#Journey February 6

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This is post about my 23 Day JOURNEY with COVID. The story starts with the first symptom and ends with receiving the COVID Vaccine.

I have to say that I attempted many techniques and practices to avoid making this JOURNEY, but Mr. COVID decided to draft me into service, so along for the ride I went.

I have outlined what I experienced each day. I am blessed that my symptoms were mild but they still were uncomfortable. Today my JOURNEY will reach another destination as I am scheduled to receive the first part of the vaccine.

First some background info. My wife and I live with the youngest of our five children. We are blessed we have a big two-story house that can offer up a nice quarantine situation if the need arrives. The first week in January it arrived. Over the past 3-4 months we have had scares that we had encountered someone who tested positive. We would quarantined ourselves accordingly and go and get tested. All of those events were false alarms. In January it became real despite measures to WEAR-WAIT and WASH.

In late September, my wife and I broke our vow not to eat out and we were astonished when a causal acquaintance came into the eatery with a group of eight none wearing a mask. If that was not enough this individual sat shoulder to shoulder with my wife and engaged in chit chat for 5 minutes.  We decided from that point on we were intensifying our own COVID protocols and began minimizing contact with others. We were risk averse to interacting with others. It was a painful decision because being around our family and friends is one of the best parts of our lives.

Our son graduated from college with a degree in Business at the end of the fall semester 2020. He was approached by a successful businessman to join his company. He started work on Monday January 4^th. On his third day of work he began to have a sore throat. A few days after that he was COVID positive and did a fantastic job of quarantining himself from my wife and myself. I called my golfing buddies and told them I would not be walking with them until further notice. If they went to play at 10AM I went to the course and played in solitude at 9:30 a.m.

On the morning of Friday, January 15^th I started noticing I had a lot of post-nasal drip. It kept escalating and started to include a cough. I still thought it was a cold, but I wanted to be sure.  I went and got tested on January 18^th and boom it was POSITIVE.

Here is what I encountered during my JOUREY with COVID.

DAY 1-Post-Nasal Drip-started drinking water and taking 1000 mg of Vitamin C thinking I had a cold. Stopped drinking beer. -Walked 4 miles

DAY 2-Postnasal Drip a little bit of cough-lots of water and 1000 mg of Vitamin C-Walked 4 miles

DAY 3-Postnasal Drip-cough a little worse-small tinge of sore throat-lots of water-1000 mg Vitamin C-Walked 3 Miles

DAY 4-Postnasal Drip-some low-grade fever-cough still think it is a cold but I go ahead and get tested-my result is POSITIVE. My wife and I immediately began to isolate ourselves from each other in our home. Certain rooms were off limits to me including the kitchen.

Once I tested POSITIVE, I received lots of advice on what I should be doing to treat it. I am glad that what I did was contact my Medical Doctor Dr. Dennis Stuart and ask him how to approach my JOURNEY with COVID. He was very thorough in asking me lots of questions. When he heard that since January 15^th, I had walked 3-4 miles daily without any shortness of breath he gave me a plan:

1. Advil or Tylenol if I encounter any aches or pains.
2. Loratadine 10 mg for runny nose and cough- I went with Claritin Liquid Gels
3. Zinc 50 mg daily -for the record very hard to find.
4. Vitamin C-1000 mg twice a day
5. Vitamin D3 5000 mg daily
6. Melatonin 5 mg at night if needed

I also needed a digital thermometer and oximeter.

My Oximeter reading was always in 96-99% range-walked 2 miles and 1 mile on Day 4- but I slept fantastic on night 4 with the vitamin infusion being my theory.

DAY 5-Postnasal Drip-some low-grade fever 99.8-cough-chills at night FYI I did not use the Melatonin.

Walked 3.4 miles on Day 5-Oximeter 96-99% range.

Had the worst chills and aches to date especially late in evening.

