Covid liviing

So here's an update.  You know how you get the flu, and you can tell you're getting the flu?   I remember when I got the flu the year I was in the fifth grade.  I was with my sister's then-boyfriend at a car wash.  It was in February.  He was washing his truck while I was out playing on the mounds of snow that had been piled up in the parking lot, owing to the blizzard of '78. 

Nothing unusual, but all of a sudden - and I can still remember it - I began to feel bad.  Body ache and then sore throat in quick order.  By the time I got home, I had a massive fever.  I missed almost a week of school then.  The worst day I had chills and body aches, cough and sore throat, and high fever.  That was the flu.  It was bad for a few days, and eventually it broke and I got back to normal. 

Covid hasn't worked like that.  You know that laundry list of Covid symptoms everyone talks about?  Well, you seem to get them, but not all at once.  It's like a roller coaster.  Each day it's a new symptom, or a repeat.  And then by midday you're feeling well.  Most symptoms are gone, the cough and congestion being the lingering symptoms.  But the others?  

They come and go.  One day or two it's fatigue.  Then that passes, only to be replaced by loss of appetite.  Then comes sore throat, and then sore throat is out the window.  Body aches tomorrow, and chills the next day.  Mornings are pretty miserable, , though not always, with nights alternating between worse or better, depending on the symptom du jour. 

Not all in the homestead have had it the same.  Some have only had a couple symptoms.  I've had the gamut.  My wife also is struggling with many of the symptoms, and we watch her owing to her heart condition.  The boys have been between several symptoms hitting hard, and a few symptoms with little or no impact.  Our third oldest, who we believe brought it home, was hit hardest of the four.  Our youngest seems to have been hit the least.  My mom, of course, is the other big concern and right now with her it's mostly the congestion and coughing. None have lost taste or smell. I feel that is noteworthy. 

But all in all, it's not like anything I've ever run into.  It's clearly a virus apart.  It feels as if it's attacking the defensive positions, trying to find any way in.  Hence the constant rise of new symptoms.  It hits here, the body responds, a new symptom.  The virus backs off, circles the fences, strikes again.  Another symptom.  The virus backs off - feeling better - then attack the flanks!  Only to have another symptom pop up as a result, or perhaps a symptom you thought you were over makes a comeback.  It's like Bastogne surrounded by viral divisions trying to break through some part of the parameter. 

I'm not one who gets sick often.  I've only had the flu a couple times in my life.  I often go years without even a head cold.  Nevertheless, I have been sick over the years, even if rarely.  Plus, I've been around my fair share of others who have had the flu or have been sick in other ways.  Four kids after all.  

Yet none have been like this.  Each time in my life that I or others got sick, it was a  set of symptoms that came and went.  They got infected.  Things got worse. Then they got better.  Then everyone went on with life.  But this is wholly different.  In fact, the virus feels like those Velociraptors in Jurassic Park who kept attacking different parts of the electric fences - it's learning. 

Hopefully we're nearing the peak, and perhaps even on the downward slope. Those who were hit earliest seem to be best off.  Again, it's an up and down roller-coaster experience.  The three who tested last are hitting the high marks and the misery index is pretty high, though not consistent for all three.  My mom, being a WWII generation child, won't complain if her arm dropped off and fell on the floor.  So we'll keep doing what we can as we try to figure it out.  

So on this, my mom's birthday, I would ask for continued prayers.  It is appreciated.  I'll report next when things seem somewhere close to sane.