I never thought I’d be writing a story about my own COVID 19 experience. I’m “Mr. Protocol” when it comes to following CDC guidelines where disease or virus prevention is concerned.
Masks are worn religiously into grocery stores, medical facilities, banks, you name it. Hand sanitizer is within the door pocket of my car along with saline nose spray. I use the spray on occasion although it’s not proven to stop the COVID virus. Far as I know these germs end up “bodysurfing” on the stuff.
I’m that half-awake guy you see pushing a cart when grocery stores first open, or right before they close to minimize contact with other customers. It’s amazing how fast things go when you’re the only person in an aisle. There’s a purpose for all this madness.
Not only am I high risk, but my wife is especially so. A former cancer patient now in remission, her oncologist deemed it best I do all the shopping and leave her at home. A majority of this is accomplished online and through picking up necessary items afterwards at a designated parking spot. All’s been hunky-dory going on three years now.
Early one Sunday morning as I sat at this computer writing a short story, I suddenly sneezed four times. It happened so fast I didn’t have time to block the first one with my hands. I chalked it up to those pesky Arizona allergies.
Later that day, as I watched the Miami Dolphins get spanked by the Los Angeles Chargers, I noticed a sore throat coming on. Whenever that happens, I automatically go on alert for bronchitis popping up. At least once a year right around the holidays, like clockwork, I experience such. Before going to bed that night, I gargled with warm salt water. Mom taught me that old Alabama remedy early on.
Monday morning my throat felt like a raw piece of meat. Having a runny nose, I was coughing with no fever. There was something different about this cough like no other cases of bronchitis I had. Immediately, I called my doctor, who I asked to let me begin a regimen of Azithromycin. Giving him all my vitals along with what I was experiencing, he obliged. It’s been the same ole routine for many years with several physicians.
Before venturing to the pharmacy, I decided to do one last thing. I arranged to have a drive-thru COVID 19 test performed at the same time. Thinking the worst about a swab stuck up my nose, this procedure was actually a piece of cake. Within two hours test results came back showing I was positive.
My next step was to call my primary physician and give him the updated news. He told me to follow through with the ZPACK for any bacterial germs that might crop up, along with drinking plenty of fluids and get sufficient rest.
Being an analytical kind of guy, I wondered exactly where I got the crud. It didn’t take long to reach a conclusion.
My wife and I were discussing this and remembered that she’d been sneezing three or four days previous with a unique cough. Joleen chalked it up to allergies or a side effect to the Prednisone she was on. Unlike me, she had no sore throat and felt pretty good other than being tired. Who isn’t this time of year!
When I suggested that she get a COVID test just to make sure, Joleen agreed. It too came back positive.
My wife had only been to one place the preceding two weeks and that was a lab here in town. I choose not to specifically identify it and you’ll soon see why.
When she returned home that morning I asked how many wore masks in the lab waiting room. Her answer didn’t surprise me,
“One other person besides me.”
Joleen said the staff all had them on. A sign on their front door advised those coming in to use masks but it was not enforced. I believe this is true of not just this place, but many other medical offices throughout the city. Masks aren’t totally designed to keep people from getting germs, but to keep folks from spreading them as well
Is this lab where my wife picked up her coronavirus and then passed it on to me? I’ll leave that up to the reader.
One thing I’d bet a hundred-dollar-bill on, if I had one, is that she wasn’t the only person leaving that place Monday morning with a case of corona, and I’m not talking beer.
The next time some medical technician asks if I’ve been around anyone having COVID the past fourteen days, I’ll reply with serious face,
“Undoubtedly, with some not even knowing they have it!”
I like to write junk... 