mixed up just before being dripped into a patient's arm, so I had to wait while the mixing was being done in a lab.

Soon, however, the saline solution hung above my head and the antibodies were being pushed into a vein on the inside of my right elbow.

The lady in the next room told the tech that she had just been to an emergency room where she was diagnosed with Covid pneumonia.  She and her son had been sent here to be treated.  She was very tired and listless, but she too had dressed up nicely for this occasion.

I felt guilty for being there.  I wasn't sick enough, I told myself.  I was wasting the government's money.  

"Relax!  You're not relaxing!" one of the techs kept telling her son.  She couldn't find enough of a vein in his arm to insert the infusion needle.

I relaxed and prayed for this woman and her son and all the people who needed Covid vaccines or infusions and couldn't get them.  I gave thanks for the infusion techs, risking their health to treat all of us.

Afterward, I sat in a small room with others waiting twenty minutes to be observed for a possible adverse reaction to the infusion.  

One white man about 30 years old wore a red cap backwards on his scruffy hair; he had a beer belly.  I wondered whether he was an anti-vaxxer.

Another was clearly a retired person like me, privileged, white, getting the infusion just in case.

I drove home feeling relieved that both tasks were over: my panic to get this appointment and my frantic search to find the clinic.

Finally I could go back to bed and just rest.

How to get a test for Covid

Hi, world.  I tested positive for Covid on Tuesday, Nov. 9.  

It was hard for me to believe when the home test kit showed two pink lines (positive), not one pink line (negative).  

"These tests aren't that accurate," I said to my daughter Roz.  I thought I just had a light cold--mild headache, not much sore throat, tired feeling.  Not even as bad as the average flu, but my cough was getting deeper and "productive," as they say.

Roz did a search on rapid tests, however, and the internet said a positive test is almost always correct.  For info on this kind of testing, see https://www.aahealth.org/rapid-covid-testing-faq/

Walgreen's sells the rapid home tests, 2 for $24.  Nationwide.  But on any one day, a store could run out.  CVS near me didn't sell them. 

The next challenge was to find a PCR test, the kind they send to a lab and you wait 2-3 days for the results.  You can't get the top treatment for Covid-19 unless you have proof of a positive PCR test.

PCR stands for Polymerase Chain Reaction.  The scientist who developed this method of testing for the presence of a specific bit of DNA was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1993.

To get a PCR test, you need an appointment with your doctor or a clinic or a testing place set up in a park or parking lot or near a pharmacy like CVS.  Again doing an internet search, Roz found a park near me where the test is being done in the recreation center office.  Same-day appointments were available.

I came home exhausted, but the work of being a Covid patient was just beginning.

That night I called my brother, Dr. Bill.  He said, "You need to get monoclonal antibodies."

"What's that?" I asked.  More new vocabulary to learn.  

"The treatment they're doing now for people like you, over 65 with at least one other serious medical condition," he said.  "You probably qualify for it.  Medicare will pay."

The easiest way to qualify is being overweight or having diabetes or being immunocompromised.  But there are others.  

The next day, Wednesday, I called my doctor's office, expecting to be told to walk right in.

Instead, I had to make an appointment for a virtual doctor visit.  One of her partners would do it later in the day. 

The appointment wasn't by Zoom or Facetime, of course.  That would have been too easy.  And it couldn't be done via laptop.

I had to download the MyChart app onto my cell phone.  Then I had to make an account and password and find the button to do a virtual appointment.

When the doctor finally appeared on my screen, she was skeptical.  "How are you feeling?  Why do you want an infusion?"  

"My brother told me to.  He said Covid-19 can start out mild and suddenly get worse." 

To get this treatment, you can't be super sick and you can't be just imagining you have Covid.  As with Goldilocks, everything has to be just right.

"Okay, I'll forward a request and see if you qualify," she concluded.  "We will contact you if Medicare says yes, and then you'll have to submit proof that your test was positive."

Tomorrow: going for my infusion.

Note:

LHI.care/covidtesting is the national website where you can find the nearest testing site and get an appointment.  LHI stands for Logistics Health Inc.  Logistics Health was founded in Wisconsin in 1999, now part of OptumServe, which got a contract with the federal government in 2001 to handle testing, immunization, and record keeping for federal employees, military, vets, and others.

My mistakes: how I caught Covid-19

 

I did everything right for 20 months--March 2020 through November 3, 2021. Twice I refused go to lunch with a visiting friend.  I refused to drive a visitor to LA in my car.  I even traveled on a plane to attend my nephew's wedding celebration in Washington, D.C.  That was in late July 2021, when everyone had recent vaccines and cases of Covid in the US were dropping.

But then I made a series of mistakes.

Step 1  -  I spent an afternoon with a friend from out of state.

A friend of mine living in Ann Arbor MI was making plans to visit her family in Las Vegas for the first time in two years.  Afterwards she was going to spend two days in Los Angeles, staying at a hotel.  I was planning to meet her at her hotel and then drive with her to visit two other friends.

