Category: Insight (Page 2 of 2)

Day 6 Monday April 18/22 – It’s Patriots Day and Boston Marathon Day. It’s also a day of reflection for Nova Scotia, on the anniversary of the horrific tragedy that was taking place 2 years ago. Mom and I chose to wear our Boston Strong tee shirts today. They were given to us by my cousin Norma, who’s birthday would have been yesterday and who passed away two years ago tomorrow. I spent a lot of time reflecting on people and events today. The above picture is taken a couple of years ago. 

I’m feeling good. I slept quite late for me, almost 9am. I stripped my bed and made it up fresh, exchanged much of my winter/summer clothes, put away hats, mitts, scarves, etc. and brought out my summer head attire. I went for a walk this morning and found pussy willows and a CD (not my genre). I puttered about in the house, but I did not have a rest. I’m weaning myself off for my return to work on Wednesday. 

On a downer, as of 4pm this afternoon Mom tested positive. My worst fear came true. I was so in hopes she would avoid it, but it’s hard, even though we kept our distance. I’m angry, upset, concerned, worried, and of course, I feel responsible. Now my next hope is that her symptoms will be mild. I hope she doesn’t get all that I had. She’s tough, and stubborn, and she continued to say ‘I feel fine’. She sounded nasally to me today and she finally agreed to do a rapid test, only if I helped her. Let me tell you, thank goodness I’m not administering these tests. She didn’t want to do the throat swab herself, because she feared she would vomit, so she asked me to do it. ME!!! OMG!!! I couldn’t get her to keep her tongue out of the way and I was scared to death to hurt her. Thankfully she did her nostrils herself. Ick. We actually laughed through the process, between her fits of gagging and sneezing. Like my rapid test, hers instantly showed two lines. She is now in isolation until next Monday afternoon. On a positive note, we don’t have to isolate anymore. I have to find the positive amongst the negative.

I put a sign on the door. 

This will be my last report for My Experience With Covid. There isn’t much more to report. I hope you enjoyed reading it, and if you find yourself with Covid, and similar symptoms, maybe it will help you. Everyone responds differently, so I suppose no one will have the same experience I had. If anyone is positive and would like to reach out to ask questions, feel free, but I can only answer based on my situation. 

Be well, be safe and for goodness sake, keep masking. 

Day 4 Saturday April 16/22 – I’m not going to be fooled today, into thinking I might be better, because I’m not. I had hoped for some improvement this morning, but now I’m getting discouraged. However, it is only day 4. I have 4 days left before FREEDOM and I feel I have a long way to go. I know, I have to be symptom free, with no fever, for 24 hours prior. 

I know I’ve been running a fever the past few days as I’ve had chills from time to time. During the night I woke up drenched, so I’m hoping that is a good sign that maybe my fever broke. My throat is still terribly sore. It’s a weird soreness too. I’ve had strep throat many times in the past, but not for about 4 years. With strep throat it feels like knives scraping down the sides of your throat every time you swallow, often much worse at night. The sore throat I have with this is so different. I can only describe it as an arc at the back of the throat from side to side. Yup, that sounds crazy but that’s how it feels. I can literally feel the arc shape when I swallow. Very weird. My core remains sore but I’m sure that is from coughing. I still don’t seem to have much congestion in my chest, so I’m thankful for that. However, the crap coming out of my nose is grotesque and I won’t go into details. 

I’ve been up since 7am, and it is now 9am, and still don’t feel like I need a nap. Considering I was in bed at 8:30 last night, I shouldn’t need a nap. But will lie down, just to rest. The sun is shining and there is a slight breeze. The temperatures are due to soar, possibly reaching 15C. I might even venture out on the deck for a few minutes of fresh air. Something to look forward to. 

I’ve been thinking of all the people who had the early virus. It must have been terrible, before vaccines were rolled out. I’m thankful to have had my two shots and booster. 

On a happier note, no pun intended, I picked up my fiddle and played a couple of tunes this morning. That made me feel good. But I soon found myself lying down again. As I laid there I wished I wrote music, but I don’t. If I did, I thought how I would write a tune about having Covid. It couldn’t be a jig or a reel, as they are happier tunes, dancing tunes, and believe me one does not feel much like dancing with Covid. I don’t think a waltz would be a fit either. A waltz is a close dance, with another person, and one needs to keep their distance. A strathspey wouldn’t work as that is a short-long, accented, Scottish snap type tune, and just wouldn’t work. A march? Possibly. Perhaps a title could be March to My Death Bed or March to My Recovery, depending on what the final outcome would be. But I’m leaning more towards a lament. Niel Gow was the lament king, so something along those lines. I could call it simply Lament for My Journey with Covid. But I don’t write music, so there it ends, but it passed the time for a while.

