The Ramblings of Weesatch Joe

Covid-19, day 14: Update Thank you, all, for your kind words, prayers, and care. Doing great. Ivory soap great. 99.44% well.  The only remaining symptoms are the head congestion, ringing (screaming?) ears, and my knees & legs hurt. Those seem to be rather common, lingering after-effects, so it may be grin & bear it for a while. I'm permitted to return to work tomorrow. I plan to be in church Sunday, preaching and leading the Divine Service. I also plan to take a nap in the afternoon. I'll try not to confuse the napping and preaching events. While that might be entertaining for some, it could also be embarrassing and disconcerting.   Laura was contacted by the county health department yesterday to do a contact trace (conversation was rather anticlimactic... "Do you know where you got it?" Yep...my hubby. Oh...). They said she can return to work Monday. Return, not resume, is the key word. Although she has been quarantining since 8/6, she has been working every ...

Just a quick Covid-19 update. I was diagnosed with Covid 19 by rapid test on August 6. Today is August 18. I finally feel solidly in the "good" category. Symptoms are mostly gone - still a little bit of stuffy head - and I am clear to return to work Thursday. (Since my secretary is off Wednesdays, I am going to go back tomorrow.) Overall, Covid symptoms have been, for me, a combination of flu (mainly the fatigue) and cold (sinus pain, stuffy head, dizzy). I was under physician's treatment within hours of the positive test with anti-inflammatory, anti-fungal, oral steroid, baby aspirin, and OTC vitamins.  The non-medical issue is the terrible inconvenience. It literally shut down our family. My wife is a teacher. She had to work from home to try to get ready to teach remotely into her classroom. When she reported my test results to her principal, they sent a Hazmat-suited team to scrub her classroom. My daughter had to be tested and share that with her work, even while she...

Covid 19, Day 13: Update Finally...I feel better, bordering on "good" in fact. I can breathe through my nose, head congestion is almost gone, and I don't feel like I'm going to fall asleep between breaths. The kids and I were laughing and joking, which did inspire some coughs, but that didn't last long and it didn't hurt my head. Food tastes almost normal. Water no longer tastes like licking stainless steel.  I still feel a little of that disconnectedness I've described before and my ears ring like I'm center section, aisle one of a summer cicada concert. (Seriously...that is not an overstatement. That's the sound.) I called my doctor this morning. The nurse said the short fever relapse and bit of a backside isn't uncommon and as long as it doesn't continue (it hasn't since the other night) I'm clear to return to work later this week. The other symptoms should continue to dissipate and fade day by day.  Laura's doc called in a s...

Covid 19: Day 11, Update 1.1 I thought I had turned the corner the last 2 days. Apparently it was a wrong turn and into oncoming traffic.  Anyone get the number of the bus that hit me last night? Cough & chest congestion yesterday late afternoon into the evening. Fever & chills also came back last night, uninvited I might add, after a week's absence. Restless "sleep." Uncomfortable sinus pressure & headache all night.  Soft good news: O2 levels still stable. Cough & congestion minimal as of 10am. Temp @ 98.8 without OTC meds.

Covid-19: Day 10 update Today's update is brought to you by Suave shampoo. Live life: lather, rinse & repeat. Use Suave. Seemed fitting for a theme because it's more of the same. I felt good this morning. Most symptoms have dissipated. Last day of the scripts - I'll be glad to be done with the 'roids. Maybe I'll finally sleep more than 2-4 hours. OTC stuff continues.   The head thing is still frustrating. You know the "disconnected" feeling from high-power decongestants that make you feel like your head is floating about 18" above your body, lightheaded, dizzy, and not quite able to walk a perfect straight line? Not drunk or dangerous, just, well, weird? That's my sensation. It's not "weak," per se. Just a strange feeling. I don't like it. Fine motor skills seem a little off, too. Typing this isn't bad, but I tried to hand-write a thank you note and it wasn't smooth and fluid; almost jerky. I had to concentrate to get...

Covid-19 - Day 9.  Two improvements to note: one, less tired. It's almost 4pm and I don't feel like I could fall asleep mid-stride, mid-sentence, and mid-chew. I'm still tired, but not totally drained. At this rate, I should successfully stay awake until at least 4:30. As a corellary, my lunch did not feel as if it weighed eighteen pounds, needing both arms to manage a PB&J Sammy. So, I guess that's actually #1 and #1.5.   The second improvement is taste. Still not perfect, but I could smell the grilled hot dog, taste the onions, and get a rounder taste of ketchup. Even flavored sparking water, which is only has a whisper of a flavor to start with, had a slight berry flavor. Thankfully, it was berry flavored water!  My head is slightly less stuffy, too. But my voice is still raspy and hoarse. Which actually takes my list up to four improvements. Bonus good news! Perhaps this was the corner day for me. I hope so. At this rate, I'll be out of quarantine early next...

