covid 19-it finally got me

COVID 19-IT FINALLY GOT ME

i was scheduled to get my bivalent covid booster last saturday but realized i had to have 10 days before or after my infusion in the biogen aduhelm clinical trial at ucla
now it seems i wont need that bicovid covid booster shot unil late december or january

three acquaintances were exposed to some one with covid
3 days later two acquaintances got sick
the other acquaintance also got sick 
all tested positive for covid last sunday
i tested negative on sunday and the previous week i was negative
one was my wife she
she was placed on paxlovid and is improving 
then
on tuesday
i went to the garden and worked for almost 4 hours
since i had been exposed i wore a mask and worked away from other gardeners
then
after lunch i began to run fever and chills and had a headache and developed a dry cough and had body aches
i tested positive for covid
i immediately took a dose of my wife shes paxlovid then got a prescription for paxlovid for myself
yes i gave her back the dose of paxlovid

at 24 hours i had no fever body aches headache or other symptoms as long as i staid on acetaminophen
at 36 hours i am asymptomatic after 4 doses of paxlovid 
i am off acetaminophen and cough meds and throat lozenges
i feel fine so far this morning

i will remain in isolation until monday am when i will retest
i will be off my paxlovid taking my last dose on sunday morning
i will retest for covid on monday am
if its negative
i get to go to ucla on tuesday for my #22 infusion of aduhelm in the biogen study

then for the next 5 days i will wear a mask if out and about and will stay away from any potential vulnerable folks

all four of us who got this covid infection are in the high risk category 
we are all vaccinated against covid

as i watched my wife get suddenly sick friday night and worsen over the next 24 hours i wondered had she not been fully vaxxed and had it been the original wildtype 
im afraid she would have been one of those real sick people with covid 

remember over two years ago there was no vaxxine and there was no treatment

my wife she is now on her 3rd day of paxlovid and her symptoms especially the awful cough has mostly resolved 
she is left with fatigue
something i dont seem to have yet

now we have to watch for a rebound that can happen after taking paxlovid
if it does
it just has to run its course

yesterday i reread all my blogs from march 2020 when i got sick with what i think was covid but couldnt ever prove it 
the testing was not accurate at that time
the antibody testing was not good at that time either
there was absolutely no treatment
those that got worse got high dose steroids and supportive care that was about it
the covid virus could actually destroy the lungs
the new variants seem to mainly attack the upper airways

2 years ago when i got sick i was feeling fine and was working in my garden
then
it hit me suddenly like it did this last week
i developed shortness of breath fever chills nausea diarrhea body aches headaches runny nose and a loss of appetite
i had a lot of irregular heart rhythms that was evaluated eventually with a stress echo
it was all clear from the cardiologist

i quarantined for around 2 weeks
afterwards i was left with fatigue and a loss of stamina
it took weeks to regain my stamina
i lost from 187 to 148 over the next 4 months
at one point i asked the gastroenterologist was i going to just starve to death
later folks told me they thought i had terminal cancer since i looked so cachectic

my early visits with my primary care doctor were via zoom

now two years later i have recovered from all of those symptoms 
im back to where i was
ive gained 25 lbs back

what a difference two years makes
we have vaxxines that prevent us from being hospitalized or dying from covid
we have oral medicine ie paxlovid that can slow it down
the virus has changed a lot
it is less virulent but is more transmittable
the new variants evade some of the vaxxines effects
but
folks dont die now from covid unless they are unvaxxed or in real poor health

i wrote 2 years ago where they were predicting 100,000 deaths from covid in the us
well
that prediction was off by 1,000,000 deaths
most of the deaths were unvaxxinated folks
didnt have to happen this way 

so 
we are in a better place now with covid than we were two years ago

here is what we plan to do
since the episode had disrupted our lives for 10 days

we will mask in crowded situations or inside stores
we will get our flu shots and eventually our bivalent covid shots
we will continue on as we were doing before this episode

we should all expect a lot of respiratory infections this fall and winter across the us
the flu and covid you can get immunized against
the rest you cant

be careful

i hope i am building immunity against this covid virus i caught
hoping it will get me through the winter covid free
i still plan to be careful

those other viruses can also make you feel just as sick

the oganicgreen doctor