Day 503 – Virus update and vaccination

I’m on Day 22(?) of my nasty viral infection, so I thought I’d share an update.

I’m improving. This time last week, I was at the hospital for blood tests and x-rays. This time this week, I’m sitting at my computer with a beagle at my side, contemplating life (both of us).

Things are definitely getting better: fewer headaches, less coughing, resting heart rate dropping to near normal levels, fever is gone. Much to be happy about.

But it’s not all plain sailing. I’ve still got a few ongoing issues. Fatigue is the big one. The “chronic” sort: I struggle to stay up past 8 o’clock each evening – I’m just absolutely exhausted. And the “acute” sort: completing any sort of energetic (ha!) task – like climbing the stairs, moving a chair, doing some ironing, answering the door – leaves me light-headed, out of breath and needing a sit down. This bit doesn’t seem to be getting much better at the moment, which is equally frustrating and ridiculous. At this point, I’m not sure how I’m ever going to get back to my supreme, pre-Covid levels of athleticism. Jokes aside, I was happily doing about three 5km runs a week and playing 5-a-side football just a month ago and now I can’t walk 100m without a break.

I’m still not eating a lot. I have a limited appetite, perhaps partly because I cant smell or taste anything. Or can I? Bitterness is definitely there, maybe occasionally some saltiness. And if I eat anything spicy, I feel the burn, but with no actual flavour. Sometimes, I think I can taste proper flavours, but when I concentrate, maybe I’m only imagining what I know things taste(d) like. It’s just plain weird to lose something so very innate and basic that you – quite reasonably – take for granted. And texture becomes hugely important, which is why I can’t eat banana again until my taste completely returns. And possibly not even then.

And then there’s the mental stuff. Wow. Thinking and remembering stuff is really difficult. Concentrating for any length of time is pretty much impossible – a real effort. I’ve drifted off several times while writing this. I know that this might also be a symptom of just getting older, but it’s come on awfully quickly for me. Hopefully this “brain fog” clears sooner rather than later – it’s actually quite scary.

Other than that, though, I’m getting there. I’ve lost 6.5kg and a few weeks of my life, but I’m very glad to have avoided a stay in hospital and I’m very much looking forward to my second jab and even more protection in a few weeks.

If you’re hesitant about getting vaccinated, please take it from me: go and get jabbed – you don’t want this.

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I’m so very tired of the anti-vaxxers – I always have been – but I’m getting equally tired of those people on social media who tell us “I’m not anti-vax; I’m pro-choice”, and then fill their timelines with blatant anti-vax propaganda.
The stats are great for avoiding serious and disease through vaccination, but as I mentioned here, I would do anything to avoid even what I have had. Please take it from me, this was right up there with the worst I have ever felt, including Salmonella (enteritidis PT4, nogal), malaria, viral meningitis and (It’S jUsT lIkE) Influenza.

And you simply don’t know if it’s going to stop there. You could end up much sicker than I did. And then there are often ongoing symptoms that we’re still learning about: see here and here – and yes, of course we will be vaccinating our kids asap like we have with polio and TB and measles and mumps and chicken pox and HiB etc etc etc, because decent parents look after their offspring.

Anyway, brain fog rambling all done: if you want a personal account or if you have specific questions about how this can affect your life, maybe just to help push you into getting the jab, feel free to get in touch.
Spoiler: it’s zero fun (and I’m not just talking about my personal account).

Day 500 – Day 500 of lockdown

Not much to add here, because it is what the title says: the 500th day of our lockdown in some form or other. It’s not been pretty, but research does show that it has been somewhat effective. But there have been huge downsides, especially economically and socially.

And where do we find ourselves on Day 500? Probably in a worse situation that just about any of the previous 499 days. It certainly feels that way personally (if we’re playing with exact numbers, then Day 481 was the probably the worst). We’re not allowed out between 10pm and 4am (like I’d want to anyway) and we can’t buy alcohol to drink at home on the weekends or public holidays (tomorrow is a public holiday) (but again, like I’d want to anyway).


On the plus side (again personally), I’m probably safer from Covid-19 right now than at any previous point in the pandemic, but that’s scant consolation given that I’m completely broken after I stayed up for the football last night. And that was a pretty unpleasant experience, as well.

There’s no end in sight for the third wave or the pandemic or the lockdown generally. Will I be writing more about lockdown this time next year? Will my lockdown diaries tag reach 1000 days. I wouldn’t rule it out.

In the meantime, we’re still doing our level best to be good and to avoid people and places. And given that I get knackered just walking from one room to another – and looking at that graph above – maybe that’s the best way to be at the moment.

As a brief addendum, can you imagine if I’d kept my 50 Days Of Lockdown Flickr album going all this time? I was getting desperate for content by Day 8! Day 408 would have been pants.

Day 499 – ITAP

One of the things that was ruined by our recent family Covid experience was Mrs 6000’s [landmark] birthday, which was thoroughly annoying, because [landmark] birthdays don’t come around all that often. And one of the plans for that day was for her to go on a gentle horse ride with her friends around some of the local vineyards, followed by a picnic in said vineyards. That didn’t happen because of self-isolation and general crappiness.
But we did manage to get that to happen today.

For the kids and I, the brief was clear: deliver the picnic to the vineyard in time for the end of the ride, and get some photos of the ride for posterity. No problem: I’ve proven that I can drive and the horse place/vineyard is almost literally just around the corner. I can set the boy loose taking photos and the girl and I can unpack the picnic stuff.

And so that’s what we did.

While the boy was away doing his thing, the girl went to chat to some of the remaining horses at the stables and I was left alone with the birds: Jackal Buzzards, Drongos, Sunbirds, White-Eyes – feathery stuff everywhere. And when the boy came back, I decided that I had to shoot the Flycatcher that had been flitting around the car.

This was quite a big deal, because it’s the first time I’ve been out of the car for 3 weeks and the first photo I’ve taken in over a month. I only had to go a few metres from the car to get the shot, but that was knackering enough, especially with a football match to stay up for this evening. But, bread and butter shot of a cute little bird posing on a nicely-textured horse fence: couldn’t resist.

Now just to edit 175 various images of ladies on horses. And maybe a nap.

(Definitely a nap.)

Day 498 – Pushing the limits

The boy needed collecting early from school today (why yes, because of news of 2 positive covid cases in his class, of course), and Mrs 6000 was in a VIM (Very Important Meeting). I had to put clothes on for the second time this week and then get into my car – undriven for almost three weeks – and go and save him from the virus (against which he currently has several billion antibodies anyway).

The car started first time, I remembered the way to the school and we both got home safely. Everyone survived.

That all seemed to go quite well, and so I wandered downstairs later for some dinner with a new sense of hope. Dinner was indeed good, and then I packed the dishwasher. And it’s just taken me 10 minutes to get back upstairs. Knackered.

Will I be able to stay awake for Bournemouth v West Brom? The kick off is in just 30 minutes.

I can’t see it happening.