rona moved in: ilx0rs with the bug report on their progress

so angry on your behalf. inhuman fucking country

^appreciated. I wish I had the power to deliver even a tiny slap on the wrist to my company, but at this point all I can really do is start looking for jobs as soon as I recover and vet my potential employers much more carefully this time around. but it sucks having to shop around for employers on the basis of whether they provide for basic humans rights. a quick google search shows that 23% of private industry workers in the US still didn't have access to paid sick leave as of March 2021, which is appalling

Hugs.

IN my country its the law you have to isolate for 7 days if you test positive. But theres no payment assistance so if yr on casual wages/no SL yer shit out of luck. But I think our govt recently did bring back a casual worker assistance payment?

I've been lucky, I work from home so ths last 2 weeks Ive only fully called in sick about 3 days - the worst of my illness was last weekend which was handy. Ive just been working 3/4 horizontally on the couch under blankets.

to me it seems like a common courtesy thing.

like I had two shitty roommates back in 2019 and one day, after I'd been walking through the common areas they themselves were sitting/watching TV in for the entire weekend, they just decided to tell me one day they all had the flu, and to avoid them (after I'd already been heavily exposed to them when they were contagious).

I didn't get it but I was livid.

but now, if you get mad at someone for not disclosing COVID, whoa whoa whoaaaaaaaaaa, doc, hey have some decorum here, we can't be expected to quarantine forever just because we're sick!

(the lack of sick/COVID pay is ridiculous. we were a little more lenient than what the law allowed, but as soon as the governmental requirement ended, they ended it. someone asked me about COVID pay during our last class and I bit my lip and said we didn't have it anymore - we of all people can afford to grant it, there's no excuse. but we do also give fairly decent wellness time that can be used not just for you being sick, but family members, or mental health.)

I'm finally basically better, aside from some grumbly congestion of no real bother. Smell/taste is back. Fingers crossed it looks like I'll avoid any long term complications. Now I need to try and get fit again - I lost 5kg during this and I'd like to keep that going!

<3 glad you’re on the mend

suspect i'm getting a bit of a rebound case. my initial case was _extremely_ mild - as soon as my symptoms manifested (accidentally said "systems" which i guess is technically correct as well, haha) i spent the next two days bugging everybody i knew until somebody gave me paxlovid. i feel disproportionately exhausted and achy... telling actual covid apart from the insane amounts of life stress i'm going through is difficult but i _feel_ like i'm getting a reasonable amount of sleep and am therefore probably a bit physically ill.

You're not the first person to get a rebound case after Paxlovid. Best wishes!

they don't even give out paxlovid here unless you're in a high risk group

I tested negative this morning! I still cough occasionally but that's about it. got off pretty lightly again, didn't lose taste, never had a temperature

yeah a couple of my friends got covid around the same time and they're getting over rebounds now. not super worried about it except it pushed back my surgery revision date, no surgery within 7 weeks of having covid. i'm not really stressed about it tho, it's a pretty minor revision. i'm not even testing, i just don't get out much and don't like sticking shit up my nose (no wonder i never made it during the indie sleaze days). "high risk group" is loosely enough defined that i qualify... a combination of stress eating and getting shorter means i'm now obese again.

yeah just "obese" doesn't qualify in the UK, you have to have a serious medical condition - cancer, autoimmune diseases etc

Yeah in AU you have to be over 50+ have at least 2 risk factors in those kind of categories (heart problems/cancer/diabetes/obesity/asthma) or, be First Nations. I didnt even bother asking. I was too sick to go anywhere to have gotten it anyway?

Partner only got an antiviral cos he got hospitalised with his.

Finally caught a case this weekend at an extremely bad time - traveling with my whole extended family for a funeral. No way I was affording an extended hotel stay, so managed instead to rent a car and drive 9hrs home to isolate and quarantine. Made it back just in time for fever to knock me flat on my ass, where it still has me 2 days later, despite Paxlovid. I know it’ll pass but man, it’s got me like a motherfucker. But it seems that nobody else in my family got infected, so for that I’m thankful. (Also thankful for the blessing of having enough sick time.) Had grand hopes about ticking off the remaining unwatched discs in my Criterion Bergman box, but so far all I can do is watch crappy 90s cop movies. Tried watching some Sergio Leone at first but looking at all those tired, sweaty, smelly, unhealthy, overheated dudes hit a bit too close to home.

Well hell. After almost 2 1/2 years and an escalating amount of indisputably risky behavior (or what we in Tennessee call, "getting on with our lives") it done got me. Symptoms started yesterday, allergy-like. Negative rapid test last night, but temp started rising today so I went for a PCR. Then when I got home I did another rapid test and ZOING that line sure shows up bright when it shows. Hovering around 101 degree fever right now, not feeling great Bob. Biggest bummer is our final planned trip of the year was in two days, to NYC to see the Open and A Strange Loop and eat at delicious restaurants. All canceled now. (If anyone wants good tickets to A Strange Loop this Friday, give me a shout — I'll do an ILX discount for less than StubHub will give me.)

Fortunately we just dropped the kids at their mom's yesterday, so it's just me and my wife in the house. I'm isolating upstairs, she has no symptoms and is negative at the moment. As a bonus, my work partner ALSO tested today after I reported to him, because he was feeling kind of rundown, and he's positive too. We're only a two-man operation putting out a daily subscription email, so here's hoping we don't both get completely incapacitated. (I think our readers will understand if we have to skip a day tho.)

Anyway, I had a good run. (Without COVID I mean. I don't mean that in a fatalistic way.)

