Covid, and other illnesses
Omicron finally came for the Palmers. The weakness in our pandemic defensive line has always been an un- or under-vaccinated child bringing it home from school, and that’s how it happened. Our youngest (who got his first shot as soon as it was approved in Finland 2.5 weeks previously) mentioned while reading in our bed one night that his throat was sore, like “weird sore.” We had a few home tests stashed in our bathroom cabinet and while I could have gotten out of bed and tested him right then, I decided to give ourselves the gift of one last night of normalcy before getting that positive result that would upend our day-to-day lives. He would still have covid in the morning, after all!
And sure enough, he did. So we settled into school/work-from-home protocol, which is one of my least favorite things in the whole world. We made it work the best we could, with the help of a whiteboard to schedule who would be in which room. Jeremy and I had a discussion to establish any in-home isolation measures and decided, based on age/temperament/lack of serious risk factors, to not isolate our covid-positive child (in October 2020, our 15-year-old got covid and self-isolated the best we could manage it; the rest of us did not get covid that time).
After a fever, sore throat, and a bit of coughing and congestion, our son got better within a few days. But by then, the rest of us were showing symptoms.
Tomorrow marks two weeks since I officially tested positive. I wish I could say I was totally better - and on Sunday, maybe I would have. But I got worse on Monday and yesterday, which is so disappointing. I’m thinking (and hoping) it’s just a result of trying to do too much, too soon - it’s hard to rest properly when I can technically do all my work from home and especially when the kids are all better and need parenting, but Jeremy and I are still operating at less than 100%.
So instead, I’m comparing my experience with covid to other cold/flu-type illnesses I’ve had over the years. Covid is actually not the worst one! So far! And I hope it stays that way.
In the fall of 2002, I got pneumonia in Russia and that might be technically the sickest (with cold/flu) I’ve ever been. Our bed - well, two single beds pushed together - was itself pushed up against a huge, wall-to-wall mirror. We usually had it covered up with a blanket for Reasons, but I remember curling up against it when I was so sick because it was cold to the touch and felt good on my skin.
Around Christmastime of 2009, we all must have picked up some kind of cold on the flights from Ithaca to Portland because we all got terribly sick. It was an awful way to spend Christmas with family and it’s one of the reasons I am glad we don’t usually travel around that time of year anymore. The only bright spot was that I borrowed an Ambien from my parents and after four+ years of never truly sleeping well after having kids, that night of sleep was like being REBORN. I slept better for weeks after that, even without taking another Ambien. It was like it helped my body remember what it was to SLEEP.
I had various iterations of The Cough in the UAE. What a hideous cold that always was. I think after a few years I was finally immune to it and it helped that I eventually discovered the cough syrup called Toplexil. It’s my favorite cough medicine and I’m so sad I can’t get it here!
In February 2020 I had a really bad cold - maybe even the worst one I’ve ever had. I eventually went to the doctor sometime early in the month and described this terrible cough that I was struggling with. I remember he questioned me very closely about my exact symptoms and then, as I left, told me to wash my hands extra well and use paper towels to dry off instead of sharing a handtowel with my family members. It didn’t click until a couple of weeks later that he was sussing out if it could be covid (I assume it wasn’t).
Anyway, covid hasn’t been as bad as any of those colds, but it’s been unnerving to be sick after two years of…not being sick. The weirdest symptom I had was intense dejavu for about a day (though I did some googling and it might have been from a European multisymptom cold medicine I was taking - or because I was binge-watching season 2 of Cheer and I watched season 1 right before the pandemic and so my brain was crossing memories). Another weird thing was that I could NOT get enough of these homemade pretzels I made for like five days in a row. I think it was the salt? I also loved some Turkish Pepper lozenges I randomly had in my cupboard - the pepper + licorice combination really soothed my throat.
I’m hoping for a good night’s sleep tonight, and a better day tomorrow, and then experiencing a few months of not having to worry about getting covid!
