The Grim Creeper Came a’calling

 I looked, and there before me was a pale horse … Revelation 6:8

Former Speaker of the House, Tip O’Neill, is reputed to have said, “All politics is local.” I would modify that slightly and report that all pandemics are local, too.

I recently contracted the Covid-19 virus (despite taking the usual and customary precautions). Working with the local health department, we did all contract tracing, testing, and sharing of information with everyone and anyone with whom I’d been in contact and kept the disease confined to a very small bubble, for which I am thankful.

In a shift from my usual banter here in this space, I’m going to share a bit about my experience with the disease and note that these are the thoughts and reflections of a layman; nothing read here should be considered medically or scientifically authoritative.

I (unknowingly) contracted the disease in early October, but was symptom free for at least a week. Being symptom free, I became a potential spreader, but living in a self-imposed quarantine (except for immediate family), the danger was limited to those few people with whom I’d been in contact – my pod.

The early symptoms were typical of the flu: coughing, headache, low-grade fever, body-ache. I took over-the-counter meds for the fever and cough and took advantage of the drive-through testing center the health department has been running for months. The next day I received a call from Isabel confirming my worst fear. Indeed, I was Covid-19 positive, and so I provided her with the contact information she would need to begin the contract tracing.

I was placed in isolation (stay at home, no trips or walks past the mailbox, stay away from people, etc.). I learned the difference between isolation and quarantine (which I had always thought of as being synonymous). Isolation was my staying away to protect others; quarantine is a separation intended to protect the self. I had been in quarantine to protect myself and family for lo these past eight months. Now I was ordered into isolation to keep from spreading the disease any further.

My symptoms, while unpleasant, were not as severe as I had feared they would be. I never got to a point where I needed hospitalization. While we hear a lot about the mortality rate (about 2.4% – which is about ten times the mortality rate of the common flu), the vast majority of people do recover, and that’s good to know. It doesn’t lessen the seriousness of the pandemic, but it does keep it in perspective. I find (for myself) that not knowing is always worse than knowing, no matter what the topic. Although I’d been reading about and hearing about Covid-19 since January (with a constant focus on its deadliness, which it IS) I found myself constantly worrying about whether or not I’d contracted it every time my allergies kicked up.

Well, now I can report with some confidence that the illness is every bit as bad as reported. It is like the flu, but worse. It is like the common cold, but much worse. It has all the symptoms of those more common strains, but on steroids. And it lasts longer. While the main issues were short-lived, the coughing has persisted. Breathing with Covid-19 is like taking a deep breath outside when it is 20 below zero. The lungs feel very raw. When I speak, I am barely into the third word of a sentence when the urge to cough rises and throws me into lung-spasms. This, I’m told by Isabel, should go away in a few weeks. I hope so.

The other matter that hit me when I was almost a week into isolation was the sudden loss of my senses of smell and taste! I’d heard that happened to others, but didn’t realize it seems to be an almost universal side-effect of the virus. Now, my cooking skills are such that it could be a blessing in disguise, but to lose my ability to enjoy my morning cup of coffee – now THAT was a bridge too far!

But, at the risk of one more cliche, it is what it is. I had let my guard down for one moment in the past eight months and caught that which I had assiduously striven to avoid. It happens. I was fortunate. I got side-swiped with a relatively mild case. Despite having a “clean” bill of health now, I will continue to practice safer and better social distancing. Partly for myself, of course, but more for the sake of those I love in this, our valley.