demagogue on 11/5/2020 at 12:58

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Oh that. The thing is even doctors are getting conflicting information and info gets outdated quickly, and in some cases coronavirus is rewriting the treatment playbook compared to comparable other issues. My doctors know the important stuff, so I trust them, but I meant also talking to a doctor that's actually been on the front lines of treating corona cases, since they're learning new things every week and very specific things. But actually that's more about acute cases in the early days, not what I'm going through now, the post-infection part, which I think is still new and evolving even for the specialists working directly on it. So it's okay. (At the time I wrote that, I wasn't 100% sure I was post-infection or even that it was an infection and not something else, so that was part of writing that too.)

Anyway, I got a big update now this week, and I'm being told right now that what I'm going through now is post-infection nerve issues (putting aside some obscure incredibly rare things and a long list of things they've ruled out now, making coronavirus more & more likely). It's not just coronavirus btw; lots of serious infections, pneumonia in particular (from any causes), have these kinds of after effects that last long after a person gets over the infection itself.
They just said at this stage to wait it out for now and let's see what's happening in three months. They don't want me going to a hospital until the actual corona cases tail off, just in case it isn't it.
I still legally can't get tested for the virus or the antibodies.

I'm being told though that I probably did have pneumonia because I had the hypoxia symptoms and a lung infection that's still messing with my lungs, but I couldn't feel it because of the immuno-suppression. I've read that about that in a few articles too, and it's fucked up, that a person could literally be suffocating from the inside and not actually feel it until they just collapse one day.
I have a lot of school friends from Texas that are going ape shit over their rights being infringed and demanding the state open up, and they're still thinking about this thing like it's just a nasty case of the flu. And if they went through the month I just went through, that'd put the fear of God into them how messed up scary this thing can be.

I've read every NYTimes and every other major article on this thing, so I have a pretty good idea of the lay of the land, and where I'm fitting in (and not fitting in so well) with the whole.
Thanks for the spot of luck. I'll hold on to that one.

lowenz on 11/5/2020 at 19:00

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About the blood clotting: (https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-01403-8)

Blood thinners don't reliably prevent clotting in people with COVID-19, and young people are dying of strokes caused by the blockages in the brain. And many people in hospital have drastically elevated levels of a protein fragment called D-dimer, which is generated when a clot dissolves. High levels of D-dimer appear to be a powerful predictor of mortality in hospitalized patients infected with coronavirus

Oh the famous "It's only a respiratory disease"

This is not what you'd expect to see in someone who just has a severe infection,” he says. “This is really very new.” This might help to explain why some people have critically low blood-oxygen readings, and why mechanical ventilation often doesn't help. It's a “double hit”, says O'Donnell. Pneumonia clogs the tiny sacs in the lungs with fluid or pus, and microclots restrict oxygenated blood from moving through them.

So "my" theories are NOT only mine (they never were "mine") ;)

Why this clotting occurs is still a mystery. One possibility is that SARS-CoV-2 is directly attacking the endothelial cells that line the blood vessels. Endothelial cells harbour the same ACE2 receptor that the virus uses to enter lung cells. And there is evidence that endothelial cells can become infected: researchers from the University Hospital Zurich in Switzerland and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, observed SARS-Cov-2 in endothelial cells inside kidney tissue. In healthy individuals, the blood vessel is “a very smoothly lined pipe”, says Peter Liu, chief scientific officer at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute. The lining actively stops clots from forming. But viral infection can damage these cells, prompting them to churn out proteins that trigger the process.

The virus's effects on the immune system could also affect clotting. In some people, COVID-19 prompts immune cells to release a torrent of chemical signals that ramps up inflammation, which is linked to coagulation and clotting through a variety of pathways. And the virus appears to activate the complement system, a defence mechanism that sparks clotting. Laurence's group found that small, clogged vessels in lung and skin tissue from people with COVID-19 were studded with complement proteins. All these systems — complement, inflammation, coagulation — are interrelated, says Agnes Lee, director of the Hematology Research Program at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. “In some patients with COVID, all of those systems are kind of in hyperdrive.”

Of course I can't expect sincere excuses, right?

lowenz on 11/5/2020 at 20:25

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That's not the problem, the problem was accusing me of "misinformation" and saying things "I can't even understand".
In fact it's exactly the opposite.

Sulphur on 12/5/2020 at 03:58

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Not only is the article he linked talking about the reasons for this being a mystery, and talks about probable causes instead of outright presenting hypotheses as fact, you're right Renz, the article itself talks about this happening in 20% of critically ill patients, which to begin with is a small fraction of people with the virus.

Let's not forget that he also ignores when he's wrong and actively contradicts himself - he wasn't bothered about people here reading his hyperbole because he thought we were all outside the critical illness age range; and yet he bolds, italicises, and underlines something that calls out young people dying from strokes. And he wants an apology for that? Screw off.

It's basically the worst kind of attitude - Dunning-Kruger combined with an ego the size of a planet.

SubJeff on 12/5/2020 at 10:56

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Getting kind of hilarious now though.