Prayer just said for you Annie that you recover quickly and that your hubby doesn't get it.

Oh so sorry to hear this Annie. But you are in a popular crowd. Many people are having ammended Christmas's this year. I was sick last year, and just sent the ham to daughter's house. This year pregnant daughter and two year old are sick. Haven't tested for covid, pregnancy says only occasional ibuprofen. No high fevers. I kept grandson with his snotty nose for two days just so she could sleep. Disinfected everything in my house once he left. So far so good. So for Christmas only me and Texas daughter, but I am so glad to have her here! We will cook tomorrow and take a full Christmas dinner to preg. daughter and family and leave on the porch. And I predict no normal Chtristmas's in the future with grands in the family now. LOL

Hope this is over for you soon; the timing stinks.

Sorry -- and concerned -- to read about so many on the KT who are ill!

Annie -- I hope your bout will be brief, and confined to only you.

Hmm...maybe I should test. I've been so tired for the past couple of weeks -- can nap mornings and afternoons, after a full night's sleep. I'd thought it was the Venlafaxine prescribed mid-September to help with back pain from scoliosis. I've just made an appointment with the pain meds doctor and am phasing out the Venlafaxine.

OK, here goes. Our test kits are good through February.

I'm so sorry, Annie. I hope you feel better very soon.

I'm sorry others are having difficulties as well. In this case, misery does not love company. I'd rather be the only one and have everyone else well!

Nope. Test is negative. I'm going with the Venlafaxine as the cause of fatigue. Two days without it now, and I'm starting to feel better already. Funny that I didn't start reacting so badly to it until Month Two.

I can't really see how we'd 'isolate' -- beyond sleeping apart -- if one of us does get Covid. Better DH then, as he can't cook.

Did you get Paxlovid? It definitely helps! You do get a metallic taste in your mouth from it, but that disappears as soon as you stop taking it.

Annie, I admire you for seeing the silver lining in this situation.

I had it for the first time just after Thanksgiving. My worst symptoms were a headache and fatigue. I wish you a speedy recovery, and that your DH doesn't catch it. Take care of yourself.

I spoke with Dr and because my liver function tests aren't always perfect, we decided against the paxlovid.

Oh dear. I'm so sorry for you. Rest up! Drink tea! Read books! Take naps! Thinking of you Annie.

I spoke with Dr and because my liver function tests aren't always perfect, we decided against the paxlovid.

There's another drug. My husband had to take Molnupiravir when he got Covid.

Yes, Judi, that is the one I took. My doctor didn’t recommend the other for various reasons.

But…you need it quickly for it to work.

Yes, within a few days.

Speedy recovery!

I visited relatives on Tue 12/12. She was a week done with a surgical procedure but otherwise OK. He had been congested for a few days but not otherwise in a bad way. She called on Fri 12/15 to advise they both were positive for COVID. I tested on Sun 12/17 after the requisite 5 days. Negative, so I still haven't had it to the best of my knowledge and evidence.

dadoes -- Lucky escape! You'll have to look further to contract this darn thing -- ha-ha!

Sorry to hear you're sick. Don't think of it as being sick on Xmas but being under the weather on Monday. Feel better soon

Sorry to hear this, Annie! I hope you have a mild case, and your DH doesn't get it.

Oh crap. So sorry to hear you're down arouond the holiday but it will save you a lot of work. I tested posiitive about about two months ago but never had one symptom. Someone else I know has tested posiitive and is sick for the thirrd time after being fully vaxed. You just can't win.

Sorry for Annie and everyone else affected by this, in general but esp with the timing of the holidays. Hope you all make it through quickly.

@seagrass_gw Cape Cod - Don’t lose hope for your senses. I lost taste and smell with my first bout Feb ’21, and my sense of smell is still redeveloping. I have a pretty funny story about a recent development, but it requires a bit of potty talk, not sure if people want to hear it.

My GF did retraining using essential oil to regain her sense of smell after covid. No idea if it helped or it returned despite her efforts, but it can't hurt to try.

https://www.med.unc.edu/phyrehab/wp-content/uploads/sites/549/2023/01/COVID-Resources-smell-taste.pdf

For me, so far, my sense of taste seems ok, as does my sense of smell, but I have almost no appetite. The fact that the xmas cookies I made are still untouched is evidence.

