This past Sunday evening I began to feel the sort of symptoms one feels with a cold. Primarily a sore and scratchy throat, which was by bedtime accompanied by a nose that was alternately runny and stuffed, a bad cough, and a headache that felt like somebody tried to put 30 lbs. of corn into a 20 lb. sack. Eventually diarrhea would join the party.
As far as fatigue and body aches are concerned, I’ve had fibromyalgia for 25 years, so I’m always accompanied by those bastards. But there was no increase over the normal level, for which I was grateful.
I’m fully vaccinated...all three shots...and have done everything I’m supposed to do as far as masking and social distancing. But i’d been reading about how this Omicron variant was penetrating even the vax barrier and making some people sick with symptoms that mimick the common cold. I went to my health provider’s website and registered for a drive-through PCR test. No appointment needed, or available if you wanted it for that matter. First come first served.
I was especially concerned that I might have COVID, because I had spent many hours on Christmas Eve, Christmas day, and the day after visiting my soon to be 82 year old sister who is in a nursing home. At the time she had not yet received her booster (she did on Tuesday,) and not only is she nearly 82, she has several comorbidities
Monday when I drove to the testing site, around noon, I found a line of cars stretching nearly two miles. I got in line.
After an hour and a half I hadn’t traveled one-third of the way to the testing area. Plus, I had to pee. So I threw in the towel, went back to my apartment, and sequestered myself. I also set my alarm clock to 5 am.
As the day went on I continued to feel worse and worse, and I hoped that this was the nadir and that the following day I’d feel better.
But I only got worse throughout the night, and I woke up feeling the worst I’ve felt since…..well I really can’t remember when (the whole 5 am thing didn’t help.) I arrived at the testing site at 6:30 am...an hour and a half before it opened. By 8:30 I’d been swabbed, and told to expect my results within 24 to 48 hours.
So you can imagine my surprise when just later that afternoon I got an e-mail saying my test results were in. Positive. I had COVID. Although I’d been expecting it, it still gobsmacked me. I mean, I went an entire year before vaccines were even available, and never got sick. I got my two Pfizers in March of this year and the booster in October or November. And now I get COVID? I felt like…..WTF?
I called my sister’s nursing home and asked to speak with the Director of Nursing. I don’t know if any of you have any experience with these facilities, but even at the best ones….the ones the federal government rates five stars, like my sister’s facility…..nobody, but nobody ever answers their phone. I left a voicemail with all the pertinent information, the days I’d spent with my sister, and I voiced the expectation that they would be testing my sister frequently in the days ahead.
She was swabbed the next day for a quick-results test, which was negative, but those tests have a high level of false negatives. As of this evening, my sister does not, to the best of my knowledge, have COVID. I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself if she did.
I’ve been treating myself with the usual nostrums, but since I’m on a blood thinner I have to limit my use of NSAIDs.
Last night I got very little sleep for the third straight night, because the cough and the headache kept me from falling asleep, or woke me up shortly after I did.
This morning I began to worry that my cough was going to disturb my neighbors...it was that persistent and that loud. What was worse was that during some coughing spells I clearly felt short of breath. My voice, which had been brought down to a sexy Barry White type tone (in my head at least,) now sounded more like the Piper Laurie dubbed demon in The Exorcist. The kind of voice that when you answer the phone the person who calls immediately says “Oh, my God...you sound HORRIBLE! You sound SO SICK!”
I didn’t get out of bed until about 1 pm, and I struggled to do that. I weighed myself and guess what? My “Christmas weight” was gone. So who says there’s no upside, right?
My throat felt like I wouldn’t be able to get anything down it, but I had a couple of small avocados that I could tell were close to turning bad (as avocados are always either hard as a rock or turning bad,) so I made myself some avocado toast and was pleasantly surprised that the toasted rye bread didn’t irritate things, nor did the Tobasco sauce I shook on it.
I began to binge watch “Community,” which I’d been doing for awhile (up to the middle of the third season now.) I find the show very uneven, but every time I think they’ve gone too far with something I end up admiring the imagination on display. And Alison Brie! OMG, where has she been all my life? Yeah, yeah, I know...for most of it she hadn’t been born yet.
And I laughed. I laughed a lot. And within a couple of hours I started having spells where I felt remarkably better. Not entirely better, mind you, but a lot better. I was reminded of the author and advocate Norman Cousins and how he would watch Marx Brothers movies to ease the pain of a connective tissue disease along with ankylosing spondylitis . My spells would last for maybe a half hour to even an hour, then I’d go back to sounding like I was coughing up a lung.
