Well, we are back from our Road Trip!, which was fabulous. Ten days of driving that paused for a five-day stopover with my parents in the middle. My husband planned the trip in such a way that we didn’t get tired of being in the car until the very end. And then we arrived home, and it was wonderful to be back in our own beds, with a weekend to recover before getting back to normal.
And then I woke up with cold symptoms and rapid tests confirmed that I have Covid. The worst souvenir.
So far, I am feeling crummy. But mainly CRANKY.
Cranky at myself. I always anticipated getting Covid at some point; it’s long seemed inevitable. I thought that when I finally got it, I would feel resignation mixed with relief. But I don’t. I am MAD. I got Covid because I took unnecessary risks, and that’s just a fact. Did I expect that * I * was somehow invincible? That Covid would look at the fact that I’ve been pretty measured and cautious over the past two-ish years and say, “Let’s skip her”? That residents of the rural western United States are all roaming around unmasked because Covid doesn’t exist in those areas? Apparently I did expect those things because we relaxed our typical restrictions on our trip and I got Covid. We ate out in restaurants A LOT. We went into museums and gas stations and gift shops and sometimes we just left our masks in the car. We attended events with lots of other people and pretended that the outdoor venues would protect us. I was uncareful and I KNEW I wasn’t being careful and I got Covid. So I feel cranky and mad and a little ashamed and my head feels like a stress ball that’s being squeezed so intensely you can see the little beads inside it through the membrane. PLUS I somehow forgot to do the Wordle yesterday and it RESET my winning streak.
For posterity’s sake, my symptoms: It started with a scratchy throat. So lightly scratchy that it was easy enough to write it off as irritation from staying in so many hotels (I was getting irritated with being on the road, those last couple of days; why not my throat, too?), or the change in atmosphere/climate as we drove eastward toward home. Then a day of an even sorer throat, with an irresistible tickle that could only be soothed by chain-lozenging menthol cough drops. Then a day where the throat felt better and the cough was less persistent. Now, Day 4, I am in the Head in a Vise stage. I am isolating in my bedroom, which fortunately has its own bathroom, but I am resentful and grumpy and have to get up to staunch my runny nose every few minutes.
Covid. Ugh.
Oh, I’m so sorry! I’m glad that you had a good trip, but sorry for the inevitable kicking yourself (which I too would be doing in your shoes). Maintaining the constant vigilance is so hard, and I have let myself slip more than I ought to–I know it, yet I’ve done it, or rather _not_ done what I should.
I hope you feel better soon.
Oh, what a terrible souvenir to bring home! I hope you recover quickly and bounce right back. I agree with ccr above – maintaining constant vigilance is so hard and you should definitely forgive yourself for trying to relax a little. It’s been SO HARD for SO LONG and it’s hard to keep that elevated level of care, especially when no one else is doing it! I hope you do have great memories of the vacation to keep you going through your sickness!
This has been the WORST pandemic. Zero stars, do not recommend.
I hope you feel better soon.
100% the same, only from Disney World. We’ve been shut-ins since it all began. My youngest never even went into a public place other than the doctor’s office until he was 11 months old. We left him at home but he of course got it from us. It sucks.
I’m sorry that you came home with a souvenir, but happy that you had your vacation. Get well soon and then give us every last detail about your trip!
I am so sorry, that is NO fun. I hope your symptoms are mild and you feel better really soon!
I am in a classroom full of college kids not wearing a mask RIGHT NOW. I hear you on the relaxing and hoping for the best. Hope you feel better soon!
Oh nuts. So sorry this happened. Glad the trip was so great, but sorry that you aren’t feeling well now. Don’t beat yourself up. I think we all do what we can. It is easy to relax our guard after YEARS of trying to avoid this thing. Hope you are on the mend soon.
It was only natural to relax your vigilance a little on VACATION! And of course we all NEED a vacation, from all the stress (Covid and otherwise!) — so no guilt.
I do hope you feel better toute de suite and can tell us more of your adventure. Meantime, read some good books and please rest.
Poor you! We had it a couple of weeks ago and I recognise the feelings of shock, wait, it’s happening to *me*? My kid brought it home from school, so I reckon one way or another it was destined to catch up with you sooner or later. Maybe best have it now, as it might give you more immunity for the next variant. And you did do well to keep it away until now when it’s relatively mild! All the effort was worth it!
I hope you get well soon!
