So, yeah, I got Covid. Delta variant I believe. It truly kicked my ass. It was as sick as I ever remember being in my life. That said, I never felt like I was in mortal danger or considered going to the hospital. But, at its peak, it did keep me in bed for three days straight and kept me near bed for a couple days on either side of that. As I write this, perhaps three weeks from my first symptoms, I still have a bit of a cough and my endurance hasn't yet recovered. Here is the full timeline; more than you want to know probably:
11/28 - It feels like I might be getting a cold.
11/29 - Yep, definitely feels like I'm developing a chest cold.
11/30 - Um, this is getting bad; I should get a Covid test just in case. I stop at several pharmacies and none have a rapid test available. I snag a quick drive-thru lab test appointment at CVS, wait in the drive thru line for 45 minutes, get to the window and they no longer have my appointment and won't give me a test. I am done with CVS forever. I make an appointment at Rite-Aid for the next day.
12/1 - OK this is bad, I'm coughing incessantly and I have the sorest throat in recorded history. I made a few short, futile attempts at doing work (from home) and got to Rite-Aid for my test. Otherwise bed-bound.
12/2 - This is awful. It's Covid, I just know it. A couple more futile attempts at work, but I'm pretty sure this is not a bad cold and, since I had my flu shot, it's probably not the common flu. Even without my results, I'm pretty sure it's Covid.
12/3 - Is there any way I can be unconscious until this is over? I don't even make an attempt at work. I sleep as much as possible. Going through cough drops at an alarming rate. Acetaminophen and Naproxen are my best friends. Finally, at 6pm on Friday, I get the email verifying that I have Covid. Duh. I consider contacting my primary to see if I can get the monoclonal antibody treatment, but my primary won't be around until Monday. I consider calling urgent care, but I am not in a high risk group and they will tell me to keep taking OTC stuff and let them know if it gets worse.
12/4 - Worse? How could it be worse? Well, the fact is that, yes, it could be. It's awful, but in truth I am nowhere near death's door and I'm breathing pretty freely. I write off seeking treatment. Suck it up buttercup. It's Saturday. And my third day bedridden. If there's no improvement by Monday I will call my primary.
12/5 - I'm hungry. I'm actually hungry. This is great! I eat some soup, which I realize may be the first thing I have eaten in over 48 hours. The soup tastes like a pound of salt has been dumped in it. Some people lose their sense of smell or taste and others (like me) experience everything tasting like salt. Cough and sore throat are still with me, but I have the strength to actually get out of bed and watch an hour or two of TV.
12/6 - I think I'm going to survive. I still can't work a full day. I'm weak and fatigued. But, from this point on each day is an incremental improvement.
As I write this I guess I am in what might be called the long tail. Coming up on three weeks since my first symptoms. I am back to working full days and light workouts at the gym. I have a minor cough that doesn't affect me other than to possibly scare people (when in fact I may be one of the safest people in the world to be near at the moment). My quarantine is over, and I am flush with antibodies. The process has made me terribly jealous of those who have mild or no symptoms and deeply sympathetic for those who are in mortal peril.
If you're curious about my status, I was vaxxed. Regular readers know that I was vaxxed as part of the Astra-Zeneca clinical trial when they were trying to get approval by the FDA, a thing they appear to have given up on. My second shot was 10 months before my infection. To my knowledge Astra-Zeneca has never issued guidance on boosters. A week or so before I contracted Covid, the folks who are running my part of the clinical study (Michigan Medicine) finally just threw up their hands and said to go get the Pfizer booster, I just hadn't gotten around to it yet. So for those of you obsessed with the vax, I can think of three possibilities.
The vax did me no good. I got full on Covid anyway.
The vax worked for a while, but eventually wore off and I was too slow in getting a booster.
The vax worked because were I not vaxxed I would really have been at death's door.
I have no idea which of these is correct, although I suspect (2). In any event, I'm going to live with my natural immunity for two or three months, then I'll probably go for a booster.
In terms of Covid response gripes, I have 2:
We really need more rapid tests. I understand in the UK they give them directly to households for free. Here I couldn't even buy one. This would have saved me a couple of days of wondering and may even have permitted me to get some treatment.
Treatment should not require extra steps. If you get a positive Covid test, the prescription for treatment should come along with it. No trying to track down your doctor and explain yourself and beg and have to prove how bad off you are. "Here's your positive test and here's your treatment," should be the goal. (I understand production of treatments may not be ramped up enough to do this yet.)
Sorry, but I can't resist further rumination. The latest expectation on Omicron is that it is much more contagious, more resistant to our current vaccines, but significantly less deadly than previous strains. Also interestingly, I read somewhere that it follows a pattern of how the 1914-18 Spanish flu subsided. Newer, less deadly strains began to dominate eventually leading us down the road to where we are now -- most everyone can handle the flu, or respond well to treatment, and an annual vax for high risk or anyone else who wants it is available.
It's beginning to look to me like that's where we are going to land in a couple of years with Covid. I stand by my original prediction from more that a year ago, which is eventually, we will all get Covid. It will just be in a form we can handle for the most part. That suggests we should stop over-emphasizing masks and travel limits and start focusing on ramping up treatments and having a regular vaccine available, perhaps even a combined flu/covid vaccine.
Anyway, I really don't want to deep dive back into the state of Covid like I did when I was doing a monthly update. I'm just weary of it and am confident that, over time, it will sort itself out and not be a concern anymore.
Related: A variant-proof vaccine is getting closer. This could be another huge step forward.
