Hopper 1, Wu Flu 0

 

Something odd happened the first week in January.

Patch, our youngest at age 13, had been sick off and on for the past ten days. Nothing unusual or nothing to keep her out of school. Certainly nothing flu-like. Some sniffles, some clear mucus, some fatigue, but it would come and go.

Soon the same thing happened to Little One, age 17. But she felt a lot worse, and the wife took her to the local Care Now, thinking it might be strep (again). She was tested there, and the verdict was: COVID.

Well, here’s the great test, I thought. I remember the Great Fear of the Winter of 2020, wondering if I’d succumb to the Wu Flu. Well, despite several coworkers coming down with it (none fatally), I never got it. I casually stored that fear away in the spring and summer, and then pretty much filed it in the garbage can. Last winter, despite much renewed fear mongering from all the usual suspects, I wasn’t worried. In the spring the wife got the double vaccine. We moved down to Texas last July and, looking for work and seeing the writing on the wall (that I might have trouble finding employment being unvaccinated), I succumbed to the vaccine.

That was a not-so-great experience, to say the least, as I’ve documented here in these e-pages.

We kept Little One and Patch home from school for the week, per policy down here. Five days quarantine. And a day or two later, I suddenly felt the symptoms of my annual bronchitis kick in.

That Sunday, at the wife’s request, I went to Care Now. And lo and behold I tested positive for COVID. But, I protested, this is my annual bronchitis – not the flu. I get it every year (with the notable exception of 2020 and 2021, the result of, I guess, excessive hand-washing), the coughing knocks me on my butt for a day or two, the docs give me a Z-Pack, and I’m miraculously cured.

This doctor, decked out in just slightly less than a full hazmat suit, would have none of that. It’s COVID, she insisted, and it mimics other diseases. We will not be giving you a prescription for azithromycin; you’ll just have to ride it out.

Well, I thought, not being in a good mood at that point, it’s a good thing I didn’t come in with raging hemorrhoids. That’d be COVID in disguise, too.

Once home I doubled my vitamin C and vitamin D3 doses, drank lots and lots of fluids – water and fruit juices, and generally took it very easy. Despite my coughing and fatigue (from not being able to sleep peacefully through the night) I did not miss a day of work, nor did my output suffer. After a few days I felt 90% of normal. As of Monday, I am completely healthy.

So, COVID or not, I survived. 50+ year old Me with my one functioning lung and extra 25 pounds around the waist.

Hopper 1, Wu Flu 0.