serinde: (zzz)
Can be best summed up as "I'm fine as long as I don't try to do anything".

There's clearly some deep congestion happening - everything seems clear when I fall asleep, but then I wake up in a startlement breathing mucous, which immediately goes away upon waking and everything seems clear again. I had about three repeats of that this morning and I could do without it.

I could also, like the rest of humanity, do without this weather. I'm still trying to spend time outside, less for escape from isolation and more to try and harden myself for Pennsic. Though frankly, the best thing I could do for that is to get fit and lose weight; an initiative I had laid out a project plan for before falling ill. *sad trombone* I have lost a few pounds over my illness, and I still don't really have much appetite, so gonna try and use that as a habit breaking opportunity. I'm also, fool that I am, considering starting couch to 5K next week; but let us see how well I get through this week's exertions.
serinde: (Default)
I am finally testing negative; my nose is mostly clear and I'm only coughing rarely. Ironically, I'm feeling more dragged-out than at any prior point in this entire bout...enough that I actually fell asleep this afternoon, a thing generally unheard of.

I am not looking forward to next week's work endeavors.
serinde: (Default)
At one point in the night, I woke up super congested and breathless; snorted Flonase in response. Then slept til 8:30 (I'm technically working today). The weather for the next several days is appalling: hot, grey, humid, thunderstorms. Feh. I had wanted to start taking brief walks to check my stamina, but I don't know... I do need to feed Beth's cats today, which will probably be a stamina check all its own.

Still testing positive, but this morning's line is faint. Maybe tomorrow?

ETA: taking a sudafed because I can't waste a peaceful work day. I begin to wonder: does it actually reduce my deep sinus congestion or am I just speeding?
serinde: (zzz)
Came outside for a bit as the sun was going down, and the humidity came to join. But I'm having a mild beer and watching the fireflies start up. (And hearing the neighborhood pyromaniacs start up, which is less agreeable, but at least it's far less of a war zone than Inwood was.)


Status ditto, or perhaps a slight improvement in that I haven't taken decongestant since the morning and I'm not wholly incapacitated. I am pretty fuzzy-brained, meds or no meds, but I can't tell if that's extra beyond "sick plus disrupted routine".
serinde: (zzz)
Status, ditto. To crown my experiences, I had an anxiety attack last night (work-triggered I should think), and I took one of the other prescriptions the doctor gave me - it's also an antihistamine (!). Seemed to do both jobs; indeed I woke up too dry in my nasal places.

Grey, still, heavy, sticky day today, which is about appropriate for the state of these United States. I am going to sit in my isolation chamber, sulking and watching 1776.

ETA: had to go back and edit all the Subjects since once again I didn't count from day 0, bleh.
serinde: (zzz)
Status, ditto. Or nearly; I'm definitely coughing less, and I should note my sinus weasels have moved from yellow to clear, so that's something.

I had to run an errand at midday because S. couldn't be away from a toilet long enough - fresh N-95, bathed hands in sanitizer, moved as quickly as I could - and I was absolutely wrecked after it. So although the negative levels aren't as apparent as the last time, clearly they exist.

Beth came over for dinner and visit al fresco, as she's just had a bout herself and she felt her risk of reinfection was minimal. I really needed that.
serinde: (job joy)
Status, ditto. At this rate I fear I won't be cleared for any of my weekend engagements.

I had a lovely evening in the garden last night, which turned into a too-late tonight with too-much gin & tonic on an insufficiently full stomach, and I am feeling less than stellar for non-COVID reasons. Work drama increases perforce and there is never a moment without someone running very loud lawn equipment in the neighborhood.

S. has replaced fever with the runs (I assume from the antibiotics).
serinde: (job joy)
Status, ditto (S as well). Had a full day of work and a rough one, was fine as long as the Sudafed didn't run out. I relished my victuals and indeed a cocktail after them, and had a much more agreeable evening on the deck with music and reading and fireflies.

Now just waiting to stop shedding virus, thank you so much, and also to start testing my actual energy reserves.
serinde: (job joy)
Feeling about the same as yesterday: no fever, much sinus and all the loginess etc. that comes with it. (Less coughing, I think.) I am still testing positive; the T-line does not seem to be quite as pink, though that could just be a difference in the test materials. I am going to try and attend three meetings this morning, propped up with meds, and we'll see how I weather that. (I have no meetings in the afternoon, so if I turn into a pumpkin, it's not the end of the world.) I'm feeling very bleh, but I think that's as much the state of the world as what's going on in my meatsack.

S. continues with a low fever, no other symptoms, and negative testing.
serinde: (job joy)
I am now feeling quite wiped out (plus sinusy) - S. became suddenly and worryingly ill in the late morning, with a temperature spike over 101° and terrible shivering and chills. (And yet he has no other COVID symptoms, nor is he testing positive.) I took him to the urgent care (which is also his PCP), where they were basically ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ and prescribed him a course of antibiotics...but wouldn't give him Paxlovid without a positive test. He started feeling better about an hour after I got some acetaminophen down him, though his temperature is still high. This may be a case of zebras, not horses; an onset that fast is usually food poisoning or the like, I would have thought; but we are monitoring the situation. (After a few days of amoxicillin you'll be shitting your guts out anyways, amirite?)

