It’s been a few weeks since I caught and recovered from Covid-19. I discovered I had it on August 4th, which earlier in the week I went for a female checkup – so I’m guessing that’s how I caught it though I also thought I could have caught it from a public toilet. I was in a Johnson & Johnson vaccine trial and got a Moderna booster, but it still hit me hard. Initially, I felt I had a lot of body aches and even chills, but that went away after the first day. I had a worsening sore throat (which made swallowing painful) for several days before getting a prescription for Lagevrio or Molnupirivir (which is named after Mjölnir – Thor’s hammer!) through a website called Dr. B, which was a godsend considering my doctor was too busy to talk to me and talking was difficult for me.
I was just getting more and more sick throughout the weekend, during which I was watching the Outside Lands Stream on Twitch. My family was good about caring for me while I was not feeling well and feeding me when I needed to eat. I started taking Molnupiravir on the evening of the 8th and by the 11th, I was feeling almost fully recovered. Just a lingering cough. My mom told me my sister was sick for two weeks before getting over it without any medication. I was extremely grateful for the effective medication and after I recovered, was super excited to discover I finally got a job offer on the 15th!
The journey to finding a job has been a long and hard one, which I will try not to dwell on as it’s been very frustrating and almost hopeless. I’ve faced more rejection and disappointment than I ever expected to have, but that is not the point of this post. The light at the end of my Covid experience was brighter than I thought. Honestly, it wasn’t the worst thing isolating from my family, but the symptoms were difficult and painful at times. I went from being unusually excited about getting daily exercise to spending all day in bed feeling sick and tired. I was also very tired even after recovering, just falling asleep for a couple days straight.
Fortunately, I didn’t lose my sense of taste or smell, and the worst thing about it was the sore throat. My mom said I probably had the BA.5 variant, which is highly contagious, but less severe than other variants. Anyways, I’m glad to be over it and very excited about having a new job to look forward to. I’m also glad that I might have some anti-bodies to keep me from catching it again, or maybe it will make the symptoms less severe if I do get it again. I have heard Paxlovid is the more effective Covid-19 medication, but I had to get Molnupiravir since I’m on a conflicting medication. I’ve heard molnupiravir is $700 for the full course, but considering the medications are not expensive with insurance, I recommend anyone who gets Covid to try to get these medications.
Suffering for a few days with a sore throat that made it painful to swallow was really enough for me, and I don’t know how long it would be waiting for my body to recover on its own. There are some warnings for pregnant women not to take it, so of course, don’t get it if you are, but I think it’s best to take care of yourself by not suffering for too long with it. Lagevrio is supposedly not as effective as Paxlovid, but in my experience, it worked wonders! There are a handful of people who might never get Covid, which is great, but it’s always best to be prepared in case you do get it. I was also slightly worried about spreading it to my cat, who really missed me after I closed my door the first day of quarantine and hung out with me that day sleeping under my desk.
I was good about not petting my cat while I was sick and had my brother take over feeding and litter box duties, so I made sure he would be well cared for. I did have a lot of TV to catch up with after I recovered. My brother is the TV watching expert in my family, so it was expected that I wouldn’t be bingewatching any shows. Speaking of which, The Sandman was really good and I’m glad I got to watch it. I also started watching The House of the Dragon, which I’m not sure is that good. I didn’t realize who some of the actors were, so it was funny reading some reactions to it.
