Like many people I know, I’m sick. I’ve been sick for a while and I’m tired of being sick.
I took a Covid test and it came back negative, but it is extremely frustrating.
I developed a cold back on December 18th. Yes I remember the date because it was the day after I sang with the Spirit of St. Anthony Choir. We did our Christmas concert Sunday, December 17th at the beautiful St. Anthony’s Church on Acushnet Ave.
The concert went great! The music was fantastic and the atmosphere was wonderful. After the concert I had a chance to meet the people in the audience and even got hugs from some old friends.
My wife, Priscilla, and I went home afterwards, had a bite to eat and watched a little television before bed.
My throat was a little irritated that night and I figured it was because of all the singing I had done that day. I had started at my own church at 9:00 a.m., then had rehearsal at St. Anthony at 1 p.m. and the concert at 3 p.m. I figured I just needed to rest it. The next morning… it was a full blown cold.
I’ve had plenty of colds in my 60+ years so I just figured “Here we go again!” I always remember what my friend Jack Peterson said about a cold:
“You can go ahead and take medicine and it will go away in ten days, or do nothing and it’ll be gone in a week-and-a-half.” (Rimshot!)
As of today we are going on 21 days. Three weeks!
I took a Covid test Christmas Eve day because we were having friends over for an Open House and I didn’t want to infect anybody if I had it. Oh how I had missed shoving that swab up my nose! The test was negative but I did take a step back everytime a friend or relative tried to shake my hand or give a hug.
This thing just won’t quit!
Priscilla and I flew down to Virginia Beach the other day to visit my son and daughter-in-law and I forgot how much fun it is to fly with a cold. I lost count on the number of times my ears popped with the changing air pressure. I’m just thankful there was no pain involved, just that weird feeling.
I’ve tried everything. NyQuil, decongestants, Vicks Vapor Rub, cough drops, and cough syrup. Just when I think it’s getting better you wake up the next day all stuffed up again.
My daughter, Kat, has also been sick over Christmas. She works in a high school so she kind of expects it. My oldest daughter, Sarah, works in a preschool so she too experiences everything. Priscilla has had a stubborn cough for a few weeks but that’s to be expected as she’s a paramedic outside of Boston. We try not to think about everything she comes in contact with. SCARY!
One of the reasons that we all seem to be getting sick may be because of the pandemic. Sarah told me about a conversation she had with a doctor recently that suggests we are out of shape when it comes to fighting colds and flu and it could take awhile for us to recover.
Dr. Gregory Schrank, infectious disease specialist at the University of Maryland Medical Center writes that “our immune systems have become more vulnerable to seasonal illnesses because we were locked away from each other when Covid hit.” Once we returned from lockdown, we spent so much time social distancing, wearing masks and standing behind plastic barriers that our systems basically forgot how to fight off these illnesses that circulate this time every year.
Is this the new normal?
I’d like to think that we will soon recover from this and our amazing bodies will eventually get back to virus-fighting shape.
In the meantime I’ll just enjoy curling up on the couch in my sweatpants and oversized sweatshirt while I binge watch Netflix and try not to run out of tissues. Chicken soup for breakfast, lunch and dinner maybe?
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