Friday, July 8, 2022
Sickbed Diaries, the opposite of a travelogue
We are back! We actually got back last Saturday the 2nd, but turns out I brought a little present back with me and got punched in the face pretty hard with Covid when we returned. Just when I was starting to think we'd avoid it forever...
I've been quarantined in our rental bedroom since Saturday, which thank the rental gods has a TV and my own bathroom (I've never had a TV in my bedroom before, but watching West Wing reruns has been the only thing my delirious fevered brain could handle the last six days and I think I would have gone insane without it). James and the kids remain symptom free and seem to be living their best loud happy lives in the rest of the house outside the entrance to my quarantine troll cave.
Wednesday was the first day I could string coherent thoughts together enough to attempt a blog post, which is when I started this one. The 2,000 work emails that had built up in my inbox while we were away remained out of my cognitive reach. I still had fevers off and on, my body ached, my face ached, my head ached (still does!), my throat hurt, I coughed a lot, and I randomly fell asleep all the time. It's not great. A few weeks ago I would have thought a few days in bed sounded great, but I feel far too terrible to enjoy it and instead just watch more and more things pile up that I should be doing but physically and mentally cannot.
Nurse Milo has been my constant companion. Maggie visits. The girls send me lots of texts. James delivers me food and water with a mask on. He's sleeping in Claire's room while Claire bunks with Cora and Landon screamed when he saw my face pop out of my cave because he said I looked like a zombie.
So it sucks. Very grateful to be vaccinated and boosted so at least I don't feel scared; just sick and shitty and lonely and waiting for a day I wake up feeling better.
I got nervous on Wednesday when Moose arrived to supplement my care team. Like, did he sense something? Had I lost all perspective and was actually fading away here in this room? I dug out the pulse oximeter we bought when Covid began and it assured me that I was getting as much oxygen as I thought. I still called the urgent care I went to on Sunday and they said to come back, but then when I did they just confirmed that yep, you're sick, and you're too young and otherwise healthy to get any of the antivirals that are apparently very effective in making you feel better.
I laid down on the exam table in defeat at that news. Leaving the house exausted me and I spent the rest of the day under Nurse Milo who felt strongly that I should not be moving.
I never managed to publish the above, so now it's Friday. I did log in for a few hours yesterday because oh my gosh I am so behind. I worked for about an hour, felt exhausted (sitting and typing! this made me exhausted wtf), and Head Nurse Moose came in and laid down the law.
So my camera roll went from spectacular Iceland pictures (still need to blog our last two days!) to one billion pictures of my cat caretakers. The only change is whatever pajamas I'm wearing and the date on the bottom.
And now it's Day 7. I'm at the desk in my cave, 3 feet from my bed, filing emails, if not actually answering many yet. Everyone else in the family took a test yesterday and they're all negative and feeling great, so I'm glad we've at least been able to keep it contained to me. My last fever was Wednesday night, so that's good and I can feel some of my strength returning in the absence of that debilitating cycle of heat and sweats. The urgent care doctor told me I only had to quarantine for five days, but that seems crazy short. I'm still actively sick. I'm going to stay in my cave until I feel much better than I do now, and will then mask around everyone until I test negative. Or stop coughing? Has anyone else had this recent bout? How did you handle your return to society? Trying to look ahead to a time when standing up and walking across the house, not to mention one day actually leaving it(!), won't send me immediately back to bed...
Ugh, that sucks. What a crappy return from vacation. It's so stressful to see emails piling up but to not feel well enough to deal with them.
ReplyDeleteI had covid in May but my kids are 1 and 4 so it wasn't possible to quarantine from them... I did double mask around them as much as possible. 10 days later, the 1y got it but his case was super mild. Then 10 days later, the 4yo got it. So I don't think they got it from me/each other. I think they got it at school (we tested often one I tested positive). I felt pretty awful but was able to do some work. I felt like crud for a good 10-12 days and it took 3 weeks to get my strength back. I wish I had gotten Paxlovid, but I had a prophylactic injection of monoclonal antibodies the month before since I'm immune compromised. That probably made my case less bad but I should have gotten drugs in hindsight. My husband somehow did not get it - or he was an asymptomatic patient zero. Isn't it wild to think someone could be asymptomatic when you feel SO AWFUL!
I avoided being around people besides my famliy until I tested negative which took 12 day!
I just finished my recent bout of covid and I have to say mine sounds exactly like yours!! It was awful. I felt totally unprepared for how horrible I felt and how much I could not do mentally. It is totally odd that the quarantine period ends. I was pretty stringent in not being around people for 5 days after I had no symptoms because I was just so nervous. Also to be honest, I needed the extra time to rest. A week later and I am still fighting the brain fog and fatigue so trying to take it easy and slowly. I hope that you can continue to rest up and take care of yourself!
ReplyDeleteMy whole family (me, husband, 6 kids), had Covid at the end of May and it was horrible. They also denied us Paxlovid, which I think would have made things better. I was actively sick for 8 days, and then still pretty tired and week for another week or 2. I coughed off and on for almost a month after testing negative.
ReplyDeleteWe quarantined for 10 days, and then wore masks until we tested negative.