I've just gone and got his prescription, and now I'm utterly knackered. Answering work email did not help, I am sure. My temp, even immediately after exertions, is down to 97.8, so there's that.
serinde: (Default)
Temperature 98.0 this morning, huzzah. Am full of sinus and snot this morning (more than I had during the night, interestingly) and definitely don't feel up to being At Work™ today[1], but clearly on the mend. I may even have stomach for my dinner. The cough is a bit weird, in that I don't feel any phlegm in my chest, and I feel it lurking though not constantly; but if a cough is triggered it is super violent and sharp and dry, in a way I don't recall to have experienced before - let us try and avoid that. Not sure if I should bother testing today or wait til tomorrow.

Lovely day today, breezy and sunny and cool. There may be garden time.

[1] though I will log in to deal with anything on fire, like the entitled professor who's been the spring semester's prize pain-in-the-neck who has been sending me increasingly snitty email about something that really isn't urgent. I will suffer annoyance dealing with her questions but look forward to making her feel guilty, or at least embarrassed.

ETA:
- I did test, and still have a nice vivid T-line.
- Said professor gave no sign of being guilty or embarrassed and just doubled down on bullshit.
serinde: (zzz)
The up-and-down-ness has continued, but on balance I think it's more up than down (the thunderstorms finally coming through no doubt helped as well). My right ear unblocked, hallelujah. A 32oz pot of Candy Cane Lane tea may be too much, especially when I forgot that it's actually green tea, not herbal, and steeped it over-long. Bertram is currently sleeping adorably at the foot of my sickbed and I am hoping he will stay thus for the night. (He will not.) Now to decide whether or not to apply another dose of Mentholated Petroleum to my boobs before going to sleep.

Temperature holding at 99.0. Thankfully, S. still testing negative.
serinde: (Cygnus X-1)
I am feeling an interesting combination of better and worse. Better, in that I have more brain and a little more energy; worse, in that the pressure in my head has increased in a weird way - my ears are blocked up still, but somehow, at the same time, they're more sensitive to the higher pitches, so e.g. dishes clattering is piercing and painful. I don't even know what to do about that. And, surprise guest star, explosive toilet experience (though that could have been the clam chowder I had for lunch; sometimes my body doesn't love a lot of milk/cream).

I have applied Vapo-Rub™ and so far it has just made my nightshirt sticky. I have also snorted olbas oil steam, which helped in the moment but also I didn't shut my eyes fast enough when putting my head over the bowl and ow.

Temperature maintaining at a stable 99.0 without fever reducers, which is not great (my usual resting is about 97.9), but I'll allow it.
serinde: (zzz)
Temperature this morning 98.5, which you would say is not a fever, but it is higher than my usual basal body temp. So...kinda? But improvement on that front, anyways. On the gripping hand, I slept very poorly due to a) coughing, b) repeated cat vs door, and c) ... I am not sure how to articulate this, but I could "hear" crackling and wheezing in my sinus passages every time I breathed out, which is horrifically distracting when you're trying to go to sleep. So I feel kind of logy, sinus pressure is back, bit of a headache, and my bronchial tubes are ready to burst out at the lightest provocation. I've taken a Mucinex-D and let's see where that gets us.

Definitely no relief in the garden today. It's already 80 degrees, 90% humidity, and a dew point of 75, which adds up to "appalling"; and the forecast is for more of the same, plus thunderstorms. No thank you.
serinde: (zzz)
Temperature was increasing midday, so took more paracetemol. Otherwise, continuing the general trend of "sinus woe + headache + cough", which adds up to an inability to do much; and yet feeling restless. Part of this is probably the weather, as it's become increasingly oppressive today with thunderstorms forecast for tonight (take your 68° dew point and shove it). I can't focus on reading, but did manage to hand-sew a little (mem.: bring small task lamp into isolation chamber).
Oh, and my ears are blocked up. This plus masks/closed door makes household communications difficult.

Note to fellow sufferers: Fisherman's Friend cough drops have been the MVP this time 'round.

Bertie has been keeping me company most of the day, which is nice. Other than knocking my tin of pins over.
serinde: (Default)
Woke up at 5:30am, temperature of 100.8, oh boy. Took acetaminophen and went back to sleep for a few hours until Bertram started banging the door, after which we had an hour of "I want in/I want out". Stupid cat.

My sinuses are draining mightily today and I generally feel a little better, though I still have the skullcap headache (this is different from the sinus headache, which I also still have but in a lesser way). My voice is doing bizarre things. I feel horrible coughs lurking in my lungs and I am trying not to do that.

The Tour starts today but for some reason the Peacock app isn't working on the old AppleTV. That is, it works, but it won't play any content. (It's a known error, which I see much of the internet also experiences, and there is no actual solution other than waving dead chickens.) The app is legendarily bad to begin with but this is really the cherry on my shit sundae.

oh here is the banging white paw under the door again
serinde: (Default)
Gee, I should get back to posting stuff that isn't my experience with viruses.

