The brunt…

This week I experienced the brunt of Covid. No one can adequately explain the impact it will have on you because each of us is different.

I suppose I started to feel like I had a head cold coming on late Monday night as I was going to bed.  Over the course of the proceeding day my throat had become a little scratchy and my left sinus (always the left for some reason) was beginning to drip.

Bugger, I thought to myself, not remembering the last time I had contracted a head cold…

Tuesday morning the cold symptoms were a little worse as now it began to feel like a full-blown cold with some sneezing and mild cough thrown on top of my sore throat and runny nose.

Yet I decided to go to work… big mistake!

What was I thinking?

Fortunately, no collateral damage as my desk is somewhat separated from most around me – thank goodness!

I guess I had become blasé after almost three years of being shielded behind lockdowns, quarantine, isolation, working from home, vaccines, and masks.

Even recently spending five weeks in China on a business trip, which remains the epicentre of the pandemic and came away unscathed.

To be honest Covid didn’t even enter my mind.

However, by late afternoon when I got home from work, I was feeling decidedly woozy.

I can hear you saying “woozy”, what do you mean.  It was the weirdest sensation as it felt like everything running through my head was incomplete and/or foggy, I couldn’t determine which.

This was accompanied by what I thought was regular flu symptoms – chills, aches and pains and headache along with my already well entrenched cold.

We went to the local pharmacy (with a mask on) and picked up some flu and sinus tablets which you would if didn’t think you had Covid.

When we got home Judy suggested I take a Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) just to rule out any of my ill-conceived notions…

Seriously no sooner than the third droplet had hit the cartridge than I had a positive confirmation.

My first reaction was that the test was faulty as it said I had to wait 10 minutes.

So, we waited….

However, after ten minutes nothing had changed… still positive.

Oi vey!  I had finally contracted Covid much to my chagrin.

But how?  Where?  When?

All these running through my foggy brain…

Moving into isolation in the guest bedroom I was about to experience the most unsettling 24 hours of my life.

It’s hard to put your finger on what the worst aspect was during this period.

Firstly, I was experiencing the worst headache in my entire life. Covid game me the kind of headache that was both searing and piercing all at the same time which made me completely debilitated…

My head felt as though it was a ticking time bomb ready to explode at any second.

I was wracked with a fever that came and went in 30-minute shifts, conveniently balanced with the chills for 30 minutes before reverting once more to fever…

My sinuses were constantly dripping, and my chest was heavily congested.  By now I had a heavy and consistent “barking” cough that I just couldn’t seem to get any final purchase on.

All I could bring up was sticky dark yellow phlegm…

The speed at which things began to spiral out of control happened so fast.  One minute I had a cold and or flu, the next moment I was on my ass and in the grip of something fierce.

Zero sleep on my first night.

By the next morning I was totally exhausted and fell into a sleep that I can only describe as so deep I found it difficult to wake from.  I literally had to try and sit up and focus all my attention and energy to consciously stay awake, however this was mid-afternoon.

Just another of the strange moments in this experience.

I’m now in Day 5 and feel fine other than have a phlegmy cough.

My notoriously severe headache has passed (thank goodness!) and feel relatively fine in general.  If only the RAT test would cooperate and give me a negative, then I could put this behind me.

I seriously don’t know how I would have fared without my incredibly talented wife Judy.  She looked after me and made me both lentil soup and her mum’s famous homemade chicken soup from scratch.  Both delicious!

In general, totally pampering me.   Yes, I am very lucky as many people with Covid don’t have support like this.

I think she’s onto me as I’m back to my old self, and therefore have only a little time left to milk it.

In a conversation that Judy had with her mum this morning she told her that her father exactly like me…. Any whiff of a cough or cold and he’d be in bed asking for her chicken soup… as if I’d do that???   Lol.

Damn she’s onto me now that I know how good that soup is!

Upon reflection I’m glad I’ve been fully vaccinated and that this bout of Covid has been light.  But more importantly that I could isolate and home and recover just fine with no strain on the healthcare system.

All things being equal next weekend we’re off on our road trip across Australia and my first contact with family since I came back to Australia over 2 years ago.

Until next week

Ciao!