To my knowledge, summer 2024 would have been the first time I caught the covid virus. I wanted to write down what I went through for historical record. This was quite the whopper of a virus back in 2020 but in the year 2024, perhaps it’s a different thing altogether.
On Wednesday July 24th I woke up with a sore throat. I also tested positive. We did end up tracking it back to an outdoor lunch with Joe on our back patio as he later contacted me saying that he was sick after seeing us and to our knowledge, he must have caught it from someone at work.
Considering the interactions with Joe were completely outside and I don’t remember swapping utensils, I would say that this particular virus strain is quite contagious.
Anyhow, Wednesday came with a minor sore throat and general lack of energy. I remember going for a nap in the early afternoon and being woken to a tornado alert. While I napped, the rest of the family spent the afternoon in the basement. Vero figures this is where Ezra might have caught the virus eventually.
The next day the kids and Vero went off to the cottage we had rented for a few days. I was unable to attend. Thursday and Friday my sore throat had gone away but I was generally on energy and appetite and going through a million kleenex. By Saturday the family had returned early from the cottage because Ezra had a cough and had tested positive as well. Luckily by Saturday I was back in shape overall with a lingering runny nose over the next week. But I’m talking about blowing my nose five times in a day vs. 500 times in a day.
The only other symptom I can report on was having a hard time falling asleep. There would be a few nights where I see the clock and it’s still 2 or 3am. I felt this lingering side effect went away after a week.
Vero ended up testing positive a few days after Ezra. She also had similar symptoms along with a fever on the first day (from what I remember while typing this). Ezra had a pretty bad cough throughout a few nights but overall, I would say that we all made it out with what we can consider ‘mild’ symptoms. No difficulty breathing or anything like that.
As I type this two weeks later, Sierra is the miracle child and somehow has not tested positive nor presented any symptoms. We did our best to stay away…Ezra and I stayed in the basement a lot and wore our masks when going upstairs. Vero was careful around her. Ezra, being four years old, had to constantly be reminded to wear his mask near Sierra. As the week went by, we became more lax in trying to protect Sierra. But at the same time, she wasn’t getting sick and we have to think that we were dealing with a fairly contagious strain here!
My personal belief is formed from something Mom told me. A few years back when a lot of folks in Gaspe got the virus, Maureen, John, Uncle Fred and Aunt Judy did not get the virus. But they all had it the spring before. This is the case with Sierra. She caught the virus in the spring of 2024 but the rest of us managed to not get it. I believe that there is some form of immunity to obtaining the virus a second time within…the same year? It’s hard to nail down a time frame but it’s definitely more than six months. Who knows if I’m right? I haven’t really found scientific research to back this theory up, only anecdotes.
All in all, after four years without the virus, I would say that vaccinations helped us out and gave us minor symptoms. It is a shame that we had to miss Anne-Marie’s wedding as she was in the middle of chemotherapy treatments during this time but it is what it is. There was no way we were going to take a chance giving her any virus.