Covid Still Sucks

[Kevin Bresnahan]

It's not making the news anymore, but Covid is still out there. And let me tell you, it still sucks. I had a lovely Memorial Day weekend... sore throat, fever, chills, body aches, coughing like crazy & a nose so stuffed up that I went through about 4 boxes of tissues. I am lucky if i got 4 hours of restful sleep over 5 nights.

This was my second time with this & it was much worse than the first. Being up to date on my vaccine boosters didn't help much this time. Plus, they now consider me "high risk" because I've somehow become "senior".

[soulpope]

Get well soon ....

[jazzbo]

Get well soon! Second time. . .that's a big bummer! Hopefully the last.

[Aggie87]

On the positive side, since you're vaccinated, it likely won't kill you, despite it not being a fun experience.

Three people I knew died from Covid, before vaccines were available - an uncle, one immediate co-worker, and another co-worker's father.  

[jazzbo]

34 minutes ago, Aggie87 said:

On the positive side, since you're vaccinated, it likely won't kill you, despite it not being a fun experience.

Three people I knew died from Covid, before vaccines were available - an uncle, one immediate co-worker, and another co-worker's father.  

Absolutely. So much sadness before . . .and after. . . the vaccines. I lost neighbors and indirectly my father.

[Teasing the Korean]

Hope you feel better!

 

[tranemonk]

33 minutes ago, jazzbo said:

Absolutely. So much sadness before . . .and after. . . the vaccines. I lost neighbors and indirectly my father.

I'm so sorry for both of you.

[felser]

My sister's mother-in-law for me, and almost a pastor friend of mine who's 20 years younger than I am.  He was intubated.  Be well, and thankful you have the vaccines.  Purpose of a vaccine, as Aggie87 pointed out, is to cut down the severity of the disease rather than stopping us from getting it.   Be well.

[sgcim]

I got it for the first time this Christmas, and after one sleepless night,I got a script for Paxlovid. It worked pretty fast, and I was able to sleep again.

The only side effect was dizziness when I'd bend down. but that could've been an inner ear problem I get once in a while.

[mjzee]

I got it for the first time this past January.  I think the flu hits harder, but this may have lasted longer.  Definitely no fun.  It was too late for Paxlovid (it took me a few days to realize I had Covid), so I just had to ride it out.  My wife caught it from me.  She returned the favor by recently getting pneumonia and then giving it to me, so I guess we're even.

[soulpope]

Got it past December for the 1st time .... it took quite some time to recover unfortunately 😪 ....

[Kevin Bresnahan]

I seem to be over it after day 6, but this morning my wife tested positive and she's feeling pretty lousy already. Her only saving grace so far is that her symptoms don't include a throat that feels like it was slashed with razor blades. Apparently we didn't quarantine quickly enough.

[jazzbo]

Glad you are feeling better, hope that your wife has a shorter still period of discomfort.

[Dave Garrett]

Got it for the second time at the beginning of last week. My wife had symptoms for a couple of days before she tested positive, and during that period I also started getting a sore throat, which overnight turned into congestion, coughing, and pronounced fatigue. We've gotten to where we try to test as soon as either of us develops any symptoms, because the nature of my wife's work exposes her on a fairly regular basis to people that have it. Like the first time I had it, I immediately got a prescription for Paxlovid, and the symptoms abated significantly after I got through the first few doses.  

[Kevin Bresnahan]

9 hours ago, Dave Garrett said:

Got it for the second time at the beginning of last week. My wife had symptoms for a couple of days before she tested positive, and during that period I also started getting a sore throat, which overnight turned into congestion, coughing, and pronounced fatigue. We've gotten to where we try to test as soon as either of us develops any symptoms, because the nature of my wife's work exposes her on a fairly regular basis to people that have it. Like the first time I had it, I immediately got a prescription for Paxlovid, and the symptoms abated significantly after I got through the first few doses.  

I'm feeling pretty good now. My wife still has a nasty cough.Strangely enough, the Maine CDC still calls people who get diagnosed at a medical clinic and meet certain risk factors (I'm old! ) so I got all of the recommendations read to me over the phone. According to them, I can go out without a mask 10 days after my first positive test, which is tomorrow. Seems pretty quick but you hope they know what they're doing after all this time with Covid in our world.

The first time me & my wife got Covid, she got Paxlovid. It did seem to help but she had to stop taking it because it was making her miserable with the constant taste of metal.

[jazzbo]

Glad you are feeling better!

[Dave Garrett]

On 6/1/2024 at 6:17 AM, Kevin Bresnahan said:

I'm feeling pretty good now. My wife still has a nasty cough.Strangely enough, the Maine CDC still calls people who get diagnosed at a medical clinic and meet certain risk factors (I'm old! ) so I got all of the recommendations read to me over the phone. According to them, I can go out without a mask 10 days after my first positive test, which is tomorrow. Seems pretty quick but you hope they know what they're doing after all this time with Covid in our world.

