Afternoon, muchachos. This morning I figured this for another day of COVID misery, but everything started settling out a little before noon. My lymphatic system stopped screaming, most of the joint pain faded, the last of the headache dropped away. Now I just have the sniffles and a cough...and that particular flood of relief when you realize, "oh...yeah. There really was a normal. I remember now."
All things considered, this amounted to an average influenza infection in duration and intensity, but with some symptoms emphasized. Like the headache. I have had lots of headaches with colds and flu, but this had the distinct and peculiar sense of having my head in a vise that was clamping down on my forehead and the back of my head.
Given the symptoms, I really think I have been exposed to this twice previously, but picked up only enough of a viral load to alarm the system without overloading. But I guaranteed sufficient exposure last Tuesday night. Lesson learned: Don't get intimate with the wife when she has a minor case of the sniffles. Eighteen hours later she was testing positive, and I figured I was headed for a second screwing that I wasn't going to like so much. When Friday came and went, I thought I might have gotten lucky, but Saturday morning came and it was "tough luck, Charlie."
But it feels really good for the pain to stop.