Update on my son, Trump's dereliction of duty, long haulers and more of my thoughts
Its been a little over a month since my son had his first admission to the hospital for Covid. I posted again about his re-hospitalization. He spent 10 days in the hospital that time on oxygen the second time around before he was discharged.
Last week was the first time his O2 sat was back to a normal level since he was discharged. When I saw 96%. Woohoo! Every day I worried about it. When he was first discharged, it was still reading 90-91%. He still has a cough.
Its important to remind ourselves there is no cure for this disease, our healthcare professionals are doing a tremendous job of battling this illness and trying to keep people from dying. The same treatment that may help one patient, may not help another.
My son was given corticosteroids. IV each time he was admitted, and tablets when he was discharged. He was also treated with Levaquin- an antibiotic- IV and tablets when he discharged. Why an antibiotic? Its a virus. Levaquin is usually used for serious respiratory illnesses - its being used as an adjunct experimental treatment for Covid pneumonia, also from what I've read, some people with Covid, go on to develop a bacterial infection as well. I am no expert on these matters.
Surely, my son's age, no pre-existing conditions, the treatment regimen, oxygen, steroids, levaquin - and other things they did, - he was also getting heparin- to prevent blood clots, breathing treatments allowed him to recover. He still has a cough. Still has days where he says he feels extremely exhausted.
Now for the aftermath. Whether its going through this illness or the treatment itself, perhaps both, my son's mental health has taken a turn for the worse.
I am sure the treatment itself is a contributing factor. Steroids can affect your mental health, and he was getting a lot of it over the course of being treated for this for almost 3 weeks. Levaquin may also cause psychiatric side effects. The FDA put a black box warning on meds in this class in 2015. My son does have bipolar d/o. Prior to getting ill. He was stable. I do believe the massive doses of steroids and Levaquin destabilized him.
There are some studies that suggest that Covid itself may cause neuropsychiatric illnesses. The studies I have seen so far are inconclusive. The researchers are not sure if it was Covid that cause the illness, or the treatments.
[link:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7236749/|
I have not seen him like this since the first time he was diagnosed with Bipolar d/o 5 years ago. His mood swings have been off the charts.
When he went for his follow up visit, I asked the PCP if it was OK for him to discontinue taking the steroids as I was getting really worried about his mental state. She discontinued it. He had a follow up chest x-ray a few days ago, follow up appt this week for the results. Hoping that the pneumonia is fully cleared. He cannot stand another round of steroids or treatment with Levaquin.
This excerpt below is from the FDA - on the risks of antibiotics like Levaquin.
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All this to say, No one should take Trump's dereliction of duty, his failure to act, failure to warn the American people of the danger they were in lightly. When he was fully aware of how dangerous this virus is. In any other profession, this would be negligence, malpractice and a credible case for manslaughter. In mental health, there is a duty to warn- If I know that someone is in danger, a patient has made threats and has plans to harm someone, I have a duty to warn that person. If I don't, I could be held liable, if that person was indeed harmed.
Getting this illness, is a roll of the dice, you don't know what you are going to get. For him to get out there and say, this is harmless to young people is so dangerous. Steroids, can affect anyone, the way they have affected my son. It doesn't just affect people who already have mental health issues. The term "roid rage" - in terms of people who abuse steroids, exists for a reason. If you are treated with steroids medically, you can get "roid rage" - that's putting it really simply. Anyone , whether or not they had a previous psych diagnosis, can get depressed, manic, or psychotic after treatment with steroids.
Steroids have been helpful in some cases to keep people from going down hill. So there are no regrets that my son was treated with steroids or Levaquin. The first time he was hospitalized, they attempted to treat with a safer anti biotic. Obviously, it did not work. He was re-admitted. These treatments perhaps, saved his life so I have no regrets. We are between a rock and a hard place here, with no proven cures.
Its the recklessness of this so called president and this administration that keeps lying about the seriousness of this illness that makes me angry. Almost 200, 000 dead. The survivors aren't all having an easy time of getting back to "normal". Many are still struggling with the after effects, just like my son.
Then there is the financial cost of it all, he still has follow up appts, with pulmonologists, labs, X-rays and who knows what else will come.
The psych medications that he was previously stable on, no longer work- he has been switched to a newer med - for which there is no generic. Insurance covers most of it, but not all.
His hospital bills for all 3 times we went to the hospital, follow ups, medications, almost 100K thus far. Thankfully insurance covers most of, but not all. Thank you President Obama. Last year when he lost his job, I made him sign up for a plan on the exchange.
I'm sure at the time, he did not think it was necessary. He thought he would only need it to pay for his existing psych meds.
I can't imagine how it would have turned out, if he did not have insurance.
As this is a novel virus, we don't know the long term effects, that people may have. Its mind boggling to me, that so many people are so cavalier with the health and lives of the people of this country, all to worship at the feet of trump.
Oh, almost forgot that my son now has increased blood sugar. Most likely, related to the steroids. Its not terribly high, but something we also have to work on lowering.
To have a president be so cavalier when talking about how this is harmless for young people, should be criminal
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Good news
