Study Day 2 – Exposed to the Virus

Study Day 2 – Exposed to the Virus

Exposed!

Good morning to all those reading. Today I’m once again writing from a cold, bare room at a medical study facility in Costa Mesa. Its Day 3 of the study at about 9am and I’m sitting here waiting to have my vitals taken for the morning so I figured while I wait, I’ll update all of you as to how yesterday, Day 2, went.

Happy to report that I slept pretty well on my first night here, despite being taller than the bed is long. Being 6’3″ on a twin bed takes some creativity! But I tend to sleep like a log, so no problems. I was woken up at 6am, walls are pretty thin here and the noise of the nurses and lab techs scurrying around woke me. We were receiving the virus that morning and so i figured I’d get up even though my turn for tests wasn’t up yet.

Here everything is structured and timed. Each participant is given various tests and procedures at set intervals…and they are going in order of room number. I’m lucky room number 13! Which means my tests start about 8am.

Each day starts with the same…tissues are given to you in a ziploc bag…you are to blow your nose into the tissue and put the tissue back into the bag. I guess they weigh the bag to determine the amount of stuff you are blowing out each day. Fun Times.

This is then followed by vitals: Seated blood pressure, blood oxygen levels, heart rate. Takes a total of about 10 minutes as they always see low blood pressure with me due to my being athletic, and always take another one to be safe then have the doctor come in and verify that its just because my heart is that good! Wish they would notate that so we didn’t have to do it over and over just to draw the same conclusion.

Then we have our ECG taken, followed by the dreaded nasal swab. At least this time it went much easier…still not fond of having something stuck up my nose all the way to the back of my throat but it was better this time. A different nurse did it this time and I think that was the difference. Hopefully I get that guy for future ones.

Next was the blood draw…which normally is unremarkable except that this time the gal didn’t do a good job at all…first she went for a vein that was harder to see for some unknown reason to me. There was one that was clearly popping out but she decided to go with one that was barely visible. After inserting the needle it was clear no blood was coming through so she continued to push the needle in and guess what….still no blood. She then pulled back a little and got the blood flowing. but with ten vials of blood to fill and only ten minutes to do it in, we ran into a problem around vial 6, the flow came to a halt and we only had a couple minutes to get the rest…so she became hurried and started trying other veins but never able to get it in the right angle…one stick was so painful i had to tell her to stop, and needles dont bother me…she was flustered and pretty much just trying to move fast rather than accurately. Long story short she finally got a vein and finished…but im sure im going to be bruising pretty bad.

Lastly, the moment we were waiting for, the virus administration, this was the easiest and quickest of all the procedures. We received the virus via nasal spray in both nostrils. We are then observed for about 5 minutes to make sure we dont sneeze or blow out what was just administered.

I’m officially exposed! Now its all about sitting around and waiting to see what happens next.

Waiting to be Turned!

Being here reminds me of basic training, minus all the yelling and pushups.

Food is about the same quality; cafeteria/frozen aisle quality food. For all my fitness people out there, its pretty much an endless stream of processed carbs….which wouldn’t be so bad if it was at least worth it…a candy bar or some fresh baked bread, or even fruit that wasn’t unripe melon or a red apple. I seriously had better food in basic training than here.

Lunch was a sandwhich with your run of the mill grocery store wonderbread with 2 THIN slices of ham or something that didn’t have enough flavor for me to tell exactly what it was, with a slice of swiss cheese, lettuce, and tomato. A small salad with dressing that I dont like and no salt and pepper (they are nazis about giving us

any salt and pepper, they love bland food here). The highlight of this meal is a small piece of cake, which appears to be an attempt at carrot cake, however, it looks and tastes like vanilla cake with some shreds of carrot and an overwhelming clove spice flavor. Apparently they forgot the other spices that go into a carrot cake (I’m a carrot cake afficionado by the way).

Dinner was an improvement over lunch but not by much. It looked like they were shooting for meatloaf but it didn’t really taste like it; it didn’t taste bad just not like meatloaf. But at least they served it with gravy and mashed potatoes so it wasn’t half bad and another slice of some sort of plain cake. I’ll tell you one thing I’ve taken away from the food here…they must have some sort of aversion to protein…if they even serve any with
the meal it seems like it cant be more than like 10g-15 grams of it. For those of you who dont know, thats the equivalent of about 1/4 – 1/3 of a breast of chicken. I think once i leave this study i need to consult for this place’s nutrition department. They seriously have no idea of how to put together a balanced meal. I feel like even if i hadn’t gotten the viruse i’d still get sick based on the low quality food, unbalanced meals full of sugar and carbs and how freaking cold they are keeping my room.

So I mentioned how structured they are here…even with our meals they must physically watch us take our first bite at a specific hour/minute and then once we finish eating we have to notate the minute that we take our last bite. Its like big brother here at times! Even to go to the bathroom, we have to hit our nurse button, and be escorted to the bathroom. Boot camp wasn’t even that bad.

But there is a ton of down time here! That is the real challenge. Luckily I brought a computer, tablet and a ton of gym paperwork and projects to work on. Luckily they have amazing wi-fi so i can stream movies and tv while working remotely online. I spent most of Day 2 watching a couple movies and getting some graphic design work done for the gym. Today I will attempt to start meditating again (perfect place for it since i have no where else to be and no real deadlines) and listen to a few of “The Great Courses” which are college level class lectures on video online. That should keep me busy. Just wish i could workout…i’m getting restless and my body needs to move more…unfortunately exercise is not allowed here…but i think im going to sneak in some light body-weight work to get the blood moving, if even for just a little bit.

Tomorrow’s post will be about the rest of today, Day 3, how im feeling and a little information on what a vaccine is and what it isn’t…I feel there is a lot of misinformation out there, and a lot of people who dont understand how they work.

So stay tuned!