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.
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!
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.
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?
Inside the Red Head's Head 