covid precautions, for me specificallly

[redbird]

I saw my doctor today, by telemedicine, and she thinks the level of precautions the three of us were taking last week is still reasonable, despite having lost Evusheld. Lost in this case means it's not useful against the most recent covid variants, including the one now dominant in New England.

So, as long as I keep wearing N95 masks everywhere indoors except at home, I can keep doing some of my own shopping, and riding the T to go places and do things that are low-enough risk while I'm there.

Based on that discussion I made a new appointment to see her in person in two weeks to have a wart removed. I'd meant to ask about museums, and will probably send her a query about that via MyChart.

* The drug I'm taking to hopefully prevent MS exacerbations takes out all B cells. I am vaccinated and boosted, and I hope that gave me enough T cells to do me some good, but I had no detectable covid antibodies two weeks after my third full dose of the mRNA vaccine.

Comments

[sabotabby]

Unimaginably terrifying.

So I am in no way an expert but I'd say museums are probably safer than grocery stores unless they're really crowded. Air quality was amazing in them well before covid was a thing, for preservation reasons. The safest indoor public space I've ever been in was a gallery with a mask mandate and high ceilings.

[otter]

I share concern for you and other immunocompromised friends. I've started reading a new blog that is very doom about covid and other things. The author backs up with links research articles and I'm deciding I'll always have a habit of masking in public.

[mindstalk]

If you can afford it, a portable CO2 monitor could be nice; low levels (e.g. under 800 ppm) despite lots of people indicates good ventilation -- not enough to unmask, but nice to not feel under siege. The Vitalight Mini is around US$40.00

https://breathesafeair.com/vitalight-mini-co2-detector-review/

*

[minoanmiss]

*makes a note of this*

[sine_nomine]

Also makes a note of this.

[ritaxis]

Hugs. I almost said "condolences on your B cells," but decided that was too flippant.

[redbird]

Thanks.

I'm not happy about that (side) effect, nor about the fact that the doctor who originally prescribed the Ocrevus didn't mention it. We weren't expecting a pandemic, but this also means that I'm probably not protected against hepatitis, shingles, or tetanus.

On the other hand, I went looking for alternative MS drugs, and couldn't figure out which other ones don't do this. A person could easily read some of the side effects lists for Ocrevus and not realize that it has this downside. If I recall correctly, I was looking at the sites for the National MS Society, the VA, the Mayo Clinic, and either WebMD or Drugs.com, those being what DuckDuckGo got me quickly. (Either the MS Society got its list of MS drugs and side effects from the VA, or they both got their lists from the same third source.)

[minoanmiss]

I don't have any advice of course, but I'm always hoping for you.