Joe and I finally got Covid this month. If you're reading this and have somehow avoided catching it, or have waning immunity from an older case, I'll put the TL/DR right up front.
1. It's still out there and anecdotally a lot of fully vaccinated Covid virgins caught it over the last few months. Mask up and be careful, and pay no attention to covid case rates because a lot of people are just getting home tests and not reporting it.
2. Get Paxlovid if you can. It makes a huge difference. Due to the weekend, I started it a bit late (two days after first testing positive) so I got to experience both the before and after and it helped perk me up a lot. It also helps with reducing the amount of viral shedding. Joe first tested positive 12 days before I did, but continued to test positive for practically three weeks. We both got our first negative test the same day. If you're on the fence, please get it if you live with other people who haven't had Covid recently (see below).
3. Be more careful than the current CDC guidelines, which suggest that you're not contagious once your active symptoms have stopped and you're at least five days past your first positive test. Joe and I were pretty careful, but it's exhausting after a while. My birthday was 10 days after he first tested positive. We celebrated by eating take out in the same room, although we did not linger maskless after that. I suspect that was when my poor overworked immune system finally hit the breaking point.
Joe and I both had mild cases per the CDC definition - fever, sore throat, coughing, fatigue. We were also laid up for about a week each. This is unusual for us to be knocked on our butts like that. Mild covid is still pretty bad by the usual cold/flu standards. In the before times, I was laid up for a day or two every few years. I haven't taken that many back to back sick days since I have chickenpox in 1999. I am glad I didn't experience it without vaccines and Paxlovid.
I take a lot of comfort in having gotten it now rather than en route to CA. In a way, it's reassuring that I got it after prolonged exposure to someone who had it in my household rather than randomly getting it from someone I don't know while going about my daily activities.
Mask up, be safe and have a wonderful winter holiday!
