Guess Who Caught The Plague · 9:14pm Nov 1st, 2023
It's really a case of "when" rather than "if" with Covid, isn't it? And managing to dodge it for almost four years is a pretty good record. That's what I've been telling myself, anyway.
I adopted a policy of testing myself every time I had any sort of cold or flu-like symptoms. I'm sure it came off as obsessive or paranoid to the people I currently live with. To them, we'd all gotten vaccines, after all, so clearly we're safe, right? But they'd pick up the free tests and make sure we had some in the house at all times because I insisted on using them. Then, low and behold, this week I developed a "fall cold," tested and came up positive. The vindication I never actually wanted.
I badgered the rest of them into testing themselves (and had to coach one through it) and the total ended up one negative, three positive. We're pretty sure we know who brought it in, since only two of us leave the house and have contact with the public with any regularity and one of those was the negative one, so the process of elimination isn't hard. Said currently-negative member is now on cooking duty and we'll be on lockdown until it's run its course, cancelling all appointments and getting anything we need delivered until we're in the clear.
I'm not really worried about myself. I have a medicinal tea that clobbers cold/flu/allergy type symptoms, and it's proving effective on this too. It provokes my chronic migraines, a symptom that I already knew about since every vaccine shot I've gotten has left my head pounding, but my prescription migraine meds have been able to nuke some of the worst of it. There's a lot of fatigue, there's brainfog, there's body aches, there's occasional bouts of nausea, I had a nasty case of the chills last night when I was trying to sleep, and I really, really wish I would stop coughing, but...
I'm getting off lightly, and I know it. People have been hospitalized for this. People have died. For right now, this is more... an irritant. One more thing standing between me and writing, because I don't trust myself to do effective prose right now.
I don't really trust my judgement on what's a good idea, either. There's the germ of a horror story in my head right now, and I'm going to wait until this is out of my system before I commit to placing it on the to-write list. If it does still sound like a good idea, though...
Well, I've established that music sometimes inspires me, so here's a hint of where the inspiration for this one came from. Though, if you know what song these lyrics come from, it probably won't tell you exactly where I'm going with it.
"I tried to be sweet, I tried to be kind,
But I feel much better now that I'm out of my mind."
Be well, all.
Healthy vibes and best of luck to you and the folks you live with! Hope you all recover quickly and thoroughly!
Take care of yourself! Hope it's a mild case and you get better soon.