Guess Who Had the Covid-19 · 12:41am Apr 28th, 2020
It was the end of March and I felt weird. Not the normal weird that seems to follow me day in and day out but sick weird. Sometimes I felt warm, sometimes I had chills but mostly I was tired. So, I did the thing any normal person would do, I went to the doctor. However, if you guessed that I went to the beach and partied until I embarrassed all the teens and twenty somethings I'd have understood.
Anyway, once in the doctor's office they asked me a series of questions: Have you been to New York? Have you been out of the country? Do you work with someone who has been diagnosed with Covid-19? I kind of got a chuckle out of the first one admittedly. I also admitted that I had never been a member of the Communist party and then waited to get called into the back.
You know, doctor's offices are great places for not seeing people. The fact that they didn't just chuck my butt back there in two minutes after getting my information was curious. I mean there was literally nobody there but me. However, they made me wait for awhile then I got to do more of it in the back until the nurse came back and asked me some questions. This was followed by the doctor who asked me some more questions and then left. They did a temperature check, 97.5, and all the other vital stuff. Then they did a flu swab and when that came back as negative they said here are two prescriptions, plus two more OTC options and a note that said I should be off for a week (more or less).
Two of the drugs were over the counter were Mucinex and a big Tylonal that was nobody in the state had available. The other two were Tessalon Pearles (a cough suppressant) and Flonase. They said it wasn't Corona virus and that it was probably a a combination of allergies and something else that they couldn't pin down and sent me on my way.
I got most of my drugs then headed by work where I'm one of those essential employees. I handed in my note to which there was some hemming and hawing. You see, a large percentage of my department's workers were out. Whether it was just having a kid, being old and wanting to ride the pandemic out or just being on vacation, we were short staffed. I was told to play it by ear and if I couldn't go on a day I couldn't go.
I worked until that Saturday mostly just sleeping in the car on my break. Once someone was late to open the store up so I got a bonus nap. It was a nice thing. Now, the Saturday mentioned at the beginning of this paragraph was smack dab in the middle of me working seven straight days. I woke up that day and couldn't stop sweating. I figured I had a fever so I called out and headed to the doctor. Something had changed.
At the doctor's office there was an old lady waiting and I was asked the same questions by the receptionist. The old lady got to go in first and I waited. They took my temperature, 97.6, said I didn't have a fever and that nothing had really changed. Oh and I didn't have Corona virus and to keep taking the drugs they prescribed. I later ate a bit of a soft pretzel and slept the rest of the day before going back into work the next day where like on most days I was surrounded by people coughing and sneezing and swearing it was their allergies and it wasn't just the customers doing it.
After being asked if I could go when I showed up the next day I said yes. The truth was I felt like I could at the time. Sure I was tired but, everyone was tired. We'd all been tired since people decided it was a great idea to panic buy and raid the store of everything, not just paper products.
I finished out my week. One of my bosses was sick. On the last day of working I felt lousy. Toward the end of my shift I kept muttering to myself, "Step it up you pussy," for self motivation purposes. When I got home that night I fell asleep something that would last off and on for sixteen. The next day I was tired too and the day after that was a new Saturday. I was scheduled to go in but I called out. The next day was Easter and I wanted the sleep. The boss I called suggested I go get tested for Corona virus if only because then the company would hold me out until the results came in.
As an aside a couple of nights before I called in I had a moment that was weird. That night while I was laying in bed I felt this thing just kind of slide down into my chest. I took it as drainage and just made sure I took a deep breath periodically to stretch my lungs. It just felt right.
So they have these drive-thru testing places set up in various locations. At the time if you looked up where they were they would tell you that you needed either a doctor's permission to send you to one of them or be medical personnel. There was a third way though, you could simply sign up for the test and show up the same day which I did. In fact, when I showed up for my test that Saturday I was literally the only person there and when I left nobody was behind me.
The test was no big deal. They ask you a bunch of questions (They really wanted to know if I'd gone to New York) and took your vitals, (normal though my temperature was 99.2 so elevated) then got down to it. From what I'd heard it was uncomfortable but honestly I didn't find it to be any different then when they swabbed for flu. I then was told that I most likely didn't have Covid-19/Corona virus and went home. Once there I told everybody what was going on (which also included me cancelling on Easter dinner) and went to bed. I was tired.
During this entire time period my family was awesome. They helped out and did some stuff that really was nice. Heck my folks even did an impromptu ham and left me some pieces of it along with some other stuff in the fridge. It was really awesome and out of all the other stuff not stupid at all. Then Tuesday rolled around and surprise surprise I was diagnosed with Covid-19.
I made a series of phone calls and took a series of photos and was on quarantine. Admittedly initially I was really tired and spent a lot of time just kind of staring at videos online, movies or even just blank screens until I fell asleep again. I had a few coughing fits which were irritating because they were unproductive and a bit longer than I'd have cared for. Interestingly enough when I stopped taking most of the stuff the doctor prescribed for me the fits stopped so, I'm still not sure what to make of that. Instead I went with the take a lot of vitamins, get sleep, drink water and be a slug approach. I did the slug thing very well and recovered.
It seems like there is this perception out there that if you get covid-19 it's a death sentence. I guess that makes sense considering that news outlets do like to continually report the death toll. The part that gets lost in all of this is that the overwhelming majority of people recover. Admittedly some slower than others and some much slower than them. The usual groups that should be concerned every flu/pneumonia season are the ones that should be concerned here: the elderly, smokers, those with chronic lung disease, heart disease, diabetes, etc. This is because their immune systems already have a lot to deal with already and in some cases are weaker. If you are in some of those groups take precautions. If you live with someone who has those problems take precautions.
For most people though, if you get it you'll feel like crap for a bit but you will recover. Just take it easy, get nutrients into your system, and don't over stress your body. Much like you should if you get some other respiratory illness.
In other news I'd started writing something until I lost the will to write. Being sick does that. Hopefully the will to do that is coming back now though. I'll need to come up with something good ... lord knows it's been awhile. Until then I think I'll step out with the boys, the Tigers are playing tonight (at least on video) and we never miss a game. Then at 2 am we're going to go looking for some beans. So, hope to see you there!
Oh shit that is awful and sad. I'm glad you finally got properly diagnosed and are getting treated. Get well soon.
Sir, I am glad that you are out and through it. Some have not been so lucky, and I take little for granted. May you bestow us with more horse in due course.
5251742
It was frustrating. Then again I've never had much luck with doctors. In fact, I had one doctor literally leave the office bring in a book and point at a picture. "This is what you have," he said and was wrong. At this point I think I'm nicely recovered enough, though if I were honest I wish I would have been one of my coworkers who got covidcations because they stood too close to someone with it but weren't sick.
Thank you for the well wishes!
5252301
Thank you very much! If I have to be honest I'm going to look at this as a positive and say, "I've got the antibodies now," so now I can handle certain things a little better than before!
5254130
Im happy that your getting back on your feet.
I hope you're okay
5256506
I'm doing better thanks!