I know 3 sets (4 people but one a husband/wife pair)--all geographically and relationally unconnected. All had extremely sore throat and flu like symptoms. Felt quite sick. All negative for COVID and strep and, in some cases, flu as well. One had been exposed to COVID through household so took several rapids and then PCR (plus strep and flu). All were negative. So weird. All of the above recovered well. It was pretty short lived (all under 5 days, with just a slight cough remaining). It did ramp up for each--starting with just throat and then getting worse over time.

I am seeing that. However, my small sample is entirely people who have already had COVID previously and/or are vaccinated. I want to believe either of those would be protective against poor outcomes regardless the variant. I hope because that makes the tomorrows look much brighter. It's hard for me to hope very much about this pandemic, though, given how many times they have been dashed.

According to the new CDC guidelines close exposures within 6 months of their 2nd dose aren't required to quarantine at all. https://cdn.substack.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe742ad27-fd2a-46f4-bb5b-2c6c66ea1f98_1200x761.jpeg

How far out is the teen from the 2nd shot or is the teen boostered? If the teen is 5 days out from those possible COVID symptoms and given the negative test, I think I would get a good mask (to protect others--the Aura at Home Depot are comfortable if available) and feel ok with work personally.

I'm so sorry.

My sibling and her family tested positive for COVID yesterday (day of symptom onset). My sister and her husband have boosters. The kids (10th, 8th, 6th, 4th) are all vaccinated. All are COVID positive. My BIL (51, boostered with early boosters as a doctor) is feeling pretty sick--high fever, chills, etc--flu like). The rest of them, so far, are mostly nasal and throat with low grade fevers. They always mask, though with cloth or surgical masks generally, in a high masking and high vaccination rate community. My sister has no idea where/how they caught it. None of them have had anything remotely high risk contact lately. But they are thinking it's likely Omicron.

Try Zyrtec--it's pretty good with chronic hives. It suppresses them longer than bendaryl, so much easier in that respect.

We tried too many Algebra 2 programs. We finally landed on Algebra 2: A Fresh Approach, and it worked well. Things were explained well and it felt like just enough practice. Not overwhelming. Topics covered were similar to the other Algebra 2 programs we had used. I was happy with the choice. And it's all textbook based.

Your family situation is different than most. Most families someone or multiple someones are in public much more often. But, beyond that, I would want to know if I had COVID. That information could become important later. Further, if I should need treatment later (say for long COVID), no proof of infection could make that more difficult I think. (My uncle got the monoclonial's early and I really think it probably saved his life. I don't think most of them help Omicron, but there is still a lot of Delta floating around right now.)

I'm sorry.

Um, wow. We do tons of hiking and just take pictures, unorganized. I never do anything with any of it. I have regrets. And inspiration.

We're still gathering with (all vaxed, most vulnerable (+ others) boosted) my extended family over several days. All housed in same home. (So if the relatively recently vaccinated public schooled kids have already contracted, we're probably all getting COVID. I've accepted that.) We did the same over Thanksgiving, but I suspect the risk of COVID within the family group is probably higher now. The trickier part is my husband's family. His parents aren't boosted and his siblings aren't vaxed at all. None of them are COVID cautious (mask wearing etc). I don't want to hurt my in laws, so we're going for a day visit only. I know we are a greater risk to them than they are to us. We will wear well fitting KN95 masks throughout. The visit will be shorter because of that. I hate that it has to be like this.

My teens got their Pfizer boosters yesterday. Both are 24 hours past the shot now. Teen 1--mild arm soreness with mild fatigue and body aches. He had no real changes to his functioning today. Teen 2--fever got to 102 when he decided to take tylenol. He had both body and headache--headache started mild/moderate and got worse as the day went on. Fatigue/low energy, but he slept poorly last night, possibly due to shot symptoms. He's much better now, 24 hours after his shot. Teen 2 always runs high fevers with viruses and has had fever with every COVID shot as well.

I often steam veggies in the microwave. I've made rice, quinoa, and oatmeal in the microwave. I use it a lot to reheat leftovers. Hubby often makes his lunch stuff in the microwave--things like scrambled eggs...he's not up to ask what else.

My teens are about 9 months out from Pfizer. They have a very important event coming up in July. Now that boosters have opened for their age, I'm not sure what to do! Do I booster them now and hope it will still be helpful in July (and/or that they will be able to do another vaccine if needed--they will be 18 by then) or do I advise them to wait a few months so we're a little closer to July? I'm leaning toward now. But I know they would much rather get COVID now than miss that July event.

