Wednesday, August 3, 2022

Testing Positive

Well, here's a post that I was hoping I wouldn't have to write... but here we are.

A week ago today, I took my first COVID test and it came back positive.  Yes, for the past week, I've been battling COVID-19.  And I've gotta say... it's been a rollercoaster.  

I would have written about it sooner, but I really just wanted to focus on taking care of myself.  Plus, I was having so much fun with my Christmas in July week that I didn't want to stop that to write about this.  I figured it made more sense to stick with my previously planned posts- even if I had to finish writing them and posting late.  Then, I could let you all know about my positive test when I was feeling better.  Today felt like the right time to write about it now that I feel like I'm on the other side of it.

Unfortunately, Eliot also got it... more about that further down.

But, it's a miracle that Mom, Dad, Nana and Kaitlin are all alright.  We're all working with the assumption that Eliot and I got sick from the Backstreet Boys concert on 7/21, but we have no idea where we picked it up.  Kaitlin was at the concert with us, and she's ok.  Then, we spent a long weekend in Bar Harbor with Mom, Dad and Nana.  

That was my biggest fear... that they would get sick because of us. 

Thankfully, they are all feeling well.  Since it's been a week since I tested positive, and over a week since they last saw us, we feel pretty confident that Eliot and I didn't accidentally pass anything along to any of them.  And for that, I'm incredibly grateful.

As rough as this past week was, I'd gladly take the rollercoaster of COVID if it meant no one else in my family had to endure it.  And what a week it's been... 

Tuesday, July 26th

Tuesday started out fine.  I was working hard to get a few mouse ear orders completed and out in the mail before our local post office closed at 4:30 pm.  Right before I went to the post office (just before 4:30) I started to feel ill.  I assumed it was stress from trying to get everything done under a time crunch, but it didn't go away after I got back from the post office.  I felt waves of nausea coming and going but didn't get sick.

As the evening progressed, I started to feel worse.  My throat started to hurt and I felt achy all over.  I took my temperature and it was 99.7 but I was freezing, and then a few minutes later I was boiling.  When Eliot came home, I told him I didn't feel well and that I thought I had COVID.  A few minutes later, complete exhaustion suddenly took over me and I decided to go to bed early.  (Before 10:30 for me is definitely early, and I fell asleep right away.)  At that point, I went to bed suspecting it.

Wednesday, July 27th

The next morning, I woke up and I knew I was worse off.  I told Eliot that I thought I had COVID, and once we got out of bed, my first order of business was taking a test.  I felt so crummy I couldn't even focus on reading the test directions.  I handed Eliot the test pack and told him to tell me what to do.  He read everything and walked me through it.

You have to wait 15 minutes to get the results of an at home COVID test.  It wasn't even a minute into our timer before the line showed up almost immediately.

It was positive.

I immediately called my parents and told them both to get on the phone.  I proceeded to start the conversation with "now nobody panic.  Let's all keep a level head," because I knew that was not a conversation they were expecting.  I was terrified that I would have gotten them sick and I was starting to spiral a little.  They were a bit taken aback, but at this point, there wasn't much we could do but pray that they wouldn't get sick.

After I got off the phone, Eliot promptly took a test and he was negative.  He called into work to find out what the procedure was and they told him he could come in but he had to wear a mask.  He made sure that I was ok for the day before heading in.

After he left for work, I went to work contacting everyone.  I made sure to let Kaitlin know since we had all been at the Backstreet Boys concert together.  Thankfully, she was feeling ok!  After that, I contacted the chiropractic office since I had been planning to go in to help them with something.  Finally, I called our dentist to let them know since we have a teeth cleaning appointment coming up on Monday the 8th.

I'm so glad that I was proactive when I first got my test results... because after that rush of clarity, responsibility and productivity, I slowly slipped into oblivion.

The rest of Wednesday was a lost day.  Honestly, I barely even remember it.  At some point, I took my temperature and it was 100.1.  I remember I took two long naps during the day.  I felt like crap and was so tired.  In between my naps, somehow I was able to watch The Devil Wears Prada but that's about the most productive thing I did.  My nose was stuffed up and I was completely miserable.  

Eliot came home with Wendy's for my dinner.  I was so sick that I could only eat half of a baked potato.  The chili and salad went into the fridge for the next day.  Before bed, my temperature had only fallen to 100.8, so I took more Tylenol and went back to bed.

Thursday, July 28th

For a split second, I woke up thinking that I might be feeling better today... and then I started to actually wake up.  I realized that I felt a lot of pain in my neck and had a massive headache.  For me, massive headaches usually lead to feeling nauseous, and this was no different.  I dragged myself out of bed to take my temperature, 99.7.  I forced myself to take some Tylenol and an hour later or so later I felt a lot better.

Eliot went to work and I attempted to get some stuff done.  I wasn't super productive, but I did check off a few things on my list.  I was still stuffed up... and Thursday's new additions were coughing and sneezing.  About halfway through the work day, I was overcome with exhaustion so I took another long nap during the afternoon.  I was able to eat my salad for lunch, and my chili for dinner, but that was all I could stomach.

Friday, July 29th

Friday was the day the next shoe dropped.  Eliot had continued taking tests before work each morning to be safe.  And today, his results came back positive.  The line was barely there, and he felt 100% fine, but it was there.  It was so faint that I made him take a second test and really make sure he got a good sample from deeper in his nasal cavity.  That test was also faint, but technically he had two a positive results.

Eliot called work to let them know that it was a barely there positive, but that he would be staying home just in case.  We'd monitor his symptoms over the next few days to see how he was doing before he made any decisions about the following work week.

Thankfully, since he was still feeling ok and not showing any symptoms, we had a little bit of warning.  Eliot went to the grocery store (masked up and hand sanitized) and got a bunch of food, water and Gatorades for us to power through the next few days.

