Surviving Covid the Second Time

This post was published in my main blog, and I have copied it over to this blog and backdated it to December 25, 2024.

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Hello, world!  How are you?  I just recovered from covid, and it was awful!  Yesterday was the first day that I entirely felt like myself again in both mind and body.

Let's recap.  I posted about my blog plans on December 8.  On December 9, I had an unpleasant run-in with a custodian.  I noticed a very large, sticky spill in my classroom.  I am someone who has always cleaned up minor spills and only calls for help if it's blood or a very bad mess.  This was the latter.  It was thick, sticky and gooey, and covered over a six-square-foot area.  I think something spilled the previous week and dried over the weekend.  

The custodian came in and appeared to clean it.  I nearly fell when I walked over to check it after he left the room.  He had spread water all over the dried spill and made no attempt to clean it up. 

To be clear, approximately 25 students were in the classroom with me, and the custodian had left this large area covered with water and no warning sign.

After being moistened, the spill became a thick sludge that was as slick as ice.  I nearly fell and called for the custodian to come back and finish.  They blamed me and called me "rude" for being upset.  

I became tired on December 11, which I thought was a flare from what happened with the custodian.  It might have been, and there's no way of knowing.  On December 13, I felt out of sorts and depressed, which in hindsight I always notice is an early warning sign of me coming down with something.  On the 14th, my nose started running.

The week of December 15 was semester finals week, the very worst timing to get sick.  On the morning of Monday, December 15, I woke up, obviously with a virus but not enough to concern me, at least not for the first 10 minutes I was awake.  The fever then hit me, 101.3 degrees.  I was dismayed and worried.  I didn't want to take a covid test.  I wrestled with the thought for several minutes, even though I knew all along that I had to take the test.  It was positive.

I was disgusted and a bit angry.  I flung down the covid test and glared at it.  I walked around fretfully for about 10 minutes before I entered an absence for the day.  I could not miss semester tests on Wednesday and Thursday, and yet it was quite likely that I would have to be out.

I went to the school, wearing a KN95 mask, and got my classroom ready.  I came home, feeling awful.  I visited the CDC's site and read all the current information on covid.  I concluded that I could return to school once my fever went down without the aid of medication, so long as my symptoms were improving and I wore a mask.  I think that's a bit too lenient, but it was in line with what the CDC says.  My fever came down on Tuesday morning, and I did feel a little better.  I returned on Wednesday, masked and feeling awful.  

Students can download an app called Photomath where they can photograph any math problem and get all of the steps and the answer.  If I hadn't been present, many of my students would have used their phones to cheat on the test.  No, sir.  I wasn't going to allow that.  I fight it constantly.  Students are very sneaky.

By Thursday afternoon, wearing the mask was absolute torture, and I felt terrible.  I got the last grades entered, left a big mess all over my desk and floor, and walked out the door immediately after the bell rang to dismiss.  I flung things all over as I worked on grades the last two hours on Thursday due to my distress, so I will have quite a mess to pick up on January 6.  Lots of tests were dropped to the floor as I finished with them.

In brief summary of the virus, I had a horrific cough to the point that I lost control of multiple bodily functions as I coughed.  I'll let you figure out what that might mean.  I had terrible acid reflux, and a nose that ran like a faucet, meaning out of nowhere a complete liquid stream would run out of my nose and onto my clothing.  I was very tired and slept a lot.  Those were my symptoms.

I was definitely sicker this time than the first time I had covid.  I was getting better by December 22.  On December 24, I felt pretty normal mentally and physically.  My sense of taste is still off.  I am not coughing at all.  It's odd that I coughed for less than a week with this bout of covid, but in October, I had a mild virus that caused terrible coughing that lasted for six weeks.  Huh.  Who would have thought?

Today is the first day I can type well.  I started working on my blog posts again on Sunday, but my typing was bad.  I guess I was hitting the wrong keys.  I ended up with typos every few words.  I've done much better today.

I got my post on the musty books finished yesterday.  The one on musty books is lengthy and involved, and I spent around three hours creating it.  I'm soon going to work on my Hidden Clues posts.  It looks like what I planned for one post needs to be two posts.  I also will be listing books on eBay and Etsy. 

I have already listed some books on eBay, and I have another small stack pulled.  I'm going to read some more of the teen book that I found earlier today.  It's another apocalyse novel.  I haven't read one of those in a while.

The book listings and the blog posts are my focus during the next few days.  I go back and forth on what I work on.  I work a little here and a little there, and eventually, I'll get it all done.  Hopefully by next week, I'll post one of the blog posts.  I like to let them sit for a few days and read over them a few times.  Typos are a huge problem for me right now, even though I'm much improved.  I try to get all of them corrected if I possibly can.

If there are still any typos in this post, then you know why.