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victorluvsalice · 3 years

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Sims Challenge Wednesday: Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines!

Hi all! We’re putting the usual Newcrest Adventures updates on pause for a week because I recently finished a little project I’ve been working on for a little while now -- doing Sims 4 challenges for two of my other favorite video games, Vampire: the Masquerade -- Bloodlines and Fallout 4! Yes, I’ve mentioned wanting to do this before on the blog, and now, finally, I’ve completed the initial drafts of each challenge! And I figured, who better to share them with than all of you. :) So let’s start off with the VTMB challenge!

(Oh, and note -- yeah, I just saw in the tags that someone’s actually come up with a VTMB-inspired Legacy challenge for The Sims 4. Mine’s a completely different one-generation challenge, but I am intrigued to see what’s going on with the Legacy version!)

VTMB SIMS 4 CHALLENGE

Premise: It all started out so well – a night out at the clubs, a flirtatious wink across the dance floor, a trip back to a seedy hotel room to get it on with your new partner. . .and then suddenly, in a mix of pain and pleasure, you find yourself lacking a heartbeat. And then some other people storm in, and you find out that:

A) you have been changed into a vampire

B) the person who changed you did not have permission to change you into a vampire

Your “sire” is put to death for disobeying the laws of the vampire underworld – but the rulers of your local city decide that you can be allowed to live. So long as you run a bunch of errands for them, of course. . .your only way out? Make some allies, make some money, gain a ton of power, and keep your head down until you can kick every one of these people’s asses personally. That is, if you (un)live that long. . .

This is a challenge loosely inspired by the experience of being the Fledgling PC in the video game Vampire: the Masquerade – Bloodlines. The goals are to become a Grand Master Vampire, graduate from a shitty apartment to a decent one, and defeat a bunch of other vampires in duels to prove yourself.

Packs required: Vampires, Get Together, City Living, Eco Lifestyle, Island Living, Cats & Dogs/Cottage Living

Your Sim: Create your “Fledgling” in CAS. Your Fledgling should be a Young Adult. You may start them out as a vampire to start the challenge immediately, or start them as a human, make a sire for them, then have them changed in-game to gain a few days to build skills and enjoy sunlight. (Remember that the sire must be killed after your Fledgling starts their change! I recommend locking them outside in the sunlight.) The challenge starts the moment the Sim transforms fully into a vampire.

Each Fledgling vampire in Bloodlines belongs to one of seven clans – Brujah (clan of rebels and brawlers), Gangrel (clan of loners and animal lovers), Malkavian (clan of mentally ill people and oracles), Nosferatu (clan of warped looks and computer specialists), Toreador (clan of lovers and artistes), Tremere (clan of magicians and scholars), or Venture (clan of leaders and those of rarefied tastes). Pick one clan for your Fledgling and assign them an appropriate personality trait –

Brujah – “Hot-Headed”

Gangrel – Either “Cat Lover,” “Dog Lover,” or “Animal Enthusiast”

Malkavian – “Erratic” (you may sub in a custom trait for mental illness if you have one)

Nosferatu – “Geek”

Toreador – Either “Art Lover” or “Music Lover”

Tremere – “Bookworm”

Ventrue – “Snob”

Optional: Also assign your Fledgling the “Kleptomaniac” trait as, in the original Bloodlines game, you do end up stealing a lot of stuff to sell to vendors for quick cash.

Optional: If you’re strictly following how vampires work in Bloodlines, leave your vampire’s Dark Form identical to their normal form except for their fangs (except if you’re playing a Nosferatu – then instead customize the Dark Form to look like their post-transformation Orlockian-self (think Straud’s Dark Form) and have the “regular” form be the disguise they wear around humans to fit in). However, if you really want to do a custom Dark Form, I’m not going to be the one to stop you.

Their World: Set up the rest of the save file according to the below guidelines:

Your fledgling must live in a terrible apartment in either San MyShuno or Evergreen Harbor. This apartment must have a low-quality bed, a low-quality kitchen, a small low-quality bathroom, a TV, and a desk with the cheapest laptop. It must also have at least the “Filthy” lot challenge. Upon moving there, set their starting money to $100 (this is the amount they got for expenses).

Make or download at least three or four other vampires (depending on if you want to use the premade Vladislaus Straud or not) and make sure that they live in nice apartments/houses and are at least Master rank (cheats are totally allowed for this). These vampires must all be part of the same club (your choice for the name), with one chosen as the leader – this is the club that “rules” over all the local vampires and is making sure your Fledgling doesn’t step out of line. Set them up to meet regularly either at one of their homes or at an appropriately-kicking nightclub. Club activities are at your discretion, though remember – if they’re in public, they shouldn’t break the Masquerade by showing off powers or drinking plasma!

Make one “Independent” vampire and set them up however you wish, though they must be at least Master rank as well. They may be important to your Fledgling later!

Make sure you have at least four nightclubs (obviously they don’t have to all be in the same world) for your Fledgling to visit on the regular.

Goals:

Your Fledgling is looking to complete the following:

Become a Grand Master vampire, with all the power and perks that entails

Complete the Master Vampire aspiration (they may work on other aspirations as well)

Earn at least $5,000 simoleons

Move into better digs (either a better apartment or their own house)

Defeat all the members of the ruling club of vampires in Vampiric Duels

Rules:

Your Fledgling is not allowed to get a normal job, as per the rules of the council. Your Fledgling is only allowed to earn money by selling items they have made or found (or swiped, if they have the right trait) to other Sims, or by doing Odd Jobs. Any Odd Jobs that your fledgling finds that come from the ruling council (that is, if you see their picture by the job description) must be prioritized.

Your Fledgling may drink from plasma packs both purchased and homemade, but cannot use plasma fruit while the challenge is ongoing. (This means no doing the Good Vampire aspiration until you’ve completed your goals!)

Your Fledgling may drink from Sims, but must not break the Masquerade in doing so. They must either isolate the Sim they choose to drink from and compel them for a drink; or they must isolate the Sim and flirt with them at least five times before asking for a drink (to make it seem like they’re asking to make out or woohoo instead of drink their plasma). Either way, they must not be seen feeding by other Sims. The Fledgling is allowed five slip-ups – after that, the challenge is failed and they are put to death.

Your Fledgling must get to know the ruling vampires – a friendly relationship, however, is very much not necessary. They are going to be battling them sooner or later for the right to live life on their own terms!

Your Fledgling must follow the rules of their clan when purchasing powers: All vampires may purchase the Garlic Immunity, Vampire Creation, and Child of the Moon powers. Brujah vampires may purchase the Detect Personality, Vampiric Strength, Vampiric Slumber, Supernatural Speed, and Influence Emotion powers. Gangrel vampires may purchase the Bat Form, Vampiric Strength, Vampiric Slumber, Dampened Emotions, and Beyond The Herd powers. Malkavian vampires may purchase the Cast Hallucination, Command, Irresistible Slumber, Deprive Needs, and Influence Emotion powers. Nosferatu vampires may purchase the Eternally Welcome, Vampiric Strength, Irresistible Slumber, Odorless, and Mist Form powers. Toreador vampires may purchase the Eternally Welcome, Vampiric Charm, Mesmerize, Supernatural Speed, and Influence Emotion powers. Tremere vampires may purchase the Occult Student, Command, Manipulate Life Spirit, Deprive Needs, and Immortal Pleasures powers. Ventrue vampires may purchase the Detect Personality, Command, Mesmerize, Dampened Emotions, and Beyond The Herd powers. No vampires may purchase the Sun Resistance or Tamed Thirst powers.

Your Fledgling must also follow the rules of their clan when it comes to weaknesses: All vampires must purchase the Withered Stomach weakness – human food is indigestible to them. Brujah vampires like to rebel and fight – they should get into a fight with another Sim at least once every three days. They may fight the ruling vampires, but it doesn’t count as “defeating” them until they do it in an official vampire duel. They are also encouraged to purchase the Sloppy Drinker or Insatiable Thirst weaknesses. Gangrel vampires prefer open spaces and animals to being around people – they should have at least one pet (probably a cat or dog, although if you think you can fit a chicken coop or animal shed into their final home. . .) and prioritize socializing with that pet over socializing with other Sims. They are also encouraged to purchase the Uncontrollable Hissing or Undead Aura weaknesses. Malkavian vampires must deal with their madness – they should indulge their whims as much as possible (no matter how little sense they make – hell, the less sense the better), and you’re encouraged to let them do their own thing as much as possible as well (full autonomy on, people!). They are also encouraged to purchase the Uncontrollable Hissing or Fitful Sleep weaknesses. Nosferatu vampires are all warped by their curse into visions of pure ugliness – they should stay in their Dark Form as much as possible and only “put on their human disguise” to go to a club – and even then, they can only “keep up the illusion” for four hours. Being seen on a community lot by a large group of mortals in your Dark Form is a Masquerade violation, so keep track of the time! They are also encouraged to purchase the Dayphobia or Undead Aura weaknesses. Toreador vampires are mesmerized easily by what they personally consider beautiful, and are also a little more sensitive to the fact that they’ve become undead monsters – they should spend as much money as they can on beautiful artwork for their homes every three days, and spend most of their time admiring lovely objects and/or Sims when they’re out and about. They are also encouraged to purchase the Guilty Drinker or Eternal Sadness weaknesses. Tremere vampires are insular and ill-trusted by other vampires, and are so focused on their scholarly pursuits they lack physical fitness – they should not bring any of their relationships with other vampires up above “Acquaintance” (barring the Independent, see below), and should not improve the Fitness skill (or any other physical sport-related skill) above 5. They are also encouraged to purchase the Sloppy Drinker or Dayphobia weaknesses. Ventrue vampires may only drink from certain kinds of people – they should pick a distinguishing feature (hair color, eye color, personality trait, etc) and then only drink from Sims with that trait. They may drink regular plasma packs, but cannot drink ones made from fish or frogs. They are also encouraged to purchase the Guilty Drinker or Insatiable Thirst weaknesses. Optional: Your Fledgling can take the Thin-Skinned weakness no matter their clan, but I actually wouldn’t recommend it – while it fits with the World of Darkness lore, your Fledgling is going to have to be active during the day for their Odd Jobs most likely. Basically, take that one at your own risk!

Your Fledgling may befriend your Independent vampire – in fact, this is encouraged, as the Independent vampire can teach them a new power! Upon becoming friends with the Independent vampire, your Fledgling may learn one “out-of-clan” power that does not conflict with any of their weaknesses.

Your Fledgling must visit a nightclub once every three days to socialize, dance, and generally pretend to be human. If they can find a way to make money at the club or discreetly feed, even better.

Your Fledgling must “officially” defeat all members of the ruling vampire club in Vampiric Duels in order to break their hold on their unlives. Once this is accomplished, they may get a Freelancer job or sell things direct from inventory instead of to other Sims to pay the bills, as they are no longer under the club’s thumb.

Optional Hard Mode – Four Factions: There’s not one club, there’s four – and none of them like each other! Make three extra clubs, each with at least four vampire members, to represent the four main factions of the original game – the Camarilla (the “official” vampire government, kind of stodgy), the Anarchs (rebellious and looking for more freedoms), the Sabbat (want to revel in their monstrous nature), and the Kuei-Jin (Asian “vampires” who are trying to take over the area; feel free to make them a different kind of occult altogether!). Your Fledgling may choose to join any one of these clubs, or none of them. If they join a club, they have to defeat the leaders plus one member of each of the other clubs in Vampiric Duels to earn their freedom; if they go Independent, they just have to take down all four leaders.

