I’ve read a number of stories in recent weeks about why Covid-19 is here to stay and why everyone should expect to get it at some point.
Basically, we’re just going to have to learn to live with it.
So I was mentally prepared to get the virus at some point in my lifetime, much like a seasonal flu bug.
I just didn’t expect it to happen so soon.
I tested positive this week.
Speaking from experience, it’s not great.
My daughter tested positive late last week. The rest of the family was negative so I took her away from everyone else to quarantine while she was in her isolation period.
She’s only 7 so not vaxxed yet but thankfully has remained asymptomatic. She was a little tired but never developed any signs of the virus.
Four days later I tested positive along with my 4-year-old son. Knock on wood, he’s still asymptomatic too and showing no signs of being sick.
At first, I had just mild cold symptoms. Then Covid hit me like a ton of bricks. My whole body has ached all week. I’ve been alternating between the chills and sweats at night. I developed a nasty cough.
And I’ve been tired, so very tired.
I was vaccinated last spring and this virus still knocked me on my a** for a few days.
Here are some random thoughts about this experience:
Most of the time the simplest advice is the best advice. When you get sick everyone tells you to drink a lot of fluids and get some rest.
Guess what has helped see me through Covid? Lots of fluids and rest.
No shortcuts.
Your health doesn’t matter until it does. I lift weights on a regular basis (not to brag), jog a few times a week, mix in a handful of Peloton rides, go on bike rides with my kids and generally try to stay active.
I’m not posting shirtless pics on Instagram but I’m a pretty healthy guy. My working assumption was if I got this it wouldn’t be that bad. I was sorely mistaken.
Warren Buffett once said, “Credit is like oxygen. When either is abundant, its presence goes unnoticed. When either is missing, that’s all that is noticed.”
You could replace “credit” with “health” in this analogy and it would ring just as true.
You don’t realize how important it is to remain healthy until you feel what it’s like to be unhealthy.
Netflix really shines when you’re sick. My brain turns to mush when I’m sick. It’s hard to concentrate on anything I’m reading. I just need mindless entertainment.
Enter Outer Banks on Netflix. This show is wildly unrealistic. The plot is ridiculous. The actors are all like 31 playing 16-year-olds.
And yet…I can’t look away.
It’s the perfect kind of show to turn off my brain for a few hours. I won’t apologize for enjoying this one while my senses are out of whack.
Sometimes you’re just unlucky. I really feel for my wife more than anyone in all of this because she has been so vigilant about keeping our family safe during the pandemic.
Masking up the kids. Avoiding big groups of people. Keeping our socializing outdoors.
And yet we still had an outbreak in the family.
Sometimes all of the planning and risk avoidance in the world doesn’t matter. Sometimes you just catch a bad break, even when you’ve prepared for the worst.
The at-home tests have been helpful. My wife stocked up on the at-home Covid tests from Walgreens a few months ago.
They were helpful throughout this process as the hospital’s testing system still takes up to 48 hours for results.
The at-home test results come back in a matter of minutes. I’m sure they’re not 100% accurate but nothing is 100% accurate (we tested my daughter twice because I’m not sure we wanted to believe the first positive test).
It could always be worse. Since my wife and I got vaccinated our biggest worry has been our children who are too young to get the shot. My son also has asthma and he’s had multiple trips to the ER for respiratory issues in the past so we didn’t know how his body would handle it if he got Covid.
Thankfully, so far so good.
No one is in the hospital. The kids show no signs of slowing down. My wife and youngest daughter are still testing negative (fingers crossed they stay that way).
And for me, it’s basically been a few days with what has felt like the worst flu of my life.
I’m not writing this piece to complain or ask for sympathy. So many families have had it much worse than ours over the past 18 months.
I’m merely sharing my experience because I don’t know what else to do right now. There are so many other things I can’t do — workout, go out to eat, go to the office, go literally anywhere — so writing is a good outlet in these strange times.
Hopefully this can serve as something of a warning too. It’s not just the virus itself that can wreak havoc on your body. Having a Covid case in your family disrupts your whole life for weeks at a time when someone gets it.
The kids are out of school for an extended period.
I’ve basically been a zombie this week shuffling around like a non-functioning human being.
We’ve had to cancel plans, appointments and work stuff.
This thing is no joke.
(Credit to me for not ending this post with “be safe out there” because that would have been way too cheesy.)
Further Reading:
The Art of Repetition
