Week 23 - Dodged a bullet...for now

Week 23 - Post Lemtrada

March 29, 2020

Another week that felt like a month.  The week started with good news, my husband tested negative for COVID-19! We definitely dodged a bullet there.  He had traveled domestically so we were already keeping our distance. He started having headaches that didn't go away and feeling fatigued.  He thought it was stress and/or being tired from traveling but was still checking for a fever and never had one.  A week later he still wasn't feeling great and read about a NFL coach who tested positive and his only symptoms were a headache and fatigue with no fever.  He contacted our doctor; she had received some tests and wanted to see him and maybe test him.  He went to her office but stayed in his car.  She came out in full PPE.  She checked his blood pressure, temperature, etc.  No fever still but he did have swollen glands.  She tested him for COVID-19, flu (negative) and strep (negative).  She gave him a mask and told him to act as if he was positive.  She also told him it would be 2-14 days before he got results because the labs were backed up.  For three days, he was isolated to either our bedroom or the office.  I cooked and he ate in the office.  I kept telling myself it had to be something else; we were being cautious in the house but not perfect and with my low immune system, I would have come down with something in the week he wasn't feeling good.  Plus the two people he traveled with weren't showing any out of the ordinary symptoms.  It was extra difficult for a few days but then we knew for sure he was negative and I was able to sleep back in my own bed! 😁 Our doctor did send in a culture of his throat swab.  We found out on Thursday (almost a week later) that he did have some strep and other bacteria but since he was feeling better by that point she didn't prescribe him any antibiotics.  It was a good thing that we had stayed away from each other for that week.  I would have caught something.

Our doctor recommended that anytime any of us go out that we should wear masks. Some of my neighbors are sewing face masks to donate to hospitals for use with non-covid19 patients.  You need a N95 face mask to protect you from virus already in the air but if we all wore any kind of mask it would make things safer.  It would help keep the virus from getting into the air by those who don't realize they have it and keep people from touching their nose and mouth.  Numbers are spiking all around the US; I am ready to just stay put for a while and not come in contact with anyone else if possible.

This week our weather was unseasonably and record setting warm.  Two nights in a row, I woke up several times during the night sweating.  The AC was on so it didn't really make sense that I would be sweating but I wasn't running a fever so maybe it was hormones?  The only other thing besides the temperature outside that changed was that I ate a little gluten.  I've never noticed that gluten affected me like that but now I'll have to pay more attention.  I thought about doing a mid-week blog this week since my last post was so long but aside from the test results news; it's been a quite week.  Our county went under a Shelter-in-Place order on Tuesday night.  We still had people hanging out at swimming holes. 🙄 The number of cases in our county has been going up pretty steadily this week and the numbers lean more heavily 20-39 year olds.  That is either due to being a college town and having a younger population in general and/or younger people feeling more invincible.  🤷 I read about a 27-year old women in the area who got really sick; no underlying health issues but she had difficulty breathing and described it as feeling like she was drowning.  I read a post about a 60-year old man and his 54-yr old wife who were very sick as well but still able to take care of themselves at home.  He said they had never been so sick.  All three were sick, thought they were getting better then it hit them hard again.  It took about two weeks for them to really turn the corner.  It's a little scary that some younger people are getting hit so hard and even dying; a 44-year old man who lived in a city near here died and apparently had no other health issues but Rand Paul who had part of his lung removed had no symptoms at all.  I tried to search to see if he had any symptoms come up later but there is no news on him after he tested positive.  It makes you wonder if there are different strains.

Symptom-wise: my energy level was lower for a few days when I wasn't sleeping well but the weather got cooler over the weekend and as soon as I was sleeping better, my energy also went up.  I noticed last week that my hair isn't falling out as much.  That's been going on for a few weeks but I just hadn't really noticed.  I did notice two spots at the top left and right of my forehead that have little pieces of hair growing back in.  It's funny, that's where I noticed hair growing back 6 months after my kids were born.  My fingertips are the same; my legs are a little worse only because it's every morning now but not any stronger.

Other than that we are just trying to hang in there like the rest of the world. Trying to enjoy the extra family time we have without also killing each other. 😉  There are perks, like your kid baking and bringing you beautiful cupcakes.

Take care