In which I don’t contract COVID, but am nevertheless laid low
I’m a bit behind in posting, for which I ask your indulgence. I’ll temporarily skip over my adventures of the weekend, and briefly write that a vague tickle in my throat on Sunday night developed extraordinarily rapidly into a pretty bad illness. This is 2024, however, so the big question was whether or not it was COVID, especially since the symptoms seemed identical to those when I contracted COVID in May of 2020.
Dear Peruvian Tolkien Society friends pointed me to a MiFarma (a drug-store chain) web page with a listing for a quick-test kit — and I was able to just point at it and grunt intelligently to the accommodating folks at my local branch (coincidentally right in my building). It took them a while, but they found a kit and I hauled myself back “home” and tested. Negative! Yea!
But that’s more-or-less exactly what happened 20 months ago as well — and I unknowingly exposed a number of people to COVID then (well, I was masked, but still…). And I still felt awful. I got basically nothing done on Monday, and went to bed at 9:15. Not a good night, but at least it was long.
So today I went back, prepared with a list of NyQuilesque ingredients that I wanted for symptom relief. All such goods are kept behind the counter, so I couldn’t just browse the shelves the way I can at the groceries. Knowing this, I’d prepared not just a list of my requirements, but an introductory sentence explaining that I wanted enough “for a few days.” I was surprised and, honestly, pleased that they broke open packages. So rather than a box of twenty or thirty double-the‑U.S.-strength ibuprofen capsules, I received a blisterpack of ten.
The good news, as you already know from the post title, is that I once again tested negative. It’s “just” the flu. I’ve had shots for it each of the last few years (and for twenty-odd pneumonias last year and RSV this year), so I’m sure it will pass soon. I feel bad enough, though, that I am horrified to think how bad things would be if I had not been vaccinated.
I have lots more to write about from Friday and Sunday especially, but it will have to wait until looking at a computer screen no longer makes me feel woozy.