Swerving, Dodging and Colliding with Covid 19

A Cautionary Tale

This wasn’t going to be the subject of my first Substack post. I was hoping to write a more cheerful piece you would find interesting about my experiences in the outdoors of British Columbia and Canada. But alas, all that was derailed by my sudden acquisition of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the agent of the Covid 19 disease. Suddenly, I was out of action for more than two weeks.

When the virus started appearing in the news in early 2020, my wife and I were on a trip to the Caribbean. We heard about the virus spreading from China but didn’t think too much about it until our return flights home when we had to pass through the Miami and Toronto international airports. At both places we saw a lot more people wearing masks and for the first time, security people asked us whether on our trip we had had any conversations with Chinese people or people who had recently returned from China. We had not, but we felt our anxiety level rise as we passed by more and more people wearing masks. Finally on our flight from Toronto to Edmonton, airline stewards passed out masks to anyone who needed one. Most of us took and wore a mask.

Saline Bay, Mayreau, Grenadines—our last trip before the pandemic

We returned home on March 1, and not too many days after that, the Pandemic was declared and social distancing and mask wearing requirements started being enforced. Being in our mid-70s, we knew we were especially vulnerable to the virus, so we followed the rules religiously.

When the vaccines first came out, we gladly took them in hope of avoiding the disease all together. By this time the death toll was getting pretty high, and one wanted to make sure, if at all possible, to avoid going to the hospital. As I wrote back in 2020, I’ve always been a supporter of vaccines as one of the best medical advances we have against disease.

What we didn’t realize about SARS-CoV-2 was that it was capable of reorganizing itself in short order, and soon there were versions that got around the vaccines. So, new vaccines were developed, and we got boosters about every six months.

As the pandemic continued on, people, governments and even health departments grew tired of the restrictions and they were soon lifted. Distancing and masking became options. Like many, we often didn’t wear masks unless we were in especially crowded spaces. Then one day this April, I was in a barber shop, the next in line for a haircut. Two more people showed up behind me and suddenly that space became crowded. No one put a mask on. Sure enough, I came down with Covid-19 about four days later. Soon the whole family was infected. But I had the worst case.

Within a couple of days, I was “down for the count”, having lost strength and balance. I needed assistance just to get around the house. I phoned my doctor and he said we needed to stop my rapid decline and prescribed Paxlovid for me. It’s a combination of two drugs that stops the virus from reproducing further. It doesn’t stop the infection. It just prevents it from spreading. The drug had to be taken in the first five days in order to prevent the virus from getting into my lungs and requiring hospitalization. I took it with another medicine the pharmacist prescribed that opened my swollen throat so I could swallow.

That was my lowest point. Having difficulty swallowing, I didn’t feel like drinking or eating much, even though the family tried their hardest to get me to comply. The result of that was I lost over 12 lbs. in as many days. That’s rapid weight loss by any measure. I could stand to lose a few pounds but this weight loss occurred all over my body, including my muscles—hence my loss of strength. My legs and arms became quite thin. As part of my weekly workout, I lift weights to keep my muscles toned, because after age 30 you start losing muscle mass, which is a contributor to disability in old age. So, this Covid infection was not doing my ageing body any favors.

The infection itself is over now. It lasted a couple of weeks before I started testing negative for the virus, using the antigen test. But recovery is taking a lot longer than I had hoped. The problem, of course, is my lack of strength that I have to build back up. This I’m doing through walking and weight training but it takes time.

The message in this, my first Substack post, is that Covid is still around and infecting people. Most people who get infected don’t have it as severely as I did, but that doesn’t mean it can’t happen. Keep a mask handy. When a space gets crowded with people, put the mask on or leave. Just because doctors and health officials are no longer advertising infection rates doesn’t mean it’s not out there. It is and it’s nasty!

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