Hi,
[Update: Our recent financial setbacks haven’t been any fun, and they apparently aren’t over yet. I’ll just mention them and move on. During the past two weeks Minay’s sewing machine had to go in the shop, she needed a tooth crowned, and we lost two refrigerators full of food after Hurricane Beryl. I did pass the 45,000 word mark on Flood and Fire, so that’s good at least. Maybe things will start getting better now.]
In the previous post I mentioned that Minay and I had both contracted Covid a few weeks ago, and that it was the first time for both of us. Since we are both heavily vaccinated (six shots each) the ordeal wasn’t too bad, much like a bad cold, and we were better within a week. I added a comment in that newsletter that it might not actually have been the first time I was infected with Covid, and that I might have had one of the very first cases in the United States.
The first officially confirmed (lab tested) case of Covid-19 was reported on January 20, 2020 in Washington State. It was a man in his 30’s who had recently returned to the US from Wuhan, China. Later studies, though, indicated that the virus may have been in the US as early as December 2019. That’s where my story starts.
At Christmas in 2019, Minay and I drove to visit her sister, Lyndy, in New Braunfels, Texas. New Braunfels is about 30 miles northeast of San Antonio. We stayed there for a few days, and headed home on the 27th or 28th. Within a couple of days of arriving back home, I felt like I was coming down with a cold. Colds and the flu are rare for me. I do get them occasionally, but we always get flu shots (and also have been getting Covid shots since 2020). In December 2019 I probably hadn’t had a serious case of cold or flu in a couple of decades. This was different.
It started normally, but quickly moved to my lungs and my sinuses. Minay was great, for nearly a month she forced soup and toast and tea and lots of water down me. For most of that time I felt weak and unsteady. I didn’t feel like eating much for several days, and spent a lot of time in bed. I took lots of decongestants and Ibuprofen and cough syrup, and slept a lot (maybe twelve hours a day, according to Minay). She slept on the couch downstairs that whole time so I wouldn’t infect her with whatever I had (and we didn’t get to kiss for weeks — for weeks!). We set up a table beside the bed with a small TV that has a built-in DVD player, and I spent my days reading (just a little at first), watching DVDs (I went through the entire original Shogun miniseries, some Quantum Leap episodes, and a bunch of movies), and sleeping (when I wasn’t filling wastebaskets with multiple boxes of used facial tissues).
I didn’t make an appointment to see my doctor about the condition because, after a couple of weeks of dealing with it, I felt well enough to know I would get past the creeping crud. I was never diagnosed or treated professionally for it, and by the time we started hearing about this new virus I was feeling much better. We didn’t think to connect the two until we heard reports later in 2021 that the virus may have spread earlier than they originally thought. And, of course, there’s no way for me to find out if I actually did have Covid then, but I had something that was more serious than what I usually experienced with a cold or flu.
It was almost three years before I stopped wearing masks in public. Minay was much better about it than I was, and still does mask up whenever she runs errands or meets with friends, etc. I’ve started wearing mine again, too. Maybe we all should. These latest Covid-19 variants (FLiRT, LB.1) are apparently very contagious. At any rate, be careful out there. Mask. Wash your hands. The whole enchilada.
Michael
[“Hey, Hey, Hey. Let’s be careful out there.”
A variant of the line uttered by James B. Sikking’s
character, Lt. Howard Hunter, in every episode
of the TV show, Hill Street Blues, 1981-1987.]
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