Blood tests

July 16, 2020 / Margaret / 1 Comment

I haven’t had my regular blood tests (plus Bence Jones) in several months for a variety of reasons, mainly the Covid-19 lockdown, then the slow reopening here in Italy.

On Monday, I finally decided to make an appointment at the lab where I always have my tests done. I went there yesterday morning.

I got there early and had to wait for about 15 minutes. Things have really changed, compared to the pre-Covid era, I mean: a nurse greets all patients outside the lab building and makes the early birds like me wait outside. Much better…I feel safer outside, anyway.

So here’s the new procedure: you wait outside until the time comes for your appointment or until your last name gets called. At that point, you have to rub your hands with disinfectant from an automatic dispenser (I used my own hand sanitizer, though) and then have your temperature taken with a non-contact forehead thermometer.

Inside, in the waiting room, you can’t just sit anywhere, the way it was before. Social distancing is the rule now. Before, there were about 35-40 seats. Now there are 5 or 6; the others are taped off.

Oh, and, of course!, goes without saying, you have to wear a mask at all times, even while you are waiting outside. In Italy, pretty much everyone understands that it has nothing to do with politics (duh), and that it’s just PLAIN STUPID and POTENTIALLY VERY DANGEROUS not to wear a mask.

Besides, in any case, it’s still the rule.

Case closed.

Yesterday morning I was actually wearing two masks–a surgical mask underneath a cloth mask. That is my new norm: whenever I leave the house, go into stores or any type of enclosed public space, I wear two masks, even though the rule is one mask (at least). Stefano wears two masks, too.

Can’t be too safe. I am well aware that I have a weak immune system…no idea what Covid would do to me, and I really don’t want to find out. Neither does Stefano.

Anyway, compared to other countries that have reopened way too soon, Italy, now in Phase Two ( = living alongside the virus), is doing quite well. Covid-19 hasn’t disappeared, but the infection and death rates are way way down. I just hope that people returning from abroad, and tourists of course!, won’t begin spreading Covid-19 here again.

That’s my main worry: Italy was THE first European country to shut down and one of the first to reopen. We don’t want to go through another lockdown. Really don’t. That said, I am comforted by the fact that all the people I have seen out and about here in Florence are wearing masks.

And, you know, life can still be enjoyed, in spite of these restrictions…Perhaps I should have written, “thanks to” these restrictions. We know that wearing a mask, washing our hands frequently, keeping our social distance, and following the rules set by the medical and scientific communities, can keep us safe. I simply would not be able to enjoy being in a non-safe environment right now…with maskless people, for example.

Anyway, to give you a quick example of how life can be enjoyed, Stefano and I have EATEN OUT three times in the past few weeks. Yes, we have eaten out…with friends…in RESTAURANTS. Very exciting, after so many months of being cooped up inside our homes.

I admit, the first time was a bit scary, but we have always chosen places with outside tables…Every member of the staff (from cooks to servers) has to wear a mask, the tables are NOT close together, and so on. It was so nice to eat out in a safe way…

So, it can be done…!

Yesterday I helped save a dog

June 18, 2020 / Margaret / 3 Comments

Yesterday morning I received a whatsapp text from one of my neighbors who had spotted a small, terrified dog on the other side of the tiny river at the bottom of our hill. She took a photo of it and asked if it belonged to anyone we knew. Wait, before going on, I should note that, years ago, my neighbors and I created a whatsapp group that enables us to get in touch quickly should anything happen or if anyone needs anything or whatnot. This group is super useful at times, as it was yesterday, as it turns out…

Some of my neighbors immediately mobilized to help this little dog. They didn’t wait for the municipal police to arrive but got a ladder, lowered it down into the tiny river, really no more than a stream, and carried the dog over to the other side, to safety.

I was still at home when all this happened. But as soon as I got my neighbor’s message and photo, I remembered something I’d seen earlier that morning on Facebook, a desperate appeal posted by a woman whose dog had run off the day before, with her leash on. I took another look at the photo on Facebook and, yes, I was sure it was the same dog.

So I texted my neighbor to tell the policewomen, who had just arrived, to call the FB woman’s cellphone. I then went down the hill to see if I could help. The poor little dog was still terrified, so terrified that she had refused to eat anything, even though she must have been starving. So we (a bunch of concerned neighbors and two lovely municipal policewomen) just stood around, keeping our social distance and wearing our surgical masks, of course, until the dog’s happy owner arrived. All of a sudden, the terrified, motionless little dog became the happiest dog in the world…dancing around and licking her owner, as you can see in this happy photo I took (cutting off the woman’s head, sorry!, for privacy reasons)…

And to think that if I hadn’t seen and remembered the appeal on Facebook, the policewomen would have had no choice but to take that scared little dog over to the municipal kennel, and it might have taken days for them to track down her owner…

I’m soooo glad that didn’t happen.

Anyway, all’s well that ends well. I helped save a dog yesterday, and it made me feel like a goddess for the rest of the day. 😉

More important news on vitamin D and coronavirus

May 12, 2020 / Margaret / 3 Comments

On March 27, I published a post about some findings of a team from the University of Turin (Italy) showing that low levels of vitamin D might increase:

your risk of being infected with Covid-19
your risk of having complications if you already have the virus

The University of Turin data also showed that vitamin D can counteract lung damage caused by hyperinflammation.