Anyways, for comparative data purposes and great justice:

Day 0: Thursday, 6/27
Felt very sinusy when I woke up, but that's a not infrequent occurrence. I went into campus and was working, but feeling increasingly bleh throughout the morning - when you can literally feel the post-nasal drip a-drippin', that is a bad thing -; took a rapid test at 11:30 and was negative. Assumed I was coming down with a sinus infection and came home at midday, thankfully (I was setting a good example for my staff!). Felt increasingly head-crushy throughout the afternoon and evening, just watched movies, couldn't even sew. But, again, this is how sinus infections exhibit for me... At bedtime, temperature was 98.7.

Day 1: Friday, 6/28
Woke up at 3am feeing terrible; oh, it's because I have a temperature of 100.3. Sinuses were a complete solid block. Immediately decamped to the spare room, taking a smorgasbord of meds. Upon actual waking up time, I tested and it was extremely positive, to no one's surprise (well, I guess it could have been flu or RSV or something). Spent most of the day bingeing Bridgerton Season 3 and drinking herbal tea; went out to the garden and lounged in my egg chair for a few hours in the late afternoon - the weather was perfect, but it was tiring to read for more than a bit of a time. After dinner, went back to the isolation chamber and kept on with my rewatch of The Last Avatar before retiring.

General Symptom Notes
So far, I don't have the lassitude of my first experience; I am not full of energy because I am sick, but no terrible negative levels. Otherwise the symptoms in full swing are pretty much the same as last time, though it's interesting that this time it started with sinus foo instead of cough/sore throat.
serinde: (zzz)
Today is four weeks since I tested positive for The 'Rona. All the traditional symptoms (sinus, lunger cough, etc) are gone - anything I'm feeling now is clearly regular ole allergy crap - but I am still very low energy. I hasten to add that it's not an oxygen or breathing question; the pulse-ox shows me as being just fine in the bloodstream, and I'm never out of breath or whatever; I just...can't, frequently. I did the shopping yesterday morning, and then curled up on [personal profile] sweh's couch for several hours watching teevee, and when I got home I nearly had a blubbering meltdown from how exhausted I was.

I feel like I had more energy at Pennsic, which seems wholly backwards, though S. points out that I was not working a stressful job while there, let alone commuting. (And it has been a stressful work week, it's true. And I have to go in three days next week. FML.)

The closest I've ever felt like this in the past was the summer during college that I had mono. Even after the mono (and the much worse secondary infection, my God I never want anything that foul to come out of my nasal passages again, or anywhere else for that matter) was over and I was to all appearances "fine", I was easily exhausted and couldn't do a lot - I remember that my friends and I went to a water park and on the way home I was just silently crying in the backseat because I was just. so. tired. I don't remember how long it took me to get back to normal; I don't feel like it was super long, but also, I was young and springy and largely carefree. So I'm trying to be patient with myself, but this is not a thing I am good at, especially when there are so many things I want to do right now.
serinde: (zzz)
I went to Pennsic for ten days, and had a good if subdued time (in spite of my tent flooding the first afternoon). As anticipated, I didn't do a fraction of what I normally would have, a thing that was encouraged by extreme humidity for the first five days. (At least it wasn't also extremely hot, being chiefly in the mid-80s or so; we've seen far worse. But it encouraged sluggishness.) It was hard to identify the exact reasons, and more relevantly the proportions of each, for why my ass was dragging: weather? lack of sleep? being out of shape? COVID residual? general confusion and forgetting How To Pennsic? but I tried not to frell about it too much, and just meet myself where I was. One effect of the general situation was that I couldn't help with camp breakdown as much as I usually would have, and I felt bad about this, but it is inspiring me to do what I can to be in a better physical place for next year.

Today I am on my way into campus, and this has provided me with a much clearer A/B comparison: it may have been three years since I was at Pennsic, but it's only been, what, four weeks since I last commuted. And the conclusion is that I am definitely still dragging some COVID-induced negative levels. My walk to the train station is a little under a mile, and even with a loaded backpack avec laptop this is ordinarily just a pleasant ramble for me; but this morning it was actual work. So, yeah. I'm not going to be an idiot (for once) and try and push myself unduly; but I will try and make walking part of my day whether I'm going in or not, and see if I can start building this back up.
serinde: (YAY)
I'm feeling rather better today; still coughing (particularly when I talk a lot) but a bit less congested, a bit less fuzzy, and I have a bit more energy. So all systems are Go to launch for Pennsic this afternoon - I will have a 2.5 hour drive, stay in a very comfortable place I've patronized before (avec whirlpool tub), go to bed early, get up early, and plan to have my tent up by noon tomorrow, Lord willin' and the creek don't rise.

I have changed my out-of-office message to state that I am taking a rest cure in the clean mountain air. No, Coopers Lake isn't actually in the mountains; it's in the western fringes of the Appalachian foothills, don't @ me.

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