Transition back to real life

Type 1 and LADA
1

Are you all starting to form plans for transitioning back into normal life?
I’m a bit uncertain about how this transition is gonna take place or what to expect from a physiological standpoint.

I’m naturally a little superstitious about it because its will have been a year since lockdown started and that’s a long time. I worry that a bunch of us will have heart attacks if we just flip a switch. I feel a little uncertain about what level of cardiovascular injury might have resulted from lockdown of this length. I’m noticing some little, naggy thoughts when I have rib pain from shoveling, where I wonder if I’m throwing a clot.

You guys thinking about this? Having any anxieties? I’m having some minor concerns about simply never having transitioned from a covid lockdown before and what D-related surprises might result.

My uncle in NY has already been vaccinated. So has an aunt in CA, with another uncle out there soon to follow. Also, prob a couple of cousins. Its coming.

I just went back on my Omnipod after using us my emergency NPH ration. Its got me thinking…it been almost a year exactly since reports started coming out of China and me and the other recently graduated grad students started forming initial emergency plans to lockdown. I think that I can safely say that $ will just barley hold out and I’m gonna survive covid via pretty extreme lockdown measures. But, then what? How’s this gonna work?

Anybody got strategies already developed for how we restore to our previous (pre-covid) conditions of health? Are there going to be obstacles?

2

Well my life is nearly unchanged, it’s only going to restaurants and seeing friends and family that’s different.
I’m looking forward to not wearing a mask.
Seeing my family and friends
Eating out
Getting an appointment for a dentist which are 3 months out now.
Shaking hands and hugging people.
For me it’s all positive stuff coming after a long time of bad news restrictions and limits.

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3

I hope… I hope.,. That as a society we can begin to bridge our differences and address the Pandemic and other sociological problems with an open mind and cohesiveness. Regardless of our political affiliations, regardless of our religion, regardless where we live, we have more in common than not.

I hope we see some behavioural changes next year, I hope the vaccine (s) prove worthwhile, I hope as a society we can survive our current challenges and grow as humans.

Here’s to hope. 2021 you have a big job ahead.

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4

My employer, a cancer center, recently sent out an email that it would like to have everyone, about 20K+ people, vaccinated, but some of that will be handling vaccination on their own. it will be months before we can really let out guard down, not just for ourselves but for others.

After complete vaccination, I would still be wearing a mask and washing hands frequently, since these have positive knock-on effects for ourselves as well as for the unvaccinated. I could then starting walking more, if not to and from work, then longer hikes on weekends and visiting museums. Dining out would come back for us, as would having friends over, and all of those are very health-conscious, as well as careful about the virus, assuming they get vaccinated. I could also then get back to the gym, which pre-pandemic was about 4 to 5 times per week. My spouse could go back to her social engagements with friends, since when she started retiring over the past few years became more frequent. Cultural events, in packed halls, would come back later, as would travel requiring flight, although local vacations would pick up.

Forward change wouldn’t be much to implement, but then we need to unwind some practices. The rowing machine I bought for the lockdown would need to be sold. The extra supplies we keep and replenish would need to be wound down. Aspects of extra cleanliness, which aren’t normally helpful, like wiping down deliveries, would simply end.

From the carnage, there will be insights. Excess deaths would need to be analyzed, to fully understand the increases not related to Covid. Health checks and treatments for not fatal effects would increase. There will be pushes to compensate for the education loss suffered by many, if not most, children. We will find that social distancing, or some aspect of hygiene and mask-wearing, reduced other illnesses like the flu. Drug and alcohol treatment systems will see a rise in usage.

Political solutions will be fought for, and depending on the composition of the Senate, will be shot down or implemented. The virus laid bare many of the problems that America suffers from, it inequality, its mediocre health care, its political mismanagement, the irrationality of people living in disinformation bubbles, the dismantling of the sciences, etc.

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5

It’s been my experience that whenever there is (even sometimes subtle) lifestyle change, there is risk of surprise attacks from D. Does that make sense?

I’m superstitious about doing new things.

Examples:

1.) When I first flew overseas.

