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.

How’s everyone doing tonight? Day three of my Covid-19 journey is almost over and I’ve been so focused on my own situation that I have been ignoring all of you, gentle readers. Everyone good? I hope so.

The good news is that while my wife and I are both still feeling awful, she thinks she might be able to manage going to work tomorrow. Working from home, of course, but still working. Here’s hoping she continues to improve and can pull it off. Fingers crossed.

As for me, I am definitely going to need another day. I slept a lot today. I’m still coughing a lot, and my nose is still completely stuffed up, and I am exhausted all the time. I feel like I slept for most of the day, but it was probably only 3-4 hours worth of napping. I am a little concerned that all the extra sleeping today will make it hard to sleep tonight, but we’ll have to cross that bridge when we come to it. I have hit my gastric bypass food and water goals for the day, obliterated them actually, and I have taken all of the meds I am supposed to take too. I am set for the night. I do want to have something to eat before I sleep so that I don’t have to sleep on an empty stomach. That shouldn’t be a problem. I am good to call it a night whenever, but I will probably stay up for an hour or two at least.

Here’s hoping things start clearing up tomorrow. I could really use some happy health news, know what I mean?

I woke up around 4:00am, had some water and some meds and went back to sleep.

Woke up at 8:00am, had some water and some meds and some breakfast and went back to bed.

Woke up at 12:00pm, had some water and some meds, had a kids meal from Chilies via DoorDash for lunch, did the dishes, scooped the litter box, topped off the cats food and water bowls… and I am thinking about going back to sleep. I’m thinking of having a little more water first. I still have five minutes to wait before I am cleared to drink anything. After that I might take another nap. Or, I might just watch TV for a while and see how things go.

I am definitely feeling like crap today, but being exhausted is the biggest symptom right now. Maybe I’ll be able to sleep it off a little. We’ll see.

I woke up at about quarter to four in the am after getting maybe four and a half to five hours of sleep. I was dead tired when I went to bed at about 11:00 last night and I was hoping I’d sleep through until my alarm went off at 8:00am but no luck. I got up a few minutes ago thinking I’d have some water and take my morning vitamins and some Tylenol. I might take my temperature too as I feel a little feverish. I don’t need to, I am just curious about numbers the way a good Programmer/Analyst is always curious about stats and figures. You know how it is.

I will take my second Paxlovid dose at 8:00am today (hence my 8:00am alarm clock). I’ll take the first dose of the cough suppressant whose name escapes me right now as well. Jen has the same prescription. I made one gastric bypass mistake last night and it probably affected my night’s sleep. I’m taking Tylenol for the fever. I was clear for a final dose of the day at 9:00pm last night, but in order to have a drink and take the meds I needed to stop eating by 8:00pm. I need to wait an hour after eating before I can have a drink. I never want to go to bed with an empty stomach, and I had a drink with the Paxlovid. I finished eight ounces of water at 8:15, waited 15 minutes (I only have to wait 15 minutes after a drink to have something to eat) and started filling up my stomach at 8:30. I didn’t even think of the Tylenol until after 10:00. I tried to wait an hour before going to sleep, but after about 25-30 minutes I was toast and just gave up and let myself conk out. I’ll try to do better tonight… dumbass.

Okay. I am so tired I am having trouble focusing my eyes on the computer screen. I think I am going to go back to bed and see what happens. Welcome to day three, everyone! How exciting!

I just took my first dose of Paxlovid. Bring on the crappy side effects and the chance of a back slide into a second bought with The ‘Rona.

I also have an inhaler to use if I start wheezing or have trouble breathing, and a cough medicine. I’ll start the second one in the morning. The inhaler I hopefully will never have to use.

My wife seems to be a tiny bit better today. We were just talking about it and she’s hoping to be able to go back to work in a limited capacity in a couple of days. I am looking at Friday as hopefully the day I can at least sit at my desk and respond to email. We’ll have to see.