Things That Almost Killed Me in 2022: COVID

On Sunday January 9, my nose started to run. I felt fine otherwise. I thought I must be shaking off some kind of flu before I even knew I had it. 

Prior to that day, I only went out to go to work with a mask and buy groceries.

On Monday, I was lethargic and either sneezing or coughing or both. 

By Tuesday morning, I was completely run down no matter how much sleep I had.

I went to work to take a COVID test, which I didn't have at home at the time.

Next thing I know, I'm in a line of staff members waiting to be tested. 

January was the month of the Omicron variant. The hospital I work at was hit very hard. So many people sent home.

I barely made it to my office when they called me and said I was positive. Mols likely with Omicron.

My girlfriend scrambled before I found my way back home. She made sure Molly went to her Dad's. I stayed in my office that head a pull-out ottoman. 

My girlfriend left soup and drinks at the door. I didn't see her until she stared showing symptoms later that week. She tested positive one week later after my symptoms began to show.

On Tuesday after Martin Luther King Day, I was told I could come back. I asked if I should be tested. They said, "Well, you can, but if you test positive, you'll have to stay out of work again."

Okay.

I went back. Worked one week in the position I was going to be leaving at the end of the month. I wanted o part on the best terms possible. 

For my troubles, I was sick the last week of January with something short of pneumonia. 

The doctors took a chest x-ray. They said it wasn't quite pneumonia, not worth treating as such. I got rabbit pellets for my cough. Oh, and they recommended Robitussin. 

Nothing over the counter helped me. If it wasn't for my girlfriend's codeine, I would have kept coughing myself awake and getting worse. 

I can't even say I "recovered" until maybe March. The effects are still with me, and I never fully caught up from that time off. It was two weeks of sickness followed by months of exhaustion.

All that, and I still can't convince people that COVID is a real danger. 

Here's hoping I can stay COVID free in 2023.