COVID Finally Came By
It was bound to happen, of course. There was only so much we could do after over two years of running and dodging. My son has had a long history of being hospitalized with respiratory infections over the years–more hospital stays than I can count anymore. In fact, less than a year ago, my son spent a week in the hospital with a toddler cold. So the prospect of catching COVID has weighed very heavily on us for a long time. If it affected his lungs’ ability to take in oxygen, we knew we could be in for a very long fight. So how did he do? First of all, let me say this…
Hooray for vaccines.
Smiling because the bed is cozy.
Our guy started out with a sniffle and a raised body temperature, and later the same day I had a persistent sore throat. Add in some fatigue and that was the general course of my son’s illness. He had a runny nose and was crabby, but luckily that ended up being the worst of it. At first, we didn’t know for sure that it was COVID. I took a rapid test at the end of the first day and it came back negative. But when I woke up the next day and felt even worse, I took another test and the dreaded double-line appeared to completely ruin our plans.
Some sick day pet-pets.
My son and I tested positive, but the other family members did not. So we spent time in isolation upstairs while everyone else stayed away. Unfortunately, I was not feeling too good, and since I have a few fun conditions that make me eligible (plus the fact that I cannot look into the future to see how things will work out) I went through a virtual doctor visit and got myself a course of the Paxlovid anti-viral pills.
Many, many tablets.
Did you know that the Paxlovid dosing is three pills, twice a day, for five days? Oh yes, six pills a day. Also, if you end up taking it, I hope you enjoy the taste of funky coffee breath constantly in your mouth. Is it the worst thing in the world? No, but the warning that you may get “a metallic taste in your mouth” doesn’t do it justice.
Although my wife and daughter had negative rapid tests at first, my wife’s PCR test came back positive, and the day after that my daughter woke up with a fever, so we were all in isolation.
Playing “Ticket To Ride.”
We all stayed at home and fought through the sickness together. There were some fevers and sore throats. The kids had it easier than the adults, but nobody had any major problems with breathing or oxygen levels. Five days doesn’t seem very long in theory, but those days dragged on pretty hard until we could leave the house with masks on just to go to the grocery store. I came back from my short trip with a migraine and had to take a nap, but at least we had milk and toilet paper, I guess. My son had to stay away from school for at least 10 days because he won’t keep a mask on over his face for very long, but everyone pulled through.
Always happy to stay home instead of at the hospital.
Thanks to getting vaccinated, my son didn’t need to be deep-suctioned or have multiple breathing treatments per day. He’ll have to wait to get boosted, but he will. COVID didn’t end up being dangerous for any of us, but it was still bad. We felt pretty junky for about a week, so it’s still no joke. I’m just glad COVID took it’s time to get to us until we were ready to host its ugly self.