Sorry to hear it, tipsy. Hugs.

Thx. Also I'm open to persuading on whether I should get paxlovid. I'm 53 and have no serious health risks. The side effects of paxlovid seem kind of crummy, but otoh better safe than sorry? Has anyone here dug into that more than my cursory reading?

Depending on the seriousness of my case should I get infected, I may forego paxlovid too.

My doc's office is closed for the day anyway, so I guess I can just see how I feel in the morning. I'll still be within the antiviral window then.

Feel better, tipsy.

sorry to hear this tipsy. get better soon. i have no opinion on paxlovid but i have said many times that tylenol is your best friend. treat it as a golden gift.

Sorry Tipsy, get well soon!

Thanks all! And One Eye Open I hope you're on the mend.

Bummer, sorry to hear about the diagnosis

I had the Delta back in November, when they were still recommending a 10 day isolation period.. I was pretty good about it, but did go out for a walk at the Port of Oakland on a Sunday afternoon, when there's nobody around

Too bad about the cancelled trip, but hopefully you'll at least partially enjoy this little break from life.. I kinda did (somewhat)

tipsy, if your wife is looking after you make sure youre both masked up every single time you go near each other. I didnt with my othr half (I masked, he didnt) and eventually I caught it. Though whos to say if it was in the window before we knew he had it too I suppose...

Yep, we’re both masking any time she brings me food or drink, or when I have to enter the rest of the house. But she was definitely heavily exposed, since I already had some symptoms the last night we shared a bed. Fingers crossed! We have friends and family who have offered to help if we both end up sick.

Aaaand now my wife has a fever too. No positive test yet, but I imagine it will come tomorrow. Fun. At least we’ll be able to stop wearing masks in the house I guess.

Ugh, good luck, my friend.

Yeah its harder with no one to schlep for you :( my sympathies.

tips! how are you?

I don't even know what Paxlovid is.

I was looking for this thread the other day but couldn't find it for the life of me so I posted in the Outbreak! thread instead. My dose is still no worse than a nasty cold, not much fever, the sore throat has abated (thank God), still coughing quite a bit though and it's generally unpleasant but not horribly so.

One fairly comic incident. When you're off sick where I work you're supposed to phone in and leave a message on an answering machine. So I had a bit of a rough night on Tuesday with coughing fits and when I woke up in the morning and tried to leave a message to say I'd definitely tested positive for the rona all that came out was this croak like a cross between Dalek and coffin lid being opened. Still at least they'll know I'm not faking it!

Get well.

Seconded.

hang in there you auld bawbag

I did all the right things (social distance, mask, vax, boost, latherrinserepeat) and none of the wrong things (attend indoor megachurch services, etc). And for two and a half years, it worked!

And then, five days before I am to get on a plane for a long-anticipated trip to Iran, it fucking happens.

Need I mention how challenging it was for an American to get a visa for Iran?

So now I am sick as a dog and not going on a dream vacation, which was particularly for me after the summer where I HAD FUCKING CANCER AND MY BREASTS WERE CUT OFF and also MY BELOVED CAT DIED, FROM CANCER.

Fuck u COVID.

Also: Paxlovid mouth is real. All I can taste is burnt grapefruit pith sauced with tin.

aw quincie :( i'm so sorry

Thanks Neander. I'm being indulgent with the the First World Problem self-pity, but jesus christ what bad luck.

And of course I am out of sick leave because, well, this summer's CANCER.

Get well soon Tom and Quincie

Aw jeez quincie, so sorry. That makes my canceled NYC trip seem paltry by comparison. I hope you recover quickly and can reschedule that trip, sounds amazing.

I'm basically recovered I guess, it's always a little hard to say when you're actually over something. I don't have any lingering symptoms, but I feel kind of fragile — like anything strenuous would wear me out fast. My wife has had essentially the same experience as me, at this point we're just both working from home and chilling out as much as possible, waiting to feel like actually doing anything. Which we won't do anyway until we have negative tests, of course. She was still showing strongly positive yesterday, and I had a very faint positive line — mine may just be picking up dead virus at this point, but I don't want to go wandering around and inadvertently expose anyone. We'll test again tomorrow and see where we're at.

Overall I'd just classify the experience as "being sick." A few days of fever, several days of feeling pretty bad and rundown, several days of steady improvement. If I had to estimate I'd say I'm at about 85-90 percent right now — but that last 10 percent is the difference in, you know, feeling like vigorous exercise or whatever.

Not something I'd be in a hurry to repeat. Definitely as I've gotten older I just resent the hell out of being sick with anything, it's not like I have an infinite number of weeks left on the planet and the fewer of them I spend feeling lousy the better. And of course I've been reading about all the heightened risk factors for people who have had it — gray matter shrinkage, increased risk of heart disease and stroke etc — which seem bad but there's nothing much one can do about it.

Best wishes to all currently suffering!

dear universe, please stop shitting on quincie asap

<3

I am feeling better today, which makes it easier to not be so sad. Spouse and I are starting to laugh about it. And the bright side is that it won’t be so fucking hot in Iran if we successfully get visas for November!

Also I basically just had the best booster ever so DONE WITH YOU covid for ever and ever or at least this particular go-round

Feels like little more than a mild cold now but I'm still testing postive. Another week off work then.

quincie, so sorry your trip got ruined. Hope your case is mild and you get an even better trip this fall.

(xp) Apparently not. Government advice is, after 10 days, even if you're still testing postive - and provided you're not very ill - it's fine to go back to work.

testing positive is not an indicator of contagiousness iirc

So I believe.