My history of illness changed quite dramatically with the pandemic, because the combination of no commute and working remotely meant I had so little exposure to other people, I never got sick. Observe:
- January 2020: I and many others in Langara’s IT department were felled by one of the worst flu bugs I’ve ever had. In all the time I worked there, I’d never seen so many people get so very sick. Looking back, many of the symptoms match what people reported in the early days of COVID-19, with the loss of taste and smell, for example (which happened to me). Whether it was actually covid or not, it was definitely nasty. It was also the last time I’d have a cold or the flu for the next three and a half years!
- April 2022: Jeff got COVID-19, and before he knew he’d been infected, it made the jump to me, so I got what felt like the equivalent of a head cold for a few days, my first illness in almost two and a half years.
- June/July 2023: Right near the end of the month Jeff got sick again (not covid), likely a flu bug and after a few days of feeling fine, I thought I’d dodged it, but this past Wednesday evening I could feel the first tendrils of it in me, and today I am in the fourth day of being confirmed sick. It’s pretty much a head cold for me–stuffed up like crazy and a bit of a headache. Friday I felt surprisingly good, so I went birding Saturday (yesterday) and overdid it with 25,000 steps walked. I slept in a little today and have dropped a massive 1.8 pounds overnight. Being sick is always good for the waistline!
Today I am taking it easy. The weather is warm and pleasant, I kind of want to test some new settings on my camera, but in reality, I really just want to sleep, then wake up and feel normal and healthy again. So yes, I can confirm that getting sick still sucks. I will be quite happy to not have to mention this again for another few years. Or decades.