I, too am recovering from Covid. I was eligible for Paxlovid, which helped with the fever and aches, but not with the congestion/fatigue/dizziness. Not to depress you, but I am on Day 16. The congestion abated and then reappeared. The fatigue has been crushing at times. I have been able to get one or two touchpoint activities done per day. I am also an attorney (although semi-retired). I'm at the point where I can mark up transaction documents, but I have to take frequent breaks. I've spoken to my primary care doctor as well as a couple of physician friends who have also had Covid recently. They said that getting symptom free can take a while-sometimes a month or more. They also said it is very individual-both physician friends got sick in early June. One feels absolutely fine, while the other is still congested. Best advice that I can give is to rest as much as you can-when I started doing more, I backslid. Also, can your legal assistant help you with putting things like newsletters and other non-client e-mails into folders?
ReplyDeleteI had Covid in early June and you are describing how I felt. I was actively sick for about 3-4 days, including a fever of 102.4 that freaked my boss out when I told her. I get fevers, so while high, it wasn’t alarming to me. My three teenage sons and husband both managed to avoid it. I spent several days in my hole (bedroom) with my husband bringing me food and hydration. I did venture out to our deck to eat a couple of times but only after all family had vacated the kitchen. I was double masked while I walked out of my hole and in the common areas. On day 6, my husband left for a conference, so I was back in charge. I did continue to mask outside of my bedroom and when I had to drive a kid to a summer program I was masked while he was in the car and had windows and sunroof open when he wasn’t. Rest when you need to. It took about three weeks for any exertion not to wear me out and about 4 for the lingering cough to finally go away. Also, the Office was my show of choice to watch. I needed mindless. Anything that took thought made my brain hurt.
ReplyDeleteYour experience sounds pretty typical from what my colleagues reported as well. Everyone said they felt way worse than what they expected, and that they were sick for longer than they expected also. My daughter had it in late April and my husband and I never caught it. Her antigen test was negative by day 5, so we sent her back to school at that point, however, had it been positive we would kept her home until at least day 10. If you still feel like crud and continue to test positive by day 10, I would continue to quarantine. The science is unfortunately not great on this question -- yet -- and it would be a shame to inadvertently infect your entire family if you left quarantine too early. Your athlete husband would be especially irritated, I think.
ReplyDeleteFeel better soon! I took care of a patient who *still* had a cough from having had Covid 6 months ago the other day. Fingers crossed you avoid any crappy long term outcomes like that!
We were scheduled to leave for Iceland and do the ring road just a few days after you. Sadly my husband got Covid the day before we were due to go. Your first posts were like a neat pre-view, your next ones bittersweet once I knew we weren't going, and your post about your miserable day was much appreciated! Covid was much milder and passed quickly through our family, although everyone got it spaced out by a few days so it did feel like it took forever. Your case sounds much worse and I hope every day is better and things start looking up.
ReplyDeleteI'm so sorry you got hit, and so hard! Sending RAPID HEALING vibes, but also a reminder to take it easy on yourself! <3 <3 <3
ReplyDeleteFirst, I am so sorry, and second, me too! We returned from our summer vacation on Friday, Saturday evening I felt just the tiniest headache, and then Sunday I could not get out of bed. I tested negative twice, but I was still masking and distancing from my family until finally getting a positive on Tuesday, at which point my husband also tested positive. Our younger daughter also got it, but our teenager moved into the basement once we got our positive tests and has managed to avoid it (and us) all week. I also feel/felt so much worse than I expected. I swear everyone has been describing it as a bad cold, and that was not our experience! Even though we are all vaccinated/boosted, we are still feeling sick and testing positive a week after symptoms started, so we continue to isolate. I hope you feel better soon and the rest of your family continues to avoid it. This is our first time having it, after avoiding it for so long, and I never want it again!
ReplyDeleteHope you feel better soon. So glad you were able to enjoy your grand adventure with your family before this happened.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry Covid got you. After 2.5 years avoiding it, 3/5 of my family got it courtesy of my husband's firm retreat. I had it the worst. Fever, fatigue, sinus pressure, so much sweating. Finally feel fine but still tested positive after 2 weeks. We're heading to Chicago Tuesday (Husband and I are Law School '02) and have brand new N95s to wear on our trip.
ReplyDeleteWe just had it too. We stayed masked indoors around other people until the rapid tests were negative.
ReplyDeleteEGADS!!! We had it in early June. Husband and adult sons - had a fever, tested positive and felt awful for about 36 hours. They tested negative within three days, felt fantastic and went on their way which is TOTALLY UNFAIR, because I ran a fever for 10 whole days and felt like death warmed over. It sucked ALL the eggs in the world. I didn't actually test negative until day 15, stayed quarantined in the guest room the entire time. It's been more than a month now, and while I'm back to a normal routine, I'm still very tired at the end of the day and out of breath while exercising.
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ReplyDeleteI hope you are feeling better by now. My husband and I had it March (caught it traveling to UK), he was very sick for about a week and tested positive til around day 12. I never tested positive but had all the symptoms he had, just a bit milder. Dr said to not waste tests and consider myself positive. My daughter just had it 2 weeks ago (thankfully we didn't get it again) and tested positive until day 10. We completely feel that the 5 day recommendation is crap. While they were both fever free before the 5 day mark, they were definitely not symptom free. So testing positive and still having symptoms seems obvious that one is likely still contagious (even if less so). I think those guidelines were made based on the Omicron version where people were asymptomatic or had mild cold symptoms for a couple days and by day 5 they were pretty much back to normal, most people I know who got it earlier this year had that experience. But these newer strains aren't always like that. Again, hope you are on the mend and the family has avoided it.
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