So lucky that your side effects were mild! Based on my own experience of getting worse shortly after I finished the Paxlovid, I suggest taking it fairly easy for several days if you can, just to give yourself the best odds of a solid recovery. Even though I tested negative, I still got worse, I don't know why. Glad you got a negative test though, that is a relief!

Does he shop for and purchase the pork, balsamic vinegar etc? I used to always make too much mashed potatoes, and I'd always say, oh potatoes are cheap. But then I realized I was feeding butter and cream (which definitely aren't cheap,)to the garbage disposal! On the other hand, excess garden produce always makes me feel guilty when I don't use it, so I understand his compulsion!

Good to know, thx for sharing. My heart rate still isn't totally back to normal (5 weeks since I got Covid) but very close.

The only thing confusing me about Covid being a possibility is that Covid generally causes a fast heart rate, not a slow one. My resting heart rate was insane - I am usually in the low 60's and it was constantly in the 90's, going to 115 and 120 in my sleep. The nurse said they were seeing elevated heart rates a lot with Covid. That said, I certainly don't know all there is to know about cardiac effects of Covid, especially on kids.

For how many days have you been symptomatic? If 5 days or less, you can probably get Paxlovid if you want it. I got mine from a test-to-treat clinic at a CVS. You can look up locations online and get an appointment pretty fast.

Any chance he got dehydrated and that it may have exacerbated a mild infection or is coinciding with a benign arrhythmia?

Praying for quick insight for the doctor and healing for your little one.

I have no idea whatsoever if this will help in your case, but I learned when I was pregnant that sniffing a lemon really helped with nausea and queasiness. Also, fresh air sometimes helped. I don't know why this helped or if it works on other forms of nausea, but that's my 2 cents!

I generally tell my daughter that it is unkind to give feedback if a person can't do anything about it going forward. I also emphasize that I am willing to listen to constructive criticism/feedback, but that rudeness or huffiness are not acceptable. I find myself saying either 'would you like to rephrase that?' Or 'that kind of hurts my feelings . . .' Sometimes kids just need to be checked when they are being hurtful. I am a child of a dysfunctional family and I had a lot of anger toward my mom for a number of years. (A lot of it was misplaced anger that should have been directed at my Dad.) That said, as a teen she let me be too disrespectful, and it actually hurt our relationship. She allowed me to be condescending and hateful with no real consequences, and it fueled a bad dynamic. I tell my own daughter now that I won't allow such disrespect because our relationship matters too much to me. I try to have this type of talk when things are calm, though! (For the record, mom and I are very close now, and as a young married adult I began to understand that my Dad was to blame for the majority of the dysfunction in our family. But when I was young, mom was the only one I could control to any degree, so I tried my damndest to 'fix' her. We have both apologized a lot to one another for the mistakes we made, and that led to healing.) I mean, yes, your kid is going through a very tough time and has big emotions and is getting a lot filtered through dad's lense, but you still get to set boundaries for how your kid speaks to you. Do it with a calm, firm tone. Express compassion for whatever might be underneath the rude, hurtful comments, but make sure he knows you expect better. Otherwise how will he learn and grow? We have to learn how to be conscious of our impact on others even amidst our own pain. Personal pain and anger isn't a free pass to be a jerk, even when you're 14.

You should measure the actual bottom surface of your All-Clad skillet. I can almost guarantee that the bottom isn't 11" since the pans are measured across the top, and they all have some amount of flare. I wouldn't worry too much about a larger pot, because cooler edges wouldn't matter so much for most of those tasks.

It is known among athletes that intense exercise depresses the immune system temporarily. I suspect that exercising when you are sick with Covid registers to the body as intense exercise, partly because of the elevated heart rate Covid tends to cause. I personally have never benefited from exercising in first stage of an illness, and I have to be really careful about taking it easy when I do start back up or else I get knocked down for a day or two.

The way Paxlovid works is that it stops the virus from replicating so fast, giving the immune system a chance to fight it off. But, if you have a large viral load to begin with or if your immune system isn't great, you might not fully clear the infection before the 5 day course is finished - apparently there are some parts of the body where there drug works better than others, and the theory is that the virus in those 'hiding places' might be springing back. Sorry I can't link to the articles I read explaining all of this. I did a lot of research when I was taking it!

I 100% understand what you are saying. I often get stuck on my phone, lounging, etc. I have always had an insanely difficult time getting started, probably due to undiagnosed ADD. But after learning this, I realized that I had been waiting for motivation and it came so rarely that I never got to things that were important to me. There is a secret to making this concept work - you have to keep the action SUPER small. So, if I know I need to do the dishes, but cannot get myself to do it, the ACTION that I need to focus on is 'stand up, walk into kitchen.' The motivation follows the act of that tiny physical movement. I often procrastinate on working on my writing projects. What helped me was 1. Creating a routine and 2. Focusing only on one tiny action: open the file. If I focused on the bigger act of writing, I would feel nervous or overwhelmed or just plain unmotivated. But I can always just open the file. Hope this makes sense.

Best thing I ever learned about motivation: Motivation follows action, not the other way around.

It sounds like the ease of the smartphone (to soothe boredom or to avoid overwhelming tasks or emotions, perhaps) is the problem. I would see what she thinks about putting her phone in a lockbox or drawer during set hours. Then, on her laptop, she could possibly use Freedom (app/software) to block things when she really wants to focus. Alternatively, maybe she'd like to swap her smart phone for one without internet and apps, just talk & text.