Follow the reveille post with vitamins to take. Good luck.

There's not much in the way of treatment for mild disease, however given his age and history of asthma he needs to be willing to pull the trigger quickly to seek medical care should he start having significant respiratory difficulties, fatigue, mental fog, etc. I know that's hard to convince some parents to do sometimes.

Watch him closely for another week to a week and a half. Watch for a plateau on recovery. Sometimes the body compensates as you get worse, so it just looks like you're staying the same. Eventually the body can't keep up and you require medicine to help.

Regarding his knee replacements, I'd recommend trying to figure out why he's so hesitant. My dad needed a shoulder replacement, and could've probably used knee replacements as well. When he got really sick, one of the limiting factors to his recovery was his shoulders. He tried to do physical therapy but just couldn't. And his activity level declined as his years went on because of his shoulders and knees. If your dad is putting off the knees, remind him that replacing them will allow him to regain more activity. That increased activity will ultimately allow him to retain more muscle, more independence, and a better quality of life than if he waited until much later, after he's lost the muscle due to inactivity from pain.

Slightly off topic, but I do feel where you're coming from.

How low in the 80s did he go? And what was he doing when he got that low? If he was sitting down or laying in bed for a long time and then checked, what happens sometimes it the lungs slowly shrink when you're not active and taking deep breaths. If it happened when he was walking around and trying to be active, and he felt a little short of breath with minimal activity, that would be more concerning.

I trust they'll do the best they can. If they thought he needed care above someone else already in the ER they would've found a way to make room or told him to go to another hospital. That being said, what they saw in their initial triage assessment isn't going to be how he remains for the next 4+ hours. They should be reassessing him every hour or 2. And people should hopefully get discharged or move upstairs and make room for him.

ETA: Something he can do at home to ensure good lung recruitment is something called an incentive spirometer. He probably doesn't have one, but if he just takes in several breaths as deep as he can, and then slowly exhales against pursed lips for as long as possible, it'll help prevent something called atelectasis (the lung shrinkage). Do this for about 3-4 minutes every hour, along with little walk abouts. Additionally, tummy time (proning), is something being done in people with lung damage from COVID.

Hope that helps, and hopefully he gets evaluated soon. But honestly, he may be someone that a month ago they would've admitted, but they may send him. It's just a bad situation and there's no good solution.

Scott & White in Temple?

Most of the treatments for COVID that are advertised honestly aren't that great. The mainstay of therapy is still supportive care till the immune system clears the virus and heals. The only treatment that shows a clear benefit are steroids, specifically one called dexamethasone. May or may not be useful for your father, depending on his condition.

Things like remdesivir, regeneron, convalescent plasmsa, etc., have debateable benefit. At least in people with mild disease that don't need supplemental oxygen. A daily baby aspirin might be of some benefit. Dr. Rev's supplement cocktail probably won't hurt anything either.

If hospitals weren't overwhelmed right now I think they may be more inclined to hold onto patients and try some of these therapies in the less sick patients. I just don't think they can spare the room, time, and resources.

The barometer for what needs hospitalization may have changed over the past few months. But the silver lining here is that they saw him and didn't think he was sick enough to need admission. Just a couple more days and he should hopefully be over the hump.

How's your dad?

He says he's still feels about the same, although his oxygen levels did come back up. He's supposed to talk to the dr on the phone later today. His sense of smell and taste are coming back, so hopefully he's on the back end of this thing and will be completely over it soon. Still have some concerns though. My moms cousin went to the ER the same day my dad did and they sent him home as well. However, he was brought back to the ER this morning and is going downhill rapidly.

Thank you for the update. Hoping your dad remains on the upswing.
Praying for him and your mom's cousin