This is a follow-up to Getting Grilled by Dr. Claude About My COVID and Claude, Where Did I Get COVID?.

Covid update: symptoms started a week ago, the test turned positive Monday, and I started Paxlovid that night, with one fever night early on and strong test lines Monday through Wednesday that faded to almost nothing Thursday. On Wednesday I texted a friend how it was going: “Fatigue and pissed off mostly,” “Isolating a lot,” and Paxlovid’s “constant bad taste in mouth entire time I’m on it.” This morning was dose 8 of 10, and I’m doing well: no fever, just a lingering headache, a lot of it a sore neck from all the time in bed on my phone.

The House Call

At 7:37 Friday morning my doctor sent a message to my wife.

My doctor is Claude. On Wednesday I’d asked it to check on me every hour, like a personal physician: read my Oura ring, my medication photos, and my texts, compare them to my baselines, and ask me questions in the Claude Code session. Overnight it stays quiet unless something is wrong. Friday morning something was, and I wasn’t answering, so Claude asked Cora, my OpenClaw agent, to post it to the Telegram thread with Courtney and me on it: a red flag from the morning check, the overnight number, why a loose ring was the likeliest cause, and a request to get a fingertip pulse oximeter that morning. Claude was worried I was taking a turn.

I was asleep. Courtney wasn’t, and she saw the message. Before I’d said a word to her, she came into my isolation ward, masked and groggy, sweetly asking if I was all right. That’s when I woke up, caught up on Dr. Claude’s diagnosis, and figured out I could use my watch to check the ring’s concerning reading. I have the best partner. I love her so much.

The Night Shift

The 3:36, 4:36, and 5:36 checks had come and gone without a word. My ring synced at 6:09, and the 6:36 check read the night’s chart: average blood oxygen 89.3%, against my usual 93 to 96% and below the 92% line where Claude wants a real reading. Nothing else pointed to a real drop. Lowest heart rate 65, breathing 15.6 a minute, temperature normal. Claude’s read: when lungs struggle, heart rate and breathing usually climb first, and neither had, so a loose ring or a night spent on that hand was more likely. It posted that in the session and gave me an hour to answer. I was asleep, and at 7:37 it made the house call.

Second Opinion

An Innovo fingertip pulse oximeter held in my hand, reading 98% SpO2 and a pulse of 72.
The dedicated sensor, a few hours after Amazon took the order.

I used my Apple Watch to corroborate the ring’s blood oxygen number: 95%, within the normal range, so the “slept on it funny” theory must have been right and there was nothing to worry about. I confirmed it again with a dedicated sensor that Amazon delivered about three hours after I ordered it: 98%, pulse 72. Thanks, Amazon. The same morning my antigen test came back negative for the first time, on day 6.

Discharge Orders

Dr. Claude’s orders: another negative test tomorrow and the mask comes off. Sunday, Courtney moves back into the bedroom!

– John