Sharing a Bug

It's not often that I postpone a scheduled platelet donation, but I did,  For the safety of the recipients, many of whom are immunosuppressed or on chemotherapy, the donor center asks people not to come when ill.  While haven't registered a fever with my home thermometer, chills have taken hold.  I spent last night sleeping in a recliner so my cough does not disturb my wife, whose symptoms predated mine by one day.  To stay warm, I've huddled in a blanket, afforded myself a few minutes in a steamy shower, then returned to the down comforter.  I arose twice in addition to shower and bathroom needs.  The cat needed,  care.  I needed calories.  My wife has not arisen from bed all day.  Her cough has evolved to productive.

Other than the chills, maybe slight nausea, and an intensely exaggerated disgust sensation that usually appears when I open wet cat food, I don't feel that badly.  Not achy except in calves.  No rigors.  A cough with scant production. No chest or abdominal pain.  It was a treadmill day.  Not wise.

I assume my wife and I share the same illness, time shifted by one day.  It gives me a small heads up for tomorrow's expectation.  No platelet donation.  I'll decide if I can venture to the supermarket to get a few things for Hanukkah.  And very iffy for the synagogue's Hanukkah/Christmas Chinese Food and a Movie.

Priority:  maximize recovery.

Calling In Sick

My Daily Task List, saturated with the Get Me Ahead, will need to take what I hope is a one day snooze.  My Covid booster got a week overdue.  Now, the Influencers from the synagogue could have sent be back to the parking lot, but for the last two Saturday mornings I was pretty useful to them.  And they have no way of tracking who is up to date with the congregational policy of up to date immunizations as a precondition for attendance.  There is still some Covid floating around, though the deadly form seems to have gone the way of cholera, plague, and influenza meltdowns through history.  Still, catching up on my immunization seemed prudent.  I picked a day and time.  After a rather pleasant Open House at OLLI, I braved the rain and drove to the Super G Pharmacy as a walk-in.  No problem accommodating me.  Within a short time, my left deltoid had been punctured with Moderna's latest.

About five hours later, shortly after supper, I realized that not only had I taken something, but that my innards had been primed to generate cytokines.  My arm got sore.  I got edgy.  I felt a little warm, though not feverish.  And nausea.  And no end of systemic symptoms, from sore muscles to unsteadiness of gait.  I toughed it out until my usual bedtime but could not get comfortable.  Eventually I must have dozed, at least until 2AM, then spent the rest of the night looking at the red numerals on the clock radio, experimenting with postures.  I felt thirsty.  So thirsty that I went downstairs to the kitchen and brought my best insulated water bottle to my bedside, sipping it a few more times during the night.  By my customary wake time, those cytokine symptoms were still dragging me to unsteadiness.  Coffee not only did not help, but my customary k-cup brand did not taste right.  Back to bed.  It would take until late morning for those systemic symptoms to abate.  No treadmill today.  No petty errands.  Effectively a loss-leader of a night and following morning.

While the innards feel better, the deltoid injection site does not.  That will have to wait another day.

And the ultimate irony.  My incentive for getting the injection was to maintain the honor system of eligibility to attend shabbos services at my congregation.  And I'm really looking forward to not being there the next two Saturday mornings.

Head Cold

NyQuil, or generic equivalent did its job the last two nights.  It's cough suppressant qualities enabled some sleep with a hacking, largely non-productive cough which has accelerated over two days.  Serious nasal congestion.  No shortness of breath or pleuritic pain. No fever.  Some paroxysms of sneezing.  Not taken a covid test, later today.  But first some coffee, then a shower hot enough to make the bathroom and me each steamy.  All upper respiratory.   Perhaps even bacterial.

A couple of errands need attention.  Treadmill maybe, but likely skip today.  Usually these are self-limited.  Ride out today.  Call doctor if worse in the next day or two.

Pharyngitis

After sitting adjacent to the lamp on my desk in My Space, the bottle of fluticasone received some preparatory shakes before squeezing the dispenser to deliver two sprays to each nostril.  It is intended for allergic rhinitis but should serve a similar purpose for infectious rhinitis.  My throat has gotten sore, enough to impede sleep though not sore enough to limit me to liquids.  No fever.  No systemic illness.  Yet a suspicion of Omicron Coronavirus can be hard to dispel short of a negative home test.  I might, as quarantine would affect some upcoming plans.  While my preference has been for sweetened Luden's Cough Drops, which I acquire when they go on sale, generic Hall's Honey Lemon serve the purpose while staying less medicinal than the more anesthetic Cherry Menthol variety.  Not seen Sucrets in a while or Chloraseptic spray.  Could look for them when I seek the Corona Test.  

While not systemically symptomatic, or at least I think not, I have some sleep deprivation.  As the illness progressed, I aided my catch-up with generic Dollar Store Melatonin, which would still be worth the new price of $1.25 if what they have at Walgreens is not competitive.  Learning something from two stops at very different places on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail, cheap high proof whiskey can be swilled in a way that clears sinuses.  I did that successfully, though at the price of a burning tongue.  Perhaps I can spend a portion of the $5 bills I've accumulated on a bottle of good bourbon that has less lingual sting.

Despite a petty illness, not quite at its peak methinks, it remains a work day with things I can still do.