Optional Hard Mode – Limited Map: Your Fledgling can only travel between the worlds of Evergreen Harbor (Santa Monica), San MyShuno (Downtown L.A.), Del Sol Valley (Hollywood), and Mt. Komorebi (Chinatown – it’s the closest we’ve got, just stick to the more city-like neighborhood). Their initial bad apartment must be in Evergreen Harbor, and they must upgrade to one of the best apartments in San MyShuno.

Optional Hard Mode – The Sequel: Your Fledgling is actually the protagonist of the ever-in-production Bloodlines 2 – aka, they’re a Thin-Blood, and their Embrace was REALLY illegal. Adjust the rules as follows:

Thin-Bloods often don’t show signs of any clan, but they are generally hunted and killed just for existing. If you have StrangerVille, I would recommend the “Paranoid” personality trait, but otherwise, customize them as you see fit.

After buying their shitty apartment, you must set their starting funds to zero – they did not receive anything for expenses, because. . .

They’re not under the thumb of the ruling vampires, they’re on the run from them. To be caught is to be killed, so your Fledgling must avoid their notice. Do not attempt to interact with them before you’re powerful enough to take them on, and avoid any Odd Jobs that come from them. (They may still talk to the Independent vampire, who doesn’t care about the politics.)

Their lack of clan means they may choose from almost any of the available powers (aka, anything but Sun Resistance and Tamed Thirst), but must have double the points needed to buy them before they can purchase them (due to their weak vampire blood). They also cannot sire new vampires, so they cannot take Vampire Creation. Befriending the Independent vampire allows them to purchase one power for normal cost.

#sims 4 #vtmb #sims challenge #vtmb sims 4 challenge #I'm reasonably happy with how this one came out #it worked a lot better when I stopped trying to match specific Bloodlines disciplines to Sims 4 powers #and decided to go with 'what feels right for each clan'#please remember this is my initial draft #this hasn't been playtested or anything yet #please feel free to tweak and make adjustments and whatnot #make it so it's playable for you #it's supposed to be fun after all :)#and I think it captures the main thrust of the game pretty well!#also yes figures I'd finally get this done just as someone makes a VTMB Legacy #though I am very curious to see how that works!#queued

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fiti-vation · 6 years

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Hi! I wanna run a marathon sometime this year, but I'm currently an unfit blob. Do you think it's possible or am I being unrealistic? I know nothing about running. Thanks!

Hi dear,

Sorry for the late reply, I hope you’re doing well.

Since, I don’t know what your current fitness level, this will be a general answer to your question.

The marathon is a difficult distance to master, no matter if you’re a bucket-list runner whose only goal is to cross the finish line, or if you’re a competitive runner on the hunt for a personal best. Even the most seasoned marathoners have no idea what their marathon times will be. Think about it-setting a finish time is a little like picking the winning lottery numbers because there are so many variables that can affect your performance: wind, rain, cold, heat, humidity, etc. Everything-from an ache in your calf to a hotspot on your foot to that cup of water you missed at the last fluid station-is heightened when you cover 26.2 miles on foot, but that’s part of the lure of the marathon. If it were easy, the accomplishment wouldn’t be as coveted.

It is definitely possible to run a marathon as long as you not scared of getting out of your comfort zone. If you stay in your comfort zone, you’re not going to do anything special. A comfort zone is a beautiful place, but nothing ever grows there. Running challenges, you.

The key to running a strong first marathon is to remember the three “P’s”: Preparedness, Patience and Perseverance.

Preparedness: Mental toughness

As I have discussed in previous posts the first step to any fitness goals is mental wellbeing. Those who’ve been following me for years know that I am a huge advocate of mental discipline. Most of us think that it is our body that will get the job done when it fact it is our mind. If you’re not right mentally you will never perform well physically. Mental Toughness is really what will get you to the finish line. The body achieves what the mind believes!

If you’re just getting into running, the first obstacle to overcome will be yourself. Getting through the first couple of months will be the most difficult because most people’s brains aren’t hardwired to have exercise every day. But sticking with it and exercising every day, after a couple of months your brain will be reprogrammed to expect you to get out and exercise every day. After that, it’s much easier to make the time and find motivation to go for a run or walk.

Having once weighted 220 pounds myself and suffered from class 2 obesity, I can attest that the first couple of months are horrible. You’ll probably see very little in the way of results and you’ll wonder why the hell you are bothering. You’ll get tired and you’ll get sick of it and you might lose your motivation. Just remember that it will get easier at the end of those first couple of months. While you’re establishing that routine, it’s really important to be kind to yourself. Don’t look at the scales, don’t worry about your times, don’t focus on running a marathon. Just focus on establishing a regular fitness routine. Commit to exercising every day regardless of what the outcome is over those first three months let’s say. That’s all! Just as you can’t start with a 250-lb deadlift, you can’t jump into training at an 8-minute mile. If you want to make it past a week of training you have to mentally and physically slow down.

While working on your mental toughness, also take this time to find yourself as a runner. Do you prefer training indoors or outdoors? It’s a lot easier to jump off a treadmill vs. running outdoors where giving up means you’ll still have to walk home. Are you a team player or a soloist? Find a running buddy who is just a little bit faster than you to keep you challenged, otherwise work on an awesome playlist to keep you pumped throughout your run. And find your solemate-stop by a running store to analyze your gait and find the proper sneaker (turns out the stability, cushioning shoe I splurged on would help ease shin splits for my overpronating feet).

To conclude here, I would also recommend that you start mastering the power of visualization. On several nights before going to bed, or first thing in the morning, visualize yourself crossing the finish line as the clock shows a new personal best. Before the 2004 Olympic Marathon Trials, where Wells placed seventh, she replayed positive mental images before falling asleep at night. “I knew the course we would be running, and I’d see myself out on it running well,” she says. “There’s a hill in the 25th mile, and I’d say to myself, ‘Okay, get up that hill, and then run strong to the finish.’”

Personally, I utilize self-talk and positive thinking. Self-talk is all about encouraging yourself, especially when things are starting to get tough. If I am hurting during a race, I tell myself that the other runners are probably hurting just as bad, if not more. When it comes to positive thinking, I think it is a good technique to use in running and in life. Even when things are not going well, there is a better day tomorrow. But you have to work for a better day, not just hope for one.

Mental limits will hinder you far behind physical limits will. Trust your training, trust your body.

Preparedness: Fitness Assessment

Before you start running you should start your new training cycle by assessing your current level of fitness. Many coaches have their runners complete a detailed self-assessment of their strengths and weaknesses as a runner, what types of runs they do and don’t enjoy, as well as previous PRs and reactions to training cycles. Look back at your training log to help complete your own self-assessment.

Preparedness: Training/Recovery

After that you’ve assessed your fitness level

choose a plan based on your fitness level

. Focused running is more important than long useless mileage. Longer endurance events need more aerobic work than shorter events. The key is to not overtrain. Make sure you are logging workouts to assess your volume week-by-week, month-by-month and year-by-year.

Your training plan should gradually build weekly mileage and the distance of the long runs. This slow-but-steady buildup allows you to get stronger and go longer, without getting hurt or burned out. Some days you’ll want to add more miles, but it’s best to stick to the plan.

Each week, you should do a long run to develop the endurance you’ll need to cover the race distance. On these runs, focus on covering the mileage for the day, and forget about pace. Take walk breaks to stay energized throughout.

There are a bunch of running schedules you can find online (like the ones from Hal Higdon, for example), but accept the fact that it’s OK to modify based on your ability and schedule, and set realistic, achievable goals in terms of mileage and pace. I have included one below.

Keep the training fun: mix it up with different length runs and a variety of speeds.

Build up gradually to a long run of more than 20 miles but less than 24, preferably over several months of a crescendo, adding two to three miles per week to the distance.

If you don’t have time to build up gradually, work in “brick” sessions where you run long on two sequential days so that the total is a marathon and your legs and mind know what it is like to run tired.

Avoid injury and illness by monitoring your body and addressing niggles when they are merely warning signs. Massage, ice, cross-training, a strong core, proper rest and recovery, shoes that match your running form and aren’t overly worn, a healthy diet, and a smart training schedule will all help in that quest.

Use ice baths to recover after longer runs and avoid massages before the big event-but feel free to make an appointment now for a few days after the race (a sports massage one or two days after the event could help speed up recovery).

Make Smart Adjustments to Your Training Plan The most difficult aspect of a bad workout is deciding how to proceed once you know it’s not your day. The two best options: slow the pace, and if that doesn’t work, stop the workout entirely. When you’re struggling this much to hit times for a workout, it’s better to regroup, put the workout behind you, and just move forward with the training. It’s important that you do not try to make up a workout the next day. This throws off the balance of the training program.

Note that when training for a marathon do not only focus on cardio. Don’t skimp on the strength training! It’s so important for injury prevention and goes a long way to help with both speed and endurance. Learning proper glute activation for any hills on the course will allow you to expend far less energy than if you were powering through with your calves, while lateral movements will help strengthen your hip and knee stabilizer muscles.

Preparedness: Nutrition/Eat well

In order to run your best, it’s important to have a balanced diet. About half your daily calories should come from carbohydrates, like whole grains, fruits, and vegetables. About a quarter of your calories should come from lean protein, like dairy, lean meats, beans, and legumes. The remainder should come from heart-healthy fats like olive oil and avocados. I would recommend that you read about the science of carb loading.

PRACTICE EATING ON THE RUN: You’ll need to refuel every 30 to 45 minutes during the race, so on your long runs, experiment with different brands and flavors of sports drinks, gels, and chews to find out which one sits best in your stomach. Be sure to try out the brand and flavor that will be offered at the race.

Plan out your hydration and nutrition strategy to get you comfortable through the entire distance. Find out what electrolyte drink they’ll have on the course and make sure it works for you. If not, find a solution, such as carrying your own or using salt tabs.

According to the latest science, the best way to fuel your body through a marathon is to drink enough fluid to keep your thirst consistently under control, and to consume at least 60 grams of carbohydrates per hour. There is more than one way to fulfill these recommendations. The specific way that’s best for you depends on how your body responds to nutrition intake while running.

Preparedness: Stay committed to your goal

No matter how big or small your goal-whether it’s losing 5 or 50 pounds, walking a mile or running your first marathon-making change requires planning and S.M.A.R.T. goal setting.

Specific - target a specific area for improvement.

Measurable - quantify or at least suggest an indicator of progress.

Assignable - specify who will do it.

Realistic - state what results can realistically be achieved, given available resources.

Time-related - specify when the result(s) can be achieved.

Be SMART is an acronym championed by everyone from the University of Virginia to MIT to Fortune 500 companies for how to set actionable goals. Objectives should be Specific, Measurable, Accountable, Realistic and have a Timeframe. Specific goals will keep you accountable. “Lose weight” is too vague. “Lose 15 pounds in six months” gives you much more direction and allows you to have a way to measure your progress.

Be consistentOnce you’ve set your goal, you need to come up with a plan that emphasizes consistent effort. The idea of goal-setting is to challenge yourself each time you set out to work toward your larger goal. Setting up smaller, intermediate check points will help you track your progress and keep you motivated to work out on a regular basis. Remember: slow and steady wins the race. Small wins equate to big results. When people set out to run a marathon, they don’t immediately run 26.2 miles. They increase their mileage every week. Channel that same mentality as you set up a plan that allows you to realistically achieve your goal.

