Plague
Well, it finally happened. I got COVID. Mind you, I dodged it long enough that I was fully vaccinated and singly boosted, so it has been pretty much a bad bout of flu, albeit with extra fatigue, fever, and the worst sore throat I can remember. I never had any breathing problems, and tested negative after about 10 days, though I was going to bed around sunset for another three weeks or so.
The last time I was this sick was the H1N1 flu, which put me to bed for about a week. One of the nurses at my PCP’s office lived in my neighborhood, so she left a Tamiflu prescription on my back step, which helped, and about the fourth day, Pretty Boy Floyd, the cat I had at the time, leaped onto the bed and presented me with a (dead) mouse. He meant well.
This time… Being two years into the pandemic makes a difference. I had home tests, and used them; my current PCP checked in on me via Telehealth; there were multiple delivery services available for things I didn’t have. I had friends I could call for help, and who checked on me daily to be sure nothing had changed for the worse. I missed Congregate, which I had been very much looking forward to, but there was no question of attending, nor did I feel at all guilty about canceling. Everyone had contingency plans, including the convention (and I hope to be there next year!) and I was able to lie up and watch some of the worst baseball I’ve seen in years. (The Red Sox lost to the Blue Jays 28-4. That is not a baseball score.) It was much easier to get through even though I still live alone — much easier to get the care I needed without risking infecting anyone else.
Not that it was fun. I felt terrible. I slept a lot, except when my throat was too sore to let me sleep, which is why I was up at 3AM mixing honey into boiling water to try to soothe things down. The muscles of my ribcage ached from coughing, and almost 3 months later I’m still easily tired. But it could have been so much worse — and wasn’t, thanks to the vaccines.
And the current cat, Ser Cullen, acted as a hot water bottle, and did not provide mice, which I feel was an ideal solution.
