I am Sick 🙁
Well, after more than five years, I am sick. II got symptoms on the evening of the 17th, and while ‘m clearly not going to die, I am not a happy camper. Being sick suuuuuuuucks.
With What?
With what? I suspect influenza. It is my understanding that there are three “knock you on your posterior” respiratory diseases common in Canada: COVID-19, influenza, and RSV. My extremely sensitive PlusLife NAAT saw no evidence of COVID-19; COVID-19 and RSV levels are pretty low right now, so I suspect influenza. (Urgent Care took a swab to check for strep, but my throat doesn’t hurt as badly / as constantly as I remember strep hurting — and I haven’t heard back from them, which I assume means it was negative.) Addendum: it was negative.
How?
How did I catch it? I wish I knew. My best guess is from riding my bike unmasked alongside the Elf Run on the 13th / stopping for a drink at the same place as their finish line, so there was a big crowd of people about 5m to seaward. I was only close-ish to one person (who was waiting for me to finish my drink before she filled a big jug of water) and only near her for a minute or less. While I knew that it is possible to catch respiratory diseases outside, I also knew that it was about 100 times less likely. It’s either than or some germs wafted over from our neighbours when we had our windows open on I think Tuesday — which again, is unlikely.
Other than the above listed, the past week has had no possible exposures but riding my bike, going (mastked) into grocery stores and convenience stores for no more than five minutes, going up and down my condo elevator, and one big Costco run with a good, well-fitting headband N95 mask.
I will admit that I had not been doing nasal saline rinses as often — because I knew the COVID risk was pretty low right now.
Vaccinations?
Didn’t you get a flu shot? Yes, but I got it inthe US in late September (because I was about to travel to provide supportive care for a relative undergoing major surgery), so it has probably worn off. I had been debating whether to get another shot or not. On the one hand, I take lots of precautions; on the other hand, my flu vax probably had waned and I didn’t want the province to think that I didn’t want a flu shot. Sigh.
Yes, I have also gotten an RSV vax about two years ago, but those also wane, sigh.
Symptoms?
It started with a bout of really nasty-sounding coughing on the 17th, which went away after a while. I thought maybe I had absent-mindedly had a swallowing error in my pre-bedrime drink — but it was back the next morning (so I isolated). Coughing made my throat hurt a lot, but when I wasn’t coughing, my throat didn’t hurt much. I don’t have a lot of congestion, and although the cough sounds horrible, I’m not hacking up a lot of phlegm. On the 18th, I went to Urgent Care because I tasted blood after at least two of my coughs. (Urgent Care didn’t find any sign of pneumonia, so sent me home with watch&wait instructions.)
After I got back from Urgent Care, I lay down and practically didn’t move for 12-18 hours. I didn’t even both getting under the sheets or taking off my clothes — not even my puffy slippers. I just grabbed a pair of blankets and lay there. Even turning from my side to my back would trigger a coughing fit, and turning seemed like an awful lot of effort, so I mostly didn’t. I just lay there like a sack of dirty laundry.
It didn’t help that somebody turned the gravity way up. It was hard for me to navigate to the washroom because I would stumble. The is undoubtedly partly because of the gravity being turned up to 30 m/sec^2, but also probably because my legs were stiff from being immobile.
On the 18th, I had very little to eat, but it came up in the evening, all of it. I naturally felt a lot better after that, WHY IS THAT?
While I was asleep for probably 80% of the day of the 18th, I was probably asleep for only 40% of the night of the 17th. I still didn’t move much, and was quite content watching the darkness.
Today, on the 19th, talking for more than a few sentences will set off a coughing spell (yay for text messages!), but simply moving does not. i have more energy, but still do not have much ambition. I managed to work up the energy to write this post, but didn’t muster the energy to put my contact lens in, so I can’t actually see perfectly. Apologies for any typos.
Now I’m going back to bed.