Wednesday, May 24, 2023 started out as the best day since I have been home! Why? It was the closest day to ‘normal’ that I have had in years! Dick and I live in a small town surrounded by mountains with a quintessential Main Street. Said Main Street is roughly 4 blocks from our house. There was a time not so many years ago where as soon as the weather warmed up, I walked to town and checked out all of our little stores. It was a spring event for me really. I like to head into town before tourist season so I really enjoy spring and fall. I probably haven’t done my walk for about 3-5 years due to my inability to walk that distance. Huge bummer and just one more thing that the terrorists took from me!

Well, on May 24, 2023, I felt like I could do it! I felt like I could make that walk. And you know what? I DID! It was awesome! I walked to one of our little coffee shops 5 blocks from my house! I met two new friends there. We had great conversation. On my way home, someone actually stopped me that knew I had had the HSCT and told me how great I was doing walking. It turns out that she is a retired PT, making me feel even more awesome! Seriously, if I had tried to pat myself on my back any harder, I probably would have fallen over!

I got home around 1:00 and started feeling a little feverish. With my MS, if I am at all sick, my walking and ability to think becomes grossly impaired. Well, I tripped (literally) to the medicine cabinet and grabbed the thermometer. I had a fever just under 100. I typically run low, so I was feeling quite horrid. At this point, I’ll let you know that Dick had started feeling crummy about 2 days before me. He had recently gone to his doctor’s office at the hospital for a follow up. Are you getting an idea where this is going?

Anyway, fever and feeling pretty gross. It felt a lot like I felt during chemo, only this time, there was no Ana! I managed to do a little work on Thursday and then stayed in my chair until Sunday. I had no interest in food. No interest in much of anything. I just slept and took Tylenol. The fever would break and come right back.

On Sunday, I was texting with a friend and she decided to drop over a COVID test. Dick gave me the test and YES! That is exactly what it was. I’m not sure what COVID has been like for anyone else. All I can say is MY GOD! It is the worst! Another friend brought over an oxygen concentrator as my O2 had dropped into the 80’s. As you might imagine, this all made me quite anxious. Here were some of my thoughts: what’s that pain? Is it something? Is it nothing? Do I go to the hospital? Do you know that your immune system is rebuilding? What kind of medicine can I take? What kind of medicine can’t I take? How far will this set back my recovery? Am I going to get COVID brain? Is that any different than the MS cog fog?

This just went on and on and my anxiousness just got worse and worse, which I’m sure didn’t help at all. The fever finally broke and stayed broke on Memorial Day. The next thing that I know, I’m just dry heaving all of the time! Like I said, it was like chemo all over again! It was worse in the evening. I tried to ride it out but gave up that fight on Friday and called my NP. She ordered me anti-nausea meds and as of tonight, I have stopped with the dry heaving. I’ve probably taken about three showers in the last sixteen days. Gross, I know. The fatigue is RI!DI!CU!LOUS! It is just ridiculous and I’ve dealt with MS fatigue for almost 17 years! Every day I have planned to shower, and every day I have fallen asleep and then it’s night and I just go to bed.

I slept most of today and now I seem to be wide awake! My plan is to try to do a little work tomorrow. I mean a little! If this were to relapse, I really don’t think that I could handle it! Dick has retested me twice and I’m still positive. I’m planning to retest on Wednesday. That will be 10 days since I last had fever. Another fun thing that I learned through this is that the new strain of COVID, known as Arcturus (sounds like a Greek God to me, and trust me, it crushed me!) can present like pink eye. I can’t find a Wikipedia on this but look here. On Sunday, my eye was itching so bad and the next thing I knew, my left eye was almost swollen shut. Great! Seriously, I’ll take pink eye over all of the lung stuff any day! I got some of the lung stuff, so, BONUS!

Dick is testing negative now. Even though he has felt bad (this is his second run with COVID, the first time was toward the beginning and it was really bad and I don’t want to talk about it.), he has managed to take care of me. He continues to be my hero. Our house is a disaster. He has managed to do some dishes and clean the cat boxes but there is only energy for the bare minimum. I am at the point where being sick for the past 12 days is no longer working for me. I want to walk some more! I want to vacuum (never thought I’d say that!) I want to clean! I want to go to work! I want to hit Main Street before the tourist season is in full swing. Seriously, I am going to lay low for about another week because I really don’t want a relapse. It will be hard, but I will do it because this has been the worst thing ever.

TL;DR I have COVID and it is as terrible as you might imagine. I’m on the mend!