Is it possible to quickly develop (within 24h) respiratory failure or breathing difficulties without having severe onset symptoms (i. e. fever, perhaps chest pain (chest congestion) or unstoppable cough)? Which symptoms exactly should be looked out for? If the possibility of suddenly going straight to blue is unavoidable, what is the distribution of how exactly physically able and mentally coherent you are likely to become when that happens?
(personalized: There’s a considerable probability I’m already infected and my isolated space is located in a rather obscure place which is about 1.5km from the nearest road where ambulance can adequately reach me. I need a clear-cut line for when I should orderly organize for me to be transported back to civilization. If this line is not reliable or something goes very wrong, how likely it is that I would be able to walk 1.5km in emergency condition, with −10 Celsius outside, all by myself?)
According to https://www.facebook.com/jeanqasaur/posts/10111638281986401 , symptoms are often not sudden onset, but my impression is it can get worse quite suddenly, as the virus moves from upper to lower respiratory system. The primary way to know if things are getting serious is shortness of breath, but, uh, that seems really bad to wait for if you need to walk a mile to get help.
This is really speculative on my part, but: this might be a good candidate for a pulse/ox meter. Normally I think they aren’t very useful because you can go by symptoms, but it might (might) be useful in your case, if you can monitor frequently enough to catch a dropping oxygen concentration before it interferes with your breathing (I do not know if the meters are accurate enough to do this).
Hopefully someone more knowledgeable can weigh in, but in the meantime I want to sound a note of caution on this: my experience with pulse oximeters is that by the time it drops noticeably below normal, you are already quite sick and walking a mile may not be practical. The point of the pulse ox is more to be able to quantify your symptoms so that you can have a specific threshold for when you should seek emergency treatment. I don’t believe it’s a leading indicator and so it may not be helpful for this situation.
Is it possible to quickly develop (within 24h) respiratory failure or breathing difficulties without having severe onset symptoms (i. e. fever, perhaps chest pain (chest congestion) or unstoppable cough)? Which symptoms exactly should be looked out for? If the possibility of suddenly going straight to blue is unavoidable, what is the distribution of how exactly physically able and mentally coherent you are likely to become when that happens?
(personalized: There’s a considerable probability I’m already infected and my isolated space is located in a rather obscure place which is about 1.5km from the nearest road where ambulance can adequately reach me. I need a clear-cut line for when I should orderly organize for me to be transported back to civilization. If this line is not reliable or something goes very wrong, how likely it is that I would be able to walk 1.5km in emergency condition, with −10 Celsius outside, all by myself?)
According to https://www.facebook.com/jeanqasaur/posts/10111638281986401 , symptoms are often not sudden onset, but my impression is it can get worse quite suddenly, as the virus moves from upper to lower respiratory system. The primary way to know if things are getting serious is shortness of breath, but, uh, that seems really bad to wait for if you need to walk a mile to get help.
This is really speculative on my part, but: this might be a good candidate for a pulse/ox meter. Normally I think they aren’t very useful because you can go by symptoms, but it might (might) be useful in your case, if you can monitor frequently enough to catch a dropping oxygen concentration before it interferes with your breathing (I do not know if the meters are accurate enough to do this).
Hopefully someone more knowledgeable can weigh in, but in the meantime I want to sound a note of caution on this: my experience with pulse oximeters is that by the time it drops noticeably below normal, you are already quite sick and walking a mile may not be practical. The point of the pulse ox is more to be able to quantify your symptoms so that you can have a specific threshold for when you should seek emergency treatment. I don’t believe it’s a leading indicator and so it may not be helpful for this situation.