Category: covid-19

4:37pm on Day Seven

I had a weird moment earlier. I mentioned it briefly in the post with the new music. I had a moment, just as I was getting ready to get up and make lunch, where I was hit with a wave of light headedness. It made me think I had a migraine coming, but it never arrived. The spell lasted for five minutes or so but once it passed it left me feeling completely exhausted.

After lunch I had to lie down and sleep a little. I was out for about an hour. I feel a little better now. My head is clearer but I am still pretty worn out. I think I am going to flake in front of the TV until dinner. We’re not going to order out tonight but we’re on our own. Jen is thinking of making herself a sandwich. I’m thinking of a protein bar with some peanuts as a chaser. We’ll see. My last bite of lunch was at 2:03. I want to wait until at least 6:03 before dinner. I think I can do that.

I am working tomorrow. A full day. You heard it here first.

(Mostly) Daily (goofy) Haiku for You #37

Today’s silly haiku is a direct sequel to the previous post. It’s a response to this morning’s Covid test.

Tested positive
I knew that it was coming
Still… I was hoping

6:55am on Day Seven

I wanted to sleep a lot more this morning than I did, but my stomach had other ideas. I went to bed at a little after 10:00pm last night. My alarm was set for 8:00 but my stomach woke me up at 5:00. It’s a thing I’ve dealt with since the surgery started to heal. If I go too long without eating my stomach, or what’s left of it, gets empty enough that it starts to hurt in complaint. When I told my doctor about it her response was basically, “duh, you’re hungry.” If I have something to eat I start to feel better within a few minutes.

That was the case today. It had been eight hours or so since I ate anything and my stomach was just empty. I like to start my day with some water and my morning vitamins so I delayed food for a bit and had eight ounces of lemonade mix and my three pills. Oddly, one of those pills made me a little nauseous but it passed quickly. I waited the required 15 minutes and then had breakfast and now my tiny little redesigned stomach is full and happy again.

As far as Covid, I’m not feeling 100% well, but I would say I’m about 75-80% well. My nose is still a little stuffy but I can breath through it, and I haven’t coughed a single time in the last two hours. Fatigue is still an issue, but not nearly as bad as it was 3-4 days ago. As soon as I tested positive on Tuesday I started planning on my next Covid test happening on Sunday (today), regardless of how I was feeling. I will stick to that and test about an hour from now. All of my testing through this process has happened at around 8:00am. Don’t ask why, that just seems like a nice time to me.

I fully expect a positive test today, I just hope that it’s not as emphatic a positive as it was on Tuesday. Last time the test line turned bright red before the solution had even reached the control line. I’m hoping it at least has the decency to be a faint line this time. Fingers crossed, eh?

Wish me and my immune system luck. Happy day seven, everyone!

8:04am on Day Six

Did I screw up counting the days? Is today day Six or should it be day five? I am confused, but I have a pretty good excuse for it, I guess. If I started counting days when the symptoms started then today is day Six. That must be what I did. If I started at the positive test then today would be day five. That must not be what I did. Okay. Whatever.

I had a decent nights sleep last night. I was out before midnight and only got up once before waking up at about 7:30am. I didn’t get a full eight hours, but I was close. That’s unusual for me under the best of circumstances so I am taking the win where I can get it.

I need to take care of the trash and the recycling today. The cats are fed and watered. Other than that, I don’t think there are any pressing chores to do. Oh, I need to finish the laundry today too. That should be all right. Outside of that I plan on vegging in front of the TV while hopefully doing a better job keeping on top of my daily food and water goals. It should not be a problem, unless I decide to nap all day, which is a distinct possibility.

I’m having some water and my morning vitamins right now. Once I top my hydration off a little I’ll do the chores and get them out of the way. We’re supposed to have rain all weekend so let’s get it done before that starts, shall we?

Hope you all have a good, healthy, covid-19-free morning.

10:24pm on Day Five

It took a couple of hours for my stomach to start acting like a team player again but I was able hit my liquid and protein goals for the day. Success, folks.

Now I can get back to the main goal of this weekend: Getting the hell over Covid. I am sort of successfully breathing through my nose tonight. It’s kind of amazing. I’m still exhausted and still a little stuffy and still coughing some, though the frequency of the coughing is way down from the last couple of days.