So I’m optimistic, I hope not foolishly so, that I’ve gone through the worst and I’m on the mend. I’m hoping to get some sleep tonight and feel better in the morning, or at least have those spells where I feel better come more often and last longer. Fortunately I’ve still got two and a half seasons of “Community” to watch.
I’ve read how among the non-vaccinated, symptoms often improve just before the person crashes, so that’s of some concern to me. But not much as I’ve not heard of the same phenomenon occurring in the fully vaccinated who get a break-through case of Omicron.
If I’ve learned anything from all of this it would be these two things: This new variant is a nasty, nasty, mother-effer and everybody needs to be super careful. The vaccines can’t always stop it and it is ridiculously transmittable. If I wasn’t vaxxed I have absolutely zero doubt that I’d be in an ICU, in an induced coma, and intubated.
And perhaps the second thing…..is that sometimes maybe laughter really is the best medicine.
EDIT: I just want to thank all you wonderful people for your good wishes for me and especially for my sister. I actually wanted to tag this diary “Community” twice, but the site wouldn’t let me.
Thursday, Dec 30, 2021 · 6:04:20 PM +00:00 · jazzmaniac
First the good news: Four days after I last saw my sister, she is still, apparently, COVID free. Had I infected her as late as Sunday, she would most likely be symptomatic by now, and she’s not. Plus, she did have the negative rapid response test yesterday. There are, of course, qualifiers to each of those last three sentences, but fingers crossed.
As for myself, I have to say that given the improvement I saw yesterday I really thought I’d be feeling quite a bit less crappy today than I actually am.
A lot of nasal junk going on. For about three hours this morning my nose ran like a faucet (God, for all the nice things people say about my writing I do fall victim to the cliché pretty frequently.) I’ve been sneezing my head off. God, there I go again!
I still have the cough, although it doesn’t occur as often. When it does it still has the deep, rattling, “croupy” sound.
Tomorrow is my fifth day in isolation, but as the revised CDC guidelines say that the final day must be symptom free I doubt there’s a snowball’s chance in Hell (STOP already!) that I’ll be leaving my apartment on Saturday. Right now I’m hoping to gain my freedom on Monday.
Mind you, I have yet to apply today’s “Community” treatment!
EDIT: A little later in the day now, and as we head into evening my symptoms (as seems to be true for any ailment as your body tires) are getting worse.
A little while ago I packed a bag in case I have to go to the hospital tonight. Cellphone charger (hey, priorities, right?) some warm sweats (hospitals are always so freaking cold, and cold is the enemy, or one of the enemies, of the fibromyalgic) some socks and undies.
I very much doubt it will do anything other than sit by the front door, but if I were to wind up waiting for the paramedics to arrive, thinking, “Damn, why didn’t I go ahead and do that when I thought of it,” I’d be damned upset with my stupid self.
Friday, Dec 31, 2021 · 9:17:25 PM +00:00 · jazzmaniac
First, the good news.
They tested my sister again today and again she was negative. And she’s feeling and sounding pretty good. As good as a nearly 82 year old, emotionally frail woman with multiple health issues can sound, at least.
As far as myself, I’m well into my fifth symptomatic day and I have to say this is one tenacious little virus. There are improvements, however.
Diarrhea resolved two days ago.
Last night there was a period where I hardly ever coughed and when I did it sounded like a normal, clear your throat type of cough. By morning the deep, rattly “croupy” cough was back, but the frequency of the coughing is way down.
My throat feels a little less sore and raspy.
My head still feels like it’s going to explode. Last night my sinuses got so stuffed up that I think I blew too hard trying to expel some of the junk, because I spent the next 8 or 9 hours with horrible pain radiating out of my left ear, down to my jaw and up to my temple. Some sort of eustachian tube involvement I think, especially since that ear has been “popping” occasionally ever since. I still have the pain, and the feeling of my left ear being clogged, but it’s not as bad.
The most puzzling thing has been a dramatic weight loss. I weigh myself every day at the same time, and graph it out. It’s a trick I picked up from my father years ago and I’ve found it the only way for me to maintain a healthy weight and not let it get away from me.
And over the past four days I have lost 5.6 lbs. But what’s really crazy is that since yesterday I’ve dropped 3.6 lbs.
