Hi Everyone,
Same as last time, this will be a short, slightly unfiltered newsletter. Call it the Covid effect.
Sooooo, Arthur got Covid about four weeks ago and when I didn’t catch it from him I thought that was a sign of how well vaccinated I was against the virus. Turns out, no, I did not have super-immunity to Covid. I’m not sure how I didn’t catch it from him and then caught it randomly somewhere else, since I don’t go a lot of places, but I did catch it.
I tested positive after returning from a wedding in Chicago. Nine other people at the wedding also tested positive afterwards. I initially worried that I spread Covid at the wedding since I talked to most of the people who ended up getting it, but I actually never spoke with one of the nine, so probably not. It seems impossible to really know.
However, I’m very glad that the old friends we stayed with in Chicago are Covid negative so far. They are old friends in terms of friends of longstanding, but also old in the sense of being a generation ahead of Arthur and me. If they had gotten Covid I would have felt quite regretful, even though I know intellectually that any encounter with another person has an element of risk these days and we’ve all kind of accepted that. Still, I care about them and wanted them to stay well.
Symptoms
My initial symptoms were a very mild sore throat and a bit of congestion. I thought Covid would be like a cold for me, or in other words, an annoyance, but not a bad illness. As the day wore on, though, I started to feel worse, and by the evening I felt full blown terrible: fever, body aches, lots of congestion, a cough. The next day my doctor prescribed a five-day course of the anti-viral drug Paxlovid for me, which I think helped, though it’s hard to say. It also gave me a horrible metallic taste in my mouth that lasted the whole five days I took the drug (this is a known side-effect).
The fever eventually broke and then I developed the worst sore throat I have ever had. It felt like someone had sliced the back of my throat with a knife. The sore throat made it hard to cough and since I’m a nurse I know that not coughing is one way that people with upper respiratory issues get pneumonia. To avoid that, I sucked on cough drop after cough drop, gargled with warm salt water, and made myself cough. No pneumonia. Then, though, my throat began to hurt less, but my cough got so much worse that I couldn’t talk without having a coughing fit. I was hanging out on our third floor and feeling very isolated. Being unable to talk did not help.
Pro-tip: gargling with warm salt water does help a sore throat. An allergist explained to me that putting a hypertonic saline solution into your throat pulls water out of the irritated and inflamed tissue. That’s basic chemistry, osmosis and diffusion. If I felt better I could explain it better. If you’re interested in learning more, read this article in Healthline.
Right now, as I’m writing this newsletter, the worst is over, but I’m still hoarse, can’t talk for too long without losing my voice, and I still have a cough. I also feel very tired. Very tired. I’ve heard that my trajectory is not atypical for people who are symptomatic. That simple phrase—people who are symptomatic—belies how tired I am and how irritated I feel at continuing to be less than 100%, which is why I’m writing about it in this newsletter. I didn’t end up in the hospital, which is good, but Covid for me was definitely worse than “a bad cold,” a descriptor I have repeatedly heard applied to this virus.
Could the bivalent booster have given me Covid?
No. Not a chance. You may remember that I got the new Covid booster about 1 1/2 weeks ago. Because the Covid test strip I used turned red very quickly I wondered if the booster shot could cause me to test positive. The answer is absolutely not. According to what I read online, the booster is made from mRNA and thus does not contain the entire virus. Over the counter antigen tests and PCR tests are designed to detect the whole virus. To make sure that what I read was correct, I called my local pharmacist, who said, no sorry, you’ve got Covid.
Since I still don’t feel great—although much better than I did—I’m ending here. If you feel like it, post your own Covid story in the comments. It’s important to make clear that Covid may be entering the endemic phase in the U.S., but it can still be pretty miserable to have—or not. The point is, there’s no one Covid story. It’s a wily virus. You can leave other kinds of comments, too! I’m interested.
Stay well, all—and hugs,
Theresa
Thank you for the response, stay well. Sent you speakers' bureau contacts for a UW Madison visit. Hope we can work something out.
Linda
That explains a lot thank you!