So let me back up here a little bit and tell tell you that I feel like it's really my fault. Welcome to the Only Child Diaries Podcast. I'm your host, Tracy Wallace. Have you ever felt like you didn't receive the how-to brochure on life? That you didn't get enough guidance about major life issues? So did I. You don't have to be an only child to feel this way. In my podcast, we'll explore some of the best ways to better navigate adulthood while doing so with humor and light. Welcome everyone to the Only Child Diaries Podcast. Today I'm going to talk about COVID. That's because I've had COVID. If you saw my social media posts, you know that I took a break last week because, well, I was sick. And I'm happy to say, I don't know if happy is the right word yet, but I am feeling better, although I'm sure you can hear in my voice that I'm still somewhat under the weather. After New Year's, my husband Bill started getting sick, which was kind of odd because he had only been out of the house twice. We had gone out to dinner to the same restaurant, and we barely encountered any people up close, and it's a pretty good restaurant. So I was confused about how he had gotten sick, right? We also had one visit at home from the visiting nurse, and I hadn't been out of the house that much myself, but I still felt okay. I gave him a COVID test and it came up negative. So I figured he was just sick. He did end up getting a pretty good cough, though. And well, as fate would have it, my husband is not very good about covering his mouth when he coughs, especially at home, or I should say only at home. So he was going around the house hacking because well, he just doesn't like to be sick. I mean, who does? And I ended up getting sick too. It started the same way for both of us, scratchy throat. And usually for me, it always goes the same way. I get a scratchy throat, and then it goes, descends into my chest, and I get the cough, and I get the cough that lasts for a long time, and I have the mucus, and um, whereas Bill is really good at coughing stuff up, I'm not. I don't like doing it, I'm not good at it. But there's a point when there's stuff that comes up when you're coughing, right? That you spit out. Okay. But I'm again, I'm not as good at that as he is. He started feeling better and I started feeling worse to the point that I was starting to get concerned that I needed medical assistance. So last week I took myself to urgent care. And when I got there, they took my vitals, and the nurse said, Do you do you want to do a swab? Or do you want to wait for the doctor? And I said, Well, sure, let's do a swab. And I said, What is it for? And he said, Well, it's for COVID and flu. And given the fact that the flu uh is going around rampant right now, and I'm assuming that COVID is not far behind, I said, sure. I didn't think I had the flu, and I really didn't think I had COVID either. Uh, but I said, sure, why not? I'm here. So they did uh did the nasal swab, where uh I thought he was probably tickling my brain, and I wasn't that comfortable, but he did the swab and then he left and he said, Okay, the doctor will be in with the results. So I waited and I waited and I coughed and I coughed, and finally the doctor, he was actually a physician's assistant, a PA, came in and told me that I had COVID. Yay. So let me back up here a little bit and tell tell you that I feel like it's really my fault in uh some way. I feel slightly responsible because when Bill and I went to get our vaccines, and I'll tell you that I'm really pro-vaccine, both of us are pro-vaccine, Bill got both the flu and the COVID because he'll do that. He can get both of them together. He's used to getting his vaccines, and for the most part, he doesn't have a bad reaction to getting vaccines or getting two together. For me, I'm a little bit more sensitive, and it's hard for me to be down in any, you know, shape or form, so physically, because I have so much that I have to do all the time. So I opted to just get the flu. And I said I'd come back for the COVID, but one thing led to another, and I hadn't gone back to get the COVID vaccine. Totally my bad. Totally my bad. But I've been feeling pretty good, and I just kept putting it off. So I feel like I have no one to blame but myself. I'll also tell you that I was pretty nervous because I know that if I hadn't gone to urgent care, I probably would have ended up in the hospital. I was pretty sick and I felt pretty bad. And um the doctor prescribed Paxlovid for me, which I hadn't taken before. We had, we both had COVID before. We had gotten our vaccines, and it was about two weeks later, and we had gone to Vegas, and we were very careful. We stayed in a smaller hotel, we wore our masks, uh, I think except for maybe one day, we stayed away from people, we washed our hands, we used our hand sanitizer all the time, but we still both came home with COVID. And that was really a terrible experience. We were both sick for at least two weeks. I don't remember it being the same symptoms, but I remember that we were both really sick. And, you know, losing losing the my sense of taste, losing my sense of smell, and Bill really um, you know, uh felt worse longer than I did. And so I, you know, I kicked myself then, and I kicked myself now. Did Bill have COVID? I don't I don't know, because by the time I was diagnosed, he was, you know, on the upswing. He was feeling better. So if he had