Week 4 - Coronavirus
Link to Week 3
Waiting for my morning standup to begin. Sufi is still with me - she is angry with her mom still?
Friday
Afternoon we go for Achu’s blood test. He is quite confident now and even has a bet that his count will go up by 1000.
March 30
Monday
Right now at home we are not thinking of Coronavirus. How do we manage Dengue is in top of our mind.
Achu had severe pain in his thighs and calf muscle. He did not sleep properly in the night. I had woken up at 1:00 am to give him his mid-night dose. One of the tablets is to be given every 6 hours.
Post lunch, I take Achu for the 2nd blood test, and platelet count has dropped to 77k. Before doing the test, we met the doctor and she says if it falls below 80k you get admitted.
This spooks me. This clinic in our layout has been there for more than 10+ years, but does not have a good reputation. I think they are pulling a fast one?
I go to the Chemist I typically get medicine from for some practical advise.
She tells, till the platelet count drops below 25k you are fine. Do not get admitted. Just water and pomegranate juice. That’s all is needed for treating Dengue.And even if you are getting admitted, go to a bigger hospital. Not this clinic.
I go around the layout and find another lab and we give blood for testing. Around 6pm the result comes - while I am in the middle of the dusk standup - I drop out of the standup because the result says 110k platelets.
I am totally confused now. How can this big a difference exist?
After lot of deliberation we decide to stick to the first one. What matters now is to see if the platelet reduction is stemmed. Doesn’t really matter on the numbers. Continue monitoring and if Achu stops taking fluids in - then things are serious. Then get him admitted.
On another note - I see a conspiracy theory video. Beijing and Shanghai had hardly 500 coronavirus cases. Their stock market did not plummet like every other stock market in the world. Chinese investment firms are still strong flush with cash. They have started acquiring businesses in Australia which are going bankrupt.
In India lot of Startup’s are funded by Chinese VCs. Now Chinese VC firms will get more active and will take over as the American and Indian VCs might tighten their belts. Is it East India all over again? Future history books will talk about this phase.
I am not happy with my productivity. First half went in planning the cash flow situation. We got insurance for all our employees, their kids and spouse. Then had some contingency discussion. Then fixed a few escalated support issues. My todo list keeps growing - not being able to churn out stuff at the usual pace I do.
Over the weekend ADDA app new UI gets released in iOS and Android. I had promised my team to take them out for lunch if we release by Feb end. A month delayed but it has come out really well.
Tuesday
Achu’s condition isn’t improving. He still has pain and his headache is still persisting. He has fitfull sleep and is taking Tremdol - a pain killer.
We go for his test and the count is now dropped to 69k
This is during our standup. Sufi came for cuddles. Today morning her mom fed Pedigree and she didn’t like it. She only finished 1/4th of it - which is very unusual of Sufi. She will always wipe her food bowl clean..Typically she is always at the foot of her mummy - and even when she goes to the bathroom she will be waiting outside.
Prithvi learns music for Hum and Strum - a very good music school. They are now giving classes online. That’s his piano Sir. We are all adapting quite fast. This could be the norm going forward.
Wednesday
We do a test and result comes as 57k. We are now worried. The doctor had advised to get admitted the moment the count falls below 80k.
Achu’s dad also wants us to admit him - who is stuck in Coimbatore and is feeling helpless. We debate internally a lot - getting admitted in a good hospital is out of question. There are barricades at the nearby junction and we cannot leave the layout. We will have to get an ambulance and how will we shuttle between home and the hospital. We can get admitted in the same clinic which is there in the layout - but I don’t have faith they will do a good job. Already I am a little suspicious of them - what if they extend the say or administer unnecessary medicines just to make some money.
We decide to step up a notch Achu’s treatment. Achu sleeps most of the time and misses drinking water or juice. I set alarm on Amma’s phone every half an hour from 7:30 AM to night 8:00 PM. From tomorrow the new drill begins.\
Today is April 1 = peak billing day. The monthly, quarterly, half yearly and yearly bills get generated today. It is like Black Friday for ADDA - and the load goes through the roof. All the new sign ups over the last few months are all starting their billing today. The load goes through the roof - users signing in to look at the bills, the Covid discussions, users making payments - I sit glued to the screen - turning off some services, adding more servers.
Thursday
I get this message that Google’s Neighbourly is shutting down. What a time to shut down - this is the time when they could have been of some use. Perhaps they had planned it all along, or the entire team which worked on Neighbourly might have got laid off ( I am certain it was in India - because this was launched only in Mumbia and Bangalore )
Achu’s drill begins. San takes the day off to focus on making juice and also waking up Achu to drink water or juice. Around 3PM, I pack my laptop, and change of clothes for Achu and I - and we go out for the testing ritual. Before we go to the clinic, we go to the 2nd clinic where we tested ( and they gave better numbers ).
Count is 54k. The 2nd clinic gave a number of 100k. The rate of drop has slowed. Achu also feels much better. Pain has gone away and today he walked by himself without any support. We all are confident.
We come back home. And decide to continue the practise of water or juice every 30 minutes.
Waiting for my morning standup to begin. Sufi is still with me - she is angry with her mom still?
Night the kids sleep outside in the room. Sufi goes and lies down whenever the beds are laid. She owns this place.
Friday
We now have a kid preparing for NEET. And 3 Working from home. And 1 kid who has to entertain himself - all locked up in one house! We need more than Social Distancing so all of us can work / study / play without disturbing one another.
Morning we rearrange the tables a bit and as the mom works, the boy watches movies on a 15 year old iMac which still works!
Afternoon we go for Achu’s blood test. He is quite confident now and even has a bet that his count will go up by 1000.
Results come - it is 58k. We are all much relieved. It was quite a stressful week - with server load, and managing a dengue patient. Phoo!
Sufi is now back to being the tail of her mummy.
Evening we have a 2nd Team Lead’s meeting - to catch up on what all the teams are doing and strategize.
Saturday
I redo my setup with double monitors. Psych!
San goes shopping and we air the stuff. She gets all “sweet stuff”.
San goes shopping and we air the stuff. She gets all “sweet stuff”.
Achu’s test result comes - 88k. We are officially out of Dengue now.
I work on Saturday too - and by evening I am mentally drained. A tough week comes to an end!
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