Step 2  -  I figured we were both safe because we had been vaccinated.

I had had the Pfizer vaccine on February 25 and on March 18.  She had had the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in May and was not sick at all when she left Michigan.

I never stopped to think that she might be exposed to the Delta variant in Las Vegas and carry it to me.  I thought the break-out cases were few and far between.  Neither of us realized that a high number of Covid cases was occurring at the beginning of November in Vegas, but I knew that was happening in LA County.  

Step 3  -  I didn't realize I might have just 30% of the ideal number of antibodies.

No one told me that 6-7 months after my vaccinations, I might have just 30% of the antibodies I had built up shortly after receiving the vaccine.  Dr. Bill, my brother, told me this fact a week later when I called to tell him I had Covid.  

Step 4  -  I'd gotten my booster shot on Nov. 3, so I thought I was superprotected on Nov. 4.

Wrong.  It takes roughly two weeks for people to manufacture a high level of antibodies after receiving a booster. "You had no more antibodies on Thursday than you had on Wednesday when you got the booster," said Dr. Bill.

Step 5  -  I didn't wear a mask while driving my car with my out-of-town friend.

I drove to my friend's hotel to meet her on Thursday at 1 pm. I hugged her while saying hello.  We both wore masks in the hotel lobby, but I took my mask off when I got in my car. 

"You don't have to wear a mask in the car," I told her.  After all, we were both vaccinated, right?

"I'm going to keep wearing my mask," she said.  

"She's cautious," I thought.  Unnecessarily cautious.  It didn't occur to me that maybe she was trying to be careful not to expose me, just in case.

We talked.  I drove us to see two other friends in the Fairfax neighborhood north of I-10.  On the way back to the west side of Los Angeles, we were stuck in traffic for an hour, laughing and talking.  A car is a small space, and I wasn't wearing a mask.

Then we went to a restaurant with a friend, wearing our masks except while eating.  It was a huge, high roofed place with 40 tables, only two of them occupied.  

Step 6  -  I wasn't alarmed when my friend started to feel unwell about 6 pm.

It could be anything, I thought.  A flu.  A cold.  Or possibly Covid.  I wanted her to stop by my house and have a piece of the pumpkin pie I had made, but she said no.  By the time I dropped her off at her motel, she had cancelled her Friday plans with another friend. She just wanted to rest.  She had a ticket to fly back to Michigan on Saturday.

Step 7  -  I exposed other people.

On Friday I went to visit a friend whose husband had died ten days earlier.  I hugged her.  We sat in her living room and talked for 40 minutes.  I talked to her toddler grandchildren and held the toys they handed me. (None of them got Covid.)

At home I interacted with my husband and adult daughter, who works at Starbucks.  Because I had just had a booster, I thought I could not get Covid-19 even if my friend had it. I thought I was Superwoman. (None of them got it either.)

Step 8  -  When symptoms began, I thought it was because of the booster.

On Saturday evening I noticed a teeny bit of scratchiness in my throat.  By Sunday I had a sore throat and light cough.  I felt tired and chilled, even though I was dressed warmly.  I started to wonder if I had whatever my friend had.  I lay down to take a nap at 5 pm, felt hot, and took my temperature: a 99.4 fever.  

It wasn't much; I've certainly been sicker in the last year and a half.  This couldn't be the Big Bad Covid, I told myself.  At most, it's the booster.

Step 9 -  I kept up with my work deadlines and went to a routine doctor appointment.

I didn't rest.  I didn't listen to my body.  I wish I had.  Instead, I exposed my doctor and a nurse at a doctor appointment on Monday.  By afternoon, I was exhausted and had a deep cough.  

Step 10 -  I didn't own a home rapid test for Covid-19, and I had no idea where to get one.

I decided to try to get tested but had no idea where find a home kit or where to drive to get a swab done and sent off to a laboratory.  I should have bought the kit earlier and kept it on hand.

I was exhausted, but I drove around for an hour or more, looking for a home Covid test.  I learned that an appointment was needed to get the Polymerase Chain Reaction test-- the PCR-- but none was available for that day or the next or the next.

When Roz got home from Starbucks, she told me they sell them at Walgreen's, but I was too tired to go get one by then.  Besides, it was such a light cold. I had no more fever.

But I got a text from my friend in Michigan:  "I've lost my sense of smell."  I knew she had Covid-19.

The one thing I did right: getting my vaccines.

Because I had received two vaccines, I had some antibodies already in my system.  As a result, I didn't become seriously ill or need to be hospitalized.

The next story (Nov. 13):

how I found a home test kit the next morning but couldn't believe the positive result I was seeing.

how I found a place to get a Polymerase Chain Reaction test (PCR) to be sent to a lab.

how Dr. Bill, my brother, told me to get an infusion of monoclonal antibodies.

. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~

See this article: "Antigen vs. Antibody: What are the differences?" by Anna MacDonald on the Technology Networks website.   

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