If your husband doesn't pokish off the cookies, you could freeze some to enjoy when you feel better.

Annie - I did the essential oils, except my list had clove instead of cinnamon. I can’t say for certain if the therapy itself helped, it seemed to, but at minimum it was a reassuring way to see progress. At first I could barely smell them, within short time it became a bit of a joke but I continued for a bit anyway.

My best wishes for a rapid recovery, Annie!

And for anyone else here who is sick. We hate to have our holiday plans disrupted, for sure, but Mother Nature has no respect for holidays!

I hope that you can plan some other get-togethers once well.

I was complaining to my DD that for the past month or so, my cups of tea with lemon don't taste good (I've been a tea drinker since childhood). And my green bean casserole that I made, using my usual recipe (and the original, with soy sauce) was just flavorless. Same with another dish that she shared with me - but most everything else tastes fine.

It hadn't even occurred to me that I might have had an otherwise symptomless case of covid - but that was her first thought. Even though it had been over a month, I tested, but unsurprisingly and fortunately, it was negative. When I thought about it, I had had a few days of sneezing several times a day, but I had put that down to the dust raised by the basement work a week or so before.

I'm sorry so many have been or are sick. I had a pinched nerve in my back ...but it is better. I read that the JN1 variant is highly contagious.

Well, I was sick before t'giving with a sore throat and a cough that persisted. Finally started feeling better and 2 days later was diagnosed with covid. More than 10 days of quarantine and masking, I was past the covid though not past the cough and runny nose. Then Sunday night I felt lousy, took my temp and it's 101.3. Went to dr next day with bronchitis and am now on steroids, inhaler and antibios, in addition to my usual natural products and efforts...from teas to chicken soup to vaporizers to zinc and more. He thinks this is not a covid relapse but a new infection...my 3rd since November!

I am so sick of being sick, coughing my guts out, not sleeping, wheezing noises, and my nose running like a deere.

I think I'm going to go beyond masking to wrapping myself in bubble wrap...forever!

Just needed to carp .... thanks for listening!

Oh, I do feel for you! Carp away, if it helps!

Oh goodness. So sorry to hear this Annie! I can relate as we did that for months last year between c*vid and flu, then kidney infection, then eye infection...went on from Oct to June/July of the next year. I was really not a happy camper about the whole thing. I'm so sorry this is happening to you!! If it's any offering, just take it easy, even when you are feeling better. I kept feeling like I had to play catch up when I was feeling a little better, and just slid backwards again. Hope the hubby stays well.

NOT FAIR! I better not type my initial response, so that will have to suffice.

DH and I have masked in public for *forever* because of my meds for blood cancer, and it does seem *endless* -- successful, but endless. Meanwhile the virus is stepping up its 'variety show' to make end runs around the vaccines.

How are you managing to spare your DH for all this time? I can't imagine how I could make that work.

So sorry. Speedy recovery.

Thanks, SEA SEA. Fortunately he's stayed well through all of this. He's saying now he might be my typhoid mary...bringing the diseases home with him though never getting them. I assured him I was quite capable of finding my own viruses without his help.

:)

I hope you feel much better really soon..........so sorry

That’s a long time to be feeling under par. I hope you are feeling better soon.

So sorry to learn this - wishing you a speedy recovery.

Evidently, there's a surge going on now. I'm seeing more reporting about it. The newer JN.1 is very contagious.

https://time.com/6554340/covid-19-surge-2024

"...COVID-19 is also tearing through the population, thanks largely to the highly contagious JN.1 variant. Just like every year since 2021, this one is starting with a COVID-19 surge—and Americans are getting a good glimpse of what their “new normal” may look like, says Katelyn Jetelina, the epidemiologist who writes the Your Local Epidemiologist newsletter.

“Unfortunately,” she says, “signs are pointing to this [being] the level of disruption and disease we’re going to be faced with in years to come.”