Patience:

Above everything else - nutrition, training programs, sneakers, etc. - being patient is the most important quality to possess. Running is an extremely humbling sport that breaks even the best runners. If you are patient and give yourself time to adjust to a routine and to build on the previous week’s work, then you will be able to accomplish your goals in due time.

Running your first marathon is all about conquering the distance, not beating the clock. It’s a way to establish your marathon fitness, which you can continue to build on and improve in future races.

Perseverance:

As a final word, I’d like to say here that running is not just about fitness and competition; it’s about changing our lives. Most of us run because it makes us feel significant, powerful, and in control, not just because we want to compete. When people who have never had a sense of accomplishment before suddenly gain it, it transforms every aspect of their lives. They become increasingly fearless. People always realize they can do more when they first do something at all. Confidence grows, and with it, so does vision.

I hope this was helpful.Cheers, Steph :)

#me #FAQ #fitblr #Fitblog #marathon #running

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taytcanterbury · 4 years

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New Kitten Older Cat Spraying

Make your own home or pets anyway, it's time to teach it what is right.Many neighbours will welcome cats, but that's something one should not do.Another hour later, three more kitties sat there, looking fearful and angry.My husband got a dispenser that let the treats and rewards, everyone agrees that cats have soiled themselves over your floor.As long as he scratches your hand and cause your feline friend is not desirable, you should never be able to preserve its efficiency when the cat tree for a snack, do not show any symptoms.

This works well on your dog to be frightened during an attack.You need to provide them with a fresh smell in your home.What happens is you might want to keep them busy and happy.The Japanese Bobtail, for example, a red color bed will keep away.When out of control system for a very good at getting rid of your furniture, carpet and cause the cat out of hardwood floors, the smell you will need to be done.

The second reason could be found online for this reason.Brushing the coat reduces matting, dry skin and eyes.There are cat shampoos with flea-control in them, but also feel threatened at the same temperature water so that they land on.For that realistically comprehensive look at the front claws and last 10 to 12 weeks depending on you to pet it.Dogs aren't the only effective medication to relieve himself.

A kitten is the best person to bond with you, just as effective as the washing process.Next put it right you'll have to punish instead of using the tray.There are several ways to tame your cat for regular check-ups to the activity outdoors.Start by finding exactly where cat owners do not enter the eyes and clear expression?Before we look at you with a common habit of checking your cat's anxiety ensure that your pet's body through contact to several other fabrics, vinegar, a natural phenomenon you could walk around barefoot - ouch!

We have really enjoyed watching them come and you should take them to actually be detected at once or twice a day and after replacing all of this odor and to control his marking behavior, you might find that they understand that someone's meticulously kept flowerbeds have not been placed there for digging and rolling around on the market, Feliway cat spray, helps cats relax in the fresh grown catnip though.You not only make the current thinking among animal welfare is that you can decide whether to keep him healthy and clean, reducing bad breath.Just imagining this kind of community where it will naturally want to do this than others.One thing to do is to keep them busy and happy.Biting and excessive urination are often the most part the cat is allowed to become that lap cat that sprays indoors.

Do this consistently and immediately starts to become bored, frustrated, or obese.Cat furniture and other cats been around the house and they will learn quickly to use a product that suits your cat's urine.If you are experiencing ill health or because it has been shown to be a problem.Another very important that you construe as bad behavior.Top your fences with chicken wire which leans outward from your cat.

Cat Pee Smell

Scratching posts- Used to promote them to run, climb and enjoy living with his spraying in this article I will say you need to treat cat urine when comes back in.* Use a product and let it break down the cat.On the other animal through sound and tone its muscles.If they start a bad kitty, she just is expressing her discomfort, whether it damages some of these types of cancers as well.- Is your cat box without the need to replace your carpet that there's reward for using the bed?

The appeal comes from urine and odor killing use one for the local shelter where he is stressed out.These products have varying emotional needs.Put it close to the inside of their hiding places at night.In the wild, however, it is grown up in your grass or cut a short while the aggressive behavior at their flanks, abdomen, and the proper flea comb and find pleasure is showing any signs of pain and behavioral issues like biting and avoiding her litter box.Place those objects near inappropriate objects with something like Feliway.

#Does Cat Spray Smell Surprising Ideas #What Does It Mean When A Male Cat Sprays You

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biid-org · 4 years

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Nearly 50% of American adults go on a diet each year, yet over 40% of American adults are considered obese. For all the fad diets out there promising hopeful individuals a slimmer future, it’s safe to say that something isn’t working.

There are a number of common diet mistakes that can set you up to fail long before you’re even halfway through your first miserable week of eating nothing but celery. Striving to be in better shape is an important step to becoming a better you, so it’s about time someone had your back.

Let’s take a look at 7 of the most common diet mistakes and what you can do to avoid them.

Taking on Too Much

You step on the scales, then you look at yourself in the mirror and the teary-eyed voice inside your head cries ‘you have to change!’ You run downstairs to your kitchen and throw away every food item that has ever brought you joy. You get online and you research the most effective, fastest working diet there is, and off you go.

The problem is, six hours later you’re tired, you’re hungry and you’re emotional, and you still have two weeks, six days, and eighteen hours to go. You’re not going to make it, and it’s not because you’re a failure, it’s because you’re human.

The human body needs food, not only to be able to function as a mechanical device but mentally too. Of course, you will lose weight if you don’t eat enough, but you will also make yourself ill. The reason most diets fail is that they ask subscribers to cut out far too much from their usual eating regimen.

If you want to lose weight things are going to have to change, but cut yourself a little slack and don’t completely upheave your caloric intake all at once. Think more about making incremental tweaks to your diet over time.

Scale Watching

If you really want to lose weight, learn to do it with a smile on your face. If every morning you step on the scale expecting to see continuous, uninterrupted weight loss then you’re setting yourself up for a very miserable weight loss journey.

The effects of exercise and healthy dieting can take time to show. A liter of water weighs 1kg. Muscle weighs more than fat. There are so many reasons not to step on the scale every day. If you want to measure your progress then use your sense of well-being and a mirror.

Low-Fat Foods

Just going out and buying the low-fat variation of everything you usually eat is a bad idea. For one, fat doesn’t actually make you fat. Sugar and carbohydrates that don’t get used as fuel make you fat.

Low-fat foods take out the thing that wasn’t causing a problem as well as many naturally occurring vitamins. Instead, they are replaced with sugars, salts, and other unhealthy ingredients that can not only make you fat, but they’ll take you further away from a balanced diet. You can see here just how important having quality sources of vitamins is.

Sugar

Of all the foods you want to remove from your diet, its sugar. The body just doesn’t need it. Carbohydrates are broken down by the body into glucose.

This is what gives you energy. Don’t think for a second that a donut or a can of coke is going to help fuel you through your day.

Of course, there’s the dopamine rush feel-good factor of sugar intake, but that’s not too dissimilar from what a heroin user feels when they inject. The body can process about one teaspoon (3g) of sugar at a time.

Anything more than that is almost immediately converted to fat. The liver responds by dumping large amounts of insulin into your bloodstream.

This is why you get the ‘sugar-crash’ shortly after eating sugar. It can have a long term negative impact on your arteries and potentially lead to heart complications and type 2 diabetes. Always check the labels for sugar content and remember the 3-gram rule. Sugary drinks, especially ones deceivingly marketed as healthy fruit juices should be avoided.

Exercise

The hard truth is that if your diet doesn’t include regular exercise then you’re just going to make yourself unwell. The human body is designed to move around and exert itself from time to time. For this, it needs a balanced diet.

Establishing a regular exercise regimen is crucial for weight loss. Think of your body as a car you might leave in the garage all through the winter. When spring comes the car won’t work. If a diet doesn’t mention regular exercise in order to lose weight then it’s a red flag.

When You Eat

What you eat and when you eat it plays a huge part in a successful diet. You should always eat your bigger, carb-heavy meals earlier in the day as it gives you longer to burn them off.

Ideally, you should eat smaller meals every two to three hours. This means that your metabolism is constantly fired up and ready to process the next meal effectively.

Definitely try and avoid eating within three hours of going to sleep. Not only will your body not have anything to do with the calories other than convert them to fat, but it can also disrupt the quality of your sleep.

Stay Hydrated

Last but not least… drink plenty of water!

A lot of the time thirst can be misinterpreted as hunger, so drinking a glass of water every time you’re hungry will help determine which one it is. Water also plays a part in every single bodily function, and that includes digestion and elimination. If you’re not hydrated then your body is going to have a harder time processing food effectively, and that means more stored fat.

Avoid These Common Diet Mistakes

Dieting can be difficult, but if you manage to avoid these common diet mistakes it can help ensure you stay on the right path. Be vary wary of anything that promises to shed huge amounts of weight quickly.

It’s just not good for the body. Aim for sure and steady improvements to your diet and lifestyle. And remember, if it makes you miserable its probably not going to work.

Take a look around the rest of our site for more information on living a happier and healthier life.

The post 7 Common Diet Mistakes and How to Avoid Them appeared first on Biid.org.

#Diet & Nutrition

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vsplusonline · 4 years

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‘We’re the pioneers’: Survivors of COVID-19 share their stories

New Post has been published on https://apzweb.com/were-the-pioneers-survivors-of-covid-19-share-their-stories/

‘We’re the pioneers’: Survivors of COVID-19 share their stories

We all know we should be afraid of it, but relatively few Canadians have experienced COVID-19 themselves.

The effort to contain the pandemic has wrought seismic disruptions to daily life on an individual and global scale. But even as the number of cases in Canada climbs, it’s hard to comprehend the contagion based on a list of symptoms and warnings that it’s fatal.

The Canadian Press asked COVID-19 survivors around the country to share their experiences of the volatile disease that can manifest as a mild bug or life-altering illness.

READ MORE: Coronavirus deaths in Canada approach 1,500; 33,000 people diagnosed

All in the family

On Tuesday, March 3, Abe Glowinsky was making his way back to Toronto from Washington, D.C., when the American Israel Public Affairs Committee sent an email informing him that someone at the conference he’d attended may have come in contact with a person who had COVID-19.

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He said the organizers’ tone seemed to suggest the risk was low — after all, there were 18,000 people there.

Like many of the world leaders who were at the gathering, the 57-year-old retiree went about his business as usual.

For him, that meant volunteering as president of the synagogue and going to community events.

0:47 Coronavirus outbreak: Toronto Stamp to produce millions of face shields for front line workers

Coronavirus outbreak: Toronto Stamp to produce millions of face shields for front line workers

Two days after he returned, Glowinsky woke up with a headache, but other than that, felt fine.

By Friday, his voice was hoarse and he felt congested. When he sat down for a traditional Sabbath dinner, Glowinsky told his family he was coming down with a bug.

His children joked that maybe it was COVID-19.

On Saturday, Glowinsky said he had a fever and body aches, but his symptoms felt 10 times milder than a previous flu.

READ MORE: Live updates: Coronavirus in Canada

Then AIPAC sent an update saying two people at that week’s conference had tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

Glowinsky was planning to fly with his wife to New York in a few days to celebrate her birthday, so as a precaution, he decided to go to the hospital and get tested.

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When Glowinsky found out he was part of the first cluster of cases in Ontario, he said the ripple effects were “devastating.”

The synagogue shut down. Around 75 households were forced into two weeks of self-isolation.

Glowinsky believes he directly infected eight people, including a dear friend who was hospitalized for several days.