  • The change in sleep patterns provoked seizures.
  • Failing to reset the clock on my insulin pump sent the basal patterns into disarray.
  • The amount of walking/changes in eating that you do in foreign countries was something I needed to learn how to adapt to. The 1st time I was in CN, I only ate white rice and that created stability until I had time to learn. The 2nd time, I was able to eat a variety of things.

2.) The 1st time I skied UP a ski hill

  • I totally didn’t anticipate what that would do to me. Something like 12 hours later, I was so exhausted and getting such rapid lows that it took me down. But, the 2nd time and every time after that I was prepared for how hard that level of intense exercise hits and ‘how’ it manifests.

Maybe you all are saying that I shouldn’t be so concerned. Maybe your right. But, I have never emerged after a pandemic before and my lifestyle changes have been dramatic during this time. I would like to have some risk mitigation strategies in place. But, I don’t know what to anticipate. I will need to reset my relationship with eating, and my body/activity level, and my brain.

I think that a switch will flip and I will just pour out into the streets in 2 - 3 months. It will be like the end of WW2 and there will be such celebration as I have never seen. I think that I will need to be cautious and keep a close eye on how my body is experiences that event.

The shift out of lockdown will be inherently more risky than the shift into lockdown, for me. There will be an explosion in activity level. I will lose weight. The experience will have physical presentation. It will be a physical experience. The people in these photos from WW2 are at a physical event, not just a psychological one. Events like these are highly physical in nature. They require stamina. When you work with huge crowds in events like these, there is often a huge outpouring of medical emergencies.

Do my thoughts make sense? Like, Springtime is a physical event in Minnesota. But, this is gonna be different.

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6

For myself, the changes I’ve made, a mix of good and bad:

  • Eat better, better carbs
  • Less walking, amounting to hours per week
  • Less intense workouts that are slightly shorter
  • Fewer meals out

The overall effect of the changes has been to increase my need for short-term insulin, primarily because of less evening activity, the walk to and from the gym, combined with fewer longer, intense workouts, and with that extra time at home the calorie balance that has shifted to the early evening. Not bad food, but a bit more than usual, since the intense workouts tend to reduce appetite, so after a trek over to the gym, the workout, and coming back, I wouldn’t be nearly as hungry, nor have as much time to eat.

When things change again, I can likely reduce my insulin, while working out more.

7

I think the risks will increase, but not much different from after the first wave, when people relaxed their guard. Now is no different. It’s a time to be wary, since people will minimize the risk thinking it’s solved, or will be. People will get careless. Not everyone, but enough to keep causing problems.

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8

Yup. That’s a good starting point. That’s gonna have to happen across the board for me. I guess I also anticipate a lot more variety in activity and thus more standard deviation. So, I should set things up to tolerate a lot of room for error initially. That’s helpful, thanks for helping me walk through this thought process.

9

I saw a clip of Dr. Fauci on TV saying we should wear masks every flu season in the future. So don’t throw away those masks. Being retired our lives haven’t changed as much. Just miss socializing with friends.

10

I am taking a wait and see attitude. Enough people won’t even be vaccinated to make a difference until late spring or even later. So I don’t see any sudden changes happening fast. Too many variables between then and now.

Too many questions still…

But I am retired, so it’s mostly just missing being able to mingle with people!

11

Travel and surgery are my plans. Who knows what order that might happen in?

I have enough airline miles saved up for Sheryl and i to go to Hawaii for two weeks. This will be the third planned trip to Hawaii, I am hopeful we make it this time.

So I image surgery first, then Hawaii, provided I can get Sheryl to go along. I woudl love to attend the International Diabetes Federation gathering in 2021 in Thailand. But i know for certain Sheryl is never going to do that. :slight_smile:

12

I’m still steamed over the long wait for my turn to get the vaccine…not sure how “following the science” says a 64 year old Type 1 should wait until 200+ million others have been vaccinated but oh well. If they were all high risk it wouldn’t be so bad but 30 year olds working from home? I don’t think so. I have not had undue stress or angst over the lockdowns and social distancing so far but the lack of sense in the vaccine prioritization is getting me down.

