Tuesday, December 28, 2021

My Covid Journey, Part 1

Nearing the anniversary of this, I figure it's time to talk about it.  So, here it goes.

2020.  Wow, that was quite a crappy year.  It would be easy to think the run from 2016 to 2020 wouldn't constantly get worse and worse.  Yet it did, culminating with the utter dumpster fire that was 2020.  While there is a ton of possible things to discuss, I'm going to go with my personal journey through the biggest story of 2020, the corona virus.

I was fortunate enough to keep my job through the pandemic.  I was also able to work from home for about 2 months.  Eventually my boss required us to come in once a week, then leveraged that to be full time back in the office.  I won't go into details, but it wasn't ideal or necessary.  We were also the only department to actually do so, still to this day.  At least they bought us lunch that one time?

Anyway, we wore masks, spread out, and things were going okay.  Near the end of the year, one of our co-workers got sick.  They assured everyone it was a head cold.  Without a negative test, they had to stay out 10 days.  With a day left, they finally got a test.  Or, claimed they did.  They said it was negative, but that it didn't matter because the 10 days were up anyway.  Then, another person got sick.  She was staying out the 10 days, but couldn't get rid of her cough.  She, of course, "couldn't" get a test.  Then, I got sick for a few days.  Being responsible, I got tested.

It was positive.

It's hard to describe exactly what it felt like to see that, but I will try.  It was like time stopped for a second, and everything fell into despair.  I think I was in shock.  I could comprehend what the result meant.  I could very well die from this.  I just made a sad face and held the phone out to my wife.  Her eyes went wide.  We knew she would have to get tested, although the chances of it being the same were 99%.

She did, and it was positive.  I informed my work, and she hers.  We planned how to stay away from the kids as much as possible.  They would continue to stay in their rooms, while we would stay downstairs as much as possible.

2020 just had to get in that last kick.  On the second to last day of the year, I had finally tested positive for Covid.

My wife's work, being retail-oriented, had a plan in place to pay out 2 weeks while you stay home, after providing a positive test to some third party place.  She did that and was able to sit around and recover, in between worrying about me, the kids, herself, and cooking meals.  My work had no such safety net.  I could use all of my sick time, or try to work remotely.  Not knowing how the virus was going to affect me, I chose to work what I could, and just use sick time to fill in the gaps.  My boss agreed, and that is what happened for the next two weeks.

Thankfully, my case did not get too serious.  There was a lot of coughing, which made sleeping extremely difficult.  For the first few nights, I had to poorly sleep in the corner of my couch, and mostly upright.  Not fun.  Once I was able to sleep lying down, it got better.  Again, I'm lucky to have not needed hospitalization, or worse.  My wife fared better than I did, having an even more mild case.  My son had some symptoms for a few days, but seemed better quickly, or at least told me he was better.  My daughter didn't show or tell us about any symptoms.  I am very thankful that we got through it.

That second co-worker who was sick? She ended up getting tested after I did. Would you believe she tested positive? Because she did. I'm certain I got it from her, but I'm not sure where she got it. I don't hold it against her, since she was a friend of mine, but I really wish she got tested much earlier than she did. It's strange to be a more mature person than a woman over 55.

Whew. That was quite a ride. At least there is a tiny light of hope after November. 2020 sucked, but at least it's over. 2021 has to be better, right?

Right?

*Sees January 6, 2021*
Oh...well, damn. We're screwed.