​What to expect if you experience COVID-19 symptoms.

Call your doctor:  If you think you have been exposed to COVID-19 and develop a fever and symptoms, such as cough or difficulty breathing.

Degree of Urgency

When a patient calls, nurses will determine how sick a patient may be, including, temperature, shortness of breath, and co-existing chronic illnesses like diabetes, cardiovascular disease, or a lung condition. Co-existing conditions may increases risk for complications.

Mild Symptoms: Healthcare systems will ask you to stay home and keep in contact with changes in symptoms. 

Moderate Symptoms: Respiratory symptoms may require a visit (Follow Nurses Orders) 

Severe Symptoms: Anyone who thinks they have the virus should call their doctor, urgent care center, or emergency room before heading into a waiting room. The CDC advises case by case regarding healthcare decisions. Patients who pass the initial phone triage may be asked to come  in and given masks, separated, and sent to different parts of a clinic or may be required to wait in their cars until it's time to be seen.

Hospital Arrival

Any patient with fever, cough, and shortness of breath presenting with a history of travel to countries with high ongoing transmission or a credible history of exposure should be promptly evaluated.

Tests That May Be Administered: 

• Complete Blood Count (CBC): A CBC determines if there are any increases or decreases in your blood cell counts. Normal values vary depending on your age and your gender. Your lab report will tell you the normal value range for your age and gender.
• Basic Metabolic Panel: blood test that measures your sugar (glucose) level, electrolyte and fluid balance, and kidney function. Glucose is a type of sugar your body uses for energy. Electrolytes keep your body's fluids in balance.
• Liver function tests: Tests that provide information about the state of a patient's liver. 
• Procalcitonin: Measures a substance produced by many types of cells in the body, often in response to bacterial infections but also in response to tissue injury. The level of procalcitonin in the blood can increase significantly in systemic bacterial infections and sepsis.
• Respiratory virus polymerase chain reaction panel: Measures the presence of viruses.

Clinical Clues for COVID-19 include... 

• Leukopenia (low white blood cell count), seen in 30% to 45% of patients
• Lymphocytopenia (abnormally low level of lymphocytes in the blood. Lymphocytes are a white blood cell with important functions in the immune system), seen in 85% of the patients. 

Remember:

• Some people test positive for the flu. 
• Tests may take 8 hours
• Commercial labs take up to 4 days
• All patients with respiratory symptoms are treated as under investigation, for whom isolation precautions are required.

Supportive Care

• Care will include maintaining fluid status and nutrition.
• Organ support may include...
  • supplementary oxygen
  • ventilator support (6% to 10% of patients needed ventilators)
  • waiting it out and resting. 

Managing Complications

• Patients do die of COVID-19, mostly through an inability to ventilate, even when supported with oxygen,  
• Others may develop sepsis or a syndrome of multi-system organ failure with renal and endothelial collapse, making it difficult to maintain blood pressure. 
• Like with so many viruses, it is a vicious circle in which everything gets overworked. Off-and-on treatments can sometimes break the cycle: supplementary oxygen, giving red blood cells, dialysis. Healthcare providers can support those functions while waiting for healing to occur.

Discharge (Leaving the Hospital)

• Patients who clinically improve are sent home with instructions to remain in isolation.
• Patients may be tested again for virus before or after discharge.
• There is no vaccine, however several are being developed.

Resource: 
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html
https://www.google.com/search?q=coronavirus+tips&fbx=dothefive

ATTENTION: Those with Mesothelioma Click Here

ATTENTION: Chronic Pain Patients Taking BELBUCA® (buprenrphine buccal film) or Symproic® (naldemedine)
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​DO THE FIVE Help stop coronavirus

1. HANDS Wash them often
2. ELBOW Cough into it
3. FACE Don't touch it
4. FEET Stay more than 6ft apart
5. FEEL sick? Stay home

​
Know How it Spreads

• The best way to prevent illness is to avoid being exposed to this virus.
• The virus is thought to spread mainly from person-to-person.
• Between people who are in close contact with one another (within about 6 feet).
• Through respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs or sneezes.
• These droplets can land in the mouths or noses of people who are nearby or possibly be inhaled into the lungs.

Take steps to protect yourself

• Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds especially after you have been in a public place, or after blowing your nose, coughing, or sneezing.
• If soap and water are not readily available, use a hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol. Cover all surfaces of your hands and rub them together until they feel dry.
• Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands.

Avoid close contact

• Avoid close contact with people who are sick
• Put distance between yourself and other people if COVID-19 is spreading in your community.
• This is especially important for people who are at higher risk of getting very sick.
• Avoid close contact (Practice Social Distancing)
  Maintain a recommended distance of at least six feet between you and other people

Take steps to protect others

• Stay home if you’re sick
• Cover coughs and sneezes
• Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when you cough or sneeze or use the inside of your elbow.
• Throw used tissues in the trash.
• Immediately wash your hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. If soap and water are not readily available, clean your hands with a hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol.

Wear a facemask if you are sick

• If you are sick: You should wear a facemask when you are around other people (e.g., sharing a room or vehicle) and before you enter a healthcare provider’s office. If you are not able to wear a facemask (for example, because it causes trouble breathing), then you should do your best to cover your coughs and sneezes, and people who are caring for you should wear a facemask if they enter your room. Learn what to do if you are sick.
• If you are NOT sick: You do not need to wear a facemask unless you are caring for someone who is sick (and they are not able to wear a facemask). Facemasks may be in short supply and they should be saved for caregivers.

Clean and disinfect

• Clean AND disinfect frequently touched surfaces daily. This includes tables, doorknobs, light switches, countertops, handles, desks, phones, keyboards, toilets, faucets, and sinks.
• If surfaces are dirty, clean them: Use detergent or soap and water prior to disinfection.

To disinfect:

• Most common EPA-registered household disinfectants will work. Use disinfectants appropriate for the surface.