Finally Joined the Covid Club

Day one would be Monday night. I was feeling a bit headachy, a bit tired and sore, which isn’t really any different from how I often feel these days. The additional weight I’ve gained since I quit drinking, started antidepressants and stopped walking 2km to work each day takes its toll on my now almost half a century old, hormonally fluctuating body. So, feeling a bit like a chunk of sleepy cement isn’t unusual.

However, because my youngest was really congested and looking a bit fevered and quickly produced a positive covid test, I figured I would do the same. Might as well. Every other time it had always been negative, but this time maybe something was going on.

The line was super faint… like, faint AF. It wasn’t colourless like pregnancy test evap lines, there was a slight deposit of colour but sooo faint.

I figured I’d test again in the morning.

Day two. So the next morning I tested again, and did the cheek swab as well because they say it can be better at detecting Omicron variant. And that is the method they used to swab my child at his entry point when arriving back in Canada.

That one was a definite positive. And it made sense because by this point my temp was starting to creep up, 37.8. Everything was hurting, dizzy, headache – . The small child was fevered also and cough. Though he started showing marked improvement by the end of the day. I definitely went downhill the rest of the day, and by the time I went to bed temperature was 38.9/40 C. And before anyone says that a temperature that high should be treated right away, I need to say that in fact it is not so. In adults, a temperature up to and including 38.9 or 102F can be left as is. Above that, and treat if uncomfortable. A fever can play a key, important role in helping to fight off a virus, and so giving it some time to do it’s thing can be helpful (many peer reviewed studies back this opinion on Pub.Med. ) Sure enough by the next morning, Day three, my temperature had dropped on it’s own to a respectable but still mildly feverish 37.8.

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/fever/in-depth/fever/art-20050997

Day three started out pretty well, fever had calmed, still tired and achey, but feeling much better. Youngest child feeling a lot better as well. Cough almost gone. I still had no cough, but was starting to get a scratchy throat. I still stayed isolated in my room except for brief kitchen trips while masked. Oh, and I sneezed SO much, like a dozen times in a row. I read that this is a more common symptom for those who have been vaccinated with booster.

I found it interesting how different rapid tests give such different results. Also, the difference between the nasal and saliva/cheek swab + nasal test.

I used Artron initially, the tests given out at the school, and then the last tests I used were a green box called Rapid Response by BTNX. Artron had the buffer mixture already in the sealed tubes, with shorter non flexible swabs and bigger collection tip on the wand. The BTNX swab does not seem as well suited to the mid nasal or cheek collection simply due to the smaller absorbent tip. For comparison I did a nasal only swab, and then an inner cheek AND nasal swab.

Although there is a slight colour deposit on the test line of the upper test (nasal only) it is definitely not as pronounced as the lower test. This is at about 17 minutes post test.

Late last night, at the end of day 3 I started feeling dizzy again, and very tired. It was late and my body was done with the day. My temperature had resumed a 36.8-37.3

So we are at Day four. I actually had a bit of a fever recurrence today, it was 37.8, dizzy still but oxygen is fine. Still no cough but a very, very sore throat. Feeling a bit worse than yesterday but still better than day two. I guess we’ll see how it goes!