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                             First Downs and Second Guesses

                          Blog #199 - April 2022

  April was eventful around the Brennan household.  My wife and I used up 20 days of the month quarantining from Covid 19.  We had all the shots and boosters, yet we succumbed to the awful virus.

It all started when we returned from the Final Four in New Orleans on April 5^th.  New Orleans did not have a mask mandate in effect while we were there.  I was attending the first National Association of Basketball Coaches annual convention meeting face-to-face in two years.  My wife attended some social activities for spouses of NABC members.  We both wore masks to many of the activities, but not all of them.

On our flight home, my wife stated that she hadn’t felt good for a day, so she took the 15-minute Covid test.  She tested positive.  I took the same test and tested negative.  We separated to our quarantine parts of the house.  For the next 10 days, my wife and I didn’t meet, and when we did, we wore masks.  I cooked and served all her meals to the door of her bedroom, and retrieved the empty dishes and drinking glasses when she was done.

When she felt she wasn’t getting better after a couple days, she notified our doctor who prescribed Paxlovin, the anti-Covid medicine.  She took several pills a day for five days.  At the conclusion of the prescription, she said she was feeling better, but a day later she experienced some aftereffects, which lasted a couple more days.  However, on the 10^th day of isolation, she took another test and received a negative response.  I also took the test, and tested positive.  So my 10-days quarantine began immediately.

Since I take anti-blood clot medication, I was not a candidate for Paxlovin.  I never experienced any of the usual symptoms (fever, aches, loss of smell and taste).  But I did have a cough.  I quarantined downstairs in my office during the day and slept upstairs in my normal bed at night.  Since I never felt sick, my office was the best place for me to be as I got a lot of computer work accomplished.  My wife cooked and served all meals to the door at the top of the basement steps.

On the sixth day of confinement, I thought I’d take a chance and test to see if Covid had disappeared.  No such luck.  Positive.  And the line that appears on the test to indicate the presence of Covid began to appear the second the Q-tip with my nasal swab touched the Covid solution.  I waited the full 10 days and tested on the 11^th day.  This time it was negative.  Rejoice.

The lesson my wife and I learned is that the new variants of the virus are so invasive that no element of vaccines and booster shots make you immune from catching it.  We both feel that our immune systems are stronger for having experienced the effects of Covid.  We also feel that the virus will continue to change and it will never fully be eradicated in the U.S or world.  We feel we will continue to receive a Covid booster shot each year when we receive our flu shots.  It’s going to become that normal a procedure.

We feel that having received the vaccine and booster helped us manage the virus better than if we had not received the vaccine and booster.  Since the U.S. has been cleared of the “pandemic level” status of the virus should not convince anyone that we’re “in the clear.” 

People who decided not to receive the vaccine and booster and have not caught the virus should not think they aren’t susceptible to catching it since they haven’t already.  One way or another, the majority of people in the U.S. will catch it, whether they have vaccines and boosters in them or not.  Notice in Washington, DC, how many politicians are catching it after being vaccinated and received booster shots.

My wife and I will remember our 2022 New Orleans trip as one of enjoyment and fun.  We’ll also remember the aftermath of the trip…Covid isolation for 20 straight days.