(Updated) Aargh (Covid pity party inside)

[AmandaVT]

Can I have a small pity party for myself for a minute? I have been a very covid cautious person for the past two years - not eating in restaurants, grocery delivery, etc... I am one of two teachers still masking at school. Masks were dropped a couple of months ago at school, but I've been wearing mine and have a giant air purifier in my office. I tested positive this morning - on two different tests. I'm so mad! And because contact tracing isn't a required thing anymore, I don't even know when/how I was exposed.

Thankfully, my symptoms are mild so far. I thought I had allergies and only tested because we had people coming over later (not anymore) and I try to test often because of my job. Ugh. I'm mostly just crabby.

 

Edited May 6, 2022 by AmandaVT

[YaelAldrich]

That sucks. Covid sucks.

[Bambam]

I'm so sorry. I hope your symptoms remain mild, and you recover quickly with no long term effects. 

Possible silver lining to look at is that you will now have antibodies from a natural infection which should help in the future? To me, this is the only bright spot that I can find if/when I finally get COVID. 

[Katy]

I’m sorry 

[Kanin]

Oh noooo! That sucks so much after being cautious for two whole years. A lot of very cautious teachers at my school are now getting it. 😭

[Spryte]

Ugh, so sorry. May it stay mild and not spread!

[AmandaVT]

thank you!! And if anyone is curious - I had heard that if a test is going to turn positive, it does so immediately and they were right. On both tests, the positive line showed up fast, dark, and before the control line. My only symptoms so far are a runny nose, watering eyes, and occasional sneezing/stuffiness. It really felt like allergies!

[Kassia]

I'm sorry.  So frustrating when you've been careful.  😞 

[mommyoffive]

oh man that sucks.  I am so sorry.   I hope you recover quickly and it stays mild for you.

[East Coast Sue]

I had the same experience. I’m a teacher and I’m very Covid cautious. My only symptom was a runny nose- I never had fever, chills, cough, or any other sign of infection. My positive tests continued for two weeks. On the advice of my doctor, I began supplementing with VitD, K, Zinc and Melatonin and drank plenty of green tea. 

[MEmama]

I’m so sorry! There seem to be only a few of us left who work so hard at not getting it— I’m mad and sad on your behalf. 😞 

I hope your symptoms remain mild and clear up quickly. 

[Lawyer&Mom]

Hey you managed to put it off until after you were vaccinated *and* when hospitals have capacity.  Well done you!

[Pippen]

So sorry! I hope your symtpoms remain mild and others aren't infected. 

[Ausmumof3]

I’m sorry! To achieve two years as a teacher is pretty amazing. And given reinfections etc I think every time you didn’t catch it is a win. 

[Ottakee]

4 hours ago, AmandaVT said:

thank you!! And if anyone is curious - I had heard that if a test is going to turn positive, it does so immediately and they were right. On both tests, the positive line showed up fast, dark, and before the control line. My only symptoms so far are a runny nose, watering eyes, and occasional sneezing/stuffiness. It really felt like allergies!

Those are the same symptoms I had.  I did get a slight cough but it was more of a post nasal drip cough vs a chest congestion cough.   When you look at the charts that compare allergies to COVID I was totally on the allergy chart. I only tested as my son popped up with a low grade fever for about 4 hours and then tested positive.

[*****]

So sorry to hear this after you have been so cautious. Teacher here too, continuing to be cautious...but out of the blue, I had an itchy throat on Friday, cancelled a student and ended up on the couch the last 2 days. Body was sore from laying around, stuffy nose, a few sneezes. First real cold in 2 years. It figured it was a cold, and turns out it was. I tested just in case and not positive for covid. But my symptoms sounded much worse than yours. You just can never tell and it's best to test.  I was finally better today and was able to be outside for a bit. But yeah, if it stays mild for you, you will be lucky to only have that but stronger antibodies. Hang in there!

[MercyA]

I'm so sorry! Huge hugs to you. ❤️

[Lisa]

So sorry! Covid sucks!

[chiguirre]

On 5/1/2022 at 1:32 PM, AmandaVT said:

thank you!! And if anyone is curious - I had heard that if a test is going to turn positive, it does so immediately and they were right. On both tests, the positive line showed up fast, dark, and before the control line. My only symptoms so far are a runny nose, watering eyes, and occasional sneezing/stuffiness. It really felt like allergies!

It might be asymptomatic Covid and seasonal allergies. I'd ask my doctor if I could take allergy meds to feel better while you're stuck at home.

[Kanin]

@AmandaVT How are you doing now?

[MEmama]

3 hours ago, Kanin said:

@AmandaVT How are you doing now?

I came to ask the same thing. ❤️
I hope you were able to get lots of rest this weekend!

