F*cking Covid.

Again.

My kiddo caught it first. They’ve managed to go 3 ½ years without getting it even once, but despite wearing a mask indoors everywhere but home (only taking it off to eat and drink at school), they caught it this time.

Thankfully their symptoms were relatively mild. They are recovering really quickly and didn’t have any kidney complications like we had feared they would. Now they are just enjoying their “Covid Vacation” since we isolated them in their bedroom with full TV access and phone charging next to their bed (something we don’t usually allow), full room service by text (something they’ve never had before) and excusal from almost all schoolwork by their teachers. Their isolation period ends today. They’re going to be sad when this “vacation” ends.

My partner has somehow escaped it altogether.

I, however, am a different story.

I had Covid once before, in January of 2022. 

I had only just started going out into the world again about six months before that. And by going out into the world, I mean going to doctor’s appointments and the grocery store because I’m a high-risk girl and anything else was still too much of a gamble at the time. But everywhere I went, I wore a mask that I didn’t take off. That is until I finally went to the ENT and the dentist. Then I caught it.

It was awful. I was so sick that I couldn’t take care of myself, let alone my kiddo. My partner and I were separated at the time, but he came back and stayed for a couple weeks to take care of us until I got better. I lived in a bubble created with plastic sheeting and painters’ tape in a corner of the living room in order to keep them two of them from getting sick (that was the best we could do in our tiny apartment, but it worked). I had pretty much everything I needed in that space though: a bed, a window, a hammock chair, an array of meds, medical devices and toiletry items and a portable toilet...

Why did I need a portable toilet? I’d like to say it was just to keep from contaminating the bathroom and getting my partner and kiddo sick, but that wasn’t all. My first bout with Covid was a little different than most of the people that I know because I had severe gastrointestinal symptoms too. It was like having food poisoning and the flu at the same time. For nearly two weeks. And let’s just say the bathroom was a little too far from my bed.

I almost had to be hospitalized then, but not for the breathing issues that most people had. Instead, it was because I was so dehydrated. The only goal I had during that time was fluids, which were nearly impossible to get down.

Fun little side note: Just a few weeks after the Covid experience, when I was still recovering, I somehow caught a Norovirus too. It was an extremely miserable couple of months.

Now, I have Covid again. Only this time, I’m really lucky to not have all that gastro shit. This time around it’s all respiratory. I’m mostly just feeling like I’m in a flare (which isn’t too different from normal life for me) but with the added bonus of a sinus infection and bronchitis. Oh, and all food tastes like gray dust, I can taste sweetness and saltiness, but no actual flavor.  Cheerios with a smidge of honey are my tiny joy for the week because they are the only thing that actually tastes somewhat decent.

Despite not having the gastro stuff though, I’m still pretty wiped out. In fact, I’ve been working on this fairly basic post all week long, and other than paying the bills, watching never-ending episodes of Friends, brushing my teeth daily and showering twice, this is literally all that I have accomplished over the last week.

It’s annoying. And it sucks. And I feel like a grumpy, miserable, slug. But, I’m not in the hospital and it’s a thousand times better than it was the last time. And besides, it’ll be over soon.