rona moved in: ilx0rs with the bug report on their progress

Sorry, Josh. Hope it gets better soon. Yours sounds like my first case, which proceeded along similar lines.

Sorry, Josh!

I blame Greece.

I got sick after going to Greece too, but I'm pretty sure mine actually came from a connecting flight thru ... Chicago!

Nice virtual doctor just prescribed me Paxlovid. I figure might as well start taking it, in the off chance I have one of those stubborn cases that sticks around for a while.

Round three here, after a trip to CA during which all my friends got infected also.

Another friend just came home from a family trip, his wife is + even though the rest of the family isn't. Travel seems like a common denominator in most of the recent cases I know about.

Round three here, after a trip to CA during which all my friends got infected also.

― ian, Thursday, July 20, 2023 7:11 AM (thirty-four minutes ago)

...all but one! ;-)

I got sick after going to Greece too, but I'm pretty sure mine actually came from a connecting flight thru ... Chicago!

― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra

how can you tell?

Steve, I am SO GLAD to hear that.

Besides the changes in smell/taste, has anyone experienced any symptoms that feel definitively different from a regular cold/flu?

The first time I (unknowingly) had covid, March 2020, my *only* symptoms were loss of smell and taste, which was weird for sure. This time, it feels like a cold, more or less, but with no sneezing and coughing (maybe that's the DayQuil, but even pre-medicine there was not much of that happening). Like, if I did not know I had Covid, I would not think that any of my symptoms were at all uncommon or cause for concern.

My cough lingered longer than it should, but I haven't detected any other troubles.

The intense malaise, for me. Was like having glandular fever and it hung around for so long (like over 2 weeks). But the loss of taste was the absolute bollocks worst. I lost 5kg because the thought of food was just revolting.

Maybe malaise is the wrong word there - fatigue, weakness.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cveQWnHAxug

Lethargy

Day 3-ish, managed to sleep more or less all night before my throat woke me up around 4am, which I assume was the NyQuil wearing off. Kind of feels like I've been swallowing gravel, a very strep-throat thing, enough so that I did a bunch of googling to see if strep could give you a false covid positive (no; for starters, strep is bacterial). I've had two doses of Paxlovid so far. By all accounts it can work pretty fast; I currently have no fever at all, so maybe I have that to thank. Sore throat and stuffy nose is all I have at the moment. The stuffy nose has pretty much been the extent of anything respiratory so far.

how can you tell?

I mean obviously in a travel situation it's impossible to know where one picks something up. But the onset of symptoms tracked with me catching it on the last day of the trip, on the way home. And on the last flight from Chicago to Knoxville there was a guy sitting in the row right behind me doing these tremendous hacking coughs and nose honks, unmasked of course, all the way there. He didn't seem well. I don't know for sure that he was my source, but he's my prime suspect.

I don't have a prime suspect, and anywhere I was exposed I assume my family was, too, and they're not sick. Even in 2023, it's all still kinda muddy.

Oh that's my other bit of circumstantial evidence — my wife was everywhere I was on the trip too, EXCEPT for that last flight home, when we were assigned separate seats. She was about 8 rows in front of me, maybe outside the sneeze/cough zone?

Yes, a month ago I was in the Bahamas in an airport shuttle bus that broke down; we had to shift into multiple taxis.

I sat up front with the driver because there wasn't room otherwise. Eight people in a minivan. Then we spent six hours in a severely weather-congested Miami airport, including several hours in a grounded plane. My wife and kids and I had widely separated seats, due to the nature of things these days.

The weather delay meant that the pilot and crew "timed out," so we went back to the terminal and and and.

I wanted a drink (a reasonably human wish under the circumstances) and waited in a long line at the one functioning bar in the terminal.

Got home and tested positive a day later.

Not sure how "contract tracing" would help here because it could have been any of the approximately 5,000 people I met that day.

Sorry, not ranting, just recounting.

We were pretty much within five feet of each other at all times for most of the trip home, where any exposure likely occurred, so who knows. Because like you said, it could have been the coughing guy, or it could have been any of the 4999 non-coughing people.

Josh, exactly. I admire (but cannot emulate) the good intentions of people who are still like "don't go anywhere," as well as those who are like "be very very careful and wipe everything and wear a mask even when you're alone in the shower," but that is not where most people are these days. There is a currently active thread for that.

Given that most people nowadays are out there doing stuff? Well, the pathogens are out there too and they are doing what they do. As has been noted, they want to be contagious but not fatal.

I've found even the biggest 'covid scolds' I knew a year or two ago aren't even that way anymore now. but I don't begrudge anybody who still wants to take the extra layers of caution and still can't fathom why someone else's mask is so *offensive* to some people

otm

Best of luck with it JiC! Sounds very un-fun :(

I'm going back to keeping my head down, not going into the office, masking a bit more, for the week or so before I go on my first trip abroad in 8 years. do NOT want any bug to spoil that if I can help it! also gonna filter-mask on the plane, maybe airport depending how long a wait.

