Covid Caught Up to Us

84 degrees & sunny. So glad to be done with our heatwave and drought!

"I like to think of life as an adventure, like a roller coaster." ~ Eddie Izzard

Nearly two years of Covid restrictions, then taking the family on a 2021 Alaskan cruise on the Norwegian Encore without incident, 122 days of daily testing on the Viking Star while exploring the world...and the DH and I never had so much as a sniffle in all that time. 

Now, in the peace and safety of our small Ozark town, the latest omicron variant has finally nabbed us. 

In mid July, the DH developed a sore throat with a fever and tested positive. At that time, I was still negative. Even so, with my lung condition, my doc put me on a prophylactic paxlovid course, the same medicine the President was given. Despite that precaution, a week later, I joined my hubby in the positive camp, as did #2 Daughter who lives with us. (She sailed through her 5 days of paxlovid, 5 days of masking, and has been perfectly healthy since then, thank You, God!) 

After a rebound of symptoms (something that is not as rare as the media would like us to believe), I had a second round of paxlovid (which, if you haven't experienced it, feels sort of like having your insides raked with a cheese grater and leaves the most heinous metal taste in your mouth!) but my covid symptoms still lurked. 

There were never terrible. I didn't have a fever. After the initial sore throat abated, it's behaved like an inconvenient head cold. The worst for me is that I've lost my sense of smell again. (Something that happened during our bout with a mystery virus in fall of 2019-early 2020 before covid had a name. After all the other symptoms retreated, a year passed before I could smell my morning coffee again.) With this virus, mostly. I'm just tired now.

And still testing positive...

I'm so ready to rejoin my life in progress, but until I have two consecutive negatives, I'm hanging out at home. I like to think I'm a generous person, but some things I don't believe in sharing.

Still...it could be so much worse. We could've contracted the more virulent Delta version. We could've tested positive on the WC and disembarked somewhere else in the world trying to deal with health professionals who speak another language. We could've infected my octogenarian parents before we realized we were sick.

We did everything right. We were double vaxed & boosted. We masked up when required. 

And this covid virus still found us. 

At some point, we as a species need to find a way to live with this bug, like we do the flu and the common cold (another corona virus!) I wish there was more definition in the reported death count now as I suspect more people are dying with covid than from it at this point in the viral mutations. Accuracy on that count would calm a lot of fears. 

And it's important for us to not be afraid of each other. It's vital for our children to be able to face the world unmasked, lest they fall behind on critical developmental milestones, (which sadly is something that has already happened.) Human beings need connections with other humans. It's hard to do that when you can't read someone's face. 

We were made to laugh and talk and sing together, not curl up like armadillos at the first sign of a cough. We are social beings. We need our tribes. 

Once I test negative twice, I'm ready to ditch my mask unless its mandatory. In the large scheme of things, a virus that results in illness no more bothersome than a cold (in my experience, at least. YMMV.) is not worth destroying the fabric of our society, our connectedness, our need for engagement with each other, over.  

As always, feel free to disagree. Civilized differences of opinion are what this country is about.