But I expect to be pretty depressed in late winter and spring when I am still waiting for the vaccine but the rest of the world acts like Covid was in the distant past. Even those who do not get vaccinated will be acting like it’s the roaring 20’s. I’m not expecting to see many masks after about March. Meanwhile I will be social distancing until I can get vaccinated and until somebody convinces me the risk is minimal, no trips, no socializing, no hiring helpers for my renovation project etc. I already missed my mothers 100th birthday in summer 2020 and do not want to miss her 101st.

13

I don’t know about others. But with me working from home 98%+ of the time, I get out and about outdoors every single day, walking 10,000-20,000 steps every single day. I hardly ever hit that goal my heart doctor gave me, before the lockdown began in March. Since mid-March I’ve been able to hit the 10,000 step goal almost every single day.

My TIR on my CGM went from mid-80% to close to 90%. Again closely related to me being able to do exercise at times that most help with rapid insulin absorption.

I mean I knew about exercise affecting timing of insulin absorption for nearly half a century now. But only since March have I been able to take advantage of it nearly every single day to conquer after-meal peaks. Or to make a correction kick in with warp speed.

Even when I have to go back to the office every single (or at least most) workdays, I think I’ve learned a lot about exercise and how to use it to improve bg control I’ve also learned (from the school of hard knocks) exactly how exercise at the wrong time leads to hypos.

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14

Are your relatives hcw? otherwise I am surprised they have already been vaccinated, I have heard nothing about vaccination here yet. I plan to call my doc eventually. I am wfh online again next semester so I don’t see a return to normal for quite some time. Even after vaccination you will still have to wear masks / social distance etc. until the cases are drastically down, right now they are increasing nearly everywhere like crazy due to lack of doing what needs to be done.

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15

State----Position------------------ Vacc Status

NY------My uncle is a fire chief------ Vaccinated
NY------My cousin is a nurse--------- Vacc Status Unknown
NY------My Aunt is a nurse----------- Not Vaccinated
(Serious cancer diagnosis/hospitalization during covid and is home)

CA------My Aunt is a nurse--------------Vaccinated
CA------My cousin is a pharmacist-----Vaccinated
CA------My uncle is a jail nurse---------Scheduled for vaccination in 2 weeks after they complete vaccination of all the prisoners

This is my headcount, @meee, as of 12/28/2020…

Status in MN is that they have begun vaccination of people who have direct contact with known covid + cases (So, nurses who work on the covid wards). At least some of the (non covid ward) nurses I know have been vacced, but I haven’t spoken with EVERYONE. No police or first responders (no EMTs/paramedics, yet). Some Long Term Care, but vaccine shipments were delayed in shipping and we had a big snowstorm that slowed vaccine distribution.

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16

By now about 6% plus of our state is vaccinated. All Health care workers, including dentists, pharmacists, therapists etc if they wanted it were first. Next is first responders. Somewhere in there are elderly people that live in convalescent hospitals.

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17

Ok, that is why they are or will be soon… I doubt most people will be vaccinated for a bit, maybe in March or later is my guess. I am hoping for the astra zeneca one maybe since it has no documented severe allergic reactions.

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18

I’m hoping for February. But, that has yet to be seen. I think certainly by March. If its March, then their scheduling fell through and things got behind, or T1’s didn’t get any priority status (which might happen).

19

My understanding is that all vaccines — including, for example, vaccines for polio, flu, measles, pneumonia, shingles — have a risk of triggering severe allergic reactions. I get vaccinated for the flu every year and I always get what I assume is the same warning leaflet warning about allergies.

I would not be surprised if eventually some small fraction of people receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine also have an allergic reaction.

In the case of the very few (less than 10?) allergic reactions so far, this included people who were carrying their epi pens with them. That is, it happened to people who knew from previous experience that they were highly allergic to something and that they were taking a chance when they got the vaccine.

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20

I’m just wondering when we will be allowed to transition back. Must we hit the ever moving herd immunity target before the all clear signal is given to resume our lives.
I just fear that there will be large number that will refuse a vaccine thus making herd immunity hard to achieve.

I have done as they have asked, I have lived as a semi-hermit, I have social distanced and have worn masks when out in public. I will take a vaccine as soon as it is available to me, not just for me but for everyone. I will do my part for herd immunity.

After everyone has had a chance at vaccination I plan to return to a normal life. I do not plan to continue living a sub-par life for the sake of those that refuse to be vaccinated.