I Might Have COVID

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The Omicron variant of COVID has been spreading like crazy here in the United States, and Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, has expressed that we may well all get it. ALL of us. 336,000,000 people?!? Yep, that's the US population. Believe it or not, we are third most populous country in the world, after China and India. And with only 63.9% of our population fully vaccinated, that's a lot of potentially severe sickness. Fortunately, I'm one of the vaccinated ones. I received my Pfizer series last spring, and then I went back for a booster in early November. I opted to get the Moderna booster after finding out it was higher dose. I explained to the people at the vaccination clinic that I opted for Moderna "because it has more stuff, and I want more stuff." Well. "more stuff" means "more side effects". I had several days' worth of misery from that booster - much more than with the Pfizer shots. Of course, I was philosophical about it - if there were no side effects at all, I would be worried that it wasn't working. So I cheerfully suffered, although I did have to call out of work for one day due to joint pain in my hip. See, I work outside the home. And I sit at a reception desk where I have to talk to a lot of people coming in, not just my coworkers. So even though I wear a mask and am careful, I was concerned that I would probably get COVID at some point. However, for people who are vaccinated, it seems to be more likely to be a mild case, especially with the Omicron variant. On Thursday, I was coughing a good bit in the morning. I didn't have a fever, but my boss said I should go ahead and go home just to be on the safe side. I was able to get a COVID test the same day, but it does take 2-3 days to get results, so I'm just waiting now. I have a bit of a cough, some congestion, and a mild headache that comes and goes, but otherwise, I really feel okay. If it turns out I actually have COVID, I'm going to have a laugh if I got a worse time from the booster shot than from the actual disease! I have some friends who have had it, and they also had very mild cases, so I'm optimistic. We purchased a small pulse oximeter from Amazon back when this started, which I would HIGHLY recommend that all of you do. It measures oxygen concentration in the blood, and it's extremely easy to use. If your oxygen level drops below 90%, go to the hospital ASAP. It's supposed to be as close to 100% as possible. Mine is at 97%, so I'm good. Just trying to get lots of rest and to be careful to not infect my husband. Wish me luck!