[AmandaVT]

On 5/1/2022 at 5:00 PM, East Coast Sue said:

I had the same experience. I’m a teacher and I’m very Covid cautious. My only symptom was a runny nose- I never had fever, chills, cough, or any other sign of infection. My positive tests continued for two weeks. On the advice of my doctor, I began supplementing with VitD, K, Zinc and Melatonin and drank plenty of green tea. 

 

On 5/1/2022 at 5:21 PM, MEmama said:

I’m so sorry! There seem to be only a few of us left who work so hard at not getting it— I’m mad and sad on your behalf. 😞 

I hope your symptoms remain mild and clear up quickly. 

 

On 5/1/2022 at 6:26 PM, Lawyer&Mom said:

Hey you managed to put it off until after you were vaccinated *and* when hospitals have capacity.  Well done you!

 

On 5/1/2022 at 7:08 PM, Ausmumof3 said:

I’m sorry! To achieve two years as a teacher is pretty amazing. And given reinfections etc I think every time you didn’t catch it is a win. 

Thank you!! One other masking teacher and I both have it this week. My current theory is that we were the last two to not get it and there is so much just floating around out there that the virus latched on to us as new blood! 

On 5/1/2022 at 7:28 PM, Ottakee said:

Those are the same symptoms I had.  I did get a slight cough but it was more of a post nasal drip cough vs a chest congestion cough.   When you look at the charts that compare allergies to COVID I was totally on the allergy chart. I only tested as my son popped up with a low grade fever for about 4 hours and then tested positive.

 

On 5/1/2022 at 9:51 PM, ***** said:

So sorry to hear this after you have been so cautious. Teacher here too, continuing to be cautious...but out of the blue, I had an itchy throat on Friday, cancelled a student and ended up on the couch the last 2 days. Body was sore from laying around, stuffy nose, a few sneezes. First real cold in 2 years. It figured it was a cold, and turns out it was. I tested just in case and not positive for covid. But my symptoms sounded much worse than yours. You just can never tell and it's best to test.  I was finally better today and was able to be outside for a bit. But yeah, if it stays mild for you, you will be lucky to only have that but stronger antibodies. Hang in there!

 

10 hours ago, chiguirre said:

It might be asymptomatic Covid and seasonal allergies. I'd ask my doctor if I could take allergy meds to feel better while you're stuck at home.

Yes - that's exactly it. My nose is almost clear today, but I had a throat-clearing type of cough this morning. Now that my nose is not stuffy, I noticed I can't smell anything! That's a weird symptom!! I hope your cold gets better *****!!

3 hours ago, Kanin said:

@AmandaVT How are you doing now?

 

I really feel almost 100%. Now that my nose has mostly unstuffed, I just can't smell and that's about it. No headache, fatigue, body aches, etc. I have gone into school feeling way worse than this many times, including a couple of weeks ago with a cold! Thank you for checking in!!

[dirty ethel rackham]

I'm so sorry.  Hope you heal fast and it isn't too much a disruption of your life.  I, too, was being very careful.  But the subvariant by us is so freakin' contagious.  

[Lady Florida.]

On 5/1/2022 at 12:37 PM, AmandaVT said:

 

Thankfully, my symptoms are mild so far. I thought I had allergies and only tested because we had people coming over later (not anymore) and I try to test often because of my job. Ugh. I'm mostly just crabby.

 

 

I'm sorry you got Covid. I think Omicron will eventually get us all. Here's hoping your symptoms stay mild. We had it back in early March and thought the same thing - it was allergies. It took a day or two to get suspicious. Thankfully our cases were mild; we were fully vaccinated and boosted.

On 5/1/2022 at 2:32 PM, AmandaVT said:

thank you!! And if anyone is curious - I had heard that if a test is going to turn positive, it does so immediately and they were right. On both tests, the positive line showed up fast, dark, and before the control line. My only symptoms so far are a runny nose, watering eyes, and occasional sneezing/stuffiness. It really felt like allergies!

Dh and I had symptoms and yes the line showed clearly positive almost immediately. Ds was asymptomatic. His test took the entire wait time and the line was only faintly pink. We all went and had PCR tests to be sure and all tested positive, but our rapid at home tests were different for the two of us with symptoms.

[mommyoffive]

I am glad you are feeling better!

[AmandaVT]

Update on me - smell is starting to come back a little bit I think. I've been testing every day and I am negative as of this morning! I'm going to keep an eye out for the next few days because I've been reading a lot about infections bouncing back in a small percentage of people who took Paxlovid. But I'm so grateful that I didn't have much in the way of symptoms, especially because I have asthma and any time I get sick, it tends to go right to my lungs. 

[Longtime Lurker]

9 minutes ago, AmandaVT said:

Update on me - smell is starting to come back a little bit I think. I've been testing every day and I am negative as of this morning! I'm going to keep an eye out for the next few days because I've been reading a lot about infections bouncing back in a small percentage of people who took Paxlovid. But I'm so grateful that I didn't have much in the way of symptoms, especially because I have asthma and any time I get sick, it tends to go right to my lungs. 

