Blog Post 12: Round Two
Well, the inevitable finally happened… I got COVID.
With the cases on the rise, yet again, my job strongly encouraged people to begin wearing masks again. I had never stopped wearing mine, along with some of my coworkers, but many brushed off this advice. Since we are not clinical, it’s not mandated, so the large majority went about work as they had been. After a particularly long day of work (I left the lab around 7), I got a message the following morning. My coworker, who I had worked side-by-side with for the entirety of that day, had just tested positive for COVID. During that shift, I had been masked, he had not.
Just a quick four days later, I started feeling sick. Two days after that, I tested and there was the slightestttttt of lines. It was light enough that I had to question if my anxiety was giving me “line eyes.” I re-tested the next day and there it was. Bright pink. Two lines. Glaringly positive.
(I want to be clear in saying that I harbor no hard feelings toward this particular coworker, nor do I towards any coworker that has elected to stop masking. The majority of my lab is young- twenties or thirties- and we all have backgrounds in biology. These are smart, careful people. And it’s been 2 years!! I understand the frustration and the desire to move on from this pandemic. However, that is not a privilege or luxury that I, among many others, have. At the end of the day, the only person responsible for my health is me and this second round of COVID was a good reminder of that.)
The worst part of this COVID infection was the anxiety. It was impossible to ignore the possibility of how this would go for me. How this has gone for me previously. I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, but it didn’t. I had 3 days of being pretty sick- sore throat, bad cough, congestion, fatigue. It was manageable though and none of my immediate family members or my boyfriend got it, which was a relief. I then worried what would happen afterwards; how this new infection and additional antibodies would interact with my long haul.
Fortunately, the only real long-term side effect that I seem to have is worsening fatigue. However, leading up to having COVID again, the fatigue had already gotten pretty bad with my iron levels dropping. That meant that shortly after my quarantine ended, there was already an infusion scheduled! I am now 12 days post infusion and already feeling more like myself. I was able to attend a work barbecue and spend time with my boyfriend and friends this weekend, which is far more social interaction and time out of the house than I would’ve been up for a few weeks ago.
So, while COVID may have won the war, I won this particular battle and I’m taking any and all wins I can get!!
Infusion #2!!