My son (16) had a 102 fever with his second Pfizer shot. He was fine the next day. I'm sure it was vax related for him.

I plan to have my teens (double vaxed, but more than 6 months out and not booster eligible) wear N-95s on an upcoming plane trip. My ?--My husband and I will be several weeks out from our Moderna booster. I've got some masks with K95 labeled filters that fit great. Hubby and I could wear those instead of the N-95's (I'd prefer to have some extra N-95's for this trip for the teens). I don't have any testing information about the filters. Do you think my husband I also need to wear N-95's for the plane given our recent boosters?

My son's orthodontist really likes bonded (with invasalign on the top). One son got bonded on top and bottom plus invasalign. It is nice not to have to take it in and out and worry about losing it. The orthodontist said she sees far less shifting with bonded. Cleaning is hard. It feels like a trade off.

We're flying, soon and my teens will be 7-8 months post vaccine. I'm feeling nervous. Can anyone recommend a protective mask for this sort of thing?

Here they recommend you avoid tylenol before the shot. My husband and I got Moderna boosters (Pfizer initial vaxes) 4 days ago (Thursday). I had a sore arm pretty quickly after that got better over the night and into the next day. I did have some lymph node swelling in that armpit which which still hurt a bit Saturday, but is gone today. About 7 hours after my shot I started having fever, chills, aches (body/head) and fatigue. That was quicker than I remember feeling symptoms with my 2nd Pfizer, but similar otherwise. All that continued throughout the next day (Friday). Hubby went to bed fine but had aches and fever start during the night and continued the next day as well. We were both fine by Saturday. Overall, it felt pretty similar to our 2nd Pfizer vaccine reactions. My sister had a similar experience with her booster (also a Pfizer initial, Moderna booster). My BIL had Moderna initial, Moderna booster and just had arm pain, maybe mild fatigue. Not much reaction. My parents, in their 70's, got Pfizer boosters as soon as they were eligible. They had mild arm soreness the day of the shot and no other symptoms.

Yes, some people I know and some I just see randomly (outside restaurants, the court house, etc) Google says almost 25% of my county popluation are smokers. That's a bit surprising.

I've done intermittent fasting for years. My eat window has been 12/1 to 7/8 pm. I don't really feel hungry in the morning (I know that some people do), so this way of eating fits me well. I've been reading some information about eating in the morning and fasting in the evening being better for lots of reasons. I think it would probably benefit me if I could do it. Does anyone here fast in the evening? If so, how to you manage hunger? I have noticed, with my current eating plan, that if I eat an early dinner I feel really hungry before bed-not fun.

The most ideal situation is if they would do a rapid before the visit (and rapid the 4 yo). If so, I would do it all as normal. I am assuming they will not rapid test. If that is the case AND if they will not allow or will treat the 4 yo unkindly for wearing a mask, it would be a no go for me unless the weather was good enough for an outdoor get together. It would not be worth the (probably small) risk to me to accomodate people who will make no effort to protect my family. FWIW, I have a similar situation with my husbands parents and his sibling family. We did only outdoor visits until we could be vaccinated. Once we were vaccinated I felt ok with normal visits. Now that we are over 6 months from vaccines and break throughs are clearly possible (and my teens can't get a booster), our holiday this year is changed. We will visit in good KN95 masks. This visit will be shorter, because we will be eating lunch before we arrive and a late dinner after we leave. For me, this isn't just because indoor visits with them could expose us to COVID, but also because I don't want to potentially bring COVID to any of them, and my teens are taking some COVID exposure risks.

The s. bouldari isn't colonizing--it would be gone within 5 days--so if your body does well with that strain, you would want to keep taking it. I just take it if I need an antibiotic. One son takes it daily--has for years.

Most (all?) of the bone drugs are for post menopause I think. I'm not there. Given I have some estrogen, I could possibly stil do some good. I'm going to try. I probably won't use the stronium. I've been reading, and I am going to get a weight vest. I'll incorporate more jumping than I already do. (This is the discouraging part--I've already been trying so hard--and I know I'm past bone building age) The thread Acradia linked mentioned osteostrong programs. I wish there was one near me. The closest is 1.5 hours away. Maybe when the kids are not needing me day in and out for school I will pursue that.