Day One
A few days after learning that we have been in close contact with persons who had since tested positive for Covid, both Sharon and I begin to experience symptoms. She has a cough and fatigue, I’m beginning to feel a sore throat coming on. Both of us have been fully vaccinated, but we go to a local urgent care facility to get tested just to be sure. We have plans to spend time with our young grandchildren the next day so we want to know.
It seems like the nurse shoves the swab so far up my nose that surely you can see the tip protruding from my scalp. We are told the results will come in 24 hours and will be sent to us via text message. We go home and start to ponder several things. Was getting vaccinated worthwhile? If the test comes back positive, who do we need to inform? What do we need to cancel? And most importantly, can I still go to a drive up and get a cheeseburger?
Day Two
We sleep very little overnight. Too much to think about. 24 hours passes and no text message. Sharon tells me to relax and be patient. So naturally, I immediately get on my phone and call the urgent care place to ask what the heck is holding up the results. I am told they are running behind because of the high volume of tests coming in, but that we will be informed by the end of the day.
About four hours later, my text arrives. I am positive for Covid. Sharon gets the same news minutes later. So it’s real now. The message says we must quarantine for ten days from the date of our test if our symptoms have been resolved, fourteen days if they have not.
For a moment I am in disbelief. Sixteen months of being careful, wearing a mask, keeping my distance, getting the shots. And yet I wind up getting the virus anyway. Doesn’t seem fair. People are out there who never got the shot, who threw caution to the wind, and they haven’t gotten it.
After an hour of feeling sorry for myself, I shake it off and start looking at my calendar. I spend the rest of the day contacting folks, postponing appointments, and generally clearing my schedule. Our house will be our world for at least the next ten days.
Day Three
I am bored to death already. Our symptoms, mild up to now, are getting more pronounced. I begin sneezing and blowing my nose incessantly. So far, just feels like a classic cold. Sharon is sitting in the living room eating a popsicle, when she informs me that she has lost her sense of smell and taste. She is having to imagine what the popsicle tastes like. She is coughing a lot and has little energy.
A thoughtful friend brings us home cooked dinner and leaves it on our doorstep. Several others call or text to offer prayers and help. Word gets around fast. One of our church ministers calls to check on us. We are struck at how blessed we are to live in a community that cares about us.
I am popping two Tylenols every six hours and still whining. Sharon is taking nothing and yet utters not a complaint, even though I know she is not feeling well. Where do women get this capacity to endure pain?
Day Four
Our sweet daughter and son-in-law drop off groceries and treats on the front porch. In one of the bags are cards written to us by our young grandkids. They all wait in their van in the driveway as we open the door to pick up the supplies. We briefly shout greetings back and forth. The grands are excited just to see us and it breaks our hearts to see them drive off.
By afternoon, I can’t take it anymore. Cold symptoms or not, I decide to go out and mow the grass in the front yard. The heat is sweltering. I am exhausted when finished, and veg out in my recliner until evening. I get on the internet and start ordering things I don’t really need on Amazon. I wonder how much money I will spend doing this before quarantine is over. Sharon feels well enough to do some vacuuming and water her flowers. Our symptoms haven’t gotten any worse, but they haven’t gotten any better either.
Day Five
It may just be the Tylenol talking, but I seem to feel a bit better today. At least I stopped sneezing every five minutes. Sharon also seems a tad more chipper. I have actually started reading a book. That’s something for me because I have never been a reader. I wish I was. There are so many incredible books out there. I just never had the patience to get through them. The shelf in my closet is stuffed with books that have a bookmark about fifty pages in where I lost interest. Ironically, I love to write. Usually writers are readers. Somehow I missed the gene.
Sharon keeps a beautifully clean house, but it is understood that the downstairs man cave is my responsibility. Therefore it doesn’t get cleaned nearly as often or as well. But it did today. Dusted, vacuumed, picked up, and bathroom cleaned. Why not? What else have I got to do? Tomorrow is garbage pick up day. I never thought I would look forward to rolling our garbage cans out to the road, just to get outside for a bit.
Accidentally looked in the mirror today and realized I hadn’t shaved in five days. Facial hair doesn’t work for me. I look like somebody who got lost in the woods. Meh, maybe I’ll shave tomorrow. I’ll just avoid looking in the mirror until then.