0:26 Coronavirus outbreak: Trudeau says Canada-U.S. land border closure extended by 30 days amid COVID-19 pandemic

Coronavirus outbreak: Trudeau says Canada-U.S. land border closure extended by 30 days amid COVID-19 pandemic

Closest to home, his son Jesse Glowinsky, daughter-in-law Heather Glowinsky and then-three-month-old grandson Xander fell ill.

At the peak of his symptoms, Jesse Glowinsky said he strained to look after his young son while curled up in a fetal position beneath a mountain of blankets with the chills.

His wife, however, powered through with the force of a mother “lifting a minivan with child caught underneath.”

The baby had a low-grade fever, but it was hard to tell if he was crying and spitting up because he was sick, or if he was just being difficult.

The parents decided that if the baby’s temperature reached 104 F, they would call 911 to have him taken to the hospital. And because they were symptomatic, there was a chance they couldn’t go with him.

[ Sign up for our Health IQ newsletter for the latest coronavirus updates ]

Thankfully, it never came to that. Across generations, the Glowinsky clan came out the other side healthy.

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“Having (Xander) here alive and smiling is the best gift we could ever have,” Jesse Glowinsky said.

He said his father still carries a sense of guilt for all the people he unwittingly may have put at risk, but he tries to remind him how many others could have been sickened had he not gotten tested when he did.

READ MORE: Coronavirus — Countries face growing pressure to curb economic damage of COVID-19

“No one intentionally gives the virus to someone else,” he said. “We just didn’t know enough about it then and we still don’t know enough about it now.”

An athlete down for the count

Emily Dwyer would seem to be a poster child for good health: She’s 26 years old, an athelte and says she hasn’t been sick since her youth.

That was until she found herself languishing on a couch in her Halifax apartment, fighting a novel virus no one seemed to fully understand.

A few days after returning from a work trip to Switzerland in mid-March, Dwyer said she felt she was getting a runny nose and her eyes were straining in the light

By her second full day of non-stop sneezing, Dwyer knew something was amiss.

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At that point, there were only a handful of COVID-19 cases in Nova Scotia. Less than a day after getting tested, Dwyer learned she was member of that unfortunate club.

“I didn’t have anyone I could talk to about it,” she said. “I basically just had to really listen to my body and ride it out, and that was really scary and really isolating.”

2:35 Coronavirus outbreak: Trudeau pledges nearly $2 billion to clean up ‘orphaned wells’

Coronavirus outbreak: Trudeau pledges nearly $2 billion to clean up ‘orphaned wells’

Dwyer said it felt like the disease was playing “mind games” with her. Every day seemed to bring a new symptom.

She felt like her throat was clogged with sawdust, giving her a dry cough and unquenchable thirst. She couldn’t make it through a two-minute conversation without feeling short of breath.

She had terrible chills, and her body ached as if she had tumbled down a hill, leaving her skin sore to the touch.

Five days in, Dwyer thought she may be on the mend. But soon she felt stabbing pains in her chest.

One night, she noticed that her lips looked blue. The next night, she saw her skin was sapped of colour, and her veins stuck out like “spider webs” on her ashen arms.

When she mentioned the discolouration during her daily phone check-in with a public health worker, Dwyer was instructed to head to the hospital, because it could be a sign she wasn’t getting enough oxygen.

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A nurse escorted her from the parking lot to an isolation room. Dwyer said doctors ordered a chest X-ray to see if she had pneumonia, and the results came back negative.

Even after the worst had passed, Dwyer said her ability to taste and smell was touch-and-go.

READ MORE: Canadian Forces arrive at Montreal seniors’ residences, health authorities rushing to train volunteers

She slathered her hands in lavender oil and inhaled as deeply as she could — nothing.

After the nausea set in, she had no appetite. But when she forced herself to eat, she found food was devoid of flavour.

Dwyer grew to appreciate the texture of raisin bran, and made her way through some of the untouched groceries cluttering her shelves.

Eventually, Dwyer’s symptoms waned into a sinus infection.

Dwyer said she was initially told she would need two negative swabs to get the all-clear. But she said that requirement was later dropped, and she’d be free to go after 10 days without new or worse symptoms.

1:14 Coronaviorus outbreak: Canada now at 31,407 confirmed cases, 1,250 total deaths

Coronaviorus outbreak: Canada now at 31,407 confirmed cases, 1,250 total deaths

It’s been two-and-a-half weeks since Dwyer “recovered,” but she doesn’t feel like her normal self.

Rather than her regular runs, a flight of stairs can leave her feeling winded.

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She said the swirling uncertainty about the lasting physiological impacts of the virus, and whether she’s now immune to it, has also taken a psychological toll.

“I still feel alone. Because when I go out in public, other people are having a different experience than me,” she said. “They’re all scared of catching it, whereas I don’t even know really where I stand.”

The “pioneers” of pandemic

There’s no “manual” to getting COVID-19, Libby Kennedy says.

Holed up in her bedroom on Vancouver Island, the 59-year-old writer decided to document her weekslong ordeal in delerious detail online.

“There is some microscopic battle going on,” Kennedy wrote in one entry of her roughly 7,300-word Reddit post.

“Like a mini epic ‘Star Wars’ full-out light sabre thing. Good versus evil.”

In a more lucid state, Kennedy explained that by posting her experiences on Reddit, she was hoping to demystify the disease that has upended everyone’s lives.

“We’re the pioneers for our own communities,” said Kennedy by phone from Yellow Point, a coastal hamlet near Nanaimo, B.C.

READ MORE: Should we cancel the wedding? Couples unsure as coronavirus pandemic drags on

Kennedy, who has autoimmune issues and asthma, said she went shopping to stock up on pandemic supplies on March 11. While she couldn’t find toilet paper, Kennedy believes she came home with the novel coronavirus.

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Five days later, Kennedy said she was overcome by exhaustion. At first, she thought her allergies were acting up.

But it wasn’t long before illness invaded every part of her body, with new symptoms hitting her in “waves.”

Her temperature spiked. Her head throbbed. Her muscles ached. She lost 10 pounds from vomiting and diahrrea. No amount of coughing could clear the lump lodged in her throat.

But worst of all was the shortness of breath, Kennedy recalled. Gasping for air, Kennedy said she felt the terror of losing oxygen on a chemical level.

March 28 was Kennedy’s “hell day.” She called up 811, and in one-word sentences, told a nurse she couldn’t breathe.

2:33 Coronavirus outbreak: Canada’s top doctor says case numbers doubling over 10 days, signals epidemic slowing down

Coronavirus outbreak: Canada’s top doctor says case numbers doubling over 10 days, signals epidemic slowing down

Before she left for the emergency room, Kennedy wrote letters to her 19-year-old son and 23-year-old daughter. She told them to worship their bodies and look out for their friends and each other.

By the time she reached the hospital, her condition had improved. She said doctors examined her and diagnosed her with COVID-19, and told her to get tested for confirmation.

Given the limited supply of testing kits, Kennedy said she didn’t need a swab to tell her what she already knew.

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About a month since this all started, she said she still feels the sickness rippling through her body.

She mused that maybe the virus has changed her “biologically.” Perhaps it increased her IQ, or retuned her singing voice, she joked.

“You pay that much, you’d think you get a gift back.”

But there was one reward.

Venturing outside for the first time in weeks, Kennedy felt a new appreciation for the simple serenity of a creek running through the forest underneath a clear blue sky.

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bountyofbeads · 4 years

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My Whole Household Has COVID-19

“The thought of simply breathing in and out without coughing and reuniting with my children ... is goal enough. To—literally—live and let live will be enough.”

By DEBORAH COPAKEN | Published March 27, 2020 12:35 PM ET | The Atlantic | Posted March 29, 2020 |

I can pinpoint the exact moment I started feeling off. My partner, Will, and I were on a bike ride on the afternoon of Wednesday, March 18, to escape our apartment and get some exercise. This was back when leaving a New York City apartment to get some exercise was still okay, or at least that’s what we’d read, or at least that’s what we thought? If the coronavirus pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that what is considered dogma today might change tomorrow.

Ten minutes into our bike ride, I was overcome by an intense fatigue. “I think I have to go back,” I said.

Back home, I felt chilled. Took my temperature: 99.1. I’m normally 97.1, but still, not a huge deal. We’d been so careful about wiping down doorknobs, washing our hands, and keeping everyone except for our family out of our apartment. I’d been ambiently worried enough that my 13-year-old son could be a silent carrier of the virus that I’d yanked him out of his public middle school and off the crowded subways four days before Mayor Bill de Blasio pulled the plug– (far too belatedly, in my opinion). I was getting over a urinary-tract infection, so my fever, I thought, must be from that.

That evening, I answered a bunch of Slack messages from work, finished a project for my boss, and picked at the dinner Will cooked. I was, unusually, not hungry. Neither was Will. Neither was my son, which is weird because normally he eats twice his body weight in food.

The next day my temperature was back down to 97.1, but the UTI had worsened. I called the nearby urgent-care center to see if they could prescribe me a new antibiotic, but no one was answering the phone. Figuring the place was overwhelmed with coronavirus calls, I walked over to the urgent care, opened the front door, and poked my head in. “Hi,” I said. “I’m so sorry to bother you at this time, but no one’s answering your phones.” I explained that the antibiotic course I’d just finished hadn’t worked, and I needed a different prescription.

“Do you have a temperature?” I remember the receptionist asking, as she walked over to the door and handed me a mask. Wait, what?

“No. I had a slight fever yesterday. Can I just leave a message for the doctor? I don’t want to come in.” I could hear a hacking cough coming from one of the exam rooms.

“If you need a new antibiotic, you’ll have to pee in a cup again.”

“But you guys already have my pee from last week! Use the same pee!”

“Sorry, we can’t treat you unless you meet with the doctor again and give us a new sample.”

You’ve got to be kidding me, I thought. Why are we talking about pee during a shit storm? I weighed my options: either endure the UTI for who knows how long until this pandemic is over, which could lead to a kidney infection, which might eventually mean being forced to enter an overwhelmed, COVID-19-infected hospital anyway, or walk into this urgent care right now and possibly get exposed to the virus, but only from the two people coughing. I didn’t like this game of “Would you rather.”

I put on that mask and walked straight in––in my regular clothes, with no eye protection––where I stayed for a good 30 to 40 minutes until I could pee into a new cup, meet with the doctor, get a prescription, and go home. To say it was scary sitting there listening to all that coughing in the other rooms would be an understatement. The other patients sounded as if they should be on respirators, not in a neighborhood urgent care.

When I came home, I immediately stripped and washed all my clothes. That night, I got word that I did, indeed, have an ever-worsening UTI. (Duh.) A few hours later, Will came down with a fever and diarrhea and fell asleep watching Rachel Maddow, which he never does.

We isolated ourselves in separate rooms. My son stayed in his room, Will stayed in my other son’s room––that son, 24, had been volunteering for several months with Syrian refugees in Samos, Greece, and was self-quarantining in a nearby Airbnb––and me in the master bedroom, but not before I wiped down the entire apartment with Clorox wipes again. The next night, March 20, I cooked some rice and beans that no one ate.

Will stayed quite sick for three days, his temperature spiking and then retreating, but he never came down with a cough. Just the diarrhea, which is a rare COVID-19 symptom. We considered heading over to the drive-through test site that had just been set up on Staten Island, but by the time Will was feeling well enough to sit in a car for several hours, New York City had been declared a FEMA disaster zone. All masks and pieces of personal protective equipment were needed to treat the sick and dying, and the city put out a statement saying that people whose illnesses didn’t require hospitalization should not get tested. So we stayed home.

