The Long Road Ahead

Over the past 2 & 1/2 years, I have done my absolute best to avoid getting COVID, which was easier for me than others. Many of it involved staying home all day. This was already something that was easy for me, as I had a stroke, and being confined to a room/home was easy, as I had the experience to handle it. I wore a mask everywhere I went when I left the house. This was strange, but kinda cool. I had always liked the way East Asian countries have worn masks in their daily lives. To that end, it surprised me that masking had so much kickback, but that’s for another time.

I thought I wouldn’t get it, as I take care of myself both in terms of health and hygiene and limited my risks for the most part. I knew I had to protect myself, I was vulnerable due to the stroke. Only breaking said rules in an emergency suffice to say it hit me like a truck when I got it last month. it seems to be the case with the current variant (omicron) you tend to get from a family member or close friend, for me it was the former.

Over the course of 9 days, as I had a high viral load (lucky me), days 1-5, I went from cold-like symptoms to lying in bed, weakness in my joints & muscles, losing my voice, burning up with a fever, sweating an outline into my sheets for 4 of those days,

On day 5, however, I woke to find that i was full of energy. I felt great, it was like I could do cartwheels. I wanted to do everything. I felt great apart from my voice. I finally could do things again, but I couldn’t leave my house, so over the next 3-4 days I tested myself. I focused on my blog, I wrote posts, I played games, i treated myself because I felt I deserved it, but something I noticed was that I lost my appetite, as i hadn’t eaten anything since day 1. Over the 4 days, I started to test negative, so the horizon was looking great i decided to stay in an extra day to be safe. It took 7 days from losing my voice to getting it, until I didn’t sound like I smoked 4 packs of cigarettes a week for 20 years.

On day 9 i was free to go outside and enjoy the good weather and do things, but around – pm I was exhausted. I felt so lethargic and weighed down like I was carrying an extra 80 pounds on me. This would continue to happen for 3 weeks around 5/6pm every day, no matter what I was doing.

My brother didn’t have any serious symptoms, just mild cold/flu symptoms, which made things easier for me, as I didn’t have to worry about him and could focus on me. But it shows the disparity between how each person is affected by COVID, and why you should take more care of yourselves & others. My philosophical underpinning has always been that we should work together to improve our own lives, and it’s something I’ll live by till I’m gone. I just wish others would too. Stay safe everyone.