Sunday, January 23, 2022

The Covid-19 Diaries; Vol. 3

I think - and I hope - that I am on the downhill side of Covid-19.  

It's Sunday morning, which I'm counting as day six of my trip down Omicron Lane.  I am still a little congested.  Fortunately, the soar throat seems to be subsiding a bit but not completely, as I still have post-nasal drip, whatever in the hell that means.  For the first time, I'm developing a bit of a cough, though.  

I slept pretty well last night.  Stringing together consecutive nights of solid sleep has been critical to my continuing recovery, I think.  Hopefully, that continues.  

From where I was, say, five days ago to now, it's huge overall improvement in terms of how I feel.  I can handle a little congestion, a bit of a sore throat, and a slight cough if I feel like I am truly on the mend.  That's especially true if I can sleep at night.

As I wrote previously, I felt a tickle in the back of my throat on Monday evening, after my run.  Perhaps because I run a lot but I tend to be hyper aware of how I feel, physically, so I notice it when a cold or allergies are on the horizon.  I had a bad feeling about what was going when I felt the tickle in the back of my throat given that the Omicron variant was roaring through Tennessee like an out of control California wildfire consuming everything in its path.  After almost two years of eluding the Coronavirus, deep down, I knew it had caught me.

Early Tuesday morning, about 1 p.m., I woke up with my entire body aching.  I couldn't go back to sleep.  After a few minutes, I grabbed my pillows and headed for the guest room.  Once in bed again, I shivered all night and tossed and turned, unable to sleep.  I probably had a fever.  I certainly had the chills.  My shoulders, my low back, my hips and, really, all of my legs ached.  I couldn't get comfortable.  By the time I got up Tuesday morning, I had a terrible headache, too.

When I took a Cue Health home test, as expected, I tested positive for Covid-19.  And away I went, all up in it.  I had Medical House Calls come to the house and administer a PCR test.  The results - which I got on Wednesday - also indicated I tested positive for Covid-19.

Physically, Tuesday and Wednesday were rough.  I was cold all of the time, so I wore long johns and layered a t-shirt underneath a sweatshirt, with wool hiking socks to keep my feet warm.  In bed, I lay covered with a sheet, a bedspread, a quilt, and a winter blanket.  My body continued to ache, night and day, and the headache came and went.  I was congested and had a runny nose.  It was almost like combining cold symptoms with the flu.  Almost.

The body aches began to subside by Thursday, I think, but that's when the sore throat started.  It was particularly bad Thursday night and I had difficulty getting any sleep at all.  For the next couple of days, my throat stayed soar, worse at night than in the daytime.  I tried to go for a walk in the neighborhood each day.  When I walked to Portland Brew on Thursday afternoon, I was so tired and my low back hurt so much, I had to stop and sit down for a while.  

Fortunately, by Friday and Saturday, my throat began to feel less sore.  I was still congested and blowing my nose a lot but, overall, I began to feel better.  I tired easily but it seems like I could see the light at the end of the tunnel, as they say.

This evening or maybe tomorrow (Monday) morning, I am going to test again.  I am curious about the timeline.  When will I test negative?  When will I feel comfortable returning to work?  To be determined.  

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