I was negative for Covid for Christmas, just barely. The first negative test was Dec 19th, the second one Dec 21st so I managed to get down to my parents on the 22nd, baked two kinds of cookies over the next two days, then swung north to my aunt's for the 24th. We had a chill day today, exchanged gifts, and then I headed home since I'm working the rest of the week.

I'm still dragging a bit, since the post-Covid feeling just doesn't want to let go completely, but I'll make it. I Swiffered when I got home, and have slowly been trying to catch up on the little things that I let slide while I was sick. I already know tomorrow's going to be hell at work since there's a London business manager who made me work all through Christmas last year and he's back this year as well, but I'll tackle that tomorrow.

Overall it was a good holiday even if I may be paying for over-extending myself a bit, but all's well that ends well. If I can just avoid getting sick again then I think I'll be okay to keep my full work schedule. Eventually I'll get around to the full apartment clean that will be necessary, but MLK day will probably be set aside for that. It's little goals that keep me going.

Second week with Covid, I've hit the nope point and finally took today off because I'm hoping naps will help. Minus the lack of fever it was worse than the first week and while I did work through it (had my comp discussion, staff meeting, etc) I was hurting from brain fog along with general malaise, cough, running nose, occasional vomiting, basically all of the symptoms from when I first got it.

Ok, my immune system sucks. I know this, and my mom tested positive for a solid month, causing her to almost miss Thanksgiving. Scientists have been saying that responses to Covid are genetic-linked, although they haven't figured out how to work with it: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10022467/

I've gotten the vaccine and boosters, I'm working at being better (while working), but there's nothing else I could have done to prevent this. Yet what cannot be cured must be endured. I will do my best.

 I've finally made it a whole week with Covid and working at the same time. It sucked a lot and I know I didn't do my best work but I was present and still did decent, so I'll take that. I don't have a fever any more, and my congestion and cough is starting to get better even without Mucinex, so if I can get some decent sleep over the weekend I may have a shot at recovering. 

I haven't even tried to test since I'm sure I'll be positive for at least a few more days, but I've ordered new tests from the USPS which arrived today so I won't be running low for a while. Tomorrow I have to work on keeping up with the chores since I haven't had the energy this week to do more than eat when I could, but that's the joys of living alone. You have privacy but no backup if you need someone to help out.

Tomorrow is a new day though, and one where I don't have to take 95%+ of my energy towards work, so I will be hoping that recovery is the new order of things.

Thanksgiving was great, even if was just the immediate family, and my pumpkin pie was a hit. I've been running around stringing lights, writing Christmas cards, and generally being a productive member of society. Then on Saturday I started getting a low-key dizziness, which was weird, but I figured it will likely pass.

Monday it was similar to contracting the flu. I felt perfectly fine in the morning, but as 5-6pm approached I started feeling that whole body ache and chills which means I'm getting a fever. After that it's literally been like having something in between a flu and a bad cold. Intermittent fever, sore throat, stuffy nose, cough, aches. This morning I tested and sure enough, it's Covid. After 3 years of eluding it, it finally found me.

Of course my family is freaking out, but my O2 sats are at 97-98, I know how to manage the general symptoms, so the difficulty is just making sure I have enough food in the apartment to make it past the quarantine period. Time will tell if I come down with more severe symptoms, but right now I'm at the "It sucks but I can deal" stage.

One of the things that I have learned over the many years and many health problems is that there's a lot the body can endure. Discomfort is fine, and expected in these scenarios. When it's truly serious, there's another feeling that kicks in, that you are truly dying and that no OTC medicine you can take could even come close to addressing the blood loss/septic shock/pleural effusion that will absolutely kill you in a few hours or less.

I guess that's good. It draws a rather clear line between emergency and inconvenience, and if I see my sats drop below 90 I will be driving myself to the ED. But unless it reaches that stage, I'll rest, drink fluids, cough up what I can, and wait until I feel better.