tested again, I doubt that he would have, even if he had COVID, I doubt that he would have been positive at that point. Anyway, uh so I did get the uh prescription for the Paxlovid, and I got uh medication for coughing, which ended up not doing much good. I I felt like I was just taking water. Um, it didn't do any good. And also the doctor said I should take mucinex, which is supposed to thin the mucus. I don't know. I feel like I should have, I had I have really thick mucus, apparently, but I've been taking the musinex. And the initially there was a little blip with the Paxlovid when I left Urgent Care. I called the pharmacy just to make sure that they had gotten the prescription before I left, and they said, Well, it's not going through because it looks like you got it somewhere else. And I said, No, I haven't gotten it anywhere, I've never gotten it. And they said, Well, are you sure? I called the insurance company. They said it takes a pre-authorization. I was like, Are you kidding? And um anyway, it all worked out by the time I called the pharmacy back. So I was very grateful. I got my ass up there and dragged into the pharmacy with my mask and got the prescription and took it. And I will say that it really, really helped me. I could feel the benefits of it every day uh overtaking me, and it it really helped a lot. The coughing is another story. Um and I think the second day I've I literally felt like I was gonna die. I just felt so bad. Um, but I have made small strides every day, and my cough is better. Uh today is day seven, I guess. So I have made small progress. I have more energy. I'm trying to um, you know, I I've I've drunk so much fluid that I, you know, with my with my oh I can't laugh because then I'll start choking. But with my overactive bladder, I might as well just not leave the bathroom because I drink, I pee, I drink, I pee. So, but I have been drinking a lot of fluids, a lot of soup, hot tea with honey, you name it. I've drunk it. I can't eat anything spicy, I can't eat anything rough, it's gotta be smooth because I'll start coughing. Just the thought of it. No dairy. That'll create more mucus, right? So if you haven't had COVID, I'm gonna tell you take care of yourself, get the vaccine. I know not everybody can have the vaccine. I have a couple of friends who, for health reasons, um they cannot take the vaccine and they have to be super careful. Um, but I also know of some people, and I'm not gonna say that they're friends, but I know of some people who don't believe in the vaccine. And um I just don't get that because uh COVID is nothing to be uh taken lightly. It's really not. And uh especially if you're older or if you have uh secondary health concerns, I don't, but I I am over 60. And the guy at Urgent Care told me that one of the biggest issues with people in my age bracket are secondary infections that come up. So I have to be really careful that something doesn't happen to me because of this, that I don't get bronchitis or I don't get walking pneumonia. And so that's what I'm trying to ward off now and take care of myself. But it's a fine line. They want me to keep moving around so that the um the mucus and my lungs stay clear, right? Don't just lay in bed, don't just sit around, right? I have to keep my deep breathing and I have to keep coughing and I have to keep my liquids, and but don't overdo it. So it it's a fine line. Uh, but I am feeling better. And uh initially the doctor wrote me out, he wanted to write me out for four days, which now I look back on it, it was a joke. Um, and he said, Well, I can write you out for five, and I'm like, Yes, thank you. Um, I did do a little bit of work on Friday, but I have uh Monday's Martin Luther King Day, which is the day before this is gonna um go live, so uh we have a long weekend, so I can get some rest, do some things. The weather's been so nice, and I was really looking forward to doing some gardening, uh, but I'm just gonna have to tone that down. The other part of this period of time that has really been a little extra challenging is that our neighbors who are next door and we love them, they're wonderful neighbors, um, had been planning for quite some time to renovate their house. They love their house, they love the neighborhood, they want to stay in the house, but the house has just been too small for them. And so they had told me, oh, over a year ago, that they had been planning to build a second story on the house. And so we'd been living on borrowed time for this project, and guess what? It started um it started two weeks ago. I don't know if I told you. Well, I didn't tell you that last week, but it's no, it started two weeks ago, and we woke up to uh early morning beeping, noises, trucks, people talking at 7 a.m. And it's been a continuous flow of noise every day, five days. Luckily, it's only five days a week, uh, making sleep almost impossible. Um, it upset the cat so much that he um he was very upset. I had to medicate him, and we had an ER visit there uh with him. He's fine, everybody's fine. We're getting used to the noise, and uh so that's made sleep a little bit more challenging, but we're we're persevering and uh again take care of yourselves during this cold flu COVID season. And um maybe next week I will sound more like myself uh when hopefully we'll tackle another topic together. I hope you'll join me.

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