Day Six
Sharon and I decide to just get in the car and go for a drive. No destination. Just get out and see if the real world still exists. We head out into the country. About fifteen minutes into the ride, we are overtaken by an intense thunderstorm. Is God punishing us for leaving the house? Thankfully the storm is short-lived, and we just cruise around enjoying the scenery for about an hour and a half.
I am convinced that there are only about five different commercials on daytime TV that run over and over again. If I hear Tom Selleck tell me about reverse mortgages one more time I’m going to scream. And I don’t understand why lawyer ads all have that disclaimer that basically says “No representation is made that the quality of legal services is any better than anybody else”, when in their ad, that’s exactly what they ARE saying!
Oh, and I did shave today. That should hold me for about a week.
Day Seven
Definitely think my energy level picked up a bit today. Actually felt good enough to go downstairs and work out with my free weights. We’ve now gone a week without eating restaurant food. You know those people who said eventually you will stop craving it? They lied. I’d sell my car for a burger and fries. Surely I’m well enough to go to a drive up window, right? Humor me and just nod.
Why do they make all those TV game show contestants act so artificially excited? It comes off just phony and contrived. That’s why I prefer shows like Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune, where the participants don’t have to jump around and do cartwheels every time something breaks their way. Also, when you watch the same game show every day, doesn’t it seem like you’re watching the exact same show each time? The host and the players say the precise same things every show every day. Sigh. Where is that book I started reading?
Day Eight
Okay, I might have overdone it yesterday a bit. Felt pretty tired and weak today. One thing I am learning about this Covid thing is that you have to pace yourself when you start to come back. So hard to do because of the prolonged inactivity. You start to feel a little better and you want to jump back into your exercise and activity routine. My body is telling me to dial it back.
Early in my quarantine I ordered an Amazon Fire Stick for my living room TV. It came today. I hooked it up and began drooling over all of the movies and cool content I can now stream. Most all of it is subscription based. They all want to give you a free trial. I feel like the fly being lured into the spider’s web. Am I really going to want to watch enough television once I get up and running again to make the fees worthwhile?
Day Nine
With our symptoms all but resolved, we decide it’s okay to get in the car and journey to a drive up window. Ahhh…….junk food. How I’ve missed you. We brought it home and I must have spent an hour just slowly enjoying every salty, greasy bite. Felt sorry for Sharon. She didn’t get the sauce that she ordered put in the bag. But then she remembered, she wouldn’t be able to taste it anyway. Her taste seems to be the last thing to return.
Today was our best day by far. We both felt much better. So well in fact, that we begin to negotiate with our consciences as to whether to end our quarantine a day early. After all, we rationalize, shouldn’t we count the ten days from the time we started having symptoms? Let’s recheck the instructions from the lab……
(Sigh) They clearly state it’s ten days from the date of the test.
When we first tested positive, we tried to make ourselves feel better about it by thinking about all the projects we would get done around the house during our quarantine. Now, looking around, we are kind of disappointed that we really didn’t get much done at all. Guess we were just not feeling up to it. Makes me wonder if we’ll ever get around to these tasks.
Day Ten
So I guess we’re supposed to have antibodies now? I don’t really know what that means. Does that mean we can’t get Covid again? At least for awhile? I don’t trust antibodies to keep me healthy. We’re going to be careful. After cases went way down early this summer and all the mask requirements expired, Sharon and I pretty much went back to life as usual without regard to Covid. Especially after completing our vaccinations. In retrospect, that was hasty.
We’re not going to be hermits, but I think we’ll look a little more critically at all of our social activity. I’m putting the mask back on around crowds of people. I don’t care if I’m the only one. I’d rather be the oddball in the group than go through another quarantine. We’ll go to restaurants, but we’ll shoot for times that are not busy when we can sit apart from folks. We’ll go back to church but be mindful of our distancing.
Can’t wait to see our grandkids again. To spend time with our friends and church family again. Mostly we feel blessed and thankful that our symptoms were relatively mild. Have to think our vaccinations had something to do with that. I get why some have their doubts about the Covid shot. It doesn’t keep you from getting infected. We are proof of that. But it does seem to stack the odds in favor of milder symptoms, and anything that helps me stay away from lying on a hospital bed hooked up to a ventilator is okay with me.
Time to resume the new normal. Things will never quite be the same.
P.S. Sharon was eating pudding today and suddenly exclaimed “I think I can taste this!!” Life is good.