Hey, COVID is shitty! You already knew that, I assume, but I figured, just in case, I’d remind you. Two weeks ago, COVID colonized my body, and like all colonizers, it’s a real fucking asshole. I took Paxlovid, and it did a very quick job at knocking the thing to the ground, and I thought, yay, I fucking did it, but then a few days ago, I guess Thursday? I started to feel shitty.
And then I learned the joys of the PAXLOVID REBOUND, which is to say, it hit worse than it did before I took the Pax in the first place.
(I do not consider this a knock against the drug, to be clear — the goal with taking it for me was to file the teeth off of COVID and ideally push back the chances of Long COVID. Which, so far, knock on wood, seems to have been the case. And I also am to understand that a COVID rebound is just as likely without taking an antiviral as having taken one. So, shrug. Who knows.)
Got a fever, head-cold, cough. Fever was short-lived, and never scary-high, and the overall effects have probably been less than when I’ve had a flu. That isn’t me saying “oh COVID isn’t bad,” or “oh it’s just a flu,” it’s just me telling you my experience here, which luckily (so far) was not severe, and ultimately fairly mild. My family has it, too — kiddo had almost no illness to speak of (again, knock on wood), wife was a little worse than me all throughout, so fingers crossed this thing is mostly headed out to sea. I expect to have this rough voice and cough for a little while, which should be interesting given that I have to do a virtual talk this weekend and then the following weekend I’m delivering a keynote address at the Writer’s Digest conference in New York! Soooo, fingers crossed I am not hacking up BRONCHIAL GOO while trying to dispense my dubious brand of vigorous-air-quote “writing wisdom.”
Anyway! COVID sucks, it’s definitely surging right now as I know a whole lotta fucking people who caught it suddenly. Mask up, be smart, pray to whatever weird gods you hold dear. Or something.
More soon!
Cheryl says:
Thx for update. Was wondering, and hoping (for your/family) sake.
Meanwhile, huge delight experienced as reading _Gentle Writing Advice_.
Recommended highly.
August 8, 2023 — 11:20 AM
Josh says:
Well I’m not here to rant about the we-all-just-get-Covid-over-and-over-now-shrug-shrug strategy, sending warm thoughts from Fishtown. Watch new season of FROM yet? Loved it. WARRIOR on Max is another goodie. Is it possible to read or write on Covid? I’m one of the genetic freaks that hasn’t knowingly had it yet. Be well, Chuck!
August 8, 2023 — 11:23 AM
Judy Black says:
Glad you’re recovering well! Keep taking it easy and resting for quite a while. It’s very easy to overdo it once you get to feeling better again.
August 8, 2023 — 11:34 AM
Gayle A Rosengren says:
Get well soon!
August 8, 2023 — 12:12 PM
Michael Chesley Johnson says:
The weirdest thing for me was the loss of my sense of smell. Weird to take a shower and not smell the shampoo.
August 8, 2023 — 7:03 PM
terribleminds says:
I had a night where my smell was absolutely gone — just a void. Though I could still taste things somewhat, and my sinuses were SO swollen I… think it was more that than the neurological effect of COVID? The smell kinda came back and bounced around in efficacy over the next two days and then was all good a couple days later. But it was unnerving.
August 9, 2023 — 8:58 AM
Michelle says:
Best wishes to you and your family, Chuck!
I had COVID last fall during one of the many waves in this ocean. The Paxlovid got me to the point of not coughing so hard I threw up. The rebound happened but soon passed. Still, enough to know it’s not “just the flu,” as certain family of mine keeps insisting.
August 9, 2023 — 1:35 PM