Summary (as of June 1): 7 days in and I am ready to declare I am generally done with COVID for now. Some lingering sniffles and occasional congestion – but when don’t I have that? With that said my plan is to stop with the updates unless I encounter some sort of setback, in which case this post will be updated. Thanks for caring.
Yep – tested positive on Saturday (May 27) after returning from a business trip to Boston. I am chronicling my experience again, as I did here because I am finding it informative to reflect on my previous experience to better manage my expectations. As an example, I feel pretty good – so far it’s been mild. A few hours here and there of feeling run down interspersed with feeling pretty normal. So, I am hoping this will be a mild experience and things will be normal in a week or less. However! (yes, a dramatic however)… if you look at my previous post (see link above) you will see that my first week then was pretty mild as well. But from there I had some weeks that were pretty crappy. Perhaps I pushed it too hard before (I will be more cautious this time); or perhaps my body will just deal with this variety better than last time (only time will tell).
Day 1 (Friday, May 26): Hmmm, is this the onset of a cold?
I flew back from Boston on Thursday. On Friday (at some point – I don’t recall when) I noticed an irritated swelling somewhere in the rear part of my nasal passage. The sort of thing that makes you think you’re partner will deal with a lot of snoring during the night – so I warned Leslie.
Day 2: Darn, it might be spreading.
The irritated feeling moved slightly down further to what I think is the trachea, and at times I needed to keep clearing my throat of whatever gunk was collecting there making me feel like my breathing was getting somewhat restricted (I do have asthma so perhaps I feel things a little differently than others). I told Leslie I will test for COVID tomorrow (Sunday) if I’m not feeling better.
At bedtime I crawled into bed and and Leslie voiced an alarm, “oh my, you have quite a rash on your back!” She then consulted Google to see what might cause such a rash of this appearance; two causes were identified: Scarlet Fever (STREP) and COVID-19. With that said, I decided to do the home test: a solid positive.
Day 3: Symptoms are Mild, Gotta Work in the Yard as Planned
Feeling pretty good on day 3, so I worked hard in the yard as planned for this weekend – about 5 hours or so. Then I got tired, so quit for the day. A little congestion, a little coughing, but not much more.
Day 4 (Happy Memorial Day): Slept Well (after a Benadryl); Still Feeling Pretty Good
Feeling OK. Did a little more work in the yard for about an hour. A little more tired than usual – think I’ll take a nap.
Day 5 (Tuesday): Back to Work
I don’t want to get ahead of things, but aside from a little light-headedness I am feeling pretty good. I was starting to get a deep cough yesterday evening which concerned me – thinking this was going to move into my lungs, but that has not materialized and I am very happy about that! Hopefully today will continue as is.
Day 6: Getting Optimistic
Yesterday did continue as I hoped – no real down turns aside from getting tired and some minor coughing here and there. And this morning I am feeling decent; a little groggy and lightheaded perhaps, but that’s almost normal. I still feel the presence of the virus in my sinuses and my lungs but I feel like things are going better than they were last August. As I was yesterday – hoping it continues as is (or, dare I wish, even better).
Happy you feel better and that Leslie doesn’t get it. I know I’m a little strange being medically inquisitive so these Covid quests (1&2) are so interesting to me.