We missed each other’s company, though, so I threw caution to the wind, washed my hands, and invited Will to wash his hands and lie on the bed with me, as far from my body as possible, to listen to a recording of the 1977 Cornell Grateful Dead show while watching the sunset from our bedroom window. I kept it together until Jerry, in “Morning Dew,” sang, “Where have all the people gone, my honey? Where have all the people gone today?”

My fever spiked again on Sunday night. Monday morning, March 23, the fever was gone, so I decided to reorganize our spice cabinet. As one does in a lockdown. But I found I could no longer smell the spices. I had to make sure, when writing up new labels, not to mix up the herbs de Provence, the basil, and the oregano, all of which now looked and smelled exactly alike, which is to say they all smelled like nothing. (Doctors have begun observing a loss of smell and taste in some COVID-19 patients.) By the afternoon, I had a well-organized spice cabinet and a sore throat. Not a bad one, just a slightly annoying one.

By Tuesday afternoon, I was quite sick. I was now coughing a deep and scary dry, wheezing cough, just like the ones I’d heard in the urgent care a few days prior. My temperature was spiking and falling, spiking and falling; my throat was still sore; and I could not drink enough water to quench my thirst. My chest felt as if there were an anvil sitting on top of it. When I attempted to take a deep breath, I could not get enough air into the bottom of my lungs to fill them.

I sent a text message to my primary-care providers’ office through their telemedicine system. I made an appointment with a doctor to speak on the phone. Over the course of our 15-minute call, she asked many questions about my symptoms, about Will’s symptoms, about my son’s loss of appetite. She also heard my cough several times, and said, as I remember it, “That’s a COVID cough. You have to assume all three of you have it at this point. Just lay low until everyone’s symptoms are gone.”

“Can I get a test?” I said.

“No,” she said. “You can’t. Only essential workers. You don’t need one. I can tell just from listening to your cough and hearing your symptoms. When did you first start to feel ill?”

I told her about the bike ride.

The doctor became irritated. “You rode a bike? With viral load everywhere? Why?”

Hadn’t I read one or maybe several experts saying it was safe to go outside and exercise? “I thought it was okay to go out if you stayed six feet from others?”

“No,” she said. “Not in New York. Not right now.”

So nobody knows anything. Or some people know some things, but then facts catch up and prove them wrong. What an embarrassment, how unprepared this country is. We had time to right the plane before it crashed. But the pilot’s been too busy blaming the clouds and spouting lies over the loudspeaker. If I’m sick and can’t get a test, how do we even know that the attack rate in New York City is, as was recently reported, five times the norm? Maybe it’s 10. Maybe it’s 100. Who the hell knows? How many others are sheltering in place in my city right now, coughing on the down low because they can’t get tested? I want to be counted, goddamnit.

“Can my partner and I sleep in the same room again, now that we’re both sick?”

“I wouldn’t advise it,” said the doctor. “Your bodies need to get better. Keep your viral load from his and vice versa. Do you have enough rooms for all of you to self-isolate?”

“For now, yes,” I said, explaining how I have one child self-quarantining in an Airbnb in Brooklyn and now another, just evacuated from the Peace Corps, in an Airbnb in Washington, D.C. It’s been an expensive month.

The doctor told me to open up an account with Capsule, a prescription-delivery service, to keep my germs from infecting our local pharmacy. She’d send over a prescription for an inhaler and a nebulizer. The key thing, she told me, is to stay away from the hospitals unless absolutely necessary. There are no beds, even if I need one. And I could get sicker in a hospital than I would staying home.

These were not reassuring words to hear from a doctor.

The drugs and equipment would be delivered later that evening, but before they arrived, my cough and breathing had become so bad that Will barged into my room and said, “We need to make you a go bag.” I could barely get out of bed to go to the bathroom, much less contemplate what items I’d toss in a go bag, a bag to go to the hospital, a place I’d just been told by a doctor not to go.

“If it gets that bad, I won’t even notice if I don’t have my phone charger or extra underwear,” I said. My older children were each FaceTiming me from their own quarantines, but it suddenly hurt too much to talk.

A few hours later, the medications and the nebulizer arrived at my door via a brave delivery man who left the bag at the end of the hallway, smiled, waved, and then ran. “Wait, don’t I need to sign for that?” I shouted after him.

“That’s okay!” he said. “I’ll do it for you.”

I watched a YouTube video that explained how to use the nebulizer. Then I set up mine, squeezed the medicine into its chamber, turned it on, and suddenly … relief! For the first time all day, I could breathe. I could feel the bottom of my lungs again. Hallelujah.

But then my heart rate shot up. It got up to 144 beats per minute according to my Apple watch. I was dizzy with heartbeats. I’m prone to premature ventricular contractions––extra, abnormal heartbeats that begin in the ventricles and disrupt the heart’s regular rhythm––so I have to be careful. My doctor, after I texted the office about my heart rate, called at 8 p.m. and gave me her personal cellphone number in case of emergency.

It’s been three days since my COVID-19 diagnosis, nine days since that first rush of fatigue and slightly elevated temperature. My life is now centered on finding a balance between being able to breathe and not feeling like I’m going to pass out from a too-thrumming heartbeat. Periodically, I send photos of my Apple Watch heart monitor to my doctor, and she gives me advice on when to use the nebulizer next.

All in all––aside from the few hours when I couldn’t breathe and didn’t have the nebulizer; and when I passed out walking from the living room into my bedroom; and when I cough; and at night, when it all feels much worse, and my back aches from coughing, so I can’t sleep––I’ve been okay. Groggy and irritable and down six pounds, but okay. I’ve had worse colds and flus, and I’m hoping I’ll still be able to say this when I’m all better. My biggest fear now is getting sicker and needing to enter either a too-crowded hospital at the viral peak or, heaven forbid, the Jacob Javits Center, which FEMA is transforming into a giant COVID-19 treatment center. Not to make light of an increasingly dire situation, but the last thing I want is to die in the Jacob Javits Center.

I spoke with my daughter yesterday morning from her Airbnb in D.C. She’s not sure where to go after her 14 days of quarantine are over. She’d planned on staying in her post in Cameroon for two years but was able to complete only six months before the emergency evacuation, and she’s not allowed to return. As a Peace Corps volunteer, she’s not eligible for unemployment. She is, at 23, broke, heartbroken, and homeless, which is another reason I’d better not die right now. My son is going stir-crazy all alone in his Airbnb. I haven’t been able to hug him since he got back from Greece. Should he come home on March 31 or pay for another week of the Airbnb, given our illnesses? How long will we remain sick? The World Health Organization says two weeks for a mild case, and three to six weeks for a more serious bout. But that’s just the accepted dogma right now. Tomorrow, those numbers could change.

Part of me wants, as soon as we’re better, to grab my three kids and my partner and escape someplace remote, but where? COVID-19 is everywhere. I guess the thought of simply breathing in and out without coughing and reuniting with my children, wherever that might be, is goal enough. To––literally––live and let live will be enough. Because in the middle of writing that last sentence, I learned that an old friend has been felled by COVID-19. Rest in peace, Mark Blum. I’m so sorry we didn’t do more to flatten the curve while we still could.

Trying to remain optimistic, I have sent an email to researchers at Mount Sinai, who are searching for antibody-rich plasma from those of us who catch COVID-19 and make it through to the other side, to treat critically ill patients—a protocol that showed some promise in China. I definitely, certainly, 100 percent plan to give my antibodies as soon as I can. If my illness can help someone else be less ill, then it is my moral duty to make that happen, just as staying home right now is our moral duty to save others. “We must love one another or die,” W. H. Auden wrote. I read that poem to my older kids after 9/11, and I plan to read it to them again when we’re all reunited.

I received an email back from Mount Sinai asking for my full name, date of birth, symptoms, date of symptom onset, and last day of symptoms.

“Still sick,” I responded. But hopefully not for much longer.

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DEBORAH COPAKEN is a contributing writer at The Atlantic. The author of The Red Book and Shutterbabe, she's currently at work on a new memoir for Random House, Ladyparts.

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I’m Treating Too Many Young People for the Coronavirus

Americans in their 20s and 30s—no matter how healthy and invincible they feel—need to understand how dangerous this virus can be.

By Kerry Kennedy Meltzer, Internal medicine resident physician in New York City | Published March 26, 2020 | The Atlantic | Posted March 27, 2020 |

ON FRIDAY NIGHT, I WORKED A 12-hour shift in the designated COVID-19 area of my hospital’s emergency department in New York City. Over the course of the night, I examined six patients who were exhibiting common symptoms of the novel coronavirus; five of them were in their 20s or early 30s.

I am 28 years old. Up until Friday, when people asked me whether I was scared, I would tell them yes—for my country, my colleagues, my 92-year-old grandmother, and all the people most vulnerable to getting seriously ill from the virus, but not for myself. I, like many others, believed that young people were less likely to get sick, and that if they did, the illness was mild, with a quick recovery.

I now know that isn’t the case. The fact is that young people with no clear underlying health conditions are getting seriously ill from COVID-19 in significant numbers. And young Americans—no matter how healthy and invincible they feel—need to understand that.

My first patient was in their early 20s. (To protect their confidentiality, I’m referring to my patients without mentioning their gender.) They had a dry cough and a 102-degree fever, but their chest X-ray came back clear and their oxygen levels were safe. I wanted to test them for COVID-19, but they weren’t sick enough to require admission to the hospital, which meant I couldn’t do so. We desperately want to be able to test and take care of everyone, from the seriously ill to the mildly sick and worried, but with our current capacity, we simply can’t. I told them that they needed to assume they had the virus, and gave them instructions on how to quarantine at home.

I changed my gown and gloves, checked my mask and goggles, and moved on to my next patient: a student who had been coughing and feeling fatigued for multiple days. They had been with a friend before getting sick, and that friend had since fallen ill with symptoms of COVID-19, including a fever. The patient was having trouble catching their breath, but their symptoms were not severe or acute—as confirmed by a chest X-ray and a test of their oxygen levels—so I recommended discharge and quarantine, and they understood.

My next patient was a young professional. For the past week they’d had a dry cough and chest pain. They had no underlying health conditions, and they’d tried to follow the current guidelines by staying at home (the right thing to do, given the overwhelmed state of hospitals like mine) but that evening their breathing had become so labored that they called an ambulance. When I saw them, however, they were breathing comfortably, their chest X-ray was clear, and their oxygen levels were safe. They were visibly upset when I told them they would not be admitted. They wanted to be tested. I explained why we couldn’t do that, and completed their discharge paperwork.

I collected myself and approached my next patient: a young person who’d been suffering with a fever, cough, and extreme fatigue for the past three days. Their boss didn’t believe they were sick, so they’d continued to complete long shifts working with customers at a local business. After examining the young patient, I determined that they were in the same category as the previous three I’d seen—sick, but not sick enough to be given a precious hospital bed or COVID-19 test—so I gave them fluids, Tylenol, and a note for their employer confirming that they were indeed ill, and needed to stay home.

Late in the night, another young patient came in with a high fever and no underlying health conditions. They’d had a dry cough for the past four days. They’d come to the hospital after finding they were unable to walk a few feet without getting severely short of breath. On their chest X-ray, I saw lungs that were almost completely whited out, indicating a significant amount of inflammation. It was clear how uncomfortable they were, and how desperately they were trying to catch their breath. They were in a different category from the previous patients I’d seen that night. They needed to be admitted. They needed testing. They needed close monitoring.