Covid 19 - Day 8 This will be relatively short.  First, I'm writing these for neither sympathy or attention, but to unscientifically describe what this illness is like in case you are so fortunate to join the growing statistical category of Covideers (TM). Also, in case Michael Chrighton wants to write a book about it, I just called dibs on that word. Please call my attorney.  To be clear: I'm no where near the terrible stories you've hears on the news, hospitalized, unfunctional, intubated, in a coma. I'm managing, functioning reasonably well.  I have the continued symptoms of fatigue and stuffy head. My taste is slightly improving. I licked my arm...yes, definitely I taste better. Kidding...kidding.  If you've ever recovered from a bad flu, thats how I feel: just drained. The bad stuff is gone - even the cough has almost disappeared. I woke up this morning and felt great. I was thinking about going outside and tinkering in the shop while it was "cool." I...

Covid-19, Day 7 - Reflection First, a quick update. Still stuffy. Woke up with a lot of sinus pressure and a bit of a headache, actually. The worst part was this was 4:30am. Bummer. No rest for the weary. I got up and watched the new Tom Hanks WWII movie, GREYHOUND. It was OK - the book it is based on, THE GOOD SHEPHERD, was better. Sharp listeners will notice Hanks' character prays Luther's Morning Prayer. The character is the son of a Lutheran pastor - that's mentioned in the book, not the movie.  I added a Vitamin B to my pill salad this morning and promptly dozed off at 8am. I woke at 9:30 and actually felt human - like being able to do something, not just an abstract and nebulus "want" to do something. So, I did some laundry, played with Reese for a bit, and puttered in the shop, assembling some crosses I had previously cut out. Felt good to do something so relatively trivial. I'm not used to just sitting...and sitting...and sitting.  I've had some pe...

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Covid-19, Day 6. Update If I needed to describe this today, I would call it a moderate cold. My nose and sinuses feel stuffy. The light, nagging cough was there this AM, but some totally tasteless hot tea (or was it coffee, water, or soup? My tongue will never tell...) and the prescription cough pearls knocked it out. I added Vitamin C today - found the missing bottle! - so I literally had a whole handful of pill salad. Two prescriptions are done - the anti inflammatory and the anti-viral - but I continue the steroid, baby aspirin, Zinc and Vitamin C. The doc recommended Pepcid and I feel why: Sour stomach.  My biggest complaints are dizziness, which I am contributing to the stuffed head (I suspect it's in the ear, too, which as you know impacts dizziness. So does Jazz music: see Gillespie, Dizzy. But, I digress...) and fatigue. I took Reese, the wonder dog who does wonders, outside earlier before lunch. A couple of lizzards scurried by and when I whipped my head around to confirm ...

Covid-19, Day 5. Update I count Thursday, Test Confirmation Day, as day 1.  Lost my sense of smell and taste this morning. Come to think of it, it was already not quite right last night. I digress. It's strange...my coffee just tasted bitter, not "coffee" at all. Even ate a couple beans, dry, to confirm: nada. For lunch I had leftover meatloaf with a BBQ sauce glaze. I had a zesty, vinegar sensation but not the sweet/spicy kick. Water tastes metallic...and, for the record, thats in a plastic cup.  I wanted to test something stronger...bourbon! Maybe that would punch through with it's smokiness and various notes. Nope. Just a flat non-taste with a hint of sweet that strangely didn't have much of an alcohol sensation (bear in mind...this was a sip, maybe a teaspoon, just for taste test purposes, and not a "drink").  What I taste isn't a true taste - it's like a memory, a tease of a taste that triggers the different sense areas of the tongue. So, it...

I tested positive for Covid this morning. Great. I did service last Sunday with the Sacrament, wearing my mask any time I wasn't doing liturgy or preaching. We also do a small group service on Wednesday evenings for those in the high-risk category.  I felt wierd yesterday afternoon - like I ran out of gas. I took a short nap, ate dinner and felt better so I did the evening service.  My fever started @ 11pm last night. I need to tell the congregation, I guess, that I tested positive. I cannot say where I got the bug. I haven't knowingly been around anyone with the virus.  Have y'all made plans of what to do if you get sick? I had thought about it but never really put anything into place. I will not lead service "live," but I could record it and show it as interactive video (the congregation watches and responds as if I were there). I could let the elders lead service. I really don't want to suspend service but if I potentially exposed everyone last Sunday and W...