Mid-afternoon, Eliot and I both took a nap since we were tired.  After my nap, I had a phone appointment with my doctor's office.  I talked to the specialist on the phone and he said I was a candidate for the antiviral medication if I wanted it.  He gave me a prescription for it and sent me the info (a 35 page document!) just in case.

That evening, Eliot drove over to Windham and picked up Chipotle since my appetite was coming back a little and that's the only thing that sounded good to me.  Then, we watched a little bit of television before we called it a night and went to bed early.

Saturday, July 30th  

Saturday was a mixed bag.  On the one hand, I was really proud of myself because it was the first day that I hadn't taken a nap.  On the other hand, Eliot was definitely sick.

Saturday Eliot was like Wednesday Melissa.  He had the fever and chills that I'd been facing.  But unfortunately for him, he also had a massive headache that wouldn't go away.  I had it cropping up here and there, but it never made itself a permanent fixture in my misery.  Eliot was completely miserable like I had been Wednesday.  He slept most of the day on the chair in our living room or in bed.  

Midway through the day, I decided that I was definitely improving and that I wasn't going to bother taking the antiviral.  The 35 page document for it kind of spooked me, and taking 30 pills in a five day time period wasn't something that I was super excited about anyways.  Thankfully, I did seem to be a little bit better anyways.

I suggested that we start watching all of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies since we've been talking about rewatching them all sometime.  I figured that he was going to be home for a bunch of days with me, so this was the perfect time to do it.  When he was awake, we watched the first movie.  Later in the evening, we also watched the new Hallmark movie that was premiering.  We went to bed as soon as it was over.

Sunday, July 31st

Sunday, I felt even better.  It was the second day that I didn't take a nap and I was really proud of that.  Eliot on the other hand... was still battling.  He still had the fever, chills, stuffed up nose and headache.  He didn't seem as tired though since he didn't need a nap.  He just didn't feel like doing much of anything.

We continued our Pirates of the Caribbean marathon with the second movie.  After that ended, Eliot said he needed a break so we decided to watch something more light hearted.  I made some sort of joke that was from Mean Girls, and that's what prompted me to find that on Netflix.  Eliot's never seen the movie and I make references from it all the time.  I figured it was time he finally watch it.

He enjoyed the silliness and light-heartedness of that movie.  It was good to laugh a little, even though it hurt like hell.  My lungs and ribs definitely didn't appreciate the jokes, but it was good to have some levity when we both felt like crap.

Later that night, Eliot drove into town to get Applebee's for dinner.  Neither one of us felt like cooking and I thought that would be an easy place to get take out without being in contact with anyone.  When he got home, we ate our dinner and watched the third installment of Pirates of the Caribbean before going to bed.

Monday, August 1st

By Monday, I felt a lot better.  I was still coughing quite a bit, but other than that I was doing pretty good.  Eliot was feeling better but he was definitely stuffed up still.  He also continued coughing, sneezing, and had a really runny nose.

About halfway through the day, I was tired so I decided to take a short nap.  I hadn't gotten as much sleep as I should have the night prior, so I wasn't worried about it. 

Eliot and I watched the 4th and 5th Pirates of the Caribbean movies throughout the day... thus finishing our Pirates of the Caribbean movie marathon.  It was good to see them all again since it had been awhile since I've seen any of them.  Plus, I've never actually watched all five of them in a row before!

That evening, we both were feeling better so we worked on a little bit of stuff for both of our Etsy businesses before calling it a night and going to bed.

Photo Source

Tuesday, August 2nd

On Tuesday, Eliot finally turned the corner.  He was feeling a lot better and you could tell that we both felt more like ourselves.  I could still feel it in my chest and I would occasionally cough... but not often.

I decided that I needed to take a shower.  I had taken one on Thursday, but I was so weak that I almost collapsed.  After that, I decided personal hygiene wasn't something worth breaking my neck over, so by Tuesday I really needed to clean up.  This time I made it through, but got out of the shower completely exhausted.

Thankfully, I bounced back.  Eliot and I worked on some orders during the day and in the evening.  We were listening to music and both of us were singing along.  My voice was lower than usual, but it felt good to be doing something "normal" again.

This was the first night that I actually wanted to cook something for dinner.  I made myself one of my childhood favorites, Kraft Mac & Cheese and piggies in a blanket.  It wasn't anything fancy but it definitely made me feel better.  (Yay comfort food!)

That night, Eliot and I watched The Greatest Showman.  Both of us sang along during parts of it.  After that ended, we went to bed so we could get some rest.

Wednesday, August 3rd

This morning, I woke up past 11 am to an empty bed.  Eliot had decided to stay home from work for one more day to be safe, and somehow I slept in without hearing him get up.  I came downstairs to him cooking bacon and happy as a clam.  I made myself scrambled eggs and we tucked in to watch a Youtube video tour of the Disney Wish.  

Eliot and I have got a bunch of orders that we're trying to get out in the mail this afternoon since our quarantine is officially over today.  It'll be a longer than usual process since we're adding an extra step of sanitizing all of our products and wiping them all down.  Then, Eliot will be packaging them up wearing gloves to be safe! 

I'm not sure what we'll be doing this evening, but we're going to hang out at home and get some more rest since we're both re-entering the real world again tomorrow!

And that gets you caught up to the present!  I'm sure it's going to be another week or longer before we both feel like we're back to normal.  I can tell that my lungs are going to take a bit of time to fully recover.  However, we're grateful that it was only as bad as this.  Eliot and I both know we could have had it much worse... not that this was a cake-walk, but it wasn't terrible.  Hopefully, this is the last we'll see of the 'rona!  °o°

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