Well, now a research team led by Northwestern University has found a “strong correlation between severe vitamin D deficiency and mortality rates.” Their results are based on data from hospitals in several countries, including Italy.

Incidentally, I got this information from an easy-to-read Science Daily article, which you can check out for yourself at this link: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/05/200507121353.htm?fbclid=IwAR20hJJCU7d2WQj27sdIny3UgwYlrKZDlnR6gnbccXrBPiNu6QkSkspKQCk

So it seems as though vitamin D will lower your risk of having severe complications and of dying from the virus…once you’ve contracted it, of course. Here’s an important excerpt from the article: “Not only does vitamin D enhance our innate immune systems, it also prevents our immune systems from becoming dangerously overactive. This means that having healthy levels of vitamin D could protect patients against severe complications, including death, from COVID-19.”

According to the lead researcher, vitamin D might actually cut “the mortality rate in half.” Wowsie!

Interestingly, the lead researcher also says that, while vitamin D “may reduce complications and prevent death in those who are infected,” it will not prevent you from actually getting the virus. Hmmm. That doesn’t make much sense to me. I mean, if your body has adequate levels of vitamin D, it should be better equipped to resist against the virus. But…who knows?

Anyway, whatever! I mean, even if vitamin D doesn’t give us the slightest protection from coronavirus, let’s not forget that keeping our vitamin D levels in the NORMAL range is absolutely essential for us myeloma folks. So let’s keep ’em in that normal range no matter what…

That said, please don’t exaggerate with your vitamin D daily intake: too much of a good thing may not necessarily be a…good thing, indeed, it probably isn’t!!!, as I have said repeatedly here on the blog. So please be careful…and don’t overdose!

I hope everyone is OKAY! Stay Safe!!!

P.S. That’s the photo of a flower from my garden…Nothing to do with the post, of course, but…it’s so pretty!

Did I have Covid-19?

April 27, 2020 / Margaret / 2 Comments

A few blog readers have suggested to me, privately, that the awful flu I had back in early January might have been Covid-19. But well before I had read their suggestions, that same thought had occurred to me, too, in the early days of the outbreak here in Italy. So this morning I decided to write a post about it, just for the record.

I certainly did have some of the Covid-19 symptoms, namely:

fatigue (probably my very first symptom)
sore throat (also an early symptom)
terrible intestinal woes (ditto as above)
high fever…a very high fever
aches, of course
nasal congestion
cough (see below)
and, finally, pneumonia, yes, the interstitial form that is typical of Covid-19

However, it would have been an anomalous case of Covid-19 for the following reasons:

I didn’t infect anyone. A few days after Xmas, Stefano and I drove up to the city of Padova, in the Veneto region, northern Italy, to pick up my brother-in-law and his family. The following day the four of us drove to the city of Ljubljan, Slovenia, where we spent a very nice, long weekend. This means that we all spent hours inside Stefano’s car, talking and laughing, and breathing the same air. When we returned to Padova, my sister-in-law organized a family dinner party. I had begun feeling a bit tired but of course had absolutely no inkling that I was about to get very sick, otherwise Stefano and I would have left immediately for Florence (we left the following day, and then it all “exploded” within 24 hours). This dinner party therefore took place just before I got REALLY sick. Luckily, nobody got ill, not even the grandmother. Now, we all know by now that Covid-19 is extremely contagious, especially for the elderly. Another point: as you may (or may not!) know, Italians are veeeeeery affectionate, big huggers and kissers, which is undoubtedly one of the reasons why Covid-19 spread so readily here in the beginning (nobody is kissing and hugging now, of course!). After my SMM diagnosis in 2005, I cut back on all the kissing and hugging (explaining WHY to my friends), but when the Xmas holidays come around, it’s hard to pull back….So I had kissed and hugged and been in close contact with at least ten people, possibly more, before I got sick. And what about my husband? We slept together the entire time I was sick. Before, during, and after. He never left my side. In fact, I was so helpless that he stayed at home from work for at least ten days to take care of me. But he didn’t develop even the slightest of sniffles. Okay, perhaps he is one of those asymptomatic folks that we’ve heard so much about on the news, but then every single person that I was in touch with in the 10-14 days before I got sick would have to be asymptomatic, too. Hmmm.
My cough was never dry. And that’s one big sign of Covid-19.
My family doctor never mentioned the possibility of my having coronavirus.

In sum, if what I had back in early January was coronavirus, then it must have been a very odd and non-contagious strain.

Can Covid-19 be non-contagious? Well, from all I’ve read about this terrible virus, and I’ve read a lot, that just doesn’t seem likely. I could be wrong, of course. So, as soon as the antibody tests become widely available, I’m going to have one. Boy, it would be such a relief to find out that I actually have those antibodies AND that I survived Covid-19 (AT HOME, to boot!), in spite of my compromised immune system and my asthma.

But, feet back on the ground, I am almost 100% certain that my early January illness, as bad as it was, had nothing to do with coronavirus. For me, therefore, the case is closed, and, at this point, it would be useless to speculate any further until I have that antibody test. But I would like to thank my blog readers for their interest and concern, which got me thinking…

Finally, and obviously: as soon as I have any test results, I’ll post them. It won’t be for a while, for sure, so don’t hold your breath. 🙂

P.S. I thought I’d add the photos of 1. a swallowtail butterfly drinking nectar from my pansies, and 2. a tulip from my front yard. These are a couple of weeks old, but my black tulips are still blooming….