I managed to sleep past 4:00am, but it took two tries. I went to bed at 10:30 thinking I was breathing through my nose a little better than I had before. As soon as a lay down though my nose clogged up again and all progress was removed. Crap. I fell asleep after a little tossing and turning and was hopefully on my way to a full night’s sleep… and then I woke up at 2:30am. What? Four hours? That’s it? I didn’t even make it to 4:00am. I went to the bathroom and then lay back down. I couldn’t fall asleep though. I was thinking of just getting up for a while. I got my pills and the last of my water bottle and a couple of protein bars and brought them to the couch. I was going to have my vitamins and maybe some breakfast but then I decided to try to sleep again. It worked. Next thing I know the 6:00am alarm in the bedroom was going off. I did it. I slept past 4:00am. What a relief.

Okay, I am up now and about to have some food and take a shower. At 9:00 I will punch in to work. I’ll tell my manager and my staff that I am planning on working until 1:00pm and then re-evaluating my situation. If I can work the full day I will, if not I’ll take half a sick day. Here’s hoping I can stay focused for the full day. Fingers crossed.

I’m just about ready for bed. Maybe one more episode of Doctor Who and then I’ll pack it in for the night. I was not able to take a nap at all today and I am super exhausted. Is anyone giving odds on whether or not I will spontaneously wake up at 4:00am for a fourth day in a row? Here’s hoping I will not.

I’ve sort of had my mind made up that I would be able to work on Friday. Now that Friday is imminent, I really think that was too optimistic a goal. I am going to commit myself to working in the morning at least and then maybe going out sick in the afternoon if I need to.

I have been fever free all day today, which is nice. Other than the dizziness I think I have probably shown some improvement, but I am definitely not out of the Covid woods yet. The dizziness prompted me to skip this evening’s Paxlovid dose. I took three out of 10. My wife has had better luck. She took her ninth out of ten tonight. She’ll be through the whole coarse in the morning. Good for her. She was able to work a little this morning but it wore her out and she had to call out sick in the afternoon. Hopefully she’ll have better luck tomorrow. Hang in there, Jen. You’re almost through it and I am right behind you.

Okay, I have about 15 minutes left of Doctor Who season 13 episode 12 Pyramids of Mars Part 4, and then it’s off to sleep on the couch for me. Good night, gentle readers. Sweet dreams to you all.

I think I have had a bit of a setback today. It’s not the Covid that’s the problem, I think it’s the meds. Specifically the Paxlovid. We were warned that there were some nasty side effects involved with Paxlovid and that some of them are worse than Covid itself. We figured it was still worth the effort so we started taking the 10 dose course.

This morning was my third dose. I took it at 8:00am. By about 11:00 I was starting to feel a little light headed. Over the next hour or two it was getting steadily worse. I asked The Google if dizziness was a side effect and sure enough it is. It was bad enough that I decided I am done with the med. No more Paxlovid for me. I expect the light headedness to clear up on it’s own, and I feel a little better now than I did a couple of hours ago, but if it persists I will talk to my doctor.

That’s the bad news for today (so far). The good news is that I am breathing through my nose a little better than yesterday, and I think the coughing has lessened a little too. I’m still exhausted and will probably have a nap at some point, but other than the dizziness I feel a little better today. Here’s hoping that’s a trend that continues. Here’s to kicking the virus to the curb, babie!

A recap of some exciting stuff from the last hour or so…

• 8:40 – I did something crazy. Something out of control. Something unheard of for sick people. Yikes, even! I took a shower! Woah! I can’t say I feel any better after standing in a borderline scalding hot shower for 10 minutes, but I sure don’t feel worse. Also, I feel a whole lot less greasy, so that’s a big positive.
• 9:00 – There were two chores I wanted to try to do this morning but I got sidetracked briefly. I saw the bluetooth bathroom scale on the floor and figured why not step on it and see how things are looking. It’s a couple of weeks early, but why not, right? The results? Epic beyond words. I haven’t done the math yet to see what the total losses are up to, but my current weight is 200.8 pounds. I am less than one pound away from the mythical ONEDERLAND. The land where one’s weight is below 200 pounds and thus in the one hundreds land. Holy Crap! I actually reset the scale to zero and weighed myself a second time because I didn’t trust the results but it came out the same the second time. Amazing. I even took a screen shot of the app when the 200.8 popped up on my phone, so I could continue to enjoy the happy feeling it brings my dumb ass.
• 9:05 – I didn’t have this very small chore in mind when I started this journey but when I saw it sitting there, I just had to do it. I made the bed. Jen hasn’t slept in a neat bed for three nights but tonight she will. Enjoy, my love. I wish I were sharing it with you. Kiss my ass, Covid. An added bonus, or slight annoyance, is that Lily the cat thinks that making the bed means playing with the blankets. She jumps on the bed and attacks anything that moves. It’s absolutely adorable, especially when I bury her under a blanket, but it does make the process more difficult than it needs to be.
• 9:10 – This one is going to take all day and it will probably wipe me out long before I finish it, but I started the laundry. I haven’t done any laundry since last Wednesday, the day we flew to Florida. It’s backing up pretty bad and needs to get done. I’ll try to do a couple of loads today, but going up and down the stairs repeatedly might be too much for my sick ass self. We’ll see.

Now that I’ve actually done some stuff today I can concentrate on the important things like vegetating on the couch and hoping the whole Covid-19 thing pisses off and leaves me alone. Here’s hoping for progress.

What is it about 4:00am that makes me wake up every day? This is three days in a row where I was awake either a little before, or right at 4:00am. I’m still exhausted, and I got at most five hours of sleep each night, but here we are awake and up and at ’em at 4:00am again. I don’t get it. I need to sleep, and yesterday I think I took three naps that were up to two hours each. Come on, body. Sleep!

For the second day in a row I woke up covered in sweat. Did the fever come back in the night and then break again? Maybe. Maybe I was just really hot under my one measly little blanket on the couch. Yeah, probably not. I don’t know. A fever breaking is a good thing, of course, but if in my fantasy of recovery I was hoping to wake up feeling a little better on the fourth day, I am a bit disappointed. I feel pretty much exactly the same as I did last night. Here’s hoping my symptoms start improving today and I’m well enough to work tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

Wish me luck.