Sharing the Experience. . .

 Our family has, for most of this year, cruised through the COVID-infested waters of life in Michigan/USA, without any of us getting infected.

No more.

Back the week before Thanksgiving, our doctor's office was sending us multiple messages of one sort or another, urging us to get a flu shot.  Now, for many years, I didn't get flu shots, but in recent years (roughly since I turned 60) I've started getting them, reasoning that the mild case I get from the vaccination could save me from the real thing, which becomes more dangerous the older I get.  So, I dutifully reported to my doctor's office on Tuesday afternoon the 17th of November, and got my flu shot.  Sure enough, the next day, Wednesday, I felt 'punky' as I often have after a flu shot; likewise Thursday.  Friday, I felt great, and figured I was on my way.  Saturday, I felt bad - body aches, a wet cough, and general fatigue.  I didn't have a fever, and I could still taste and smell, so I tentatively ruled out the COVID and resolved to get some rest.  Sunday, I felt worse; same symptoms, just worse.

Monday, I was feeling a little bit better - not well, by any means, but better.  But Jenn was complaining of the same symptoms I had - body aches, wet cough, and general fatigue.  That Monday before Thanksgiving, we also received the news that 6F and her husband had been tested for COVID.  At first, there was some confusion as to what the results were - her husband had pneumonia, and at first, that came across as he didn't have COVID, but when everything was clarified, they both had COVID.  Now, this was not happy news, because they had been at our house for several hours, several days/week, for the previous couple months.

Also that Monday, 3M (who has been living with us since August; long story) found out that he had been exposed at work.  He works for a reconstruction company, and they were working on a job involving a backed-up sewer.  Turns out the homeowner's wife had COVID, but he decided to conceal that fact from the company, not wanting to delay getting the shit cleaned out of his basement.  So Monday was not a good day at our house.

I was feeling incrementally better day by day, but it became apparent that Jenn was getting hammered.  She basically didn't get out of bed for 5 days, except for Thanksgiving.  We had originally planned on having 12 for Thanksgiving dinner, but when we called our putative guests to inform them of our status, they pretty much all backed out politely, so we ended up with 7 for dinner, all but one of whom already lived under our roof.  Jenn was completely blasted, and I was still less-than-fully recovered, so Thanksgiving, in the final analysis, kinda sucked.

Jenn went and got tested the Friday after Thanksgiving; she has a couple situations working for folks who would really need to know whether she has the COVID or not.  And meanwhile, she was getting hammered by whatever-it-was.  She has always been a robustly healthy person, and we both just assumed that, if COVID came to our house, I would be in much worse trouble than she would.  But she just spent hour after hour in bed, moaning through her lousiness.  While, by this past weekend, I was feeling about 85% 'normal'.

So yesterday, Jenn got her test results back - positive.  Which means that I had it, too, since she got it from me.  Woo-hoo!  Also yesterday, 7M and his wife, who live in our basement apartment (but who weren't at our Thanksgiving dinner) also got positive tests back.  So now, everyone under our roof, except 8M and our 6-year-old grandson, has either a positive test or an outside exposure (and of course, even they are exposed several times over just for living here).

I guess, all things considered, I'm just as happy to have gotten the COVID, given how relatively benign my experience was - somewhere between a heavy cold and a mild flu.  Jenn might disagree, although she is finally getting to the 'feeling-incrementally-better-every-day' stage.  But, given where she started from, 'a little bit better' can still feel pretty cruddy.  At least, she is identifiably on the mend.

So that's our experience.  Most of the younger folks are feeling kinda yucky, but they're already kicking it (6F's husband, with the complication of pneumonia, is having a rougher time, but he's mending)

So that's what we've been up to the last couple weeks.  Hope you all had a warmly blessed Thanksgiving. . .