Dear George,
It’s so ironic. We followed all the rules, did all the vaccinations and boosters, and successfully avoided covid for three years. Then Joe Biden announced that the pandemic was over and two days later I came down with the disease. My theory is that my immune system heard Biden’s announcement and decided it deserved a vacation. I think this is probably true, but, even if not, here is my report about covid in our household.
At first it never dawned on me that I might have covid. One of my OLLI teachers had cancelled class because of a bad cold, and I’d come down with all the familiar cold symptoms: sore throat, racking cough, runny nose, chest congestion, cold chills, muscle aches. This set in suddenly at the Art Museum on a Saturday afternoon, a busy public place. We drove home, and I took two Tylenol and went to bed. Katja made chicken noodle soup for me and took over walking the dog. Our physician son J happened to call that evening and asked how I was doing. I said I felt sick and described my symptoms. He immediately said I should take a covid test. I’d just gotten 8 covid tests from CVS before the deadline for free tests, and I didn’t want to squander them. Plus I didn’t really want to know the result anyway. But J said I should do it for his mom’s sake, so I went ahead and took the test. Much to my surprise (and shock), I tested positive.
I never like to call the doctor, but Katja called the office right away. At her request, the doctor on call prescribed Paxlovid, and Katja went over to the pharmacy to pick it up. Paxlovid is prescribed for elderly patients to avoid more serious symptoms of covid. I think the medication worked fine but it had the unpleasant side effect of making my mouth taste like a running sewer.
Katja and I have carefully followed all the covid information advice in recent years, and we discussed how we ought to proceed. I suggested that I probably should sleep alone on the sofa-bed in the den, but she didn’t see any point in that. I did put on a mask, but I got tired of it after five minutes. Most of the time we sat on the couch together and watched TV. An impartial observer would probably have concluded we were daffy, but I think we implicitly felt we couldn’t harm each other. We’d already been together 24 hours or more while I was contagious with no ill effects. Also Katja had recently contracted covid on a trip to New York, so it seemed likely that she was now immune. She didn’t seem worried, and I didn’t worry either. On a 0-10 cold scale, I was a 7 the first day, a 4 the second day, and a 2 the third day. However, just as I was getting better Katja started coughing and sneezing. She took the covid test immediately, and, of course, she tested positive. I felt guilty for infecting her, but Katja seemed pretty matter of fact about it. She was very irritated that her doctor wanted to interview her while my doctor prescribe Paxlovid without any questions.
With both of us testing positive, we stayed home and pretty much followed our regular routine. We had bought airline tickets to go to New Orleans for our grandkids’ graduation, but we cancelled them. I worried that with Katja sick and contagious she would infect me again, and we would just keep infecting each other back and forth for months on end. We skipped OLLI classes, my writers’ group, the fitness center, grocery and drugstore shopping, virtually all other outings to public places. About all I did outside the house was walk the dog. Five days after Katja became ill she was feeling much better and decided to take the covid test again. She tested negative, a big relief. While I was hesitant about wasting another test, I finally decided to take one too. Happily, my test was also negative.
To be on the safe side, we skipped some more OLLI classes and avoided public outings for another four or five days. Now we’re back full steam. I don’t know what to make of it all. When the pandemic began we basically went on a total lockdown for two years — no movies, restaurants, concerts, museums, public gatherings of any sort. I regard these as “lost years”. Knowing now how we’ve reacted to covid, we spent two years depriving ourselves of most of our pleasures in life in order to avoid the equivalent of a few days of a minor cold. Of course, we didn’t know that at the time and worried instead about the risk of dying. If we were starting all over again, I’m not sure how I would respond. Maybe the same. What I do feel is a strong sense of lost years which seems to have served little or no meaningful purpose in our particular case.
Love,
Dave
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