Pretty Sure I'm Sick
December 19, 2020•543 words
I haven't been out of the house to take a test, but I either have COVID or a really bad case of the flu. Body aches, chills, some light coughing, and no fever. I was really unsure of it, but I felt bad since late last week, and I called out sick half the week, worked remote the last two days. By a stroke of luck I'm fully remote now, so at least I was able to recover in safety. I know a lot of people don't get that choice.
I never had a fever, which threw me off, but the rest persisted. There were some pretty nasty headaches, and I wasn't able to tell if that was sickness related or medication related. Being in a daze meant I forgot if I took my meds or not, and the withdrawal is sudden and intense, I didn't make that mistake a second time until this week (maybe?).
Now, I'm feeling mostly better, but short walks even just upstairs get my heart racing, and my watch says my 02 dipped down to 90% at some point. It's not a full blown oximeter though, so who knows how accurate that is. I know my heart races at the tiniest things, and making quick trips downstairs isn't really an option. Gotta take it easy.
Looking back I'm incredibly grateful that I was able to convince my family to not host a party for my grandma's 80th birthday last weekend. That would have been risky as all hell, even though I was working that day and couldn't go. At least I worked alone, so that was good.
Once I feel better I wonder how I'll process working from home now. No more 2.5 hours of commuting each day, and realistically I can do some side things during my work time without impacting anything. Of course work comes first, but reading a tutorial on a new framework or something is still productive. I didn't have that energy this week. I slept a solid 16 hours once, which makes me feel terribly guilty because my wife is up with our newborn and I was basically as useful as he was. Have to make those two hours count, somewhere.
For now, I just want my heart rate to stay normal when I walk a few dozen steps. To be fair my stamina was shit to begin with. I haven't gone jogging since I started at a desk job, and I struggled back as a field technician too. Maybe I'm just not built for breathing. On a lighter note, the park near my house finally opened. It was a dirt field when we moved in, and was closed for several months. Now it's a huge field, has multiple tennis/basketball courts, it has a play set for our little one, and it was supposedly a dog park, but I haven't been there to verify if there's a gate around or not. It'll be nice to walk around there with my family during one of my lunches. This year's been a roller coaster, no exception. From a wider perspective though, I've been really lucky, and I'm real grateful about it. All I have to do now is feel better so I can enjoy it.