We can’t believe what’s happened. Just when we thought we were beginning to improve from having Omicron, I joined Tom in excessive coughing yesterday. He spent the day in bed sleeping and coughing off and on while I was feeling so well in the morning that I considered restarting my daily walking routine.
But, by 1:00 pm, I started coughing. I’d still had a tickle kind of cough that had diminished over this past week. Then, just like that, I started hacking and hacking and hacking. Immediately, I took a dose of the 12-hour daytime cough medicine we bought in the morning at the pharmacy.
It didn’t seem to help much. I kept coughing, and so did Tom, every time he awoke from his day-long nap. He needed sleep. He’d been awake, coughing all night for the past several days. On top of it, we both were sneezing and suffering from awful congestion. This virus is worse than any cold we ever had!
We tested positive on the ship on April 20. Today it’s been 16 days since that test. Of course, we tested three more times before we left England on May 1, all of which tests were negative. We used the most recent test on April 30 for flying from Gatwick to Minneapolis. At that point, we felt like we were on the mend. We handled the two long flights very well.
No, we don’t have a fever, don’t have body aches, and I am not experiencing exhaustion like Tom. Last night, after Tom turned over to sleep at about 11:00 pm, I thought I’d try to do the same. But the coughing was so bad I could not lay down. I propped up three pillows on the bed and sat up. I’d already taken the cough medicine at 7:00 pm and couldn’t take another dose until morning.
I sucked on sugar-free cough drops, one after another, finding a few minutes of relief in my throat. Finally, at around 2:30 am, I dozed off, awakening several times from coughing. This morning my Fitbit indicated I’d slept for 4 hours and 28 minutes, more than I’d expected to get.
This morning, Tom brought me two decaf coffees and two hard-boiled eggs from the breakfast buffet (mainly a continental breakfast). I chopped up the peeled eggs and added some salt and guacamole I had left over in the fridge. This will hold me until dinner.
Of all things, today is the day we’re scheduled to head to St. Paul at noon for our on-the-air interview for Garage Logic, Tom’s favorite Minnesota-based daily (weekday) podcast. The”boys” have been talking about our arrival in the studio for days. We feel we cannot cancel.
The interview will only last for 15 minutes. We can do this as long as we don’t start coughing while talking. We plan to cover for each other. The drive to the studio will be the most challenging part, but it’s only 25 minutes from our current location. After a quick stop to pick up something for dinner, we will be back at the hotel by 1:30 or 2:00 pm, so we won’t have to go back out again.
We’d hoped to spend Mother’s Day with our kids, but that’s not happening. We have canceled all plans we had made previously, telling everyone that we must play it by ear. We can’t imagine it makes sense to be around family when we’re coughing so much.
It’s hard to believe we came to the US to see family, have been here for five days, and haven’t seen anyone yet. This darned virus continues to impact our lives, one way or another. Tomorrow, we’ll share details of today’s interview and post the video once it’s available online.
Again, thank you for all the well-wishes we’ve received from many of our readers worldwide. It means so much to us!
Be well.
Photo from one year ago today, May 6, 2021: