After 4 years of its existence, there's still so much we don't know about Covid-19, partly because there are so many variants: we've moved past Greek letters like Omicron and Delta to abbreviations like HV.1 and EG.5. And it can affect different people very differently, even if they are in the same household, like MJ and me. Yup, we both contracted Covid this past week or so, MJ maybe even before that, and it's been just safely resting at home. Actually took a bit of the pressure off to do anything exciting or make a day of it; I'm content with just being at home. Most unusually, though, this disease seemed like a nocturnal animal, like a vampire or something: only coming out and showing its fangs, doing its worst work during the nighttime, being relatively peaceful during the day when the sun was out.
During our stay in London, (yup, we still traveled to London despite both having Covid during the trip) we would both feel OK during the day and even had time to visit Windsor Castle, the Shard (highest observation point in London), all the touristy stuff but then MJ would worsen noticeably at night, when it got bitterly cold admittedly, but that didn't necessarily explain the excessive shivering and dry coughing all throughout the night. Later, after arriving home from the trip and feeling symptoms too, I also had the worst fits of coughing at night, almost like the disease clicked on and was more active then.
This is the longest I've dealt with Covid- almost a full week now of displaying symptoms. the side effects of the vaccine were gone after a day, and the previous other time I thought I had Covid also dissipated quickly. Maybe I'm dealing with a more virulent version of the virus now, but whatever it is this disease is not a joke, even for a fully vaccinated, good immune system-having guy like me. I haven't even been able to run like I used to; brain fog crept in.The worst part about it, though, for me, has been the dry coughing. It sucks, not just because I try to hold it back and stifle it like I would a normal cough, but something inside of me feels like it's burning to get out, accompanied with a powerful itch, that I can't suppress it for too long. And one cough becomes a chain reaction of several coughs. At its worst, the cough can make me feel like I can't even breathe, like there's a loss of air supply around me. Nothing that made me fear for my life or anything, but I could see how one might panic a little bit if that sense of airlessness dragged on a little longer. Especially at the beginning of the pandemic when treatments weren't available, patients were not vaccinated, and doctors didn't know what to do, I could definitely see why ventilators were needed to help patients breathe; ultimately though getting put on the ventilator meant many patients would never be able to get off it and passed away shortly after. Sad stuff.
There's that familiar phrase that most people know but don't practice: an ounce of prevention is more valuable than a pound of cure. It's always better to take steps to prevent getting something in the first place than trying to fix it after you've already gotten it. Feel like America and most of the world has gotten pretty complacent about Covid-19, me included: planes are pretty much full of people who don't wear masks, trains and subways in the biggest metropolitan areas like New York and London are teeming with people who don't wear masks; while masks have been proven not to be 100% effective in preventing transmission, it still has some preventive effects, especially if people like MJ and I who HAVE THE DISEASE wear it to protect others. As with a lot of situations, I feel America went too far to address the disease (lockdown businesses, etc.) but then went too far the other way when totally opening up, and now we just get people who suffer Covid all the time (hearing a lot of friends and co-workers still get it) without it ending up in the news anymore.
I really hope this dry cough goes away. Several times this week I tried to close my mouth, and instead I cough through my nose. Phlegm everywhere. Not a good feeling. MJ checking my nose every few hours to see if there's new sputim. Spoiler Alert: there probably is. It's neverending, no matter how many times you try to take it out. Still haven't hit the motherlode.
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