Get your minds out of the gutter! Its my Covid virginity.
After 4+ years of Covid being out and about in the world, it finally caught me. I credit my introverted nature for keeping me Covid-free this long, and I can say with some certainty that I didn’t get it out in the community. I got it from my extroverted son - who got it out in the community.
He started complaining of headaches last weekend. On Monday, I woke up early feeling sick. Headed straight for the Covid test collection and got a quick positive. You know how the tests work, with the test fluid mixture wicking up that bit of stuff to the test and control lines? As it went past the test line, it lit right up. No waiting for the line to develop. Once my son woke up, tested him as well just to be sure. And he was just as positive.
So got on the phone with doctors, arranged for virtual visits, sent off photos of the positive tests, and got prescriptions for Paxlovid. Son, being in a wheelchair, scares front-line medical folk, so he got an inhaler and a cough suppressant as well.
Well, he got his stuff. Mine - well, I’ve been using Rite Aid. (Begin non-OT portion) Used to use Walgreens, mainly because they’re right around the corner. But my health insurer had a beef with Walgreens a couple of years ago and they parted ways. I can no longer get prescriptions from them. So I switched to Rite Aid. They had a convenient location not quite as close to home, but on the way to my office. Then they closed that location and moved me to one not quite as close. Then that location closed. Now I’m using a location about 5 miles away. (Yes, I can hear some of you clamoring "Oh, the horrors!! Five whole miles! Poor baby. Yes, I’m a slightly spoiled suburbanite.) But at least its on the way to my son’s job - which I get him to on a regular basis, so there’s some convenience there.
The problem is Rite Aid seems to be failing. This location suffers from horribly understocked shelves. They have perhaps half of the inventory they are physically capable of holding on the store floor. It looks empty. And I suspect that problem extends to the pharmacy shelves as well. They didn’t have Paxlovid in stock and told me it would take about 2 days to get it. Part of me wanted to erupt in rage over this terrible service. The other part of me reminded me that I’m too sick to work up a good rage. I settled for expressing disappointment in their service and they promised to call me when it was ready. In the mean time, my rational side said to just take the doses from my son’s prescription (which I already had in hand) and mine should arrive before we used up all of his. (Which they did.)
Bottom line investment observation - I don’t think Rite Aid is long for this world, and I will be moving my prescriptions to some other pharmacy once I’ve got the energy to do that next week. In most situations, delaying the start of an important prescription by two days is completely unacceptable. Especially a prescription like this which is pretty common in a highly populated area like Orange County. Had I not been able to obtain the medicine from my son’s supply, I would have figured out what other pharmacies in my area were in my network and had some on hand, then arranged for an immediate transfer of the prescription.
Back to the OT stuff. Kiddo, being younger and all, never seemed to have as bad a time as I. He was pretty quiet on Monday and Tuesday - a sure sign that he wasn’t feeling well. By Wednesday, the complaining about being alone was rising significantly, and carried on into today. I was a bit busy on Monday getting doctors and visits and pharmacy trips arranged, so I didn’t have time to let myself feel too sick. Tuesday was the worst for me, particularly since the fever and chills kept waking me up every hour or so the night before. By Wednesday, we both felt better. I managed to find the energy to give my son a shower as he requested, then had to sit like an unenergetic lump for a few hours, including a desperately needed nap. Got myself a shower after that, then felt well enough to venture out of the house for some drive-thru dining just to get the kid out of the house for a while. Today is an improvement for both of us. He’s fever free and doing so with no help from Tylenol or Advil. Mine remained under control thanks to regular doses of generic DayQuil. Hopefully, I won’t need those sometime tomorrow or Saturday.
My biggest complaint at this point is “Paxlovid mouth”. Apparently, I’m in the 15%-20% of population who expresses one of the Paxlovid components in my saliva, giving me a constant bitter taste in my mouth. As a replacement for Rite Aid in your portfolios, consider the makers of Tic Tac as a replacement. I’ve had one in my mouth almost constantly in an attempt to cover the bitter taste.
Then today I learned that my sister in law and her daughter contracted Covid while driving back to So Cal from the midwest after my niece finished her university studies.
Even more, my 89 year old parents who, like me and my son, hadn’t contracted Covid, had it catch up to them about a month ago. They both recovered uneventfully.
From this anecdata, I conclude that the current variant seems to be somewhat more contagious than previous variants. It’s probably a bit less virulent than it’s predecessors, as I can actually compare my illness to a cold or mild flu. How much of that is the variant and how much is due to 5 vaccinations and a specific treatment is something I’m not sure I can divine.
At any rate, be careful out there. While Covid will always be with us, it appears the currently circulating variant is a bit easier to catch. And one of these years, we’ll probably find ourselves with a variant that is both easy to catch and makes you considerably sicker than this one.
–Peter