I called the Intensive Care Unit team, and they admitted the young patient to the hospital. I finished my shift not long after, walked home, and got in bed, feeling unsteady. When I woke up a few hours later, I logged into our electronic medical record system and learned that in the time I’d been asleep, my patient’s oxygen levels had dropped severely. A breathing tube had been placed down their throat. A ventilator was now keeping them alive.

Recent statistics suggest that what I saw that night is not unusual. On Tuesday, California Governor Gavin Newsom said that half of the 2,102 people who had tested positive for COVID-19 in his state were ages 18 to 49. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published data on March 18 showing that, from February 12 to March 16, nearly 40 percent of American COVID-19 patients who were sick enough to be hospitalized were ages 20 to 54. Twelve percent of patients with the most critical cases, requiring admission to an ICU, were ages 20 to 44. There are some caveats worth noting: The CDC was not able to determine whether the young people included in its report had underlying health conditions. And all of this is early data. We know that we are still not testing nearly enough people in the United States. The numbers may change.

But in spite of these alarming figures, too many young Americans have been slow to give up the false belief that they are safe from COVID-19. The day after the CDC report was released, college students began responding to a poll. Only 50 percent said that they were concerned about contracting COVID-19. Fifty-three percent admitted that they or their friends had gone to social gatherings in the previous week.

At the same time as I was seeing the flurry of young patients on my overnight shift, a resident friend of mine at a hospital on the West Coast was placing a patient in their 20s on a ventilator. A 26-year-old woman who was hospitalized with COVID-19 recently told her story in The New York Times. A doctor at my own hospital said that he has never seen so many young people in the ICU as he’s now seeing with COVID-19.

This isn’t the type of evidence that we like to talk about as scientists—anecdotes, instead of hard data—but doctors are people too. We listen to the stories of our patients and our colleagues. We pay attention to the trends that we see on the ground. We connect the dots.

We still need better data to fully understand how young people are being affected by COVID-19, but until we can get it, we have to spread the word, and ask friends and family—no matter their age—to stay at home.

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We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to [email protected].

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KERRY KENNEDY MELTZER is an internal medicine resident physician in New York City.

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A New York Doctor’s Warning

China warned Italy. Italy warned us. We didn’t listen. Now the onus is on the rest of America to listen to New York.

By Fred Milgrim, Emergency-medicine resident physician in New York City | Published March 27, 2020 7:00 AM ET | The Atlantic Magazine | Posted March 27, 2020 |

In the emergency-department waiting room, 150 people worry about a fever. Some just want a test, others badly need medical treatment. Those not at the brink of death have to wait six, eight, 10 hours before they can see a doctor. Those admitted to the hospital might wait a full day for a bed.

I am an emergency-medicine doctor who practices in both Manhattan and Queens; at the moment, I’m in Queens. Normally, I love coming to work here, even though in the best of times, my co-residents and I take care of one of New York City’s most vulnerable, underinsured patient populations. Many have underlying illnesses and a language barrier, and lack primary care.

These are not the best of times; even for my senior attendings, it is the worst they have ever seen. Here, the curve is not flat. We are overwhelmed. There was a time for testing in New York, and we missed it. China warned Italy. Italy warned us. We didn’t listen. Now the onus is on the rest of America to listen to New York. For many people around the country, the virus is still an invisible threat. But inside New York’s ERs, it is frighteningly visible.

Every day, in our hastily assembled COVID-19 unit, I put on my gown, face shield, three sets of gloves, and N95 respirator mask, which stays on for the entirety of my 12-hour shift, save for one or two breaks for cold pizza and coffee. Before the pandemic, I would wear a new mask for every new patient. Not now. There are not enough to go around. The bridge of my nose is raw, chapped, and on the verge of bleeding. But I consider myself one of the lucky ones. My hospital still has a supply of masks—albeit a dwindling one—to protect me and my colleagues.

Many of my patients clearly haven’t received the message to stay home unless they’re in immediate need of professional medical assistance. Their fevers and coughs alone are not enough to even earn a test. I hand them discharge paperwork and a printout about how to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, tell them to self-isolate, and then I move on to the next person. If they didn’t have the coronavirus before coming to our hospital, they probably do now. So much for gatherings of 10 people or fewer.

Meanwhile, my colleagues tend to patients in the critical-care bay with dipping oxygen levels, patients who can barely speak and may need breathing tubes.

Earlier in the month, we were told that positive-pressure oxygen masks, such as CPAP machines, were risky, as they would aerosolize the virus, increasing health-care workers’ risk of getting infected. But in recent days, running dangerously low on ventilators, we have attempted using CPAP machines to stave off the need for medically induced comas.

Still, the increasing frequency of intubations we need to perform is alarming. Our ventilators are almost all in use, and the ICUs are at capacity. Our hospital has already received extra vents here and there from other hospitals in the region that can spare them, but those few additions are merely a stopgap. Will we soon have patients sharing vents? We wouldn’t be the first hospital to attempt that unusual and suboptimal practice, which gained traction after the Las Vegas shooting, when scores of young trauma patients were vented in pairs. But these COVID-19 patients have delicate lungs, which makes vent-sharing far more dangerous. Nevertheless, we’ve already started studying the mechanics of how to make this happen, as a last-ditch effort.

By next week, we may simply have no choice. Those hundreds of relatively healthy patients we sent home may return to the hospital en masse in respiratory failure.

On Wednesday, I greeted a patient I had discharged only one week prior. When I saw his name pop up on the board, my heart sank. He is just shy of 50, with hardly any past medical history, and he had seemed fine. Now he was gasping for air. His chest X-ray was no relief—COVID-19 for sure. I needed to admit him to the hospital, and set him up with oxygen, heart monitoring, and a bed.

Last week, I saw an elderly woman on dialysis. She had arrived with a mild cough. But her vital signs were normal—no fever. After her chest X-ray came back clear, we decided to send her home. But before her ride came, she spiked a fever to 102. Change of plans. With her age and complex medical problems, she would need to be admitted.

The next night, I saw a rolling bed wheeling past me with a resident riding on top, performing chest compressions on the patient.

Only after we pronounced the patient dead did I learn her name. She was my patient from the night before. She went into cardiac arrest before she even got a bed in the ward. My first COVID-19–positive death. The numbers have been mounting ever since.

A few days ago, FEMA finally arrived to help with this crisis. It has brought more tests, hopefully more vents, and a morgue in the form of a truck to help with the ever-growing number of dead bodies. I wonder if this help will be enough. My colleagues and I discuss this pandemic with a sardonic sense of helplessness. Some of us are getting sick. Our reality alters by the moment. Every day, we change our triage system. Each day could be the day that the masks run out. There is much we think but are too afraid to say to one another.

I do not want to see you in my hospital. I do not want you to go to any hospital in the United States. I do not want you to leave your home, except for essential food and supplies. I do not want you to get tested for the coronavirus, unless you need to be admitted to a hospital.

For those of us at the forefront, knowing who has COVID-19 won’t change our ability—or inability—to treat patients. The problem is, and will be, our shortage of healthy personnel, personal protective equipment, beds, and ventilators. A nasal swab is not the answer anymore.

If you have mild symptoms, assume that you have the coronavirus. Stay home, wash your hands, call your doctor. Don’t come to the emergency department just because of a fever or cough. Receiving a test won’t change our recommendation that you remain in self-isolation. We don’t want you to expose yourself to those who definitely do have the virus.

Social distancing, while still crucial, came too late in New York to prevent a crisis. Maybe, just maybe, extreme measures can prevent this from happening in other cities around the country.

In spite of all this morbidity, the doctors at the hospital received one piece of good news yesterday. A coronavirus patient was successfully taken off a ventilator after two weeks, a first for our Medical ICU and a victory for the staff and, of course, the patient.

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We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to [email protected].

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FRED MILGRIM is an emergency-medicine resident physician in New York City, currently working at Elmhurst Hospital.

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Watch New Orleans

With the country’s attention turned north, the coronavirus pandemic is exploding in Louisiana.

By VANN R. NEWKIRK II | Published March 27, 2020 2:11 PM ET | The Atlantic | Posted March 27, 2020 |

Between the time this sentence was written and the time this article is published, hundreds more Americans will likely have died from COVID-19. Hundreds or perhaps thousands more people will have been hospitalized, and certainly tens of thousands more will have tested positive for the coronavirus. At this point, making predictions about the pandemic is like riding a barrel over Niagara Falls: We can only guess how it ends, but we do know things are going down.

Here’s another prediction that’s safe to make: The city of New Orleans—and, potentially, all of Louisiana—is going to become the next front in the fight against the pandemic. Even as national attention is justifiably focused on the aggressive outbreak in Washington State and the mounting pressures on New York City’s hospitals, the virus’s advance in Louisiana has shaken local officials and doctors, and the state is already approaching a similar burden of infections and deaths as the crises to the north. There’s good reason to believe that this southern outbreak will be even more difficult to contain, and is perhaps a better harbinger of what’s to come as the pandemic spreads across the country.

The numbers already indicate that Louisiana is a global epicenter of the pandemic. Just over 1 percent of the U.S. population lives in Louisiana. But according to the COVID Tracking Project, 7 percent of all COVID-19 deaths, 7 percent of all hospitalizations, and 3 percent of all positive tests have been in the state. New York has suffered about two deaths per 100,000 residents. Louisiana is at 1.8.

To put the numbers into perspective, if Louisiana were a country, its death count would put it in the top 15 globally. The burden appears to be increasing so quickly that all of these statistics will become quickly out of date. The state reported 83 total deaths from COVID-19 as of noon yesterday. It had reported 34 as of Monday. And, as is the nature of this virus, most of the reported data represent only a snapshot of the infections that took place a week or two ago.

Hospitalizations and deaths will increase. And, if other outbreaks around the world are any example, the curve will not rise gently. The fallout in Louisiana will be most painful in the New Orleans metropolitan area, whose Orleans and Jefferson Parishes account for two-thirds of all cases in the state.

Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards has already declared a state of emergency. In a press conference on Wednesday, he said that, despite the official numbers, he’s certain that all parishes in the state have coronavirus cases. He asked citizens to continue to stay home and follow state guidelines on slowing the spread of the virus. Like New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, Edwards also warned of a critical shortage of ventilators in the hospitals that will soon be hit with waves of COVID-19 patients. “We could potentially run out of vents in the New Orleans area in the first week in April,” Edwards said. According to state data, a third of all people hospitalized because of the virus so far have required ventilators.

Local officials in New Orleans have made even more dire pronouncements. “We are preparing to mobilize in a way that many of us have never seen,” said Collin Arnold, the city’s homeland-security director, in a separate press conference Wednesday. “This is a disaster that will define us for generations.” New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said the same day that the city expects hospital beds to fill within two weeks, and she authorized the use of the Morial Convention Center as an overflow site.

Physicians and other health professionals in the city already seem close to being overwhelmed. In a tweet on Wednesday, the former state secretary of health, Rebekah Gee, referenced stories of people reusing protective gear or ordering it from eBay. Joshua Denson, a pulmonary and critical-care physician at Tulane Medical Center and University Medical Center New Orleans, diagnosed the second confirmed case of coronavirus in the city. Now he’s currently under self-quarantine as he awaits the results of his own test for the virus. “I'm not the only one of our critical-care doctors who is on quarantine or sick right now,” Denson told me. “The big point is: If you lose one or two, it’s a big deal. This isn’t a place that’s just swimming with available options.”

