So it turns out... · 6:28pm Dec 21st, 2021
That I caught the coof and didn’t even know it. 
Remember I said that I had a home COVID test return positive when I started getting sick with the flu? Well, I got over the flu—and I have the test results and symptoms (aches, chills, fever) to prove that it was the flu, as my PCR test two days later came back negative for COVID but positive for Influenza-A—but I found I’d lost my sense of smell in its wake.
That’s a COVID symptom, needless to say. 
So I took a COVID antibody test today at the local drugstore, and it came back strongly positive.
Meaning, I had COVID before I had the flu—the home test must have caught the tail end of it—and as it faded, the flu kicked in. So I got both barrels of China-origin viruses on this one. The closest I can remember to having actual COVID symptoms other than loss of smell is that I had a sore throat the weekend before I got sick, when it felt like there was something clogging my throat that I couldn’t cough free or otherwise shake loose. But as the flu kicked in, the sore throat and that feeling faded. Unfortunately I may have been contagious days before that, as my manager is now down hard with COVID.
We had lunch together that Thursday, when I was feeling fine. 
There’s no way to know whether I gave it to him, or somebody else at the office gave it to us.
Before anybody asks, I was double-vaxed. Not boosted, but given my weak symptoms, I don’t see that it would have made a difference. Why wasn’t it bad for me, even though I’m on immunosuppressants for Rheumatoid Arthritis? At a guess, three reasons. First, I’m in very good shape. Second, because I’m on vitamin D supplements, and third, I take HCQ for my RA daily. Yes, that was shown early on to work overseas, but they refused to accept it as a possible COVID treatment here for reasons both petty and political, IMO.
Though I’m very much feeling guilty about my manager right now (even though I have no idea if I actually gave it to him), he’s getting monoclonal antibody treatments today, which will hopefully help fix him up. And now that I’m confirmed to have had it, this means that COVID will hold no further terrors for me. I’ll take that silver lining, believe me. I just hope and pray my manager will be fine.
And as this is supposed to be about Feathered Hearts: Eros, your update is that I have nearly 5k words written on the next chapter, and I’m on track for an Xmas release. More updates but no teasers as we get closer, simply because I can’t release a teaser of a chapter that’s wall-to-wall clop.
thanks mate and i hope you get better
Wall to Wall clop sounds like my kind of room lol.
hope you and your manager get well!
Hmm
nasty situations. Hope your manager will get better soon.
Sorry to hear about your manager. We're all going to get hit with COVID at some point so there's no real reason to feel bad about how he got sick. Hopefully, he'll get better and therefore be immune from future infections.
I just can't get over getting hit by COVID and Influenza-A back to back like that. That's just whack!
5619085
I did, thanks. Sense of smell is only about 50% back, but if that’s the worst issue I ended up with, I’m grateful.
5619122
We did, thanks. Hope you enjoyed the new chapter!
5619238
He did, I’m happy and relieved to say. We’ll have lunch again when we come back to the office (maybe in February?) and this time celebrate beating COVID.
5619298
We are indeed. I think nature is going to provide us true immunity despite our best efforts to forestall it with mostly ineffective experimental vaccines. This may well be the last bad COVID wave.
And I have no idea where I got either.
But for me, I can honestly say the flu was worse--a lot worse. It laid me out good. 