The DU Lounge

I know way too many people not testing, and continuing to go out without masks. One of my classmates knew she had COVID but didn't want to stay home. She did wear a mask - but as a chin sling. I only found out by accident that she had COVID (I overheard her chatting with a friend).

Neither of my COVID bouts had many symptoms. The second one I had a very mild sore throat for maybe an hour and a very slightly runny nose. No cough. I think I did have a brief fever (less than 24 hours) - but that was after I tested positive. Same symptoms my daughter had - but no fever - just a barely noticeable case of the sniffles. I tested positive for less than 48 hours.

My spouse has allergies all the time. She hates testing. Hates wearing masks. But I insist she test whenever she has the sniffles. When she got COVID, we were out of the country with a group of 100 people, at least 20 of whom later reported they had COVID. The first group to come down with it (we only know from later when people got home and tested) had GI only symptoms. We were in Mexico, with unsafe water and unfamiliar food - so they assumed they had brushed their teeth with the tap water or something. My spouse was in the second wave. Normally even when she has allergies I move out to my recliner and set up the HEPA filter. All the prior bouts had turned out to be just allergies. She actually did find a test and tested negative - and there was nowhere for me to move to (although we did sleep in separate beds in the same hotel room for the first time in our 40+ year old marriage). I got a slight sore throat a couple of days later just as we were heading home. I'd been diving, so I thought it was just from breathing air from a tank - a relatively common occurrence. We tested as soon as we got home and we were both positive. (I wore my mask the entire trip home, she didn't - nor did the other three people on our plane who later confirmed that they had COVID at the time they were on the plane.)

I never had any GI symptoms from that first bout with COVID - despite that strain clearly being a largely GI strain. It saved all of those the long COVID I was blessed with that started in earnest about 2 months later (with a hospitalization for pancreatitis) and lasted for more than a year (with gut dysbiosis).

It really is a bizarre and unpredictable illness.