Great news! It must be so nice to see that negative result! Keep us posted on whether you have any rebound symptoms. I have really appreciated your sharing about your Paxlovid experience as I follow a few days behind you. It sounds like the rebound effects happen in only a very small percentage of cases.

[mommyoffive]

Wow, I am glad you are doing so well.

[Soror]

Ya for the negative test, hopefully you don't have a rebound.

[Longtime Lurker]

How are you doing today?

[AmandaVT]

1 hour ago, Longtime Lurker said:

How are you doing today?

Tested negative again. I have a boatload of tests and am curious about the rebound effect I keep hearing about from Paxlovid. Satisfying my geeky science curiosity by testing every day still. 😁 No symptoms! And my smell is almost all the way back. Thank you for checking in!!

How about you? I'm off to go check your thread - I was hoping your DH and DS could get Paxlovid too.

[mommyoffive]

1 minute ago, AmandaVT said:

Tested negative again. I have a boatload of tests and am curious about the rebound effect I keep hearing about from Paxlovid. Satisfying my geeky science curiosity by testing every day still. 😁 No symptoms! And my smell is almost all the way back. Thank you for checking in!!

How about you? I'm off to go check your thread - I was hoping your DH and DS could get Paxlovid too.

I am so glad you are doing well.  I wish everyone could get Paxlovid.  It sounds like it really works.

[AmandaVT]

4 minutes ago, mommyoffive said:

I am so glad you are doing well.  I wish everyone could get Paxlovid.  It sounds like it really works.

I am so glad DH thought of it. I wouldn't have even thought to ask if he hadn't said something. It was easy - called my PCP office and left a message w/ the answering service because it was a Sunday. The on-call Dr. called back and I told him I had covid and wanted Paxlovid. He asked a few questions about medication interaction, checked my most recent blood work for (I think) liver function (or kidneys, I am terrible about mixing those two up for some reason), and said he would prescribe it. DH went to CVS an hour later and picked it up. 

The tricky thing is that I don't know if I would have had as mild symptoms without it? Which I'll never really know. But everything tends to go right to my lungs whenever I get anything and I wanted to give my body a chance to avoid that if at all possible. My dad had covid last month and never had anything more than a stuffy nose either? So if there is a genetic effect - which I don't think there is? I may have had a super mild case whether I took it or not. Gross taste in mouth for a few days was a small side effect though considering how much worse symptoms could have been. My biggest fear has always been long covid- and I won't know about that for awhile I'm thinking. 

[MEmama]

So glad to hear you are on the other side! 

[Longtime Lurker]

4 hours ago, AmandaVT said:

Tested negative again. I have a boatload of tests and am curious about the rebound effect I keep hearing about from Paxlovid. Satisfying my geeky science curiosity by testing every day still. 😁 No symptoms! And my smell is almost all the way back. Thank you for checking in!!

Great news! I never actually lost any smell. I am a super-smeller and would not actually complain about losing some of it...

[Mom_to3]

Great news! So glad you are on the other side.

[Mom_to3]

6 hours ago, mommyoffive said:

I am so glad you are doing well.  I wish everyone could get Paxlovid.  It sounds like it really works.

Personally I'd also try to get it - but on a public health level, I don't think this is such a great idea yet. The US has purchased what, 10 million doses? Yet they expect 100 million cases in the fall/winter (how many the current wave we are in, or over the summer)?? The rebound effect is worrisome on a number of levels (cut in doses if they decide to lengthen treatment, possible new variants that resist treatment). I haven't read anything about immune response following infection and Paxlovid treatment. If there is essentially none, are we going to have to get treated every few weeks? That's not sustainable. I wish we had a government/CDC who would be open about these issues with the public - instead we have one that that has the foresight of a toddler and that misleads the public on purpose for short term gain.

[Longtime Lurker]

@AmandaVT, how are you doing? How long have you been done with the Paxlovid? Any "rebound" symptoms? I finished my last dose this morning...

[AmandaVT]

2 hours ago, Longtime Lurker said:

@AmandaVT, how are you doing? How long have you been done with the Paxlovid? Any "rebound" symptoms? I finished my last dose this morning...

Nothing yet - I'm keeping an eye out and have been testing daily still. So far so good! And thankfully the bad mouth taste was gone after the last dose was done, which was great!! 

 

How are you feeling? 

[Longtime Lurker]

21 hours ago, AmandaVT said:

Nothing yet - I'm keeping an eye out and have been testing daily still. So far so good! And thankfully the bad mouth taste was gone after the last dose was done, which was great!! 

 

How are you feeling? 

I'm doing pretty well. I feel a little better each day. I am mostly just tired at this point. I feel like yesterday to today was a big improvement. I am really glad to be done with the Paxlovid and to have my mouth taste normal again!