Here is Dr. Klotman’s Week 197 video address from Baylor College of Medicine. In it, Dr. Klotman looks back at all his weekly addresses of 2023. There is no new information here – just snippets of prior videos. It’s a bit disjointed for me, but that’s just my personal preference.
The only COVID news on my radar this week is the rapid dominance of the JN.1 variant which has reached such prevalence in the northeast that large medical centers like Mass General have re-instituted mask mandates for their employees. Let’s hope that no mass revolt results from anti-mask morons spreading their stupidity in the medical centers. Sigh.
Back in April, I wrote a little movie review about Cocaine Bear. In it, I mentioned epistaxis – the medical term for a nosebleed. The connection was that cocaine is a powerful vasoconstrictor that, in times past, was used to stop serious nose bleeds. What I didn’t mention was that I myself have been experiencing episodic, small volume, nose bleeds ever since I began taking aspirin after my small-vessel stroke two years ago.
These little episodes were infrequent, brief, and relatively straightforward to manage. Then two weeks ago, I had an unexpected hemorrhage that lasted for three days. I finally went to the ER where the attending physician, sprayed my nose with epinephrine and then packed it with a saline-inflatable balloon. It wasn’t an entirely pleasant experience, but it did control the bleeding – until I sneezed some hours later. I had another evening of unrelenting bleeding, and returned to the ER the following morning to have a new balloon put in. After a couple of days, I removed the balloon, as instructed, without there being more bleeding.
Yesterday, I went to see a friend who practices ENT medicine. We chatted and caught up; he identified the source of the persistent bleeding; and he cauterized the offending lesion. Afterward I asked him how he and the members of his ENT group had fared during COVID.
Me: “So, how did you do during the worst of the COVID apocalypse?”
He: “The first few weeks were terrible because the younger members of the group wanted the older guys to do telemedicine so that we wouldn’t get sick. ENT is a very hands-on specialty – you have to examine the patient and sometimes perform some procedure. So, telemedicine was not a good fit. I hated it.”
Me: “What about after the first few weeks?”
He: “We came back to the clinic, masked up, and did our jobs. I wasn’t doing hospital or ER work or anything high risk, but I just couldn’t sit on the sidelines.”
Me: “I get it. It just didn’t feel right to not be in fray if not on the front lines.”
He: “Exactly. It just didn’t feel right. Anyway, I made it two years without catching COVID. I took three vaccine doses, and then I got COVID.”
Me: “Yeah. It was probably Omicron which the original vaccine didn’t target very well.”
He: “I’m fine now, but I really couldn’t have been an ER doc, a Hospitalist or an ICU nurse. It would have been too much. Those folks really were/are the heroes.”
I had a similar conversation with my ICU nurse a couple of years ago, and it was obvious to me that their service came with a high emotional cost. I had a similar chat with the ER nurse a couple of weeks ago.
Although the young and healthy are “done with COVID,” COVID isn’t done with those of us who are older, have chronic conditions, or have a compromised immune system. My COVID updates are for you and for me.