I know a family of three that have had it 2x in the past 5 weeks. They've also had it like 6x at this point.

Do I need to mention that they were the most careful/cautious people we knew in 2020-2021? including one time they drove by our house and just threw a gift for us out the car window in the brief second that the window rolled down before speeding away lol....? I think I need to mention that, sorry.

(ack wrong thread, belongs in the plague thread)

Day three-ish, and the majority of my symptoms remain run of the mill. Mostly a modestly stuffy nose at this point, still no coughing or sneezing, but I will say that the one other consistent and most conspicuous symptom that's stuck around, and the one that made me test in the first place, is a relatively uncomfortable sore throat, whose return is usually a signal to me that my medicine has worn off. But other than that it has not been that bad (knock on wood). I haven't had a fever since Thursday, though it's hard to tell how much of that is the overlapping effectiveness of both the otc stuff I've been taking (ibuprofen, dayquil/nyquil), plus the Paxlovid.

When I had it in Jan, sore throat was unbearable. Everything else pretty much par for the course fever, aches etc. Solidarity, but sounds similar to my experience!

End of day four and I pretty much have no symptoms. Maybe the slightest of headaches and a little dizziness right now? But that could just be from either the Paxlovid or staring at a fucking screen all day while I'm locked away.

Tested for the first time since Wednesday afternoon, and I still have a very faint positive line. So that doesn't really count, right? (asked a friend of mine once.)

most experts I read said faint line = a line and still positive

unless the line appeared like, hours later as opposed to within the 15-30 minutes that it's supposed to

You have a good chance of not getting a positive result tomorrow, so give it another day.

Yeah, I was just kidding, I'm still locked away. The current CDC guidelines say five days of isolation, minimum, and then two negative tests 24 hours apart before I'm considered no longer infectious. So I figure that means at least a couple more days of reading and (too much) screen time. Though I did go for a pleasant walk today, crossing the street to avoid other people like it was summer 2020 again.

I was very good at Sidewalk Chicken back in '20. A viking, one might say.

First negative test, right on schedule. First positive was last Wednesday (day 0), today is day 6.

For those comparing stats: 48, healthy, most recently re-vaxxed as recommended back in September of 2022. Fever lasted about 24 hours, sore throat and mild congestion about 48 hours+, nothing but a little lingering congestion for days 3-5. Never sneezy, rarely coughed, barely needed to blow my nose more than once or twice. Maybe Paxlovid helped? No way to know.

(Fwiw, when I originally left a message for my primary care physician on day 1, they told me Paxlovid wasn't recommended, based on my demographic and symptoms. But I just got a teledoc appointment (via the same physicians/hospital group) instead, and they didn't hesitate to prescribe it.)

Kind of amazing to reach a point where, at least in my case, it was mild and easily manageable, more a modest inconvenience. Thank goodness for science (and the ability to quarantine). And fortunately no one else in my family got sick, either. Fingers crossed tomorrow is negative, too, and that I don't get a rebound.

Second negative test, but I am very confused by isolation guidelines. The CDC says I can be released and go mask free if I have had two negative tests 48 hours apart, which would mean tomorrow, day 8. But plenty of other guidance I have seen says two negative tests 24-48 hours apart (whatever that means). Some guidance says two negative tests just 24 hours apart (which is where I'm at). The guidance and recommendations, even now, in 2023, remains inconsistent and all over the place.

CDC: "After you have ended isolation, when you are feeling better (no fever without the use of fever-reducing medications and symptoms improving), wear your mask through day 10. Or, if you have access to antigen tests, you should consider using them. With two sequential negative tests 48 hours apart, you may remove your mask sooner than day 10."

Yale: "Symptomatic individuals should not go to work or class until testing negative on a PCR test or having 2 sequential negative RA tests 24-48 hours apart."

California Department of Public Health: "Individuals ending isolation before D​ay 10 are still recommended to mask through Day 10. ​​However, persons who end isolation before Day 10 can remove their masks after two sequential negative tests at least one day apart."

University of Maryland: "If you are uncertain whether to return after 5 days of isolation, you may choose to use rapid antigen tests to help you decide. Two negative tests 24 hours apart are a good indication that it is safe to end isolation. Even if testing positive still after 10 days, if symptoms have improved and you are fever-free, it is probably safe to end isolation. You should, however, wear a mask indoors with others for another week or so in this case."

You are likely not contagious anymore.

Of that I am confident, the question is whether I am OK not just to end isolation but to end isolation without a mask.

there are a bunch of cases at our youngest's daycare but that's the least of our worries because there's a case of mpox at our eldest's pre-k.

Welp, I had a good run. Tired, warm, and achy, the test strip turned red immediately, gonna see about Paxlovid tommorrow. Pass the ibuprofen.

You can do it!

acetaminophen works too!

most recently re-vaxxed as recommended back in September of 2022

― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, July 25, 2023

there was a second bivalent booster released this year, also recommended

Not recommended enough for the under-65's alas. I had to lie to get it in March.

there's a new recipe one coming in the fall