When the covid-19 pandemic hit last March, Vertis and I, both well over 70, went into a serious hunker-down mode. We stopped going to church, wore masks, and took all the precautions recommended.
Things went along fine, but just a couple of weeks before Christmas our grandson Coulter Mason, who works around us in downtown El Dorado and at age 23 thinks he’s bulletproof and is pretty casual about wearing a mask, announced one of his good friends had tested positive for covid-19.
His mother, also casual about masks, had been around Coulter too. We hadn’t been in close contact with him, but Vertis and I continued to tighten up our exposure to any possible carriers.
On the Tuesday before Christmas, I woke up with a little headache. It seemed minor, and I ignored it and took a hot soaking bath, which is my cure for nearly everything, ate a normal breakfast, and was at work by 8 a.m.
That is when I started feeling a little worse, and as the morning progressed, feeling generally terrible. Now it was more than a small headache; it was the headache of all headaches, and about 10 a.m. I headed home.
By noon, I knew I had come down with something, and since covid-19’s primary symptoms include headaches, I began to believe I had the virus. Another hour and I started searching the Internet for symptoms and anything that might help me get over it.
It was after lunch, which I skipped, when I went from “maybe I have the virus” to dead-certain “I have the virus.” What else can it be? Vertis and I agreed that I probably had enough symptoms to justify a covid-19 test, and we called to get an appointment.
An Internet search turned up several drugs, all of which were only used for advanced serious symptoms. However, it did turn up several vitamins which we already take, like B3, C, and zinc. I upped my use of those to morning, noon, and night, along with my regular handful of other vitamins.
About 1 p.m. I drove to Dr. Bob Watson’s office. One of his nurses came out to my car to administer a covid-19 test, where a nasal sample is taken from deep inside the nostrils. I jerked back on the first swab try and had to go through it again on both nostrils. Yeah, it hurt.
I went back home and plopped down on my favorite couch in our den, as miserable as I have been in a long time. I said a couple of prayers and rested. It was mid-afternoon when I realized I was feeling a little bit better, and by by 6 p.m. was much improved and felt like having supper. That’s when the headache seemed to leave me.
I went to bed feeling better than I had felt all day, and the next morning got up at 5 a.m., my usual time to have coffee and read the paper, feeling almost totally back to normal. I went to work and since then haven’t had a hint of a symptom.
Later that morning as Vertis and I discussed the day before and talked about what the covid-19 test was going to show, we had doubts that I actually had the virus; Vertis, outside of a minor sore throat and runny nose a few days before I came down with my symptoms, hadn’t been sick at all. As close as we stick together, I thought it would be virtually impossible for me to have it and for her not to catch it.
I wouldn’t find out the test results until the Monday after Christmas. Then, on Christmas Eve, our daughter Lara and her son Coulter began having symptoms. Both of them tested positive and ended up with strong cases of the virus.
After two weeks, they are just now free of symptoms. I’m typing this column on Jan. 10, and our gifts are still under the Christmas tree. This afternoon we’ll gather to open presents.
The Monday after Christmas I received a voicemail from my doctor telling me I had tested positive for covid-19. In discussing this unusual response to the virus, it doesn’t seem to make any sense that I would have very minimal symptoms and a 23-year-old and his mother, decades younger than Vertis and I, would be sick with loss of taste and smell and other symptoms for two weeks.
Our best guess as to how the virus spread starts with Coulter’s friend, who Coulter was around when he tested positive, to Coulter, who passed it on to the rest of the family. But why the difference in symptoms?
Vertis and I have kept in shape over the years, and I played competitive tournament tennis for over 20 years. I can vouch for the conditioning your lungs receive by playing singles tennis in Arkansas summers in 95-degree temperatures and 80 percent humidity.
Even though I stopped playing tennis after a leg injury a few years back, I still walk four to five miles a day five or six times a week, and Vertis either goes to HealthWorks or rides a stationary bike at home.
I’m six foot two and weigh 175, and Vertis, while I’m not privileged to reveal any numbers, is not overweight by any means. We have never smoked, and take vitamins every day. So what is it? Working out? Vitamins? Not smoking? Prayer?
My best answer: All of the above. I could have received a false positive test, and am going to be checked for antibodies in a couple of weeks, so we’ll know for certain.
In the meantime, until Vertis and I get vaccinated, we’re going to wear masks and keep social distance. When this pandemic is over we’re going to have a mask-burning party. It can’t come too soon.
Email Richard Mason at richard@ gibraltarenergy.com .