Be kind to yourself, friend. It almost seems impossible to avoid it and that kind of vigilance is really to maintain indefinitely. I was glad that I got it when it was a less severe variant. Since I am immune compromised, I got it worse than anyone I know but I wasn’t dangerously sick. I do wish I had gotten Paxlovid. I had prophylactic antibody injections in April and thought it would result in a more mild case but I felt pretty awful and should have sought out the anti-virals! Lesson learned.
I don’t know where I got covid – either at dinner 4 days before (at a restaurant where we were so spaced out) or at my son’s swimming lessons 2 days before? We did next to nothing for almost 2 years so I felt like I was vigilant as long as I was able to. It does feel good to have it behind me for at least 90 days but hopefully longer. It was ok to live a smaller life when Will was a baby and I needed to be home for bedtime, but now I am enjoying the freedom of eating in restaurants and missing bedtime. I felt some guilt, too, but the theme of the comments I got on my post was to be kinder to myself! So I am telling you to do the same!
Think of all the precautions you took for two whole years as having avoided the worst variants and holding out for the bad cold. It’s the only realistic way to deal with this thing I think. It’s weird though, my oldest brought it home two weeks ago and we weren’t especially cautious in the house (we did quarantine from others but we didn’t quarantine her from us) and no one got it from her. 🤷♀️
Oh, I’m sorry.
Oh, boo. I’m sorry, Suzanne. I hope you feel better quickly and that you can give yourself some grace. At this point I feel like we are all balancing vigilance with just trying to live in a mentally healthy and happy way, if that makes sense. I feel like I’m being pretty vigilant but not Vigilant, you know? It’s just so hard to do. Anyway, I hope you can rest and be kind to yourself and that you feel better SOON.
Oh, I’m SO sorry, Suzanne! Please give yourself some grace here. Rest and I hope you feel better soon.
Oh no!
I hope you feel better quickly. I’m glad to hear the RoadTrip was a success, but you’re right on it being a miserable souvenir.
I agree with Rebecca above – being so careful in the early stages while we got a vaccine and the stronger variants circulated deserves a big gold star.
We also lost our streak on Wordle over vacation (forgot) and we haven’t gotten back into the routine. Something about the streak made it feel like such an important part of my daily routine, but now that we haven’t been doing it for a few weeks…it feels fine. Almost nice, sometimes, to not have another daily to-do! Though I sure did love it while the streak lasted…
I’m so sorry. We had an exposure from my grandson’s babysitter who was vaxxed and boosted. We may all come down with it because of that. No matter how careful you are, it only takes one interaction and unless we avoid everyone, that’s impossible. I too would be unfairly hard on myself.
This variant is super contagious and hard to avoid. I’m sorry you got it, though, and hope you feel better soon.
I let down my guard a little on vacation, too, mostly forgetting to put on my mask when I went into public restrooms. Very few people were masked so it was hard to remember without the visual cue.
Our twin-ness continues. My husband went to Germany for work and said everyone was vaxxed and masked, but we had always isolated him when he got home before and this time we kind of just… didn’t? We weren’t even really being cocky, we just sort of went brain damaged. And I also felt cranky and ashamed – I didn’t think we hadn’t gotten it so far because we were more careful or special, just very lucky, and I was sad that the luck had run out. I had the terrible cough that necessitated the chain-sucking of lozenges day and night – I still get it periodically, although this has happened my whole life every time I get sick, so it’s not worse from Covid. When we all went down to Elmira NY for Angus’s grad we threw all caution to the wind and got away clean, so I guess this was our comeuppance.
I’m really sorry you got Covid, but I don’t think you should beat yourself up for getting it or feel like you did something wrong. We’re all going to get it eventually and I think we just have to come to terms with that. We cannot continue to fully isolate ourselves from the world – especially because this was the reason for vaccines and other treatments: To allow us to be out in the world again, traveling and seeing people, knowing that if we do get Covid, the case won’t be as serious as before.
You are allowed to be out in public, mask-less or not, and you are allowed to travel and make memories with your family and ENJOY yourself without taking extreme Covid precautions. At a certain point, we just have to acknowledge that the risk is worth it and that if we do get Covid, we’ll deal with it. Of course, I can’t lie: I was definitely beating myself up for not wearing my mask on the plane when I got Covid but even then, I got it while my mom didn’t (I think she got it later, from me, ugh) so it definitely discriminates! Take care of yourself!
Ugh, Suzanne. I am so sorry you got Covid. I was so worried about it on our family road trip too and we got really lucky that we had no incident during our travel, but both my parents got Covid upon their return (I assume from the air travel and airports and relaxed restrictions!).