![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
April 9--the Plague Journals
Apr. 10th, 2020 05:54 amIt's been about three weeks since I last posted. At the time our campus had just closed, and I started working from home, which I love. I was doing a lot of baking, and taking walks every day. The trees and flowers were starting to bloom, and it was beautiful outside. I wished I could go somewhere, but it was best to stay home.
At some point I started getting more worn out in the afternoons, along with headaches. I didn't think too much about it, but when they introduced community testing in our area, I signed up, and got a drive-through appointment a week later.
Much to my surprise, I got an email two days later, last Friday, informing me that I had tested positive. I figured I must be at the tail end of it, and a very mild case. I told Malida, and she took off from work and arranged to get herself tested as well. She finally got her test results back, and she is negative. She has decide to take an additional week off from work, just in case.
We figured out how to isolate from each other in the house. I got the good bathroom, but she got the family room where my favorite chair is. She started cooking for me, which is a first in the time we have been together--mostly we make our own food, other than maybe one shared meal a week.
I got a bit more sick last Saturday. No fever or breathing problems, but a lot of diarrhea, muscle pain, and extreme fatigue. The fatigue is what gets me. I wake up feeling pretty good most days, and can get some stuff done, and then I hit a wall--some days it's not until the early afternoon, and other days it can be as early as 10 or 11. I have to stop whatever I am doing and just sleep, or sit in the less comfortable chair in my office, where I spend most of my day.
I have made the most of the early mornings when I am feeling good to get my coursework up for the students and have any online meetings I need to do. I am about done with all the stuff I have to do for the course. I've been working about 4-5 hours a day. I could have taken sick leave, but there is no one else to do my work, and it does make the day go by.
I had one really bad day where I wondered if I was going to get really sick. I made a list of all the stuff Malida doesn't really know about--how the bills get paid, where passwords are, etc. It was something that I needed to do anyway, but the spectre of illness added a sense of immediacy to it.
That was the low point. Now I am pretty grateful that I have avoided the worst of it, and am moving toward recovery. Before I tested positive, I was pretty stressed about the possibility of getting it, and now I don't have to worry about that. I signed up to help out if they have to open a field hospital here, but the way the numbers are looking, I don't think that will happen.
Someone from the public health department called the other day to follow up with me. I described my symptoms, and he said they didn't sound unusual for a non-complicated case. He told me that once my symptoms stop, I need to stay in for three more days, and then I am good. I'm hoping that I will be symptom-free in the next day or two. I miss taking walks, even if only in my neighborhood. I miss going out with my camera.
I was supposed to be in Death Valley this week for spring break. Maybe next year. We got an email yesterday that our flight to Thailand, which was scheduled for May, has been canceled. We were waiting for that. Thailand is closed to visitors, so we couldn't go anyway. We'll reschedule when we know better what the world is looking like.
I have a feeling today is going to be a good day.
At some point I started getting more worn out in the afternoons, along with headaches. I didn't think too much about it, but when they introduced community testing in our area, I signed up, and got a drive-through appointment a week later.
Much to my surprise, I got an email two days later, last Friday, informing me that I had tested positive. I figured I must be at the tail end of it, and a very mild case. I told Malida, and she took off from work and arranged to get herself tested as well. She finally got her test results back, and she is negative. She has decide to take an additional week off from work, just in case.
We figured out how to isolate from each other in the house. I got the good bathroom, but she got the family room where my favorite chair is. She started cooking for me, which is a first in the time we have been together--mostly we make our own food, other than maybe one shared meal a week.
I got a bit more sick last Saturday. No fever or breathing problems, but a lot of diarrhea, muscle pain, and extreme fatigue. The fatigue is what gets me. I wake up feeling pretty good most days, and can get some stuff done, and then I hit a wall--some days it's not until the early afternoon, and other days it can be as early as 10 or 11. I have to stop whatever I am doing and just sleep, or sit in the less comfortable chair in my office, where I spend most of my day.
I have made the most of the early mornings when I am feeling good to get my coursework up for the students and have any online meetings I need to do. I am about done with all the stuff I have to do for the course. I've been working about 4-5 hours a day. I could have taken sick leave, but there is no one else to do my work, and it does make the day go by.
I had one really bad day where I wondered if I was going to get really sick. I made a list of all the stuff Malida doesn't really know about--how the bills get paid, where passwords are, etc. It was something that I needed to do anyway, but the spectre of illness added a sense of immediacy to it.
That was the low point. Now I am pretty grateful that I have avoided the worst of it, and am moving toward recovery. Before I tested positive, I was pretty stressed about the possibility of getting it, and now I don't have to worry about that. I signed up to help out if they have to open a field hospital here, but the way the numbers are looking, I don't think that will happen.
Someone from the public health department called the other day to follow up with me. I described my symptoms, and he said they didn't sound unusual for a non-complicated case. He told me that once my symptoms stop, I need to stay in for three more days, and then I am good. I'm hoping that I will be symptom-free in the next day or two. I miss taking walks, even if only in my neighborhood. I miss going out with my camera.
I was supposed to be in Death Valley this week for spring break. Maybe next year. We got an email yesterday that our flight to Thailand, which was scheduled for May, has been canceled. We were waiting for that. Thailand is closed to visitors, so we couldn't go anyway. We'll reschedule when we know better what the world is looking like.
I have a feeling today is going to be a good day.
