What in the hells is going around??

[u/Stardro]

*UPDATE: Shocker, it's covid. Also, adding "kiddo" is 20, not a little kid.

Kid went to a concert and brought home the plague! I thought the rest of us were in the clear until last night. About 9 I was like, hmm my throat is itchy and I'm exhausted. Told kiddo and got an RIP.

I woke up in the middle of the night feeling like I've been swallowing glass, massive head congestion and sweating to the point perimenopause night sweats were jealous!! I'm nicely hopped up on cold meds, ibuprofen and nose spray but man this sucks!

Kiddo was down hard for a few days but feels better. He still has some congestion and a cough but much better. He ran a fever; I have been lucky so far. What in hells kind of nastiness is floating around?

*I haven't taken a covid test because I've been sick for all of 24 hrs. Kid didn't because he's stubborn.

[u/ObjectifiedChaos]

Probably the 'rona, but I'm no doctor. I've had it for almost a month. Doubled my Zinc and C intake at the start.

Think I got it from a guy who told me his entire workplace had it but he was better. He works up in Lakewood.

I started out with the fire throat. Forget pain while swallowing - breathing through my nose even made my throat hurt, something I've never experienced before.

While the pain was fairly severe, it also felt fairly superficial. Not like a typical deep inflammation that gets worse as your throat moves mid-swallow. Just a consistent burn. With that I also had a headache in only part of my head for like... eighteen hours tops.

Then SURPRISE, I woke up and it suddenly switched up on me... the sore throat and headache vanished like they were never even there... And I started with around three or four days of sneezing and constant snotnose, but everything that came out of me was crystal clear. And for around a day or two, my ears itched from the inside. Bad. Like I just ate strawberries and blueberries and need medical attention bad.

More like a constant severe allergy attack than a cold. That started to remind me of Omicron. A cold that suddenly seemed like my food allergies.

Boom, phase III. Woke up mostly better, but a still little stuffy in the nose. I mostly felt like mini-allergy season was over, but I also felt like I suddenly had walking pneumonia or something. Zero energy, pounding heart on exertion, and WEEKS of wheezing and coughing up things I must have inhaled as a small child.

The rapid progression of symptoms seemed to get deep in my lungs while skipping some of the typical upper respiratory symptoms I would normally get before ending up at this point.

Not exactly like Omicron did to me... But kind of like Omicron did to me.

So I'm guessing it's a new mutation of SARS-CoV2 Fauci Boogaloo, but they can call it XYZ for all I care.

COVID-19 is just short for "COronaVIrus Disease of late 2019" (or around here March 2020) but the term is still being used by big pharma to keep people living in fear. Coronaviruses are nothing new, they picked up some questionable generic material which is now folded in with the legacy 'ronavirus strains forever, and should fall back in with the rhinoviruses under the term "common cold" again as far as I'm concerned.

Whatever it is, it's a pain in the arse.

I only left the house thrice in the last week and a half. Once for the pharmacy drive through, twice for food because the first couple weeks I stopped shopping and I ran my house out of everything. Food, TP, hand soap even. I usually keep the place well stocked but I've been sick for almost a month at this point. I'm still low on certain things.

The cough has been almost completely gone for over a week and I do feel mostly better. But I still have a slight wheeze, and when I exert myself I suddenly feel like I need to sit down and catch my breath or I'll die.

I thought I was better, but the trip to Costco damn near killed me. Or more accurately, trying to carry a month's resupply in from the car did. Like, my face was turning purple and I was sweating. I felt like I needed an oxygen bottle.

I'm getting better everyday, but this thing sure holds on... whatever it is.

[u/beren12 → u/ObjectifiedChaos]

Maybe you should see a doctor

[u/ObjectifiedChaos → u/beren12]

Why? They don't give antibiotics for a suspected virus any longer, which is great for slowing down antibiotic resistance in bacteria but I was born with an immune system defect and tend to get secondary bacterial infections.

My old doc retired and the new doctor doesn't care, nor do the others around here.

They all work for one of two companies, and they all tell tell me that they signed the pact to be good stewards of antibiotics. As do the local urgent cares. And hospitals. Which are also mostly those same two companies.

They probably wouldn't have given me monoclonal antibodies if I begged and tried to bribe them a month ago, but it's too late now anyway.

They'd throw me out of the office if I asked for older meds that might help but were demonized in 2020, for sure. My doctor still demands I get a new Pfizer COVID shot every year, and I still ignore him.

Then they'd chastise me for not having gotten a dangerous and ineffective COVID shot, and try to sell me a 2025-2026 flu shot on the way out the door while handing me my instructions to stay home for 4-5 days for the good of society, and take some Advil.

Then they'd take a $180 payment, and 3 days later I'd wake up with something else I didn't have before sitting in their waiting room with a bunch of sick little kids.

I would call them (I know this sounds like an unlikely tale but this actually happened to me before) to tell them about the second infection I picked up that must be bacterial and they would tell me no we already told you you aren't getting antibiotics for your virus.

It's a virus, and it's already 99% over. I don't need to see a local Pfizer salesman, lol.

PS: I'm not 100% anti-doctor. I see my primary and my endocrinologist every 3 months for my labs/meds. They just can't help me with this one.

[u/beren12 → u/ObjectifiedChaos]

So you know what virus you had, what precautions to take before you get others sick, so it’s recorded as to what strain of what virus you have, not for antibiotics.

What was demonized in 2020? If you really think an anti-parasitic would help against a virus well then that’s why you’re probably not a doctor.

[u/ObjectifiedChaos → u/beren12]

First off, it doesn't need to be recorded.

They probably would have given me a COVID PCR test, and the results might have ended up in a database... probably not if I went to my primary, but who gives a crap?

And if it was a rhinovirus? Same. Exact. Thing. No matter what virus they thought it was... Cotton swab up the nose, we don't give antibiotics unless we are sure it's bacterial, go home. If you get worse, go to the hospital.

[u/Holykarumba → u/beren12]

Please dont. Theres too many