Here’s to being healthier as the weekend rolls on.

8:20pm on Day Five

I’m having a bad night and I can’t tell how much is due to stomach mismanagement and how much is due to Covid.

I stopped working at lunch today, as I mentioned before. Jen and I ordered some Five Guys. I ate a small burger and it went well. I had a few french fries and… stuck in the stomach. I think I ate too big of a bite and swallowed it too quickly. It was clearly an issue so as soon as I felt off I stopped eating. Instead, I went to sleep.

I slept straight through until dinner time. Whatever was wrong after lunch had cleared in the few hours I was out of it. That was a good thing. We ordered IHOP for dinner, breakfast for dinner again. I had some bacon and it seemed to go okay. I had some eggs and it was mostly okay but I stopped halfway through. I had two bites of hash browns and again it was okay, but something about the eggs just wasn’t sitting right. I didn’t think it was gastric bypass related, just eggs related.

At this point two things came to light. First, taking the nap after lunch screwed up my eating and drinking schedule. Specifically, I didn’t have anything to drink after lunch when I normally would have either hit my daily water goal (64 ounces) or I would have gotten really close to it. Instead, I am sitting at 40 ounces with 24 to go. The second thing was that despite having a really long nap, I was somehow more tired than I was before I fell asleep. I just sat on the comfy chair in the living room and stared at the wall. That was a combination of Covid and having worked through the morning and just wore my brain out. The stomach weirdness just piled on.

I was clear to start drinking water again at 7:02. I waited until 7:43. I had one sip and learned the hard way that the weirdness I was feeling was not so much eggs related as it was gastric bypass related. One sip and I was in the bathroom praying to the porcelain gods. Pardon the TMI. It was only a brief episode, and I am pretty sure it cleared up whatever was off with me tonight, but it’s been almost half an hour now and I haven’t had a second sip yet.

So it’s 8:18pm now and I still have 24 ounces of water to drink and 16 ounces of protein to eat in order to hit my goals. All while being totally wiped out from the Covid.

Yeah… I’m in for a long night tonight. I’ll hit all the goals though. No problem. I’m a pro at this now and today is my first day ever (as an adult) in onederland so it’s all good. Bring it on, Covid and Bypass. Even together you’re no match for me.

1:12pm on Day Five

I give up.

I logged into work at 9:00 and started digging through over a week’s worth of emails. At 10:30 I had a meeting with my staff and my manager. My boss was the first one on the Google Meet. I was the second. He took one look at me and laughed. I said I wouldn’t say trying to work today was a mistake, but… and he laughed again.

I made it to 1:00, which was sort of my goal. I then put myself out sick for the rest of the day. Just those four hours of being “on” wore me out completely. I’m done for today.

The good news though is that when I came back to the living room the cats were adorable.

Onederland

Now I am not by any stretch trying to say that there is an upside to having Covid-19. Absolutely not. There is no upside.

However… I stepped on the scale again this morning and I am below 200 pounds.

QUEUE THE MARCHING BAND, BABIE! I HAVE REACHED THE MYTHICAL ONEDERLAND! MY WEIGHT IS BELOW 200 POUNDS FOR THE FIRST TIME IN (I think) MY ADULT LIFE! HOLY CRAP ON A STICK! I WEIGH LESS THAN 200 POUNDS! ONEDERLAND, BABIE! ONEDERLAND!

Now, having said all of that. I do expect that within a few days of beating Covid and having my body chemistry go back to normal, I will top 200 pounds again. I think my body has pretty clearly declared that it wants me somewhere between 205 and 215. I am not going to worry about that today. I am also not going to worry about the possibility of a sub-200 weight actually being too low for me to be healthy. I don’t think that’s the case, but it’s low enough that I should think about it as maybe being a thing.

No. Today we’re just going to let the marching band parade up and down the street in front of my house as a massive celebration of hitting a seemingly unattainable weight loss goal that only required me to gut myself, rewire my innards, and then catch the 21st century’s plague to achieve.

Welcome to Onederland, boys and girls. Enjoy the view!

7:08am on Day Five

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.