Complaining time!
So, I *finally* caught Covid, likely from one of my students. First, I had a slightly sore throat; I though it was just from staying up late practicing for my conference talk. That same day I went out to lunch, as I didn't know I was exposed to Covid...except later that day it started kicking my butt and stealing my lunch money.
First, the horrendous fatigue and 102F fever that knocked me out for a few days, then my throat hurt horribly for two days during which I only ate ice chips: apparently, the covid-laced phlegm contains traces of virus, white blood cells, and fluoroantimonic acid. Then I coughed until I almost threw up multiple times yesterday. Now? I can't cough, laugh, or sneeze without my abs screaming at me from all the coughing yesterday. Oh, and my recurrent tooth/gum infection came back at the same time just to spite me.
To top it all off, my wife caught it, and so did at least one of my colleagues/collaborators/coadvisors during that lunch I mentioned...because the initial symptoms were practically unnoticeable.
Overall, this is the 2nd worse I've ever felt, only eclipsed by my 2 week stay in the hospital with pneumonia as a 10 year old, and I missed my first ever invited conference presentation because of it. 😭
0/5 stars , would not recommend.
I'm sorry to hear this.
Were you wearing a respirator when you were around the students? Even if both your wife and you wore respirators, you'd need to wear them 100% of the time, because the virus can hang around in the air for many hours. So, for example, if you went into the bathroom and removed your mask there and then an hour later your wife went in there and removed hers, then she could breathe in the virus.
It's very difficult to live in the same house with someone who has COVID-19 and not become infected. You need to isolate the infected person in a separate, area and control air flow so that no air flows from that area into the rest of the house.
I hope you get better soon.
Are you on Paxlovid?
@Pat @trinsec Thanks for the well wishes Pat.
Unfortunately none of the students wear masks, and I only have a PAPR, which I'd rather not wear to campus (it was pretty expensive, lol).
We're already making plans for how to handle this next time, including making a place for sick people in our basement with HVAC return covers, UV sterilization lights, and cheaper 3d-printed PAPRs (including for public use in general). But for now, we're both just miserable.
And no, I was given Augment (antibiotic) to prevent secondary infection, but no I'm not on Paxlovid. After checking it out, I sort of wish I were, but I'm slowly improving regardless.
@trinsec Oh, thanks bud, this was mostly meant to be a word of warning rather than an attempt at an asynchronous, online pity-party XD
My wife and I were exposed to it 2 years ago with 0 symptoms, and we were double vaccinated, wore masks, etc. So I just wanted to let people know it still can suck hard even if you take all the precautions, and get vaccinated, but apparently the bivalent one does a better job but also has more adverse reactions up front.