jd – To Infinity & Beyond!

First of all, an update: I’d say we’re 98% recovered from covid! Wahoooooo!

Jenny got her sense of taste and smell back mid-week last week (just in time for a shipment of homemade cinnamon buns!!). Overall, my smell/taste were gone for about 2 weeks and it was the same for David’s sense of smell. Our taste/smell senses may still be a little muted but much better. You don’t know how much you use those senses until they’re gone!

We’re feeling much more like ourselves. During our covid convalescence, we didn’t have the energy to do anything. We’d do whatever work we could then just lay on the couch in nothingness. Now we feel more willing to function as humans. We’re a little weak (hello 3 weeks of complete inactivity) and get out of breath easier, but we’re trying to ease back into activity with yoga, some light workouts, and walks.

We have absolutely zero medical expertise but we had a lot of people checking in on us and asking us about our covid experience, so we thought we’d write another blog entry with our thoughts about our experience. Note that it’s different for everyone and this is just our experience!

Advice if you have covid:

Don’t panic: Easier said than done, but don’t panic. One of the harder things about covid is the fear – am I going to be ok? Does my heart feel funny? Is my partner ok? Keep calm, meditate, and get through it!

Get a pulse oximeter: If you’re apt to be freaking out (see above), get a pulse oximeter to measure your blood oxygen levels and heart rate.

Drink a lot of fluids and get a lot of rest – like, a lot! We have vitamin c packets as a way to get extra vitamins and have something exciting to drink besides water (even if I couldn’t taste it…). Skip any caffeine or booze. And sleep/rest to your heart’s content.

Go easy on yourself/spoil yourself: Having covid is hard and scary. Be gentle with yourself. Let things go. Be ok with just being. You want to just lay on the couch and watch the Great British Bake Off at 11:00am on a weekday? That’s fine. Don’t stress about accomplishing or doing anything.

Accept food/help: You have friends or family who want to bring you food or other stuff? Accept it! Can’t taste anything? That’s fine, you still need to eat. If people ask what you want, I recommend prepared food (see next note).

Make big batch of food/minimize what you need to cook or prepare: We did not feel like cooking/dealing with food, but we still needed to eat (perhaps sometimes grudgingly). So at one point I made a giant batch of soup and a huge eggplant parm and pasta and we just ate that for days and days. We also had canned chicken noodle soup. We’re foodies and food is important to us, but this wasn’t the time and it was helpful to not have to think about or put much effort into food.

Everyday will be different so don’t have any expectations about what you’ll want to do/how you’ll feel: See our original entry, but just know it may be a roller coaster of ups and downs.

Take baths: This felt like the pinnacle of luxury and comfortable and comforting. Plus it relieves some of the symptoms you may feel. See note above about spoiling yourself.

Entertain yourself in any way you like: We watched several Disney movies and I ordered Amazon next-day delivery of a puzzle. These somewhat mindless entertainments were comforting.

Advice if someone you love has covid:

• They won’t always feel like answering “how are you” texts or phone calls but appreciate the thought. Mix in the questions with just “hello thinking of you” and GIFs/cute animal/kid pictures so they don’t need to respond but still feel the love.
• They are probably already freaked out about having covid. Don’t freak them out more with horror stories from the news. Instead offer encouragement.
• Send food or entertainment or mail. Food that can just be eaten directly (soup, chopped fruit, muffins, casserole, etc) is best. We got a few packages (both gifts and stuff we ordered) and that was really nice – a connection from the outside world.

All in all, we’re glad this is behind us and, like everyone else, we REALLY look forward to the end of the pandemic. I can’t believe it’s been nearly a year since we’ve been living these crazy lives.