I did spend 45 minutes outside on the deck. Initially there was cloud cover, but when the sun burst through the clouds the warmth was very welcoming on my face. I sipped my coffee and ate a piece of Mom’s delicious banana loaf, while listening to the wind chimes tinkling, chickadees and juncos chirping, the trees rustling, the flag flapping and the leaves blowing across the driveway. I took a ton of deep breaths, filling my lungs with beautiful fresh air. I walked over to Happy Place because, well, it just makes me happy. And I enjoyed seeing some of the crocus’s in bloom. 

I am now past the half way point of isolation, which was between 1-2pm this afternoon. I hope I have reached the peak of symptoms and will start to feel better. I do feel I’m making some progress, but I’m afraid to get my hopes up. No fever today, so that is a good sign. I think my throat is better, but far from good. I was hoping to have a shower today, but didn’t really have the energy. That’s my goal for tomorrow.

Oddly, after one of my vaccines, I remember having an enhanced sense of smell. This morning while I was resting upstairs, I could smell the soup bone Mom was cooking. When I came down for lunch I asked her what was in with the soup bone and she said just onion, bay leaf, salt and pepper. It was just an amazingly pleasant aroma, one I have smelled many times before but seemed so strong today. I had the same experience yesterday when she made banana loaf. I know…another weird observation. 

Happy Easter, from Camp Covid, too all who read this. Be well, be safe. 

Day 3 Friday April 15/22 – I woke myself up, at 6am, coughing and I coughed pretty much steady until 6:30. I’ll take two positives from this; 1) I was asleep and 2) I woke up. As I layed there I heard the eagle calling. I swear he/she knows there is something up and they were concerned. I also heard many songbirds singing, seagulls and ducks calling, a bluejay and a woodpecker. Not a hard way to wake up in the morning. Before I knew it, it was 8am. I had fallen back to sleep listening to the symphony of birds. Lucky me. Overall I think I’m better this morning. I don’t seem to be as sore and the soreness I do have is likely caused by coughing. I don’t have a headache yet, so hoping that is gone for the duration of this virus. However, the cough I have is no longer a dry hacky annoying cough, but a deeper cough with phlegm. 

Mom’s PCR test is still not back. I checked the portal in case we just didn’t get the email, but there is nothing available. I can only assume no news is good news and she is negative. She is still not showing any symptoms and when I ask how she is feeling her response is “I feel great”. Let’s hope that remains the case. 

One thing about today is that it is Good Friday. Our office is closed, so I don’t feel bad not being at work. I won’t have to think about feeling guilty today.

I’m overwhelmed by the outpouring of messages and phone calls from people offering to pick groceries up, or help in any way. Seriously, it’s more than I could ever have thought possible. I didn’t post my Covid blog for attention but just so others who may end up with it will have something to compare too. I know everyone responds differently to Covid, but sharing my experience may alleviate others worries. However, it has been nothing short of amazing. You know you live in a special place when so many people reach out at a time like this. I am forever thankful to live where I do. I will not try to name people, as I will surely miss some, but to those of you who have been in touch via email, facebook, phone calls, etc. many many thanks. I may not be feeling good but my heart is so very happy. 

When we had our PCR tests we were each given a box of rapid tests. Rapid test boxes seemed to be hard to come by in Nova Scotia. I had received only one box of tests and it came from a lady from Saskatchewan. She happened to stop by, with a mutual friend of ours, when I was out walking, 

and somehow we talked about rapid tests and how they were very hard to find here. She immediately offered a box as she had packed 6 boxes for her trip to Cape Breton. We should be all set for a while now. 

Speaking of PCR tests Mom’s finally came back this afternoon and she was negative. She also received a call from the doctor’s office informing her she was negative. I can’t imagine the extra workload the doctors are doing, to inform everyone of their status. 

I’m trying to see the good in everything. Today we were due to go to Sandy’s and Greg’s for Easter, but obviously we can’t go. I had bought tons of chocolate eggs to hide around their house. One year they had done this to us, and I swear we were still finding them in July. I guess we’ll have to eat them ourselves. Someone suggested hiding them and have an egg hunt. Interesting idea. It would be similar to Mr. Bean sending himself the Christmas cards and getting excited about it. 

I mentioned that I thought I was feeling better this morning but as the day went on that doesn’t appear to be the case. I was back in bed at 10am, for an hour and a half. I got up for lunch and was back in bed from 1-3pm. During this afternoon I developed a terrible sore throat, which seems to be more than an irritation from coughing. More Tylenol I guess. 

I’ll finish up saying don’t take this lightly. Continue to mask and wash your hands. Because if you don’t;

Abra-abra-cadabra
It could reach out and grab ya.

Be well, be safe.