Quarantine 2.0

 It’s now been a year since my first COVID blog post.  On Tuesday I had my first vaccine shot (Moderna), with the second scheduled for April 27.  Many people I know have already had both shots or at least the first one. 

Sadly, the COVID did have an enormous impact on my Mom.   Last April, she was lucid and talking, and I was able to take her around places.  In July she went to the hospital for an operation which wound up having complications.  From then  until December, she bounced back and forth from local hospitals to local assisted living facilities.  She caught the COVID around December 17, and on December 27 she died.  Her death certificate marks COVID as the cause of death.   That death was especially hard because I was by her bedside with my brother when she actually passed away.  Every other relative, including my father (who died in 2004 of a stroke) took place outside my actual presence.

In January and March 2021 I went to CVS for COVID tests, not having sufficient priority to merit a vaccine yet.  Both tests were negative.  I had purchased a digital thermometer (oral) and have been using that to monitor my temperature, which appears to remain normal.

In March 2020, Gold’s Gym closed down for quarantine.  In June it reopened, albeit with masks mandated and enforced, temperature checks at the entrance, and every other cardio machine turned off for social distancing.   I checked my weight at both times, and weighed no more in June despite having no gym access during that time than I did in March.  About the only thing I could do at home were situps, pushups, and walking up the stairs.   I used to be able to climb all 20 stories at once, but at 52 I’m running out of breath after 5 floors, so 10 floors seems to be my current max. 

By now Trump is gone and his replacement appears to be doing what he can as President to fix the problem instead of writing it off as a “hoax”.  Not that Biden can create and distribute the vaccine himself, but at least he’s doing something.  Moreover, Trump’s own behavior and public statements encouraged his own inbred army of yahoos to refuse to wear masks or social distance – so to that extent, he did make the problem much worse by his own incompetence. 

My other concern was that the virus would mutate into variants which would resist the vaccine.  From what I’ve read, the vaccine appears to be effective against all current variants and probably will.  The cumulative death rate in the US is 2%, meaning of ever 100 people to catch COVID, 2 will die even with medical attention. 

I will continue the masking and social distancing thing.  My subjective impression is that this thing will only end when a substantial majority of the world’s population is vaccinated and we see NO new cases for days on end.  Then and only then can we take off the masks and get back to normal.  And I would hope that we’d learn something for the next virus that comes by.

Oh, and don’t get me started on the “COVID is a hoax” morons, or the anti-vaxxers.  Moreover, holding views which are not only not supported by science but outright dangerous to everyone else is not harmless or simply someone’s difference of opinion, but could have fatal consequences.  If you refuse to wear a mask, and infect 100 people with COVID, two of whom die, I’d say we’re talking about two cases of manslaughter (causing someone’s death without an express intent to kill).  When this is over, I’d suggest the police and prosecutors get to work on prosecuting anyone who can be proven to have caused COVID deaths by this means.  For their part, anti-vaxxers should be socially ostracized and treated as lepers.  Here ends the rant.  

Sick Again

For the first time I can recall, I got the flu.  I’ve had fevers and colds in the past, but never the dreaded combination of the two. 

 Fever.  High temperature – something from 99 to 101.  When I was very young, I had a fever so high I became delirious.  That was an unpleasant experience: a nightmare which continued with your eyes open when you were wide awake, from which there was no escape.  From then on the Universal Pictures logo would make me nervous. 

            Since then, I’ve never had a fever go that high, and the closest to delirium I’d get would be a greenish tinge to everything, even with my lenses out.  I have noticed that Excedrin Migraine makes a dramatic difference, dropping the temperature by 2 degrees and making me feel much more normal.

            Other unpleasant aspects are a general feeling of weakness and fatigue, as if every single cell in your body was at half strength, and a deep chill, resulting in intense shivering, despite being inside with the heat on and wrapped in warm clothing.

            Finally, there is the “same dream over and over again” deal, hardly being able to sleep as I drench the bed soaking wet in sweat, until the fever finally peaks and breaks.  Again, not particularly pleasant.

 Cold.  A cold usually starts out with a sore throat, which is easily remedied with aspirin or Tylenol.  Later comes stuffy nose, coughing, then runny nose, with sneezing thrown in.  It tends to last a week or two.  Unlike a fever, which gives an overall impression of “out of it, on another planet”, a psychological as well as physiological impact, a cold merely seems to be a physical inconvenience.

 A cold, to me, is mostly a nuisance, and won’t keep me from work, from play, from going out and about.  I might not work as hard at the gym as I otherwise would, but it’s not a big deal.  A fever, though, may keep me at home for the first day or so until it begins to taper off.  Illnesses always seem to hit strong and hard, yet taper off in severity gradually.

 What to do?  Well, one thing I don’t do is go to the ER or even urgent care.  Instead, I stay home and self-medicate on aspirin or whatever.  I really hate forced idleness; staying in bed sick is not my natural inclination.  But if I’m stuck at home, I’ll find something to do.  This time around I watched all of “Life on Mars” on DVD, all 4 discs of the single season in the US.  Years ago I had the rare occasion where I was both snowed in AND had a fever, plus I had just borrowed the extended versions of Lord of the Rings on DVD – a LOTR marathon for the remarkably rare opportunity where you can watch 10 hours of hobbits nonstop.  Or another time, I had purchased 3 Tom Clancy books, which I had never read, by some strange coincidence the day before I was struck down with a fever.