Quarantation
We had a good run. But after about two and a half years without an infection with SARS-CoV-2, it seems our time has come now. I will update this post regularly to tell the story of how our household fares in the war with the viral menace.
Day 1
Well, my wife just tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, or as I like to call it: the Wuhan Flu. She did two self-administered antigen tests at work and also got PCR-tested (a requirement to get sick leave for this infection in Germany), but that result might take days to arrive. She’s got a mild cough and is feeling under the weather. I’m also starting to have symptoms of a viral infection now, even though I ran 10 kilometres with 9.5 kilograms of weights for the last two days straight. But I’m assuming I’ve got it too now or will get it soon anyway. We’re following a regimen of heavily dosing with zinc supplements, which is something that’s been suggested in some scientific studies for fighting viral infections of the common cold type and which has worked wonders for us with those over the last few years.
Because we’re starting a quarantine ASAP, I just went out and bought food for the best part of two weeks, which we will substitute with Hello Fresh and restaurant deliveries where needed. We’re planning to stay indoors for the next ten days and have cancelled all social plans we had during that time.
This is a bit of a bummer, given that today is out twenty-year anniversary, but I did buy twenty red roses at a florist while I was grocery shopping anyway. I’m determined to have us enjoy this time together at home – our quarantation, so to speak – because we might as well. This isn’t something we can do anything about, so why not make the best of it?
I got some work appointments on Wednesday and Thursday, but luckily it’s all remote stuff these days. I just hope I won’t get too sick to host webinars all of a sudden. The fact that my body completely tilted with an allergic reaction every time I got the vaccine makes me wary that the same thing might happen now that it’s seen the actual virus. Well, time will tell, I guess. Virus allowing, I’m also planning to record at least one episode of The Private Citizen this week, hopefully tomorrow. I need to get back to the show badly and I need to talk about what is happening in Ukraine. I will probably spent the rest of my time trying to finish my book.
Day 2
Update: 2 March, 13:08 CET
Today, my wife is feeling quite bad. She’s coughing a lot, had some hefty fever through the night and is having ugly headaches, especially when she gets up and walks around. She also got a call this morning from the lab that did the PCR, apparently her Ct is 19, which means there was a decent amount of viral RNA in the test sample. That also explains her symptoms being as noticeable as they are today.
Myself, I am feeling quite good right now. My body is definitely fighting an infection, but today, I’m still pretty productive. I’ve hosted a webinar this morning and it was pretty much business as usual.
However, I will take it easy this afternoon and have decided to not record any podcasts today. Let’s first see, how my symptoms develop. I really need to do this Ukraine episode for The Private Citizen, but I’ve decided that it’s probably better to take it easy and not overdo it for now. Especially since I need to look after my wife a bit right now.
Day 3
Update: 3 March, 23:55 CET
Day three of the quarantine. I’m still doing good. I’m actually feeling better than yesterday and, accordingly, I worked all day. I hosted another webinar this morning and researched, recorded and released a podcast episode. Aside from that, I’m keeping my eye on the situation in Ukraine – which is hard to do, given that there’s a lot of propaganda and unverified information and opinion out there and very little from actual journalists with boots on the ground. I’m also keeping my eye on the Drachenlord’s odyssey through Germany, now that he’s left his home for good. The information density on that topic is a lot higher, interestingly.
My wife is doing better today. She’s up an about a bit, the fever is gone and the headaches have abated a bit. The cough is getting worse, though – and starting to sound like the typical COVID cough. So far, the situation isn’t serious, though, and we are confident that we’ll both get through this infection without any lasting issues.
Day 4
Update: 4 March, 22:39 CET
Things are continuing to improve here in our quarantation. My wife was again improving today. The cough is abating, being replaced by a stuffed nose from hell – which is annoying, but probably a symptom of a bacterial superinfection. It looks like the virus is on the retreat. I myself am pretty sure that I’ve fought off the infection. I was more or less without symptoms all day. I even quickly thought about going running again, but will probably wait a day or two. Better to be safe than sorry.
Workwise, I took it easy today and wrote a bit for my novel. I also wrote a piece about foreign policy in the wake of the war in Ukraine. And now I’m off to bed, I think.
Day 5
Update: 5 March, 17:00 CET
This will be my last update of this post. There just isn’t enough to report. My wife is getting steadily better and it seems like I didn’t get sick at all, really. We will continue our quarantine until the full ten days are over, but I think we are more or less done with this thing. I’ve continued working as usual today and I think I can go running again soon.
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