The first time me & my wife got Covid, she got Paxlovid. It did seem to help but she had to stop taking it because it was making her miserable with the constant taste of metal.

The CDC softened their recommendations for Covid earlier this year, bringing them more in line with recommendations for other respiratory viruses. They now say you can resume normal activities once symptoms have improved and you've had no fever for at least 24 hours, but they also suggest taking added precautions for 5 days thereafter. 

Respiratory Virus Guidance

Hopefully your wife is feeling better by now. In my experience, the cough tends to linger for quite some time after a Covid infection. I count myself lucky that I didn't experience any significant side effects from Paxlovid - the first time I took it, I was concerned about the near-intolerable foul taste that it seems many people have experienced, but although I did notice an "off" taste, it was slight and very manageable. 

[Rooster_Ties]

5 hours ago, Dave Garrett said:

I count myself lucky that I didn't experience any significant side effects from Paxlovid - the first time I took it, I was concerned about the near-intolerable foul taste that it seems many people have experienced, but although I did notice an "off" taste, it was slight and very manageable. 

Don’t mistake me, because I would gladly probably take Paxlovid again (especially if there was an nasty new variant).

That said, the entire 5 days I was on it — and my wife too — EVERYTHING tasted like sucking on a bag of nickels.  And I mean continuously.  While we were eating, we could sort of half-taste our food kinda halfway-way OK.  But the minute we stopped eating, it was back to that strong metallic taste.

When I was a kid, did you ever touch the two poles of a 9V battery to your tongue to test it?  It was THAT taste for 5 days, 24 hours a day.

We chewed lots of gum, and at LOTS of red-hot cinnamon candies — and despite all my bitching here, it absolutely wasn’t that bad — and we definitely felt it was better than the alternative.

Far as the Covid itself, it wasn’t quite as bad as the worst cold either of us had ever gotten.  But we do attribute that to our both taking the Plaxovid so quickly, and we’d take it again.

(I think we each lost 10 lbs over 7-10 days, easily, because food just didn’t taste all that great — which, again, was a good problem to have.)

[soulpope]

1 hour ago, Rooster_Ties said:

Don’t mistake me, because I would gladly probably take Paxlovid again (especially if there was an nasty new variant).

That said, the entire 5 days I was on it — and my wife too — EVERYTHING tasted like sucking on a bag of nickels.  And I mean continuously.  While we were eating, we could sort of half-taste our food kinda halfway-way OK.  But the minute we stopped eating, it was back to that strong metallic taste.

When I was a kid, did you ever touch the two poles of a 9V battery to your tongue to test it?  It was THAT taste for 5 days, 24 hours a day.

We chewed lots of gum, and at LOTS of red-hot cinnamon candies — and despite all my bitching here, it absolutely wasn’t that bad — and we definitely felt it was better than the alternative.

Far as the Covid itself, it wasn’t quite as bad as the worst cold either of us had ever gotten.  But we do attribute that to our both taking the Plaxovid so quickly, and we’d take it again.

(I think we each lost 10 lbs over 7-10 days, easily, because food just didn’t taste all that great — which, again, was a good problem to have.)

Sounds like a rather mild version (some people lost their taste of sense/smell for months) .... good to hear .....

[JSngry]

1 hour ago, Rooster_Ties said:

...did you ever touch the two poles of a 9V battery to your tongue to test it?

I do it every morning, to wake up enough to start drinking coffee.

[Kevin Bresnahan]

12 hours ago, Dave Garrett said:

Hopefully your wife is feeling better by now. In my experience, the cough tends to linger for quite some time after a Covid infection. I count myself lucky that I didn't experience any significant side effects from Paxlovid - the first time I took it, I was concerned about the near-intolerable foul taste that it seems many people have experienced, but although I did notice an "off" taste, it was slight and very manageable. 

My wife & I are over Covid now but we have the nagging cough that just won't go away. We've been told that it may take several weeks to get over this cough.

[Teasing the Korean]

I have it; just tested myself.  Going straight to bed.  

[JSngry]

My son tested positive on Monday.

[sgcim]

Sorry to hear that. I still wear a mask in any indoor gathering where the A/C is turned on. I don't care what people think; there's always gonna be a summer surge.

[rostasi]

Yeah, that's really too bad. KP.3 seems to be the dominant variant now,
but that seems to be changing with LB.1 quickly coming from behind.
Then we got H5N1, so it's time to start stockpiling flu medications
before they become difficult to get. It isn't pretty these days.