SURMISING GOING COVID POSITIVE

So it has finally caught up with me. I am isolating in my room in Ballycastle having tested positive for Covid-19. I thought I had gotten away with it but when two people, each from the two main events I was at on Saturday and Sunday, told me that they had tested positive and we had hugged I was on alert!

The symptoms for Covid-19, at least this recent strain, are similar to the Stockman cold. My Grandmother, my father, my daughter Caitlin as well as me, making four generations, get runny noses too regularly. Indeed my Granny is the only one who diagnosed it. She’d say, “heats and colds, heats and colds”. It takes as little was a window to open and a cold draft to blow in to have us taking our Vicks Nasal Inhaler.

Warned by one friend on Monday and another on Tuesday the they were positive I was cautious but two negative tests sent me back to a Stockman cold theory. Today it was a Stockman cold deluxe. My throat was not very sore but there was a threat of it. My head felt groggy. 

So, with a positive test I am now in our bedroom very thankful that I can, as I said in a poem, “gaze on the Mull of Kintyre/From the pillow of our mid morning bed.” Just! And that I had an amazing walk with Janice and Jed on the beach last night with God showing off in cloud and sky and sea.

I imagine I knew we would probably get to here when the country put its trust in the vaccines, hoping that people’s lives would be perhaps inconvenient but the dangers of dying were a lot less.

With asthma I have been on high alert. I feared the virus in lockdown. I felt I was very vulnerable. I think many in Fitzroy were frustrated with my caution. Others were thankful. I’d stand by it. 

Even now I cancelled a meeting yesterday because someone going into hospital soon didn’t need to catch Covid. It is the same for those travelling or with other major appointments at work or in the family. I have already had to get a speaker for Sunday morning, cancel a dental appointment on Monday and warn others that next week’s diary might be cancelled. We’ll sit with diaries tomorrow and see how we can work around them as we also surmise how long for?

Part of me hopes that the test tomorrow will say “sorry negative, we confused this with the Stockman cold”. The more realistic hope is that it won’t be too bad and I’ll be good as new in a few days. Another part of me asks for your prayers as my asthma is not bad at the moment but not as good as during a regular Stockman cold. I am still vulnerable

All in all this is a reminder that Covid hasn’t gone away and we need to love our neighbours as ourselves. Be careful out there!