Covid diary: day 7

[the_siobhan]

It snowed today. Rather a lot. I'm looking the weather forecast and it claims to be going above zero tomorrow so I'm trying to figure out if I can just get out of shovelling entirely. Guess I'll find out.

I got a text yesterday evening and it was housemate saying they were off to visit their partner for the weekend. I guess it makes sense? Since I'm the potentially contagious one now? Even so I opened all the windows for a couple of hours (and froze my ass off in the process) before letting myself go unmasked downstairs because I Have Been Burned Once Before.

The cognitive impact of this thing is kind of wild. I am SO SPACEY. Like I'm sort of used to my brain not doing what I tell it to in that I'm always yelling "PUT THAT DOWN IT'S NOT GOOD FOR YOU" like it's a puppy that won't stay out of the trash. But I'm usually very good at juggling multiple things in my head a once and being able to switch focus as I need to. Well not right now I'm not. You know how sometimes you walk into a room and go wait why did I come in here? Like that, but about 30x an hour. Let my attention drift for even one second off what I am actively doing right now and it's gone daddy gone.

This observation has been Brought To You By trying to put three things into the fridge and I had to do it one at a time. Like... put one thing away, close the fridge, turn around and see the second object on the counter, put it in the fridge, and so on. I did this Three. Times.

A potentially good thing, this morning I rolled over in bed and experienced a brief but very intense episode of nystagmus. (Rapid eye twitching) This is a typical symptom of BPPV, so if it turns out that's at least partly the cause of my vertigo, that would be a Very Good Thing because it can be fixed.

So as soon as I can safely go to my chiropractor I'm going to go get Epley'd. (I know there are exercises you can do yourself, but my nerve damage means there's always some low-level background dizziness and I can never figure out which ear to treat.)

Counting back on my fingers, housemate tested positive February 23. I'm not sure when they tested negative, but they did say the hospital wanted the covid done before they were sent for tests and I know those were originally scheduled on March 3. Then on March 11 they came home, had symptoms March 12 and tested positive again on March 13.

So they had at minimum 10 days between testing negative and then testing positive again. Everything I read about rebound says 3-5 days so that's how it got me. Bastard.

I'm going to give myself two full weeks after testing negative just to make sure I'm well out of the rebound window. I first tested negative on March 20, so that takes me to April 4.

That's... a bloody long time. Mind you, it's probably going to take that long for me to remember how doorknobs work.

Comments

[dissectionist]

This isn’t going to be encouraging, but because it’s good to know what one can be up against: for me that spaciness lifted after a couple weeks, but my sudden inability to multitask continued for about eight months. It’s only over the past month or so that I’ve started recovering my ability to focus on more than one thing at a time, and my Covid infection was last May.

Hopefully you’ll find that once the spaciness lifts, it doesn’t leave behind an extended inability to multi-focus. But in case it does, at least it’s helpful to know that it can be like that for an extended time and still get better eventually.

[the_siobhan]

Wow, that's... not great. But you are right, I would much rather know and be prepared. And it is reassuring that it's not permanent.

[greylock]

This observation has been Brought To You By trying to put three things into the fridge and I had to do it one at a time. Like... put one thing away, close the fridge, turn around and see the second object This observation has been Brought To You By trying to put three things into the fridge and I had to do it one at a time. Like... put one thing away, close the fridge, turn around and see the second object on the counter, put it in the fridge, and so on. I did this Three. Times. on the counter, put it in the fridge, and so on. I did this Three. Times.

Oh my.
That's horrific.

[the_siobhan]

It's annoying.

[greylock]

That kind of brain fog, which I got bad with my first vaxx (and to a lesser extent my second) was horrific. I did not enjoy it one bit. Being unable to think things through (A->B->C->) was something I'd give a lot to never experience again.

[houseof9cats]

I do this recently. It's ADHD + menopause, hopefully, because I don't want to consider the other option!