"There are countless horrible things happening all over the world and horrible people prospering, but we must never allow them to disturb our equanimity or deflect us from our sacred duty to sabotage and annoy them whenever possible." -Auberon Waugh
Thursday, March 5, 2020
Public Announcement for the Conservation of Order
Via Ace's sidebar, here's a video on what makes coronavirus potentially deadly:
11 comments:
JeffS
said...
Very useful. Especially since it lacks the "it leads if it bleeds" style of journalism so prevalent today.
Most natural deaths come down to some form of lung failure. Even from cancer or whatever (Dementia, Parkinson's, congestive heart...) Because when you're unable to breathe somehow, that's it. Often the lungs fill with fluid, hence the death rattle. An old nurse made that point to me once. Lung inflammation, lung damage, lung filled with fluid, all similar or related, all the same story: the edge of eternity.
Unfortunately 'cause of death' has become a legal and political minefield, so simple descriptions disappear (e.g. 'organ failure' - failure to what? Failure to support respiration and its cycling of oxygen into the system).
My mother's death from pancreatic cancer (7 years ago next week) was also "lung failure" of a sort: her tumor grew so large it pushed into her chest cavity and suffocated her.
Very sorry, Spiny. That particular cancer is (rightfully) a source of dread to anyone who knows anything about it. One of my father and mother-in-law's best friends died within three months of being diagnosed with that disease.
Lemme tell ya, if I end up with terminal cancer, I want control of the morphine drip. Once it becomes too much that I can't even watch TV or listen to music, I want to open it up, leave it open and say goodnight.
By the way, Alex Trebek has it, and has survived a year with it, seemingly healthy, which is astonishing. Patrick Swayze survived 18 months, but looked pretty gaunt in the detective series he made just before he passed. 95% of those diagnosed with it die within 6 months. Mom lived 34 days after diagnosis.
Your body does go into a kind of preparatory state if you're terminal though Spiny, which makes it easier to bear (with help from painkillers). It knows the end is coming and your whole metabolism changes. It's not like what we imagine now in our normal state, but there are different stages: https://www.aurorahealthcare.org/patients-visitors/blog/what-happens-as-we-die-we-demystify-the-process
Mr. H had severe streptococcal pneumonia a few years back and almost died of it. He had to have surgery to remove accesses on the lining of one lung, and now he has some scarring of his lungs. I don't say it but if he gets a bad case of coronavirus, it's all over for him. I've had a number of illnesses needing surgery, one a heart stent, so if I get it, I'm probably on the road to oblivion too, but it doesn't scare me the way it seems to do him.
11 comments:
Very useful. Especially since it lacks the "it leads if it bleeds" style of journalism so prevalent today.
Thanks, Paco!
SARS was/is caused by another form of coronavirus, as I recall.
It didn't wipe out humanity.
(What's going on is, in reality, the return of SARS.)
Most natural deaths come down to some form of lung failure. Even from cancer or whatever (Dementia, Parkinson's, congestive heart...) Because when you're unable to breathe somehow, that's it. Often the lungs fill with fluid, hence the death rattle. An old nurse made that point to me once. Lung inflammation, lung damage, lung filled with fluid, all similar or related, all the same story: the edge of eternity.
Unfortunately 'cause of death' has become a legal and political minefield, so simple descriptions disappear (e.g. 'organ failure' - failure to what? Failure to support respiration and its cycling of oxygen into the system).
That sounds logical to me.
My mother's death from pancreatic cancer (7 years ago next week) was also "lung failure" of a sort: her tumor grew so large it pushed into her chest cavity and suffocated her.
Very sorry, Spiny. That particular cancer is (rightfully) a source of dread to anyone who knows anything about it. One of my father and mother-in-law's best friends died within three months of being diagnosed with that disease.
Lemme tell ya, if I end up with terminal cancer, I want control of the morphine drip. Once it becomes too much that I can't even watch TV or listen to music, I want to open it up, leave it open and say goodnight.
By the way, Alex Trebek has it, and has survived a year with it, seemingly healthy, which is astonishing. Patrick Swayze survived 18 months, but looked pretty gaunt in the detective series he made just before he passed. 95% of those diagnosed with it die within 6 months. Mom lived 34 days after diagnosis.
Your body does go into a kind of preparatory state if you're terminal though Spiny, which makes it easier to bear (with help from painkillers). It knows the end is coming and your whole metabolism changes. It's not like what we imagine now in our normal state, but there are different stages:
https://www.aurorahealthcare.org/patients-visitors/blog/what-happens-as-we-die-we-demystify-the-process
Mr. H had severe streptococcal pneumonia a few years back and almost died of it. He had to have surgery to remove accesses on the lining of one lung, and now he has some scarring of his lungs. I don't say it but if he gets a bad case of coronavirus, it's all over for him. I've had a number of illnesses needing surgery, one a heart stent, so if I get it, I'm probably on the road to oblivion too, but it doesn't scare me the way it seems to do him.
I think I remember that Rebecca, you were supposed to be on holiday in the humid south but it gave him pneumonia.
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