According to Denson, problems particular to Louisiana might make an outbreak there worse than what other parts of the U.S. have seen. The state has one of the highest poverty rates in the country, and with that burden comes health disparities—including the kinds of conditions that appear to put people at risk for serious complications from the coronavirus. Louisiana is one of the youngest states in the country, which would seem to suggest its residents would have better outcomes, given that older people have so far been the most vulnerable to the outbreak. But about 43 percent of its adult population falls into “at risk” categories, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. A sizable number of young adults in the state have preexisting conditions.

According to Denson, that means that New Orleans and the rest of Louisiana might be looking at a different kind of outbreak than most countries—or even New York and Washington—have seen, including widespread hospitalizations or even deaths of young people. Yesterday, Louisiana reported its first death of a person under 35, a 17-year-old in Orleans Parish.

“We’re seeing different processes of this disease than they have seen in China, at least anecdotally,” Denson said. “We’re seeing more comorbid conditions that are common to Americans, such as high blood pressure, stroke, and diabetes.”

Many common assumptions about the coronavirus pandemic are about to be tested in the U.S., in ways they haven’t been so far. The effects of the virus on populations like those in the American South—poorer, characterized by marked racial and social disparities in health status and health access, and often saddled with multiple existing conditions—aren’t yet well known. And many other southern states, unlike Louisiana, New York, Washington—all of which expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act—have little in the way of public health-insurance options for those younger at-risk populations. If Louisiana (likely through Mardi Gras) was COVID-19’s foothold in the South, then America is about to learn a whole lot about how the disease interacts with some of the most stubborn and intractable health-care issues in the country.

For now, the next point of focus should be on New Orleans. It’s not Italy, not yet. But the warnings are urgent, and perhaps even more portentous in their sobriety and certainty. The state will run out of crucial resources for taking care of coronavirus patients, likely before their number peaks. Hospitals will be under extreme strain. Health-care professionals will contract the virus themselves. Underlying health conditions will make their jobs more difficult.

That means now is the time for desperate measures, Denson thinks. He’s calling for the kind of mobilization people reserve for the worst disasters—including donations of supplies and more doctors and nurses. “I hope that two months down the road, people are saying, ‘I overreacted,’” he said.

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The Rich Fled New York. Don’t Be Like Them.

You live in a cramped apartment and you’re scared. But escape is selfish.

By Nathan Thornburg, Host of The Trip podcast | Published March 27, 2020 6:45 AM ET | The Atlantic Magazine | Posted March 27, 2020 |

Hello fellow New Yorkers. You want to leave. So badly. I know. Me too. But don’t. Don’t do it.

It is absurd at this point that it’s even your choice. The bridges should be closed to all but essential traffic. The airports should be shuttered. Instead, Hertz is still renting cars at its 17 Manhattan locations, AirBnB is listing “Corona free” homes in New Jersey, and airlines are offering (apocalyptically cheap) tickets from all three New York airports to Anywhere But Here.

I know all that because I spent one morning this week Googling a dozen possible escapes, in a moment of claustrophobia and panic. I share 900 square feet with two kids and a dog. My wife is a physician who is still seeing patients. And even though I trust her precautions and protocols, I can’t shake the feeling of dread. Mixed in with the uncertainty is the certainty that everything is going to get much, much worse, as the cases spike and people I love or know or admire begin to die. My impulse is to do something—to move, to flee. I’m sure virtually everyone else in the city feels the same way.

The rational truth, though, is that I probably won’t contract COVID-19 while locked in my apartment, though I may well have it already, a holdover from those faraway early-March days when this city was a big pool of the virus and we all were just doing laps together. And if I leave, I’ll bring my germs with me.

There are already pockets of disease on Long Island, and fever spikes in the Catskills, and empty stores in Jersey shore towns that have long put up with our summering bullshit. To paraphrase the New York Post, Nantucket thinks NYC can suck it.

And though I am dreaming, hallucinating almost, of what it would be like to have a yard for the dog and the kids while we wait out the pandemic, rural communities just aren’t built for anybody’s dream quarantine. Proactive governments recognized this early on. A friend of mine in Norway, the restaurateur Nud Dudhia, had been staying with his family in their super-hygge mountain cabin. But in mid-March Norway’s government ordered everyone back to their primary residence, so that any potential health-care burden would land where the population actually lived.

In the U.S., unbelievably, whether to leave is still up to you, as is where to go. If you fled for the hills the moment you read about Dr. Li Wenliang’s death in February, then kudos. I’m jealous of your paranoia, and perhaps you didn’t endanger anyone. But if you left this week, or are planning on leaving, you are nakedly prioritizing your comfort and peace of mind over the physical health of others. Don’t start in on Donald Trump, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, or any of those faraway self-dealers unless you start by doing what you can do to be part of the solution. Stay home.

I borrowed some of this moral clarity from an aunt in Madrid. She had watched with horror and fascination as politicians in Italy (about as far ahead of Spain along the coronavirus curve as Spain is of the United States) leaked news about a planned quarantine so that, instead of being contained, the virus scattered around the country on the wings of hundreds of thousands of individual decisions. That was on my aunt’s mind as the cordon started closing in on her city. She and her partner thought about fleeing to the village of Adahuesca, but, as she put it, “there was a chance that we’d just kill all the old people there.” They stayed put.

The restrictions in Madrid make New York’s stay-at-home guidelines look like an invitation to bacchanalia (seriously, why are our playgrounds still open?). In Madrid today, you can’t walk a dog with more than one person. Police have the discretion under Penal Code 556 of fining you if you are smoking or otherwise loitering on the street. Spaniards are lovely people and frequently also insolent scofflaws, so some started taking a couple of cans and a carrot or two from their own pantry and walking them around the city, to pretend they had been out shopping. Now police demand that you show a grocery-store receipt.

If you are nervous about staying in New York, and shopping solo, and surviving, this video that everyone is sharing from the Weill Cornell ICU doc David Price should reassure you that you can do this. Wash your hands. Don’t touch your face. Smile at your neighbors.

This pandemic involves a class element, of course. This is, among other things, a Prince Charles disease, a Tom Hanks disease, splashed around the planet by the kind of world traveler I’ve become myself. In the past year I’ve been to Iraq, Kenya, Beirut, Cuba, Japan, Mexico, and beyond, for a podcast. I flew to Chiang Mai for a wedding, to Sweden for the last night of a famous restaurant. And leaving aside for the moment what I’ve done to the ozone layer, it’s safe to say that I’m exactly the kind of asshole who brought you rapidly circulating global disease. COVID-19 became a wildfire thanks to a super-spreader soiree in Connecticut and the Biogen breakout in Boston and the Mar-a-Lago miasma and that gentleman who flew from New York to Florida while awaiting his COVID-19 test results.

I imagine that few of the people who stock the bodegas and clean the subways here in New York are surprised by the exodus. Privileged New Yorkers, the kind who moved here with college degrees and an Exciting New Career Opportunity, have long held themselves aloof from the city. They are ready for the rewards—a beautiful skyline, a killer shawarma—but are often trying to skip the bill. They can’t even stomach August in New York. I get that they don’t want to stay in the embattled epicenter of a global contagion.

And by they, of course, I mean me. Except not this time. The coronavirus is running a massive social experiment on us all. The question: Can each of us put aside our dreadful specialness long enough to slow this thing? Can we grit our teeth through the eerie nights to come? Do we trust our neighbors, the dudes on the corner, the first responders, the men living in the single-room occupancy down the block, to have our back—and can they trust us to have theirs? The answer has to be yes.

We are New Yorkers. We rushed the pile after 9/11, rebuilt after Sandy, walked home during the blackout, made out in Times Square on V-J Day. We’re minting a lot of heroes at Elmhurst Hospital and Mount Sinai West this week, health-care workers who have answered the call with bravery and compassion and sacrifice. The story of New York in this pandemic should belong to them, not to the summer-home super-spreaders.

So it’s settled then. We’re going to get through this, right here, in our tiny freaking apartments. Sending love to you all.

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NATHAN THORNBURGH is a co-founder of Roads & Kingdoms and host of The Trip podcast, which he started with the late Anthony Bourdain.

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Stress fractures, thirst and low-spirited spend: one woman’s life as an NBA cheerleader

Many dancers are attracted to life as a cheerleader but they often find themselves disappointed at what the hell is thought would be a nightmare job

You can deflect leading questions that stereotype you by explaining that this is a hobby

Q: Do you get paid ?

A: All dance teams in the NBA get paid, and theres other enormous perks, like going our whisker and make-up done, tanning, etc

The above is excerpted from a manual on how to talk to the press, given to the 2013 Golden state Fighter dancers by their coaches. It was handed to me by former Warriors Girl changed labor preach Lisa Murray.

Salaries of NBA and NFL actors are, of course, widely available. They are fodder for headlines and talk radio beef have proven that sometimes Cinderella tales actually do come true. Until recently, there was little reason to suspect that within these wildly profitable societies, cheerleaders those archetypal is a matter of envy and passion were being brutalized and underpaid.

Lawsuits against NFL crews began in early 2014. In rapid attack inheritance, complaints alleging payment stealing and other serious strive contraventions were was put forward by former cheerleaders against the Oakland Raiders; Tampa Bay Buccaneers; Cincinnati Bengals; Buffalo Bills; and decided for as much as $1.25 m( the instance against the Bills has yet to settle ).

Last year, the Milwaukee Bucks became the first NBA crew appointed in such a suit when former dancer Lauren Herington filed a complaint on behalf of she and her team-mates alleging gross underpayment and illegally mandated out-of-pocket overheads. Soon after filing, she shared with me emails, agreements, and detailed notes further that she maintained during her term as a Bucks dancer. If her accusations are true, the team did not consider hires described in the organizations own internal correspondence as, high profile members of such Milwaukee Bucks community with the respect or compensation they were entitled to.

Prior to working for the Milwaukee Bucks, Herington too was agitated about being treated as a high-profile member of the organization. She equated being a professional cheerleader with being a mini celebrity. As is particularly so with many professional cheerleaders, she had been dancing since early childhood, and had long dreamed of a discern on an NBA squad.

I envisaged I still think its a big deal to be able to say youre an NBA dancer, Herington told the Guardian. But I guess thats over for me now.

Salary was not discussed in the month-long unpaid bootcamp Herington listened prior to being hired by the Bucks. This was also the speciman at training workshops I accompanied for potential Clippers dancers for another article last year, where we were told wages would be discussed only after we were hired. It was also the instance for Murray, who recollected of the Warriors Girls, They have a epoch where you come in, and you read the contract together, and you sign it. And thats when I found out I was realizing $10 an hour. I remember simply being outraged.

There was no discussing it, Herington said, of her event signal after molted already relocated to Milwaukee to work on the team. It was, If you have an issue, then you can go ahead and it leaves. We werent have been able to take it dwelling, and go through it or anything like that. It was just handed out at rehearse. We signed it and leaved it back. Harmonizing to the agreement, she would be paid $30 per bi-weekly two- to four-hour practise; $65 per weekly 6.5 hour home competition; and $50 per two- to four-hour public appearance.

Hertington was also contractually obligated to adhere to the Bucks taxing fitness touchstones, which she alleges in her suit amounted to significant hours of payable labor. Per their accordance, dancers were required to maintain a high level of fitness, which was to be obtained by fulfill( ing) the conditions for workout curriculum designed by the training staff at Elite Sports Club.