DAY 6-Woke up with fever of 100.4 took Advil-Postnasal Drip-Cough-had two bouts of chills when I woke up from nap and in middle of night. Had a problem getting to sleep adjusting to sleeping on my stomach versus back.

DAY 7-Woke up with fever 100.6 took Advil-Sinus Issues-Cough worsening in fact had a coughing fit that lasted about 2 minutes coughing up phlegm once it subsided no more issues on Day 7-Took 2.5 Mile Walk-temp spiked again after I woke from nap. This was the worse I have felt. Started drinking herbal tea makes me feel better.

DAY 8-Woke up NO fever first time in 4 days for that-felt like I was stuck in neutral. I had two coughing episodes one while on a 3-mile walk-decided that would be last hike for a while. Oximeter still excellent readings but fever spiked late in evening 100.2-took 2 Advil’s and slept for 10 hours.

DAY 9-Second day waking up with no fever- morning temp98.2-biggest issue is pain in shoulder blade area probably from coughing. Post-Nasal drip is the best it has been. Still have cough but more of a dry cough-late in afternoon fever came back at 101.2 took two Advil’s and it went down. Do not really feel hot when thermometer reads that I have a fever. No walk today because of cold and wind.

DAY 10-Another day waking up with no fever, but the day took a turn for the worse with coughing. Big lesson with COVID is not to get ahead of it thinking everything is finished. Last night was the worse night of sleep also. From mid-morning until the end of the day I just could not stop the dry cough. Later in the day fever came back along with chills. Went to bed at 7:30 p.m. and got the best night of sleep since Day 4. Slept until 6 a.m.

DAY 11-Woke up again with no fever-felt refreshed after great night of sleep-almost 11 hours only woke up once. Have not use melatonin any night.

DAY 12-Everytime I feel like I have this cough licked it comes roaring back. Started taking prescription med for the cough called Benzonatate 100 mg capsules. Also switched off Claritin and went with regular Vick’s Day Quill Capsules (got generic brand) worked very well first day.

DAY 13-The cough had moments today when it became incessant. So frustrating. Have learned to just go lay on my stomach and the coughing immediately subsides.  No fever and Mira went and bought me an oral thermometer which apparently is accurate. My temp with the brand new oral thermometer was 97.9 and handheld reading was 99.8. Maybe the last week I didn’t have a temp.

DAY 14 –Morning started off great but by end of day had another coughing spell. Temp continued to be normal and Oximeter readings were 98-99%. Decided to make today the last night taking any more of OTC medication for nasal congestion. It seems to make it worse when it wears off and makes me feel awful also.

DAY 15-Slept great last night. Temp was 97.9 when I woke up. Coughing in morning so much better. Continue to take Benzonatate but have decided not to take any nasal congestion OTC medications.

DAY 16-20-Continued improvement each day. Cough becomes less and less of an issue but it is still present.

DAY 21-Visit with my Doctor-my lungs are clear-BP 110/70-pulse 67-he prescribed a Z Pack and recommended I got back to taking the BENZONATATE

DAY 22-Amazing how quick the Z-Pack provided me relief from congestion and cough.

DAY 23-Headed for my Vaccine Shot (part 1)

A couple of side notes about this JOURNEY. I learned how to incorporate a simple form of meditation called METTA which I posted about on Feb 3rd. That technique helped me alleviate worry and stress. Adding that to my daily prayer was a plus.

I also decided on January 15th to give up alcohol to counter the effects of COVID and also to get a late start on a “Dry Challenge”. I had to put my quest to drink 1,000 unique beers which began in 2014 on hold. I am currently at 979 unique beers and that JOURNEY can wait a little longer also.

My JOURNEY also reminded me that a battle with COVID might be painful but worry, anxiety, and self-pity didn’t improve my mood. What did work was faith, hope, and prayers from others. For all those that took time to pray THANK YOU!!

I am glad that my COVID JOURNEY only involved mild symptoms and made me appreciate the gift we call today.