My experience with COVID

 On the days before Thanksgiving 2020 my kids all made other plans for the holiday, and it seemed to be a good time and much needed time, to get Stepdad out of the house, so I decided to make the trip to Houston for Thanksgiving. 

My open house, for the new shop would be coming up the weekend afterwards, so I set out to prepare, the shop like crazy. Making the sign, painting, moving furniture, painting furniture, cleaning, re-arranging, re-staging, etc. We worked like crazy! It looks wonderful! I was happy that it was all done before I left!

 The day before our departure, my sister in law decided, rightly so, that we should all be COVID tested, before getting together, just to be safe. So, we busted butt, spent $163, per person to skip the insurance payment and get rapid test and results and with a negative results, we carry them to Houston, excited to see the side of the family that we haven’t seen in a year, with my stepdad in tow.

The food was delicious, as always, the company was amazing. We really enjoyed being with our people! There’s nothing like being with your family! It brings a sort of comfort of needed respite in a time of unknown personal turmoil. My brother will probably never understand that, though he always, knows, but I always seem to need him, when things turn “unkind” in my personal life.

 The day after Thanksgiving, my brother and his friends have an annual “Bar Crawl” on their boats.  We had a great time, That is where things went wrong, I’m sure. We were careful about wearing the masks, etc. But, as we can deduct, the virus came from that trip, because everyone on the boat became sick!

My husband didn’t go on the trip, he stayed home… However, he got it anyway, hmmm (which came first…) It matters not, it was done.

We made our way back home, no problems, I went to work on Monday, feeling like I had a cold. I figured it was a cold or allergies, coming from being in the rain that day on the boat in Houston and then coming home to the desert.

I went home early, around 2:30, as soon as I my partner came in to relieve me. I knew something was terribly wrong by then. I had felt increasingly worse, coughing and sneezing, throat hurting, massive body aches and fever.

By the time I got home, took some Tylenol and got into bed I had a really bad feeling. Then my brother texted and said that his sister in law had tested positive. OMG, here we go! Very scared.

 Not long after that, hubby came home, sick. He seemed mad at me, along with being sick. Either way, I have no strength to deal.

In the days afterwards, only 7 days, until today, seem like an eternity. I have felt good, maybe a few hours. We got tested the next day, of course, positive. I’ve spent my days, and nights between the bed and the chair. The feeling is very strange, it seems like a weird tingling euphoria of pain. I can’t put my finger on it, but it is always with me. My headache is the worst thing thus far, luckily. My coughs are productive, and I am so very weak. I’m trying to drink as much as I can. It’s hard to get enough inside.

When people call or text, they ask how are you feeling? Do you need anything? They don’t know what else to say or ask. I feel a little bad about saying every time, that I still feel bad, but I do. I don’t know why I should feel like I should be progressing to make them feel better. I wish I was progressing to make ME feel better. So far, only a few hours of feeling good, and the rest, not. I realize that my symptoms are not nearly as bad as others, and I am so very grateful and scared that it might progress. I fear not only for myself, but for my husband, who is not eating, and just yesterday started drinking fluids. He is so weak. I don’t have the energy to wait on him, and fight with him to take care of himself. I have tried and he refuses. I’ve got no energy to be the warden nurse. I’ve done all I know to do.

The symptoms on Saturday were only diarrhea. It emptied out everything in my body, but otherwise I felt pretty well. Saturday night, I couldn’t sleep, I stayed awake until about 3:00 am, when I finally did sleep, I woke up about 2:00 pm!

All day Sunday and Sunday night, I had the worst headache, I felt like my head was going to pop off the top of my head. I wanted to cry. I finally got some Excedrin Migraine delivered (thank goodness for “Instacart” delivery!) and that helped!

I was SIIIICCCKKKK for two full weeks. He, on the other hand, was sick for about 4 days! Jerk! Plus, he lost weight. I did not. 

All in all, I was grateful that lives were not lost. My stepdad was super sick, hospital, long term awful sick. He ended up getting it 3 times! Bless!