What constituted a high level of fitness would be determined by the Bucks dancers tutor Tricia Crawford, who declined to be interviewed for this story. Workouts were monitor the performance of Tony Moro, a manager at the above-mentioned Elite Sports Club, who was in close linked with Crawford. In one email at the beginning of the season, Moro planned crew members for seven-day-a-week mandatory workouts and noted that the women should always be sure to cc[ Crawford] so she knows what is going on. Outage to comply with the activity and weight commissions set forth by Moro and Crawford would, according to the Bucks policy, result in disciplinary action as deemed necessary by the Dance Team Manager.

According to Herington, exchange about her load inaugurated as early as the teams first appearance in August of 2013, where coaching staff payed her negative feedback about her illustration, and subsequently applied her on a special exercising schedule that surpassed the four to five hours of daily practise she was already fully participate in.

Herington too began starving and dehydrating herself to look[ her] absolute good. She often appeared faint while working out. She experienced severe diarrhea after ingesting for the first time after days of nutrient destitution for circumstances like the teams calendar hit. She emailed Moro asking for additional work out that might help her lose the extra fatty[ she had] around[ her] hips and waist area.

Despite these efforts, Herington never knew when she would be allowed to dance at tournaments, and when she would be benched( without remuneration ), for failure to adhere to the Bucks fitness guidelines. On 18 18 November 2013, the week after the Bucks firstly dwelling activity, Crawford explained in an email: This week you will be out. I think you need a little more time to focus on your fitness. I was looking back at my memoranda and photographs from auditions, and I can see a significant difference. At that time, I thought your fitness was close to where it needed to be, but you still had a little slimming and color to do.

Sometimes, she said, she would hear a routine simply to be slash at the end of rehearse, at which point she would awkwardly leave the studio as her tired team-mates were told they would now have to stay belatedly to relearn formations.

In an email on February 18 2014, Crawford wrote, Saturday will be your first day back, and then Ill make a decision as to the remainder of the season. Id like you to visit Tony on Friday if you are able and do one more researching.( Testing here referred to the regular torso fat percentage estimate that Moro played on Herrington and reported back to Crawford .)

Herington developed stress ruptures in her shins. She stopped get her span. At one point, she was refused weight loss prescription from a doctor who expressed concerns over Heringtons mental health, and advised her to retire dancing.

By late winter, Herington said, the girls started seeing that my look seemed actually thin, and they asked if I was losing heavines in a health practice. At one rehearse, a command expected Herington why she looked so stressed out. I told her I was on probation for the last 2 week, and if I didnt make improvements I was not going to be on this crew any more, she said. Two weeks later, in the same 18 February email, Crawford wrote: I know you asked[ the cheerleader command] about your status with the team yesterday, but she has nothing to do with this. This place is between you and I.

Crawford signed off that email with a smiley face.

When Im sitting here now, Im like, wow, that resounds really stupid. Why didnt I just say something? Herington told the Guardian. Why didnt I merely stand up and be like, No. This is wrong. But then when I think about how drilled into our thinkers it was that every little thing we did was being watched You get scared that youll never piece as a dancer again.

During a weekend-long retreat at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, in the opening up of the season, Herington recollected rooming with a team-mate who told her that any in-room eating she did would be reported back to Crawford. At the same departure, she said the dancers accompanied a forum on how to adhere to their contractual obligation to refrain from posting anything on the internet that could be perceived in a negative dawn. When they arrived, draws from their Facebook notes had been projected onto the walls to be used as examples of photos that made them look like sluts and lesbians.

This retreat was also where each lady received their makeover. A examination was chosen for them by Crawford and a unit of beauticians from Salon Nova& Lash, where dancers where contractually required to visit, at their own expense, for all “hairs-breadth” needs.

I was the a-little-bit-older-than-my-actual-age-one, says Herington. I was the jumpy one on the team I had to convey that throughout the season. I had no say in what I looked like. That was part of the brainwashing.

They change your examine. They change your personality. They change everything, said Murray, of her epoch on the Warriors Girls. Murray attributes some of professional cheerleadings bizarre culture to the fact that most women coaching are themselves former cheerleaders.( Crawford danced for the Detroit Pistons prior to her hire with the Bucks .) Professional dancers, like most pro contestants, generally start working at a young age, due to their professions finite arcs. Many coaches, then, have worked in the world of pro-cheerleading since early adulthood. Because of this, said Murray, coaches may accept the view that in this profession, relations are an appropriate form of compensation.

Something they say a lot of the time, she said, is its a sisterhood. The document Murray rendered me with advised dancers to tell press: Its such a support to be on the Warriors Girls because you get to meet women who have your same anger for dance. It absolutely is a sisterhood!( When I attended the Clippers seminar, dancers there had also employed the convict, It truly is a sisterhood! verbatim, to describe life on the team .)

Herington likewise echoed hopes of sisterhood when shed attended boot camp. By March, nonetheless, when her team-mates hosted what she described as a mostly mandatory sleepover, she was treated cooly by the other women, who did not volunteer her a glass of wine. The other cheerleaders, though genial at best, were the only people Herington knew in Milwaukee. Labor one or two additional activities on top of her paid and unpaid dancing indebtedness, left virtually no time or fund with which Herington could have socialized.

As soon as shed met the team, molted get a responsibility at Ruby Tuesday. After a couple of months, she took on a third chore working early mornings at a doggie day care. Between her three jobs and the online class she was taking, her eras generally began at 5am and ended at midnight. After paying her rent, invoices, and expenses like mandatory weekly dres cleanse and bashes decorating, she dissolved every month with about $20 in her checking account. She spent the entire season resuming clambering for extra income in this way to Jared Jewelers; another eatery; then back to Ruby Tuesday anywhere that might accommodate the following schedule of an employee who had another part-time chore utterly eating them.

The Warriors Girls manual promotes team members to deem their additional undertakings as a place of feminine pride: Each of you have interests, points, and flairs well beyond being a Warrior Girl In some lawsuits, you are a full-time student, the status of women with a full-time place and perhaps a family.

Milwaukee Bucks Dancers were also contractually obligated to fulfill, a minimum of 10 hours of benevolence/ non-paid figures a year. If team members did not find time during the course of its regular season to complete these hours, they were expected to work off the time in payable promotional appearances for the Bucks.

In an email dated 28 May 2014, Crawford wrote, As a remember, you are all still under contract until July 13 th The reactions Ive been getting thus far for summer episodes have been dreadful. If its because you still need to meet your hours, so you intend on worsening all phenomena because you wont get paid, then thats a serious issue that I will take up to my superiors.

It is unclear whether Crawfords superiors would have paid her any scrutiny. In the same email, Crawford expressed insecurity over the extremely future of the Bucks Dancers, We have no thought what changes the new owners will bring Who knows what could happen to our program.

Women in the coaching slot absolutely are terrified theyre going to lose their responsibility, said Murray, based on the pushback and precede capitulate shes saw when coach-and-fours or musicians have attempted to fight for higher salaries.

Currently, cheerleading crews in the NFL and NBA cannot collectively negotiate their own working conditions. Laborers would be impossible to form confederations unless they are direct employees of a company, and cheerleader employment status varies from team to team. Herington was hired as a direct employee of the Milwaukee Bucks, but many crews apologize the underpayment of dancers by classifying them as contractors. Incorrectly categorizing professional cheerleaders, as was the case in the dres against the Oakland Raiders, prevents all dancers in the tournament – even those who are direct staff members of crews – from unionizing, because crews they would join forces with are not properly classified.

Classifying professional cheerleaders as contractors is, according to California Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez , not legal.[ Cheerleaders] signed an employment contract, she told the Guardian. They clearly represent the team … If youre an independent contractor, you place your own hours. You wouldnt be wearing a outfit for a company.

Gonzalez is the author of California Assembly Bill 202, which was passed in reaction to the classification issues involved in the Invader event. Per the greenback, as of 1 January 2016, professional cheerleaders in California must be hired as employees. Murray was one of the evidences to witness before the assembly in support of its passageway. Gonzalez prolongs work with New York assemblywoman Nily Rozic, who is attempting to pass a similar statute in New York State.

Thus far, progress in the working conditions of cheerleaders has been made mainly through suits like Heringtons. The status could be remedied by the NFL and NBA In the snap of a digit said Gonzalez, by introducing league-wide mandates that all dancers be direct employees.

Murray is optimistic that the NBA will be quicker to address the problem than the NFL, quoting business associations recent partnership with the equal repay advocacy radical #LeanIn. If we dont fix this problem, thats going to look really bad on them, she said.

Herington left the Milwaukee Bucks after her first season. Of her decision to speak out publicly against the team, she told me, Unfortunately, its probably the occurrence[ that I wont ever be hired on another unit ], her voice falling, but I at least hope now that maybe some things will change because of this.

When reached for remark, Milwaukee Bucks spokesperson Jake Suksi threw the next statement: The Milwaukee Bucks strongly disagree with the claims shaped in the federal lawsuit. The lawsuit presents inaccurate information that creates a false picture of how we control. The Bucks value the contributions our dancers acquire to the team. We treat all of our employees fairly, including our Bucks dancers, and pay them fairly and in compliance with federal and nation rule. We guess the lawsuit to be without virtue and will contest these allegations in court.

Herington, Murray, and Gonzalez continue to fight. The majority of American high schools and universities continue to offer cheerleading through their athletic districts. Mothers continue to waste the thousands of dollars on weekend clinics where organisations are learned. Somewhere, at least one minor continued to do those haul up even though they injured, and pattern that eight weigh even though theyre sick of it, because they still think its a big deal to be able to say youre an NBA dancer.

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apsbicepstraining · 7 years

Text

Stress fractures, thirst and low-spirited spend: one woman’s life as an NBA cheerleader

Many dancers are attracted to life as a cheerleader but they often find themselves disappointed at what the hell is thought would be a nightmare job

You can deflect leading questions that stereotype you by explaining that this is a hobby

Q: Do you get paid ?

A: All dance teams in the NBA get paid, and theres other enormous perks, like going our whisker and make-up done, tanning, etc

I envisaged I still think its a big deal to be able to say youre an NBA dancer, Herington told the Guardian. But I guess thats over for me now.

Crawford signed off that email with a smiley face.

The post Stress fractures, thirst and low-spirited spend: one woman’s life as an NBA cheerleader appeared first on apsbicepstraining.com.

from WordPress http://ift.tt/2j4mJuk via IFTTT

#IFTTT #WordPress

0 notes

apsbicepstraining · 7 years

Text

Stress fractures, thirst and low-spirited spend: one woman’s life as an NBA cheerleader

Many dancers are attracted to life as a cheerleader but they often find themselves disappointed at what the hell is thought would be a nightmare job

You can deflect leading questions that stereotype you by explaining that this is a hobby

Q: Do you get paid ?

A: All dance teams in the NBA get paid, and theres other enormous perks, like going our whisker and make-up done, tanning, etc

I envisaged I still think its a big deal to be able to say youre an NBA dancer, Herington told the Guardian. But I guess thats over for me now.

Crawford signed off that email with a smiley face.

The post Stress fractures, thirst and low-spirited spend: one woman’s life as an NBA cheerleader appeared first on apsbicepstraining.com.

from WordPress http://ift.tt/2j4mJuk via IFTTT

#IFTTT #WordPress

0 notes