My Experience With Covid

The crazy thing about Covid is that people have different experiences with it - even if they have the same strain. Doug and I no doubt had the same strain, but I feel like I suffered more with sinus issues and he suffered more with a bad cough.

Doug had gone on a short business trip for his company to Utah - it was a company-wide gathering. He actually went on the trip late so he could be home for our 25th wedding anniversary. And he still got sick.

  One cool thing Doug did come across while he was in Utah was an original Banksy painting...

Doug's company hadn't had a gathering that large in over two years (his company had been very Covid conscious). Of course when they finally let their guard down, a bunch of people got sick - including Doug. This strain of Covid is unbelievably contagious. Luckily, Doug wore a mask on the plane ride home. He was one of very few wearing a mask that day since the airlines basically said Covid was done. Heh - that's funny to think about now.

  I had a nice 1st half of my Mother's Day (which I will blog about eventually) and the second half was kind of a bummer.

I was sitting on my upstairs porch enjoying the weather in the afternoon and Doug came out onto the porch with a mask on...

I was trying to process what was happening. I looked in his hand and he was holding his home Covid test (he had been testing daily to be on the safe side). He said "This is positive, isn't it?" I looked and yes - it really was. He had no symptoms at the time, but a few hours later, he did start feeling badly. I had a moment of panic. Over two years of avoiding this virus and it was finally in my house. Invading my family and my safe space. Of course, I worried about him having it and me possibly getting it, but my main concern was Briana. She only had a couple more weeks of school left and it was crunch time. Finishing up loose ends and then it was going to be finals. It would be very difficult for her to miss school.

We immediately decided he needed to quarantine from us. My Mother's Day dinner (which I reservations for) had to be nixed. We ended up ordering food in. He went down into the basement and there he stayed for about a week. 

Bri and I took a few pictures outside for Mother's Day, ate our dinner and started winding down for bed. I was feeling fine at the time. I woke up in the early hours of Monday morning and I felt weird. I felt chills and body aches. I knew I had it - even though I hadn't tested for it yet. At that point, we all started wearing masks around each other in the house to try to protect Briana from this. Doug and I tried to stay away from her as much as possible, but of course, it wasn't always possible.

I told Briana she should wear a mask to school, but I didn't even really have to ask her. She wanted to wear one to protect her friends. We canceled our carpool and I had to drive Bri to school and pick her up. Doug and I took turns bringing her and picking her up. Not super fun, but it had to be done. We both masked in the car and just hoped she wouldn't get it.

I tested several times on that Monday while she was at school but I got negative results each time. It wasn't until Tuesday that I finally tested positive. It was kind of a relief to just know what it was.

Once I tested positive, Doug was able to come upstairs and walk around while Bri was at school. I decided to try to quarantine as much as possible in my bedroom and Doug decided to stay in the basement. With us both being so sick, sleeping in the same bedroom would have been difficult. We would have just been keeping each other up. And as I said before, when Bri was home from school and when we couldn't social distance, we all masked around each other. Bri tried to stay in her bedroom and tween room away from us. Luckily, she has her own bathroom.

Below, you will see my timeline of Covid tests. I started out with a faint line, it got darker and then slowly lightened until it was gone. I consider that Monday my day 1 - even though I didn't test positive until Tuesday. I was positive for 9 days. May 19th, I finally tested negative...

I used tests that I had bought a while back (that were still within expiration). I also used my government issued tests. I bought a couple of new tests too. Doug had received a few free kits from his company to test once he got home from his business trip.

The first two or three days, I felt more like I had a flu. Body aches, sweating, chills, low-grade fever, a little coughing, slight stuffiness. By Wednesday, I was getting super stuffy - like a bad cold. As the day went on, I started smelling and tasting less and less. And then it was gone. My parents dropped off some food for us during all this which was greatly appreciated, and using instacart and food delivery, we got through it.

I had no taste or smell at all for about three days - and that got my anxiety up. It started coming back a bit on Sunday, but it was really muted for another week and a half. And then I started having some pretty bad sinus pressure and bad headaches. I finally tested negative, but I still was feeling really bad in my sinuses. Covid no doubt left me with a lingering sinus infection. Luckily, I was able to message my doctor who prescribed me antibiotics and steroids (and I already had flonase) - and I am feeling a lot better in that department now. And my taste and smell have returned. I'm still coughing here and there but not too badly.

Doug opted to take Paxlovid and I did not. It did shorten his experience by a couple of days. I'm not sure if I would have still gotten a sinus infection with or without the anti-viral. I'll just never know.

Doug tested negative on May 14th (the Saturday after Mother's Day) and I was still pretty sick. During the night (Friday into Saturday) before he knew he was negative, some teens (majorly disrespectful turds) decided to toilet paper our house. I looked at my ring camera footage in the middle of the night because I got a notice of activity (but I was sleeping when they were here) and I watched the recording. I was pretty upset - not gonna lie. They tried to cover my ring camera at first with toilet paper (geniuses) and it fell right off. Then they embraced their suck by smiling and flicking off my camera. I have no idea why we were targeted. Bri has no idea who these kids were. We live right across and next to a nature area, so it makes it easier for them not to be seen doing this. They possibly targeted the wrong house. We do have a substitute teacher who lives down the street - so who knows. I posted their pictures on the neighborhood FB page, but no one ratted them out...

Doug was still pretty worn out and Bri was super helpful, and between the two of them, they got all the paper down. I just couldn't believe this happened during our Covid bout. Talk about unlucky. But it could have been worse I guess.

 Luckily, Briana managed to avoid Covid. I am super grateful. She got through her finals. She is now done with sophomore year and we are ready to enjoy summer break.

So, I think I am on the other side of this virus now. I do still worry about long haul symptoms. You just never know. I do feel like I get tired much more quickly now and do have some aches and pains in my chest and back a little when I breathe deeply. It's all part of it I guess.

I think I am still in a bit of shock that we got sick. All that time trying to avoid it - and it finally hit us. So many would have, could have, should haves. This is why we got vaccinated though - just in case we got sick.

So that is my story. I really hope I will never have to go through Covid again. I know that is not realistic, but a girl can still hope.