Covid never went away, but “Redux” refers to a return of this topic in my blog. For I have had Covid this week. I had thought I was going to escape this insidious infection, as I had been exposed multiple times to patients who turned out to be Covid positive. But I was infected by a friend with whom I was rooming while part of a larger group who were skiing together. Though we wore masks during the day, I didn’t while I slept at night. He was asymptomatic for the first three days, but started having minor symptoms the last day. When we returned from our trip, I began to have symptoms.
It has felt like a bad cold or flu. I have had sinus congestion, a hacking cough that has made my throat sore, and I have been profoundly tired and fatigued. Luckily, I never had pulmonary (lung) symptoms—no shortness of breath, and my oxygen saturations remained normal throughout the week. After three days of feeling rather miserable, my energy started to return and, as I write this on a Saturday, I expect to go back to work on Monday. During this week, I lived in a spare bedroom in order to isolate myself from my wife and daughters. When I ventured out to eat or afford myself a brief change of scenery, I wore an N95 mask. To date, no one in my family has gotten sick—a huge relief and blessing to me.
This experience has given me a better perspective on what many of my patients have gone through. It has also reinforced the admonitions I made in my recent blog on Covid:
- Get vaccinated! While it didn’t prevent me from contracting the highly contagious Omicron variant of Covid, I am sure it is what kept me from becoming very ill. Almost all the people who are currently being hospitalized or dying of Covid are those who chose not to be vaccinated.
- Wear a mask in public. I am confident that my family has avoided getting contaminated by me because I wore a mask when I was in their vicinity. Furthermore, I avoided catching Covid from my patients because I was wearing a mask. It was my lack of a mask while asleep in the same room as my friend that led to my infection. Barriers do help!
I hope you don’t experience what I’ve gone through this week. Please take these simple precautions “to heart,” not only to protect yourselves, but those around you. It will allow all of us to go back to leading a more normal existence.
Greg Koshkarian, MD, FACC