And I have been eating. Perhaps not as much as usual (but keep in mind I’m not exactly burning up the calories laying and sitting around my apartment,) but I’ve even been giving into the “I’m bored so I’m going to eat” urge as well as the “I feel like shit….maybe if I just eat some more” urge. Urges I normally try to resist, but hey, I’m sick so fuck it, right?
And I have been staying hydrated. Or at least I think I have. If anything, the resolving of the loose, watery stool should be helping me in that regard.
I received e-mails telling me that my pulse oximeter and my N95 masks have been delivered, but they’re sitting in the lobby. I’ve been very scrupulous about not leaving my apartment since returning from the drive through test early Tuesday morning, but I’m thinking of double or triple masking up with my disposables, sticking my head out the door to scout the hallway, and if it looks like none of my neighbors are around making a brisk sprint to retrieve the packages. I really want to see what my oxygenation is.
ANNNNDDDDDD….I did just that. Oxygen is at 96, which is 3 points below where I normally am, but far from something to worry about. But I’ll keep an eye on it. I suspect that a day or two ago it would have been lower.
Saturday, Jan 1, 2022 · 11:36:00 PM +00:00 · jazzmaniac
Hi there. I received some comment replies inquiring to how I was doing, so I thought I’d post an update. I apologize that I have most likely not been able to read some of your comments, as the diary seems to have reached critical mass, ie. it has entered the “Load More” Zone.
First, my sister: She remains symptom free six days after our last contact, although she has not been tested since yesterday (which was negative.)
My progress continues, incrementally. I’d say my symptoms today would mirror how they were on my first or maybe early second day of being symptomatic. I’m definitely on the right side of this thing...just moving more slowly than I would like.
My oxygenation has improved from 96% to generally 97 and sometimes 98%,, which is pretty close to my normal reading. I still have a cough, but it continues to diminish in both its frequency and its “croupiness.” My throat retains a bit of its soreness and raspiness. My voice is approaching normal.
The hearing lost in my left ear has not returned. I still think it’s a Eustachian tube issue, especially since the ear has been “popping” for a couple days now. So far none of the “pops” has brought back the lost hearing. Almost all the pain associated with that is gone, so I don’t think I brought about an ear infection.
I think one sign that I’m feeling better physically is that mentally I’m starting to go a little stir crazy. When I really felt like crap the fact that I couldn’t go anywhere felt like a feature and not a bug. Sorry for the inadvertent pun there. Now I’m feeling antsy. Okay, that was more of a metaphor. Or was it a simile? Never can keep those two straight.
I’m continuing to make my way through “Community” and continuing to find myself thinking “Oh, they’ve gone too far this time” only to come around due to the sheer imagination on display. I mean, an entire episode where the characters have been converted to characters in an old video arcade game? That takes guts.
I’ve become genuinely hooked on “Love” on Netflix, which is probably an unfortunate choice of words regarding a show where addiction is a major theme. I have come to genuinely care for these two characters, especially Mickey, who is so very well portrayed by Gillian Jacobs, who played Britta Perry on “Community.”
As unhealthy as their relationship may be, I am truly rooting for them. The episode titled “A Day,” is one of the best examples I’ve ever seen of something that filmmakers have a great deal of difficulty showing, in that it happens internally. And that is the process of two people falling in love. There were times in that episode when Gus was walking along, talking, unaware that Mickey was looking at him. And the expression on Jacobs’ face...well, I was lucky to have once had someone in my life who looked at me like that.
I’ve also just started watching, on Amazon Prime, a show from a couple of years ago called “Good Omens.” It is based on a book by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. It stars, among many others, David Tennant, who I loved as the….what was it….eleventh (?) Doctor on “Doctor Who.”
The show owes a great deal….I mean I think a great deal….to Douglas Adams and his Hitchhiker’s trilogy (which, for the uninitiated, is four books long.). According to Wikipedia, Pratchett knew Adams and wrote a biography on him. More than a little rubbed off I’d say.
If you’ve been asking yourself “Who is making the great fantasy End of Days theosophical comedy these days?” it’s these folks. It is, as are seemingly nearly all British programmes (see what I did there?) an absolutely first rate production. In fact, if you do nothing else, check out the opening credits, which are a wonderment of animation.
I’ll close with a New Year’s joke my bored mind came up with earlier today.
A lot of folks believe it’s good luck to have black eyed peas on New Year’s Day.
What most people don’t realize is that it’s actually BAD luck to listen to The Black Eyed Peas on New Year’s Day.
Or any other day.