Welcome home! Please contact lincoln@icrontic.com if you have any difficulty logging in or using the site. New registrations must be manually approved which may take several days. Can't log in? Try clearing your browser's cookies.
Emergency Flu Signs
Snakeskin
Veteran
The severity of the flu this year was mentioned in another thread. Seems everyone is in the vulnerable group this time around. So, here are some things from the US Centers for Disease Control to watch for:
2
Comments
The other crisis we appear to be experiencing with an alarming increase, here in the UK, is Sepsis. It bears including in this discussion because some of the symptoms can be mistaken for a head cold or flu, and if left untreated can become extremely serious, even fatal.
I personally know two close people who had sepsis; I even posted a request for 'prayers' in members-only', for one. She has thankfully survived and goes home for good from rehabilitation, tomorrow. But she has lost 3 toes; two on one foot, one on the other, and will need skin grafts against the scarring from infections on her legs.
The second person was doing some electrical repairs and modifications, (this was over a year ago) and scratched himself on the edge of a loose metal railguard. it was a tiny scratch, and one he took barely any notice of, because it just didn't bother him. A week later, he was on life support and critical.
Ironically, the work he was doing was in a Hospital.
He lost four fingers, three on one hand, one on the other. His lungs are damaged, and he has difficulty walking. He is classified as disabled and will never work again in his professional capacity.
Children are by far those in worse danger.
Follow the Link to read more.
It's a real problem.
I would add the following: It's not always easy to discover the origin of the infection, and sometimes, the cause is never found; but if you ever cut yourself, get a graze or an open wound, however trivial or slight it might be, (even a pricking of your finger from a rose thorn!) wash, clean, dry and disinfect it as soon as possible. A lot of these cases start through something seemingly innocuous and unimportant. They can end up by killing you.
Sepsis is a problem here too, though mainly as a complication of flu. A middle-aged man in my area got the flu and followed a typical pattern: carry on until you can’t, then sleep it off. The first day he finished his shift at a plant, then called in the next day. By that evening he was in the emergency room with sepsis. They amputated his fingers.
He was lucky. Two other women here, also middle-aged, died from sepsis caused by the flu. In each case there were no cuts or wounds, just the body responding to the flu or pneumonia caused by it. Sepsis happens fast. It can become lethal in 24-48 hours.
Night before last one of my dogs died suddenly. He was young and healthy. His death is a mystery. A couple weeks ago the flu took me out for a few days. It was type A, the kind that infects humans and animals. I can’t say what killed the dog, but flu and sepsis are reasonable suspects.
I wash my hands before handling food, but that isn’t true of dog food. The amount of exposure to a virus makes a difference. Regardless of what infects, of open wounds or not, a little extra attention to hygiene and hand-washing can be life-saving.
Learning how to maintain a healthy immune system goes a lot ways as well. It doesn't help to try to do it once we get sick, and not every one is capable (high risk people with chronic illnesses) but most of us are.
I read an interesting article the other day about how viruses and bacteria often fall in rain around the world. Between the winds at high atmosphere levels and how easily so many viruses attach to water droplets, it's no wonder. It looks like another layer of the argument that the more time you spend outside, the better off you are. We expose our bodies to a lot of stuff by spending time outdoors and focusing on food that comes from outdoors and this helps immensely strengthen our immune system. Not to mention the exposure from bacteria that is good for our bodies.
http://bgr.com/2018/02/06/viruses-in-the-sky-bacteria-atmosphere-earth/
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/27/health/27brod.html
@Snakeskin, I'm sorry about your dog. And thanks for the post. You too, @Karasti....
@federica, thanks.
Sepsis is really bad here in Canada too right now. My fiance had a close friend of the family pass from sudden septic shock in November and my kidney recipient had to have everything postponed because of sepsis last month.
I was going to mention it then but at the same time @Federica had a friend come down with it and asked for our support so I just said "a lot of that going around". I'm not the best wordsmith if you haven't noticed.
She just got her kidney out on Friday so in 3 months or so once the other organs heal she gets one of mine.
And as for the flu, 2 of my nieces came down with these symptoms last week in 2 different areas of Ontario so thanks for the heads up!
@David, I can't imagine what that must mean to her. I hope your nieces recover quickly. I'll keep y'all in my thoughts. My meditation cushion happens to face north.
Yes, @David, my heart goes out to you and yours.
And donating a Kidney, is well... another wow'. Thank you.
@David I hope your nieces recover quickly. And Wow as @federica rightly put it in relation to donating a kidney. That is just amazing! As a father of a child with cf I am very aware of lives that are saved through such selfless acts.
@David you are awesome!!
Aw, thanks. But it's not as selfless as everyone keeps telling me. I get almost 2 months off of work and get to help someone I love live longer.
My motives are in a sense very selfish as we are all in this together.
Plus it will be a smaller opening than I thought. Key hole surgery.
I, of course, would spin it differently.
These thoughts and feelings concerned with welfare are not yours, not what you are, not self. They condition intentions expressed through mental, verbal and bodily actions conducive to welfare. Kusala-kamma: skillful action. Also, not yours, not what you are, not self.
Altogether selfless.
There IS no spoon.
Eppur' the kidney, is.