New Covid Variant

The world was still reeling from the rapidly-spreading Delta variant of Covid-19, which was first discovered in late 2020, when a new variant was detected in South Africa in early November. Named Omicron, the first United States case was found in San Fransisco on November 28th. To date, 19 states have reported at least one case of Omicron. It appears to be a fast-spreading variant, but there is not enough data to determine how deadly it will be. 

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is now recommending that all vaccinated adults "should" get a booster shot. Previously the statement was all vaccinated adults "may" get a booster shot. The World Health Organization is stating that the variant poses a "very high" global risk. 

As we head into Christmas and all the traveling and gathering that people will do, I suspect every state will have Omicron cases before the end of the year.

The sign of the times are still with us...ho, ho, ho.

sign of the times

One Week Post Op

comfort food from a neighbor

It's been a week since my arthroscopic surgery on my left shoulder. I had my first physical therapy last Thursday afternoon, and it wasn't too bad. Mostly the therapist needed to do a bunch of measurements to see what my range of motion is currently. He did have me do four exercises, which I am to repeat once a day. What I love about this PT practice is that they have a patient portal which has short videos of each of my exercises so I can refresh myself on the correct positions of each. I can also log in my therapy to track what I'm doing. I have been doing the exercises twice a day as the pain is bearable when I do them.

My stomach has still been a little upset ever since surgery. I'm not sure if it is lingering remnants of the anesthesia or the three oxycodone pills I took. Or maybe a combination of both. So far today I feel pretty good, so hopefully I've turned the corner on that small complication. Otherwise, my arm has a dull ache similar to before surgery, and I feel the range of motion is no worse than before. I'm choosing to think that is a good thing since I would guess the surgery messed things up a little in there. I see the physical therapist again this afternoon, and my surgeon's physicians assistant on Wednesday, so I'll get a better read on where I should be after those appointments.

Assuming I feel okay, we will go to Lowe's after my appointment today. We want to look at curtain rods as my neighbor told me they have decent ones. We have nice pull down shades on all our windows, and we like the clean look of that. However, the front bedroom has a lot of light coming in at night from the streetlight. In hindsight, I wish we would have ordered the room darkening shade for that room like we did for our bedroom. But a room darkening curtain should do the trick to make it more comfortable for guests to sleep. We have company coming in a couple weeks, and more in September and October. Of course that's assuming everything doesn't get shut down again due to Covid-19 and the more transmittable Delta variant that's running rampant. With just 50% of the US population being fully vaccinated, it is hard to remain optimistic we will see the end of this any time soon.

Coviditis

mask up!

It's been two months since the CDC (followed by most states) lifted the mask mandate in the United States. I expressed my concerns about this decision in my May 15th blog post. So now that some time has elapsed, what has happened with Covid numbers in this country?

Fueled by the new Delta variant of the virus, which is more easily transmittable, U.S. cases as well as deaths are up significantly in the past couple months. Experts have been quoted as saying that this is now a pandemic of the unvaccinated as they account for 97% of the hospitalizations here. Cases are up in 49 states, despite the fact that 336 million doses of vaccines have been administered. Only 48.9% of our population has been fully vaccinated.

What has been the response to the rising case numbers? Los Angeles County in California is the first to take a step backwards and tighten restrictions. An indoor mask mandate has been put back in place, regardless of a person's vaccination status. Seven other California counties also issued mask mandates, despite the fact that California just lifted all restrictions on June 15th. Will other communities follow suit?

Here is an update on overall Covid statistics. North Carolina has had 1.02 million cases and 13,533 deaths. In the United States there have been 34 million cases and 608,000 deaths. Worldwide there have been 189.2 million cases and over 4 million deaths.

My observation from being out and about is that people are acting as if there is no pandemic. They are crowding into restaurants, concerts, amusement parks, stores, etc. My husband and I are still wearing our masks when indoors, but we rarely see anyone else doing so. Can you imagine trying to get all these people to start wearing masks again? It will be like trying to stuff cats in a bag. Stay safe out there!