The CDC no longer tracks COVID-19 case counts, which makes it harder than it once was to say exactly how widely the virus is spreading. Monitoring the amount of virus detected in wastewater, while not a perfect proxy for case counts, is probably the best real-time signal currently available—and right now, that signal is a screaming red siren. According to some analyses, wastewater data suggest the current surge is second in size only to the monstrous first wave of Omicron, which peaked in early 2022. By some estimates, more than a million people in the U.S. may be newly infected every single day at the peak of this wave...."

I'm sorry your sick again, Annie. Hope you feel better soon.

Aw jeez, Annie Annie. What a shame. I know all to well that feeling of being sick of yourself. No advice, just sending healing thoughts.

My brother’s covid lasted three weeks. He was SO sick. He finally tested negative. He finally has some energy.

Geez, Annie, it looks like you cannotbget a break. So sorry.

Did your nose ever stop dripping from Covid-19? Did you just slid right into a continuum of URI? Did you get antibiotics for the bronchitis? I hope you’ll start to feel better soon.

For the rhinitis (dripping nose, cough, sore throat) did you take any antihistamines? That usually helps me. Not all of them make one sleepy.

Looks like you’ve got good company with Sea Sea and chisue.

I send healing wishes to all of you. And it sounds like Mr. Annie D has a cast iron immune system.

Sorry for this Annie. I thought one acquired some level of protection against reinfection for 90 days or so after recovering from Covid? Did you continue to test until getting consecutive negatives after your prior infection. I tested positive for 14 days when I had Covid last month. I’d read where 90 days positive was not unusual. A nurse practitioner told me she knew of people remaining + for 200 days or so.

jrb, I tested negative at home, but positive in the dr's office. But he said I would test positive for a long time on their test as it's so sensitive, and the home test was probably correct. This infection, my temp is higher than with covid. He said it's a new infection. Maybe covid weakened my system enough to make me more vulnerable to get a secondary infection, but he said it's not covid. I'm hoping this cocktail of drugs will help. I hate taking them, but at this point, I need something to get me on the road to recovery again.

I keep thinking I NEVER see anyone any more because it's too cold out.....but....everyone is still getting over COVID. I hope you feel better soon.

Yikes! Hope you're soon feeling 100%...or maybe even just 75% would be good!

Darn it, Annie! So sorry you’re still fighting these viruses. It is no fun for sure. I hope you will finally be better and well after this round.

So sorry to hear that. It stinks to be sick, especially so many times in a row. Did the doctor give you any suggestions for boosting the immune system? I always wonder if there is anything besides the obvious sleep, eating healthy, boosting gut health/increasing microbiome, etc. I have seen suggestions for eating raw garlic and using oil of oregano, and exercise, of course, when you are feeling well, but it just seems like there should be some other [evidence based] things we could be doing!

Thanks Bluebell, I am doing zinc lozenges...zinc is an immune system booster. Very mixed evidence on Vit C, though Vit D seems to both increase immune system and reduce susceptibility. Oregano oil needs more evidence, but there is some that it helps keep viruses from replicating. I'm also taking Quercetin which is an anti-oxidant and supposed to be beneficial for inflammation and immunity. Also some studies have shown that meditation boosts the immune system. Sleep is also an immune system booster. Unfortunately, with the steroid I'm on, it's interfering with my sleep. Pluses and minuses! I even made chicken soup! I'm trying everything I can think of!

Thanks for listing out the things you are doing. I forgot about zinc! I usually take that at the first sign of cold symptoms and I really do think it helps. (Heck, even if it's the placebo effect, I'll take it.) I do remember when I had covid my doctor recommended it. Chicken soup is so good this time of year, anyway, so hopefully it has the added benefit of helping the immune system. Feel better!

I agree Bluebell (and Annie) that I too think Zinc really helps me when I feel a cold coming on.

Annie, I'm so sorry for your double-whammy. I hope it lets us soon for you. Being sick, then sort-of getting better, then being sick again is hard to take!

So sorry you can't catch a break, Annie. I had a phone appointment with my doctor yesterday for recurring sinus pressure and she said to take Vit D3 50mcg to boost my immune system.

Sorry to hear that Annie. Everything you’re doing sounds great to me. If I may, I’d like to add this.