So…What Have I Been Doing For The Past Week?

Covid-19 SARS-2 Coronavirus with its spike proteins (Wikipedia)

Fighting off these bad boys!  The good news is I prevailed!

However, in case you are interested, here is what my experience was with the Omicron variant of the Covid-19 virus.

I had been home and not left the house since the second weekend in December, doing my best to avoid this insidious virus.  I have some lung issues so I have been very careful in everything I’ve done since the pandemic began.  I have been especially careful with this new Omicron variant since it spreads to fluidly and quickly.  I had successfully avoided it but, unfortunately, it found me.  You just can’t hide from it.

Christmas Day

I was exposed to the virus through my granddaughter.  We had everyone in the family over for Christmas dinner and, unbeknownst to anyone, my granddaughter had been exposed and was infectious.  She was asymptomatic while at our house but developed symptoms until later Christmas night after she returned home.

Monday, January 3rd (9 days after exposure)

First symptoms appeared that evening.  I felt a slight tightness in my chest and developed a slight cough.  Also, I felt a little “off-kilter.”  Almost as though I had a slight case of vertigo.    I knew something wasn’t quite right.

Tuesday, January 4th

Woke up that morning and felt as though I hadn’t gotten a good night’s sleep.  Felt tired.  Still felt off-kilter.  Cough increased.  No fever.  I was not hungry at all.  I lost my appetite, it seems.  Later on during the day, I felt extremely tired.  Took a couple of half hour naps during the afternoon.  Went to bed at 9 p.m. that night.  Felt totally worn out.  Just wanted to sleep.

Wednesday, January 

I slept 10 hours overnight.  Throat scratchy but not a sore throat.  No fever.  No headache.  Still have a bit of a cough.  A little chest congestion has developed.  Very minor.  Still feeling tired but not as much as the day before.  I find myself blowing my nose every few hours.  Went to bed about an hour early.

Thursday, January 6th

Woke up and felt really good.  Thought the virus had run its course.  A slight cough continued.  No fever and didn’t feel tired.  Thought, “I beat this thing.”  My home Covid tests finally arrive from Amazon (after two weeks) and I test a strong positive.  So, this is not a cold and not my imagination.  Went to bed at my usual time.

Friday, January 7th

Didn’t sleep well at all.  Kept waking up almost on the hour all night.  Scratchy throat gone but still have that low grade cough.  Congestion is there but no worse.  No fever.  No headache.  Still blowing my nose every couple of hours.  It’s not a ‘runny nose,’ however.  Feel worse than yesterday.  The disease fooled me.  Just when I thought I beat it, it came back and saddled me with lethargy.  I would alternate between feeling fine to being so tired I couldn’t keep my eyes open.  This happened several times during the day and evening.  Again, went to bed early.

Saturday, January 8th

Another bad night.  Didn’t sleep well at all.  Just couldn’t stay asleep for some reason.  Cough is mostly gone.  No fever.  No headache.  Not blowing nose much.  But am still alternating between feeling okay and so tired I can’t keep my eyes open.  Drift off to sleep several times during the day and evening.

Sunday, January 9th

Had a good night’s sleep.  Felt good when I awoke.  It’s over.  No tiredness, no cough, no congestion, nothing.  I feel entirely back to normal.  Great day,  all seems normal all day long. I’m fine.  Survived none the worse.  Nice. 👍🏻

Summary

Nine days between exposure and first symptoms

Seven days of symptoms before feeling back to total normality

Never had a fever

No sore throat

Low grade congestion

The mucous I was able to expectorate was clear or white and not yellow/green meaning 

infection

No runny nose but it needed cleaned out every few hours

No headaches

In general, the experience was like having a moderate cold.  Not even a bad cold.  That said, I’ve had two Moderna vaccinations as well as the Moderna booster.  I’m very happy I did as I think, with my lung issues, it could have been much worse for me.

I post this as a public service to advise others what my experience had been.  I hope it can this can help others who may have to deal with it in the future.

I’m looking at this experience as a positive with some minor annoyances.  This seems to be a best case scenario.  I now have enhanced immunity to the three previous variants and potentially to any subsequent variant.  Sacrificing a bit of comfort for enhanced protection seems to me like a reasonable trade-off.  Sure beats getting the original or Delta variant.

Oh! Did I mention my wife started having the same general symptoms on Friday and tested positive on Sunday?  Here we go again...

Good luck to you.

UPDATE/ADDENDUM:  I failed to mention that my sense of taste has been altered.  I lost my sense of smell due to allergies in 1972, so I’ve been without one and have adapted successfully since then.  People say without a sense of smell you can’t have a sense of taste.  That’s poppycock.  I’ve had a pretty good sense of taste for these past 50 years.  Maybe not as nuanced as a chef’s but nonetheless, I’ve been able to taste things pretty well.

However, last evening at dinner the realization came to me that things now taste different than before.  What does different mean?  I would have to say that the way things taste individually has changed.  I can’t explain it better than that.  If my sense of taste returns to ‘my normal,’ I’ll update this post and advise.

UPDATE 2: January 13, 2022;  My sense of taste seems to have now returned to normal.  Two thumbs up!

Join me over at my website, https://www.dennismook.com.  

Thanks for looking. Enjoy!  

Dennis A. Mook  

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