Yeah… I guess it was finally our turn.

We ducked, dodged, moved, masked, sanitized, and social distanced that thing for over 2 years. But just 5 days after they lifted the mask mandate from Vermont schools, Daphne came home lethargic one afternoon, then spiked a fever the following day.

In-home tests proved she was COVID positive. And yours truly followed 4 days later. (Although strangely, two different in-home tests assured me that I was negative throughout the illness.)

The good news is that it completely bounced off Jen’s vaccination/immune system and Daphne shrugged it off after just a couple days.

But it beat the hell out of me.

I don’t recall having ever performed a “doubling over in pain” maneuver in my life up to this point. Between you and me, I’d always assumed it was a dramatic literary device, and not a thing that people actually did. However after waking on Wednesday of last week and coughing for the first time in the morning, that’s exactly what happened. What felt like rattling fishhooks lodged between my sternum and neck took me entirely by surprise and truly did bend me in half at the waist as I gasped at the sudden pain.

I think that was the point where all of us became moderately concerned as to just how bad this thing was going to get…

Unfortunately I also had a brutal week of work last week, and couldn’t take any PTO to simply rest. So I tilted my office chair back as far as it would go and adjusted the angle of my conference camera to “Dutch/Oblique” so, unless they were really paying attention, people in meetings wouldn’t be able to tell that I was nearly prone during our meetings. It also kinda gave the impression that my home office was in a 1960’s Batman villain’s lair…but I’m starting to get all freshman film study on you with that one.

I am starting to improve, though. I mean, my chest still doesn’t feel great. And I definitely still have COVID-head, as I’ve been wandering around the house confused for days at this point… (The hours of binging shows across various different streaming services hasn’t helped there either.) But I think I’ve leveled out after the nose dive and have started the climb back up to a proper altitude.
I’m probably at about 65% at this point. Yeah that sounds right; I’d give my health a D+ right now.

To the question you’re likely asking yourself right now, rest assured it’s the same one that I’ve wondered about as well. I have no idea how well the whole vaccine/booster thing worked. I mean, I assume it helped. Maybe it would’ve been much, much worse if I hadn’t had them… Maybe it would’ve been the same. No way of really telling, I suppose. I’m sure they didn’t hinder the recovery process, though, so they were worth the shot. (ZANG!)

Anyway, here’s hoping next week proves to be easier than the last one.

See you soon.