Slowly improving
And I mean slowly.
I’m talking about my physical health, not my mental state. My grief is, if anything, worse, as it all sinks in more and more.
But at least my fever is gone. I’ve entered a stage where I’m still “off” in the GI sense, still coughing but not as much, still tired but able to be on my feet most of the day. That’s progress.
Even though my son had a negative COVID test, our symptoms have been so perfectly COVID-like that I decided to test myself today. I would have bet a significant amount of money it would be positive. But I would have lost that bet: negative.
I don’t know the exact name of what I’ve got, but I can tell you I never want to get it again.

Don’t push it while you recover! There is nothing urgent about the tasks you face now. Consider hiring professional help to clear things out once you have recovered physically.
I came home from two weeks of helping my sister’s immediate grief on the loss of her husband of sixty years, and from organizing and supervising her move to assisted living. Family in California will carry it from here. But I came home to a husband who is sick with something that sounds like what Neo had, and a niece now tells me she’s got COVID. I saw her Saturday and Sunday. And my housekeeping helper has a back problem and won’t be back for at least two weeks, and it’s been four since she was here. So today, instead of resting, I am cleaning the house to the extent I can in anticipation that I will also be sick in a few days.
This is not fun, Neo. Rest and get better.
Please pace yourself – these tasks will wait, but getting healthy again will not.
BTW, I and my entire family had a sickness exactly like you describe last year – tested multiple people (6 total) for COVID over the weeks the illness was in our home Negative every time. 4 of us ended up with pneumonia – all requiring anti biotics. Some lingering stuff even now, a year later. We later were told (and think) we encountered a strain of Whooping Cough (and yes, we were all vaccinated ) One person in our house is a health care provider in a clinic, and deals with immigrants and was ‘patient zero’ for this thing.
Anyway, take care of you.
I am not aware that a COVID illness has specific characteristics to distinguish it clinically from other viral upper respiratory ills.
You’re a sly one, Mr. Covid.
You do your greatest damage at the cellular, genetic level, while your victim “recovers”, unaware.
Quote from song about Mr. Grinch. Substitute Mr. Covid for Mr. Grinch:
You’re a mean one, Mr. Grinch,
You really are a heel,
You’re as cuddly as a cactus, you’re as charming as an eel, Mr. Grinch,
You’re a bad banana with a greasy black peel!
You’re a monster, Mr. Grinch,
Your heart’s an empty hole,
Your brain is full of spiders, you have garlic in your soul, Mr. Grinch,
I wouldn’t touch you with a thirty-nine-and-a-half foot pole!
You’re a foul one, Mr. Grinch,
You have termites in your smile,
You have all the tender sweetness of a seasick crocodile, Mr. Grinch,
Given a choice between the two of you I’d take the seasick crocodile!
You’re a vile one, Mr. Grinch,
You’re a nasty wasty skunk,
Your heart is full of unwashed socks, your soul is full of gunk, Mr. Grinch,
The three words that best describe you are as follows, and I quote,
“Stink, stank, stunk”!
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https://www.lyricsfreak.com/d/dr+seuss/youre+a+mean+one+mr+grinch_21255165.html‘
Neo, I wouldn’t be surprised if your grief has increased the magnitude of the virus you are fighting. I’m glad you are improving and hope you will receive all the assistance you need. You are a person of wisdom–that is a true virtue that will serve you in all you must do, which of course, includes rest.
Sharon W, I have been thinking the same thing. Neo, I know you don’t have to be told this, but please take the kind of care of yourself that you’d give to a dear friend who’d suffered a lterrible loss followed by illness. No pushing, no rushing, if you can possibly help it, and if anyone can help you, please let them.
Checking in every day, no.hurry to get writing again, just get better