I haven’t been sick in about 2 years now. The last time I got sick? Covid. I caught really bad colds in December of ’21 and January of ’22 then got to win the ultimate prize in Feb of ’22 just ahead of moving to Georgia. I recalled it being pretty bad but it came and went in about 3 days and left me with a cough for about a month.
So about 2am on Monday morning I woke up to a sore throat and a runny nose. Goodie! Figured it’d be a cold, but as the day progressed it just got worse. Coughing. Stuffed up. Brain fogged. By early evening despite no fever I was violently shivering. I drank plenty of water, turned the heat up to 78F, hid under two large comforters, and prayed for relief.
Claritin-D didn’t help my sinus. Mucinex didn’t help my coughing or congestion. That also reminded me of my vow never to use that crap again after it turned my nose into a randomly firing blood geyser on what would be my last Christmas in NY. I made it to the next morning and popped some Advil. Surprisingly that stopped the shivers but made me sweat a LOT.
My skin hurt, my hair hurt, my joints ached. Then the fever kicked in. I think I topped out at about 101F. Thank goodness for doordash and instacart. My appetite was non-existent but I had to eat something and between the Pho place in town and the organic Chicken Soup from Kroger, that really hit the spot. All that plus two gallons of cranberry juice. I was good.
At night I noticed how everything looked yellow to me. That was a new one. I had to google it, but it’s a thing. Oh, and my sense of smell? Exit stage left.
Wednesday came, and between my cocktail of NyQuil and Advil, the fever broke. I still was not a fan of moving. Everything hurt. Most motions sent everything around me spinning. I was glued to the couch watching Grimm (not a bad show at all, has the paraplegic dude from “A Million Little Things” and Lois from “Superman & Lois” in it).
My brother suggested I try a “Hot Toddy” before bed, never had one, had to look it up. 1.5oz whiskey (Bulleit Rye in this case), .5oz lemon juice, a tablespoon of honey, and up to a cup of hot water. That plus a NyQuil? Slept great for a change. Thursday came along and after getting cleaned up I started to feel myself again. My energy was returning, as was my appetite.
I managed to go outside, feed the birds and get some fresh air. Felt wonderful. I also started to clean the house, washing clothes, dishes, floors, etc… I wanted to disinfect the crap out of this place. The Advil made me sweat like a dog and I’m almost thankful I couldn’t smell the place. Yea maybe TMI but nobody’s paying you to read this.
Thursday wound down with some Tempeh tacos, another Hot Toddy and another NyQuil. Slept even better as I had to try and get some work done. I still don’t feel great today but if I sat on my couch for another 12 hours I was going to lose my mind. I took the garbage out earlier and by the time I reached the house I was gasping.
A couple weeks back I took a 9 mile hike, now I was struggling to walk 50 feet. Lesson learned, take it easy. I’m still hydrating, still eating, still can’t smell a dang thing. There’s a bit of brain fog and some head/chest congestion but I feel like I’m definitely over the hump this go round. Going to keep to myself for another couple days before I get around people again though.
I will say the 2 week long social media detox was wonderful though. I turned the taps back on but I’m not glued to it now. I also decided to not re-activate tiktok. As entertaining as it could be some times, it propagated a lot of toxicity into my life that I simply do not need, especially when I’m recovering from my latest bout with this crap from Wuhan.
Anyhoo… have a good weekend y’all, and God bless ya.
