TAMMY

Tammy. One of the sweetest ladies in Key West. Always a smile. Always a hug.

Tammy is extremely lovely. Somewhere in her mid 40’s, looks mid 20’s. She is the premier bartender at the Chart Room.

Tammy had coronavirus. Laid low. Recently recovered.

I only found out 2 days ago that she had been struck. We talked at length yesterday via telephone.

Fortunately thus far, Tammy is the only person I know who has had covid-19. I am sorry it had to be Tammy. Or anyone else for that matter.

I was interested. Tammy took me through the whole thing.

On thursday 3/19, she had a dry cough. Infrequently. about once an hour. By 8 pm, she had a low grade fever.

The next day was friday. The cough more frequent. Fever continued. Started aching all over in the afternoon. Her knees began bothering her.

Saturday she was real achy. Started taking Tylenol. That night, she became aware of her breathing. She could feel every breath.

She woke sunday morning in a deep sweat. The fever had broken. She felt sluggish all day.

Monday she felt fine. No symptoms of anything.

Tuesday her nose began running like crazy.

Wednesday her throat hurt and she was coughing heavy.

Breathing became a problem thursday and continued till the next wednesday. An effort.

She was tested on day 3. The results came back on day 7. She tested positive for coronavirus.

Her breathing finally began getting better on day 13.

On day 14, all symptoms disappeared. Two weeks to the day.

There is neither a cure nor any drugs available to help a person through the experience.

Some of Tammy’s recollections of the 2 weeks.

She took doctor prescribed cough medicine for 2-3 days. Gave her some relief. Minimal, however.

The 2 weeks emotionally drained her.

Her mouth tasted gross. Towards the end of the 2 weeks, she lost her senses of taste and smell. Finally recovered a couple of days ago.

Seeking relief from the virus, she went “hot.” Having had pneumonia twice in the past, she felt some things learned from the experience would help.

She drank lots of hot tea and coffee. She combined salt and lemon with hot water. Put a towel over head and sucked in the heat. Drank a lot of hot soup. Took a lot of hot showers.

She believes the “heat”/”hot” helped.

She became increasingly nervous because of all the “stuff” on TV.

Fear was a factor. She was not ashamed to admit she was scared.

She believes she got it while working in the Chart Room. Though business was slow the week it closed. Few customers.

One in particular might have given it to her. A New York doctor was in her last night. Next to no one at the bar. She and the doctor chatted 3 hours.

He described to her what it was like in New York. The hospitals especially. He had never seen anything like it.

Tammy said the doctor was obviously scared. Scared her.

The doctor kept getting coughing jags. Tammy suspects that is when the virus got into her body.

Dr. Norris her physician. Stopped by her apartment at the beginning. Performed the test on her.

The Health Department was on top of her problem from the beginning. More to help others. They took the names of all persons she had been in contact with to check them out.

She believes she is cured. It’s all over. She has felt good for several days. Began riding her bike, walking the dog. Wears a face mask.

The present true test as to whether the virus is gone and a person is cured, is 2 consecutive days of negative testing. Not possible in Tammy’s case. There is insufficient testing equipment available in Key West.

Tammy believes 50-70 percent of the population will become infected. Not all will be aware.

Antibodies are the key to future protection. The belief is that a cured Tammy has antibodies which will preclude her from coming down with the virus again. Also, those same antibodies can help protect others.

She has notified the appropriate authorities of her willingness to give blood if the need arises. Her blood carries the antibodies.

Tammy was not an admirer of Trump prior to her becoming a coronavirus victim. However because of the stimulus package, she looks more fondly upon him. Her savings are evaporating. The federal dollars will help.

Cuomo on the other hand, she loves. He shares everything. Lets you know what is going on.

Her physician again is Dr. Norris. He is mine also.

Dr. Norris is doing a Facebook video every day keeping people aware of happenings re the virus, what people should do, etc.

I have never seen the video. Norris and I are not “friends.” I will ask to be his today.

Tammy walked her dog 2 nights ago at 7 in the evening. The walk took her to Mallory Square. She said Mallory Square scared her big time. The people hanging around were “weird.” She would not return without a gun.

