Positive Thinking

 So, one day you wake up one Friday morning  feeling more congested than usual. You are coughing. In the pre-pandemic days you might say to yourself "I think I'm getting a chest cold."  But, this is 2022 and you are in the high-risk category, so you take the time to check the symptoms: Just a dry cough and runny nose, achy, blah.  Not terribly significant, you think. You have lunch plans, but the sleet and snow put the kybosh on going out. 

Good news

On the second day, Saturday, you still feel a bit crappy.  Maybe you need to get tested.   You get one of those at-home antibody tests and swab away.  The results are good. There should be a "C" line but no "T" line.  Phew! that's a relief.  It's just a "normal" cold virus, after all.   The weather outside is still pretty bad, icy streets, so you stay in, again.  On the third day, Sunday, you are still feeling chest congestion and a bit achy - especially sore ribs from coughing.  Again, you lay low.  Normal appetite and temperature, so no cause for extreme worry.

Bad News

Monday, day 4, things have not improved. Now, you start to worry that this is not a mere cold.  Time for a re-test.  This time the results are a bit of a shock.  The dreaded "T" line appears after only 6 minutes.  That indicates Positive for COVID. 

So, now it is confirmed: you have joined the club you did not apply to.  Like many others, you secretly thought that you would be one of the folks whose natural defenses, plus the recommended shots, would get you through this pandemic unscathed.  But, now you wonder, what foolishness may have let the virus past the gates and into your lungs.  You try to trace your movements during the few days before you first noticed the cough.   This is a memory challenge for someone who cannot recall what they had for lunch yesterday.  You decide it must have been the Thursday lunch at your favorite Italian restaurant, when you and your wife sat at the bar and split a delicious lemon chicken dish.  That was the only time you can recall being indoors without a mask.  Of course there is no way to know for certain  how or where you picked up the virus.  

The rapid antigen test cannot discern what variant if COVID is present.  So you just assume it is Omricon, which seems to be the prevalent strain around here.  (How do they know?) Hopeful news is that the symptoms are mild.  The Health Care folks don't seem very interested in you unless you have severe symptoms.  No one with a medical degree recommends therapeutics, despite the fact that old fat guys are considered "high risk."

Anyhow, you quarantine, start taking Mucinex, which controls the cough and you push fluids (especially Sierra Nevada fluid) and rest up.  The wife must have super immunity, because she has no symptoms.  Because of the close contact, she has to cancel several social dates and classes and is pretty annoyed with you.

All in all, you feel pretty lucky that the symptoms have been mild, and you have family nearby to help.  In a way, you almost feel glad to get it over with.