This has me 
I had to see a new doctor in our practice right in the middle of Covid times and full on masking everywhere. When he walked into the exam room with his mask under his nose, I immediately decided that Iâd never go to him again. Of course, after that was the gaslighting but the mask was the first clue.
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Our state health department called my dad to follow up with him on his Covid case since he is an âofficial caseâ in their records due to the PCR test he took at urgent care last week. He told her how his own doctor and my sisterâs doctor had no sense of urgency and didnât make appointments to see either right away or to prescribe paxlovid despite their positive at-home Covid tests.
She said she has heard that a lot. She thinks physicians just âhope it will go away.â (MeaningâŚkick the can down the road⌠âmostâ individuals will be âokayâ as far as concerns of extreme severity âŚ.and if not, well, that will be the ER or some other physicianâs problem).
Giving generous benefit of the doubtâŚmaybe those tending to your mom didnât notice her symptoms until you called it to their attention. But more likely they âhoped it would go awayâ. If we donât test, we wonât know and donât have to take the precautions. It can be someone elseâs problemâŚ.if other patients get it, etc. Not our problem.
I know there must be great fatigue from it all, but as @amyvanhoose saidâŚ.first do no harm. And when youâre working with fragile heart patients, vulnerable elderly, or in a case study on long Covid where participants are particularly traumatized or susceptible to Covid, etc. I just donât understand not taking precautions during the time you are with the patients.
Itâs so discouraging and frustrating, especially when youâre in a situation where you already feel so depleted and concerned and need to be able to trust the care a very precious loved one is receiving.
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And to clarify, since people are actually asking on Twitter âIf they already have Long Covid, what are they scared of?â
Yes, getting Covid after you already have Long Covid does often make the condition worse.
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I couldnât agree more.
Unfortunately, that is not the case. They took her for an X-ray the day prior to make sure it wasnât pneumonia. They also gave her a sore throat spray. They didnât even check for strep throat which I thought was common procedure.
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@amvanhoose_701479 , my Covid tests have all expired 8/7/22. Was there new guidance on expirations for the iHealth tests? Or should I just go get a couple more?
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Here is the link to all authorized tests and the table has a column with expiration guidance, including a link to updated expirations by lot number.
https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/coronavirus-covid-19-and-medical-devices/home-otc-covid-19-diagnostic-tests
Here is the info specific to iHealth:
https://www.fda.gov/media/164551/download
Last day for free tests through insurance is May 11, so everyone might want to update their supply while itâs free. 8 tests per household member per month. (Getting all 8 tests for one person at one time has been easiest way at my CVS. If you try to do your whole householdâs monthly supply at once, they may push back if it wipes out their supply. I just go on different days for each person.)
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Thank you. I guess I need to pick up more, but these will work until 5/7/2023.
I had ordered more through the USPS when availability opened again, but i never received them. 
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I have to say that our experience with the iHealth extension does not confirm those dates. Although the expiration was extended, well before that date they no longer worked. It was easy to tell since the control line never showed up.
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Just took an ihealth test yesterday with same expiration date & I got a control line. Thankfully negative.
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My control line showed up just now. No line for Covid, though. Iâll take again in 48 hours.
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You should be good then! All of ours were from the same batch.
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sorry
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I know someone I suspect could have long covid due to 2 yrs of symptoms consistent with it, but it is presumed to be another health issue due to starting right when the person needed surgery for that issue. However, the drs have never been able to understand why these symptoms are happening, ie their tests donât confirm it like they should. Other similar drs are also stumped. I wonder if this person had an asymptomatic covid case during their extensive hospitalization and is now having long covid but has no idea b/c they think they didnât have covid. Would you mention this to them or not? Since there isnât any definitive cure for long covid it almost seems cruel to sow those seeds of worry / doubt. But, this person is already stumped as to what is wrong with them, so I donât know if another speculative theory would hurt anything. Person is in a high risk group but otherwise has isolated to an extreme degree and gotten all vaccines. Thus far I havenât mentioned it b/c it just seems kind of mean since there isnât a cure for long covid.
I would not speculate to them re their health unless they ask for you to speculate. Just answering your question since you asked WWYD.
I had a lot of symptoms that lined up with long covid after I suspected I had covid in 2020 (before tests available). My eventual diagnosis, which I believe is accurate, was anxiety. But though other people floated this to me I really didnât put any stock in it until it came from my primary who was walking through the whole diagnosis process with me in logical fashion (and looking back I am not angry people floated it to me but I didnât really appreciate it either).
If someone asks your input because theyâre stumped and want ideas though, I think thatâs fine. Or like if you see a mole and think itâs cancerous possibly, by all means say something. But stuff like long covid and anxiety â itâs not something you can do a simple test for and itâs not something so unique that probably itâs been thought of by their doc or themselves already.
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Thanks. The thing that makes it uncomfortable to not bring up all my thoughts is that this person asks me for my opinion about their medical stuff multiple times per month, and sometimes per week. So Iâm constantly not saying what is really on my mind.
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If theyâre directly inviting your input, I think thatâs different. Itâs the unsolicited advice you really want to avoid.
I would tread lightly. âYou know, it probably wouldnât hurt to take a Covid antibody test, just on the long shot you had an asymptomatic case and any of this is fallout from that. It would be a good data point to have.â Probably wouldnât hurt to mention that the test wouldnât be conclusive (not everyone develops antibodies and they do fade over time), but could be helpful info. FWIW, the tests can differentiate between antibodies from infection vs vaccination, but they should confirm that is true of the specific test they are being given, assuming they have been vaccinated. And even if they donât get the test, you can feel like at least you mentioned the possibility for them to consider.
Weâre in a tough place right now. All health issues arenât due to Covid. But some definitely are. And there is no easy way right now to sort the two out.
Iâm really hoping the Long Covid bio marker research comes through. We really need that more than anything. Itâs really hard to run good trials without a good starting point.
Not that they shouldnât go ahead and try trials with the most promising treatments in the meantime. But itâs going to be a lot harder to get people the appropriate treatments and will mean putting them through a whole lot of trial-and-error until we get groups of bio markers.
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This is very useful info b/c I had no idea that a test could tell if you had covid vs the vaccine shots. Thanks! I am still uncertain if I will ever mention this to my friend, but Iâll see if it comes up.
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If you want to dive deep on the topicâŚ
A couple key points:
Household updateâŚ
DD22 had a rough night Saturday but seems to be in the mend. She tested negative today (Day 4) but isnât entirely convinced with level of symptoms sheâs still having. Sheâs tentatively planning to start her job on Wed if she continues to improve and test negative.
Weâve been testing other household members before they head out into the public. Everyone negative so far, including me, so I was able to get my medical testing today. It wasâŚeventfulâŚand Iâll leave that teaser for now until Iâm up for telling the much longer story properly.
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Hope you can update us on the medical testing soon and that itâs a beneficial scenario for you. May your daughter feel better soon and have a great start to this job opportunity!
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Well it sounds to me like theyâre asking your thoughts.
I am a natural problem solver so I often have to stop myself with friends and ask are they wanting validation like a listening ear right now? Or are they wanting advice? You can even ask that out loud if youâre not sure. But for me sometimes just asking myself is enough. Iâm just wired to want to fix everything around me for everyone. 
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