Covid, Part . . . I Don’t Even Know Anymore

It’s back again and better than ever. Well, okay. It’s back again.

I have a coworker who texted us on Sunday saying, “Guess what guys? I’m Covid-positive.” So, since we’re all close together in our pharmacy, I decided to test.

Also, on Sunday, my dad said that he felt lousy and he thought it might be heat exhaustion. Well, the heat has been inhumane and heat exhaustion is cumulative, so I was willing to buy that. When I left for work on Monday, I reminded him that if the electricity goes out, the local library is a cooling center, since he thought it was the heat.

On Monday, I tested for Covid, since it’s loose at work. I asked my dad how he was doing. He said, “well I took nourishment today I didn’t eat all yesterday” and I, likeā€¦

So. I suggested the possibility that he could have Covid. He pooh-poohed it, because I was testing negative and where would he have gotten it from? He said it had to be something else. I left him the second test in that box, just in case he wanted to test. When I got up Tuesday, my dad asked how long it takes between exposure to Covid and the start of symptoms. I didn’t know off the top of my head, so he looked at his calendar and said that when he was at the doctor on Thursday, there was a woman in the waiting room who was coughing. He decided that testing might be a good idea.

I pulled out my handy dandy BinaxNow(tm) testing kit and set it up. I timed my dad while he swizzled the swab in his nose, and then we waited. Sure enough. He was positive.

There’s a combination urgent care and emergency room that we use for a lot of our Covid needs at work (Alex also went there for his diagnosis when he got Covid). I set up a profile for him (attaching the pictures of his ID and insurance card took **forever**) and gave him the address of the clinic in case he felt up to going on Tuesday. Needless to say, he did *not* feel like going in.

So I drove him up there on Wednesday and, due to his age, and him being short of breath, they put him in the emergency room half of the building. I’d never been over there, and if I hadn’t been terrified for my dad, I probably would’ve been fascinated. My dad’s hearing isn’t all it used to be, so I helped translate. The workers couldn’t take their masks off so he can read their lips, so I repeated the questions with my mask off just long enough to ask the question. They got symptoms and lists of medications. My dad doesn’t take anything systemic, just eye drops.

Public Service Announcement Time: if you ever deal with bungee cords, **Please** wear eye protection. That’s why my dad uses eye drops. He smacked himself in the eye with a bungee cord back in . . . 2010? 2011? His ophthalmologist says that she gets more patients that way.

The doctor came in soon after that and my dad could understand what the doctor was saying. So when the doctor said that my dad would be there for a couple of hours while they did bloodwork and took xrays, since my dad could hear him, I came home. I swear I stopped somewhere on my way home, but I cannot remember where it was. I read for a while, and two hours after I left the ER, I headed back, and got there just as they were getting his paperwork together to release him.

We stopped for Popeye’s Chicken and his prescriptions on the way home and he’s been taking Paxlovid(tm) and an inhaler.

Now the thing is I spent basically 45 minutes in a midsize sedan with a person who has Covid. I put the air conditioner on vent rather than recirculate so that we were getting fresh air in there, but still, the close quarters greatly increases the chance that I’m going to get it, too. I’m basically planning for it.

This is particularly important considering that another coworker called today and said that she has it. There were four of us scheduled, but we ended up with only three. Ick.

I tested again today and it was negative, so I can go to work tomorrow. Saturday will be 72 hours after I was in the car with my dad, so I will test again on Saturday. I’m stocking up on food I can eat in my bedroom, because when I’m not doing something that requires this computer, I hide in my bedroom now.

I have nuts, and pudding, and vegetables. . . . Cranberries! I bet dried cranberries would be good. Since I’m likely to get this *from* my dad, I can also emerge to cook. I’ve ordered some chicken and things that I can cook and then take to my bedroom to eat.

The thing is, that two more of my coworkers had Covid at the same time I did, so I suspect that they will get caught in this current round of Covid, as well. This looks like it’s going to be fun.

Today’s Gratuitous Amazon Link is for the final book in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series: The Last Olympian. I was worried about this book, largely because as far as I’m concerned, the Harry Potter series sort of fell apart at the end, and so I was worried that Riordan would also bobble on the dismount. I needn’t’ve worried. He nailed it.