AFTER TWO YEARS of avoiding big crowds, slapping people’s hands for trying to drink out of my glass and four vaccinations, COVID-19 finally caught up to me.
For lack of knowing a better way to describe it, I began feeling funky one night last week after there had been some positives in the office. I tested negative initially — I believe now I did the test too quickly or otherwise goofed it up — but at 1 a.m. one morning, I woke up and I had graduated from funky to “Whoa, something is definitely going on … ”
My biggest symptom? Dizzy spells. Sometimes massive. And general light-headedness. I looked it up, because I hadn’t heard about dizzy spells much when it came to COVID symptoms. Sure enough, about one-sixth of people with COVID report this symptom. It might be a sign that the virus set up camp in my inner ear.
Still, I was lucky. No cough, no fever, no body aches, minor sinus headache. No real flu-like symptoms. Honestly, if I hadn’t suspected COVID, I wouldn’t have even thought of it as a virus as much as being worn down or perhaps not getting enough sleep.
The worst of it was I had to take a couple of long midday naps the first two days. I was feeling really glad I took the vaccination and boosters seriously. I cannot imagine what that virus would have done to me without a wall of antibodies in the way. I was done with any symptoms after two days.
Cabin fever
But the biggest drag of it all was the quarantine. I’m an outdoors animal. I hate being cooped up for days. I missed being able to go out hiking. I missed covering a bunch of baseball games at the Dick Brown tournament. I had really been looking forward to it. I missed hanging out at the Barhop, making fun of all the people asking which is their lightest beer?
But, here I was stuck inside for a week. I felt like a caged cat.
So what to do when quarantined?
Here was basically how it went:
Hours 1 and 2 — I’m bored
Hour 3 and 4 — I’m sooooo bored. I should find something to binge.
Hour 10 — Holy cow, “Stranger Things” is really good, why didn’t anyone tell me?
Next day:
Hour 1 — Oooo, new season of Umbrella Academy.
Hour 6 — Klaus and Number Five really crack me up. I could watch them all day.
I swear I could feel the virus … probing? Looking for weaknesses. For a little while, I had sinus pressure, a bit of a scratchy cough, a low-grade headache, a sore throat. I had all of these symptoms briefly, like for an hour or two, then they would vanish. And none of them got severe. I did end up getting the metallic and/or salty taste in my mouth people warned me about.
Milk tasted salty. I kept imagining the virus migrating from one part of my body to another, looking for organs to attack and finding all the antibodies from my boosters. Could be. Could have just been my imagination.
I spent a ridiculous amount of time planning my vacation next week to Oregon. I’m sure once I get there, I will throw that plan out of the window.
I spent too much money online. Bought an Avalanche championship T-shirt, bought tickets to a Seahawks-49ers game.
So the biggest lesson I learned — This thing isn’t a joke. It’s a mean virus, and it isn’t remotely done. I already knew that, but sometimes you need a personal reminder.
