So, last Saturday I woke up not feeling so great, but I figured it was because I didn’t sleep well the night before due to heartburn. I was mostly just sore and achey.
Woke up Sunday feeling even more achey. I was like, is it what I think it is? Except the only symptom was body aches. I might have had a fever, but I couldn’t really tell, since we don’t have a thermometer and I tend to run hot anyway. Decided to schedule a COVID test for Monday.
Monday, still with the body aches. I called in sick to work, got my COVID test and was ready to settle in to wait.
Tuesday I call in sick again, and my boss gently advises me to see a doctor (BECAUSE I’M DUMB AND HE’S KINDA GREAT LIKE THAT). Of course, with my symptoms, they won’t let me come into the clinic, plus my primary is out all week, so I have to contact the express clinic. They can’t see me either, but they do set up a telehealth appointment. I chat with a doc for a minute and she orders a flu and strep test (she wanted to test for COVID as well, but since I’d already had it done, I turned it down) that they perform in a drive-thru type thing. About an hour later the doc calls to tell me I have strep.
Which… kinda snows me, because my throat didn’t hurt. Like, it was a little scratchy, but… I distinctly remember the last time I had strep and it was the most godawful pain I’d ever experienced in my throat. Like, I was drooling and dehydrated because it hurt so bad to swallow, and they had to pump me full of a bag of fluids at the clinic and gave me a shot of penicillin. So I’m like, cool, whatever, at least it’s not too bad and I can go back to work after a few days of antibiotics.
Only, I still gotta wait for the COVID test to come back before I can for sure return to work.
It comes in Thursday morning.
Positive.
So, yup. I’m the lucky bastard that ended up with the plague strep and COVID at the same time. For Christmas.
Can we please end the dumpster fire that is 2020 now?
(All that said, I took a break from writing this week. I’ve got enough buffer. And I’m feeling fine, no worries. My immune system is a beast.)
Meilo Zaborowski: Author 