Wednesday, November 30, 2022

Positively Positive. Bummer!

On Thanksgiving I woke up with a scratchy throat and a general 'off' feeling. Son Donald was coming over for dinner, so Hubby Tony and I gave ourselves Covid tests. Both were negative. Friday morning I woke up feeling even worse... a headache, chills, and absolutely no appetite. I took another Covid test. This time I wasn't so lucky. A second line appeared underneath the control line, indicating it was positive.

As far as I know, this was my first time to have the virus. After being vaccinated, boosted, and boosted again I had mild symptoms, but for the first two days I I was so fatigued I felt like I had been run over by a Mack truck. I also had an off-and-on headache and a drippy nose/hacking cough. All out of the house activities were cancelled or postponed.

However, once the worst passed and my symptoms began to ease I started going stir crazy. Other than a very small deck our condo doesn't have any outdoor space, so I borrowed a page from early-pandemic times and took short walks through the subdivision. I had a mask to use when necessary, but for the most part I did not see any other people. When I did I gave them a very wide berth by crossing the street.

I thought Hubby Tony and I would have trouble maintaining our social distance, but it turned out to be pretty easy. I moved my sleeping quarters to the daybed in the office, which ended up being surprisingly comfortable. The main living area of the condo is one large room (and Tony's office is an adjunct off of the area), so we were actually able to spend time together as long as there was a lot of distance between us. For example, at meal time one of us sat at the table in the dining room and the other one sat at the island in the kitchen. Or I sat on the couch while he worked at his office desk. We felt comfortable with the procedure because both Tony and I have been vaccinated and boosted. Tony also tested himself on a regular basis. Each test was negative.

Yesterday was five days since the initial test, so it was time to retest. This test also showed two strong lines, so I sent a message to my doctor's office for advice.  Later in the day I found out that I could continue to receive positive results for several weeks! But as long as my symptoms were improving and I had been fever-free for 24 hours without the use of medications I could return to normal activities as long as I wore a mask for an additional five days.

This morning I couldn't remember the last time I was so excited to do errands and grocery shopping. Before I left the house I checked to make sure I had a fresh mask with me. It was strange to head towards the car in the garage instead of leaving the building on foot. I thoroughly enjoyed strolling down aisles at the grocery stores. Even the lines of people waiting at the checkout didn't bother me in the least.  I was free!

Five years ago today: An Advent of Gratitude

22 comments:

  1. Everyone seems to be getting it these days glad you are almost better.

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    1. I agree that Covid seems to be making the rounds again. Eventually everyone will have had it.

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  2. Were you sick for five days? I am glad you are feeling well now and able to resume activities.

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    1. Really sick for two days, then each subsequent day felt a little better.

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  3. Glad you're better now! You did a nice job of testing yourselves frequently. Linda in Kansas

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    1. We always have a ready supply of testing kits in the cabinet.

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  4. Have you been wearing a mask everywhere? I have for the most part. Sometimes I forget but won't go back to the car to get it. Maybe I will from now on.
    My sister got it and distanced from her husband and son and they didn't get it. The transmission probability may go down if your up to date on shots.

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    1. I had gotten lax about mask-wearing, too. However I noticed a lot of people who had them on-maybe due to the high rates of RSV and influenza?

      I agree that it seems like people who are up to date on shots should have no or very light symptoms. I guess I got the short straw this time.

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  5. Praying for you and your family; for quick healing and your good health. Take care.

    God bless always.

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  6. Gosh. My daughter had it positive for 9 days. She just tested negative Monday. What a relief! Good you're improving.

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  7. Ugh, so sorry you got hit with COVID, especially after all of your precautions and all of your travel with no problems. I'm guessing your pastoral staff is very sorry to have you out sick. I also wonder if perhaps that's where you picked up the virus. I was so concerned two weeks ago, after being coughed and sneezed on by a variety of children, that I would come down with something, but so far, we are doing well here. When I returned from Thanksgiving break, there were numerous absences throughout the school.

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    1. I wondered if someone at the church office had the virus before I did, because that was the only place I've spent any significant time without Tony, but I would think someone would have mentioned the coincidence.

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    2. I am wondering if some people do not have symptoms nor get sick when they are carrying the virus around. Terry and I have talked about this since we are out among people and yet...we remain well. Terry is in a decades-long research project and they sent him a blood test for the COVD virus, wanting to see what his blood, and others his age, looked like. He has all the vaccinations, so when they sent results back showing he had contracted COVID somewhere along the line, we were a bit surprised but figured it was just the antibodies showing up. But, who knows?

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    3. Most everyone I know has had Covid, so before a week ago I wondered if I was just lucky or had an asymptomatic case.

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  8. I'm sorry you were sick, Kathy, but glad you were vaccinated and boosted so it wasn't any worse.

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    1. Without a vaccine and booster shot things could have been much worse.

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  9. I'm catching up on Blog Reads and reading your Posts in reverse date order, there is so much going around that mimics The Rona now that I never know for sure if the Sick in the household are infected with that, or something else. We ran out of Tests and all of the ones we used said Negative, so clearly they had something other than COVID, but the Symptoms were frighteningly similar, enuf to give me mini Panic Attacks each time someone in the household got ill.

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    1. The more people in a house the greater chance someone will catch something and bring it home.

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