I had a three month follow-up appointment with my cardiologist today. Due to the whole COVID-19 thing, they switched it to a remote appointment. I originally thought it was going to be a phone call but they set up a Zoom video meeting instead. I think it went well though it was hard to show the doctor my surgery scar. I have more appointments with different doctors next week and I know one of them has been switched to Zoom as well.

Today has been an interesting day. Since I didn’t go to rehab all week, I decided I need to to go this morning even though I didn’t get any sleep. I arrived at the gym at 8:00 am and there were only two patients. I guess the rain and COVID-19 is keeping everyone at home. The nurses suggested we wear disposable gloves while we exercise and they also had masks available. It was pretty weird walking on the treadmill for 30 minutes wearing purple surgical gloves. Since my palms sweat, it was also pretty gross when I took the gloves off afterwards.

Since I thought I had a meeting at 10:00 am, I drove straight to work after rehab and didn’t check my work phone. I was going to talk to my boss about working from home more since this COVID-19 pandemic is becoming more serious. When I walked into our area (there are 5000+ at our work-site), about four coworkers told me to go home right away. Turns out an employee came down on Tuesday from our Seattle office and their partner was infected with COVID-19. Yikes! Since everyone knows my medical journey, they all told me to go home. Once of them actually texted me this morning but I didn’t see the message. I spoke to my boss and he also told me to go home. He is telling our entire department to work from home next week to see if that was an isolated case, or if our building turns into an infection hot spot. I had to quickly do a few things then left for home after 45 minutes. At the same time, our CEO sent out an email message telling sick people to stay home, but the overall tone of the message seems to downplay the seriousness of the pandemic. Not helpful.

Since I was at home, I watched President Trump’s press conference at the Rose Garden this afternoon. There were a few useful facts but most of it was useless and cringy. I swear he sounds retarded when he speaks. I was also disappointed in Mike Pence; he spent most of his time kissing Trump’s ass instead of demonstrating leadership. The Q&A was also interesting. The foreign reporters seem to ask balanced questions but some American journalists were definitely out to get Trump with their passive-aggressive questions. Even at this time, everything is about politics.

We’re all going to die.

Hmm. The response to COVID-19 in the US seemed to go from 0 to 100 this week. The stock market keeps dropping and now there is a travel ban on all of Europe. My parents have some friends whose children are stuck in Italy with no way home. My church have cancelled most gatherings and switched to live streaming online. My sister cancelled her family trip to Disney World; they were supposed to meet up with my cousin’s family driving down from Toronto. No more NBA games?!

Even worse, the dialysis nutritionist told me the hospital was running out of supplies. They only have two weeks of surgical masks left. She was told not to wear a mask to save on supplies and not to freak out the patients. I think her not wearing a mask is freaking me out more. Typically for each session, they pack a bag with all the necessary supplies to connect and disconnect patients. My bag always included a surgical mask due to the infection risk of using a chest catheter. Well, there wasn’t one today, not even a manual tie-on mask. My nurse had to grab a staff mask with a plastic shield for me to use. Pretty wasteful since I don’t need the shield but it speaks volumes about the supplies shortage.

I slept a bit after dialysis today but again, I think it will be another sleepless night. It’s 1:30 am already and I’ve been “in bed” since 9:30 pm. I think I need to go to rehab tomorrow. With all my insurance problems, I really should try to finish up before the end of March. I hope they don’t shut down the cardiac rehab gym, else I’ll never get my transplant scheduled.

Ever since the surgery, I’ve had phlegm in my throat and a slight cough. This was especially bad during the first few weeks after surgery since each cough felt like the end-of-the-world. It’s much better now but coughing and sneezing still causes pain in my chest.

Over the past few days, I think I’ve been coughing a bit more than before. However, I don’t have a fever and my temperature readings are normal. With COVID-19 around, you’re not sure if you should panic each time you experience potential symptoms. It’s ridiculous that we don’t have access to quick tests to verify if we’ve have COVID-19, or just the regular flu/cold. Korea even has drive-through testing stations now and they can test 10,000 people/day.

I also feel like it’s hard to breath when I lie down and try to sleep but that’s been true for several weeks now. Again, I don’t know if I should be worried or not. Since my parents are both 78 years old, I don’t want any chance of infection in the house. I’ve also been told by my doctor to be very careful about getting the flu. Does dialysis compromise your immune system?

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Ugh. I guess that’s a yes on dialysis and compromised immune system.

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I ended up not sleeping at all last night/this morning. I was coughing too but it kind of went away this morning. Since I didn’t get any sleep, I just got up and went to work instead of cardiac rehab. I don’t know if lying down causes both the chest pain and the coughing but I don’t think I’ve caught COVID-19… yet.