September 13, I went to a regularly scheduled appointment with my general practitioner. (He’s terrible, but that’s another story). I got a flu shot and a prescription for 5 mg of Ambien for anxiety because he won’t write me for Ativan. (Perfect, I look forward to taking the Ambien when I’m anxious during the workday, GENIUS).
The next day, I felt crappy and took the day off. Ha ha, flu shot side effects. No big deal.
The day after that, I had the random stray thought “Hmm, I feel weird, I should test for COVID”.
And tested positive! Like, blazing red FUCK YOU YOU HAVE COVID positive.
(I swear. After the dozens of sticks I peed on during the baby race years, THIS is the thing I get a positive on?)
I sat at my desk (at home) and thought “Who the hell do I tell? Should I tell my boss? Should I tell my HR person? Maybe I can get away with telling absolutely no one?” It was kind of the devil version of that thought process that pregnant women have (“Who do I tell first?”).
I could hear Gene on his morning work call and I had my first thing call. In the end, I told Gene after his call (He tested positive too, but not as immediate BAM YOU HAVE COVID positive) and I told my manager. I explained to her that I didn’t want to tell my teammates (between us, it’s because 1/3 of my team is made up of science/COVID denying idiots and I didn’t need medical recommendations from America’s Sexiest Podiatrists or whatever randos they’re listening to these days). My plan was to work until I was tired and then give up.
(It was the Off Week anyway. We have two weeks in payroll. Payroll Week and the Off Week).
So that’s what I did. I worked for a few hours, got tired, gave up and relaxed on the sofa every day for the rest of the week.
Gene had it worse than I did, he was sleeping for at least 17 hours a day for those two weeks. He’d work for a half hour and then go lay down for four hours.
We took Paxlovid, which, honestly I’m not sure if it helped. We did not get rebound COVID, which is good because we had some really awesome travel at the end of September and my single focus was to feel well enough to go.