As I have been writing Tammy’s virus saga, an old song has been running through my head. “Tammy, Tammy, Tammy’s in love…..”

From the 1950’s movie Tammy. Tammy played by a young Debbie Reynolds. Our Tammy and that Tammy are one and the same. Bright, vivacious, happy, loving, warm, outgoing, etc.

Enjoy your day!

 

 

 

21 comments on “TAMMY

  1. Lou, Somebody should tell your friend Tammy that it is Congress, not Trump that actually doles out the stimulus money for people, even though he’s the one who’ll try and take credit for it.

    • Yes, It took a week longer for the $ to get out as “Nancy” had to get her $25,000,000.00 for her pork friends instead of her dying friends. And Trump had to agree to it to save friends. Oh and what about that congressional pay raise which is part of the aid package. Let us know the complete story.
      And the STIMULUS bill is yet to come–maybe a high speed train to KW.

      The troll!

        • What do think about the cruse lines being cut out of the pork? Maybe the number of ships coming to Key West will be decreased. Maybe there will be only one or two a week “filling” big St. or the water front. Maybe parking fees will drop and rent revenues to the City will go down.
          Less money means less $ to off set the real estate tax subsidy to locals. When is the City going to start cutting Jobs like the county? I bet the City has!

      • No you Vulgar ignoramus. Nancy Pelosi wasn’t the one who held up that stimulus bill, it was the Republican congressman from Kentucky that held everything up requiring everyone return to Washington and vote in person. This was widely reported, even in the alt right press and even by Trump who wanted this guy removed from the Republican party. No wonder you are so criticized on this blog for being so wrong and lying about everything. You are not just a jerk, you are an @sshole.

          • Coming from you that’s hilarious. You have been calling people names like libtards, idiots and fools, every chance you get. Even call Lou names. Now you want to cry? Just talk from you trying to stir the pot, no wonder people call you names.

  2. Somehow, in all my visits to the Chart Room, I’ve never been there when Tammy was behind the bar. I intend to rectify that as soon as this Cootie Bug infestation is over.

    Kokomo Man

  3. Very glad she got better and what a generous soul to be willing to donate her now GOLD plasma and antibodies. I saw recently where a very sick man with CV19 was near death. He was infused with plasma with CV antibodies and walked out of the ICU!

    Trump is trying as best as Trump knows how. Cuomo has demonstrated that he is a real leader. He would make for a great Emperor (cough) President!

    • Is Trump really trying as best as he knows how, or is he really doing what he thinks is best? Up until now, what he thinks is best is almost always what he thinks is best for HIMSELF, never for the country nor ever for anyone else. Why would he be any different with this? As an example, Trump is now all over the place saying he’s going to stop any more funding for the WHO, because yada yada! The truth is he canceled that (funding to the WHO) 3 years ago and hasn’t sent them any money since. That’s not “doing his best” that’s lying about something important for his own political gain. Please don’t gaslight Trump with phony praise, it’s not helping things get done, it just gives him license to kill!

      • No argument from me on Trump. My point is entirely this is what you expect from a Reality TV star and narcissist. Almost half the US apparently likes that combination in a leader. As I noted, I prefer a real leader such as Cuomo who has shown intelligence, grace and determination ins a shat storm.

  4. For all you apologists, defeatists, denialists and and trolls, the CDC today announced that COVID-19 has taken just 43 days to blow past the deaths that the H1N1 pandemic generated in an entire year!

  5. and Cuomo is not alone. This guy Pritzger in Illinois, Newsome in California and even Inslee in Washington have all shown what we are sorely lacking in DC

    • That is true. Newsome, I have seen several Times on Bill Maher and he is amazing and inspirational. So sad to see how dumbed down and low bar so many Americans are with regard to their leaders such as Trump. Imagine if we had a really GREAT leader again. A real MAGA moment? A dream I guess.

      • Trump has set the bar so low that ordinary politicians look pretty good, except for GW, he still doesn’t look so good.

Leave a Reply to Anonymous Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *