COVID

I arrived in Sarasota on a Friday evening, looking forward to spending time with my daughter and son-in-law, to seeing friends and to attending the Chicago Symphony to see a former Tanglewood Fellow perform. By Sunday morning I had tested positive for COVID, so instead I spent five days in my room, getting meals delivered to the door. Since I started Paxlovid immediately, the symptoms abated quickly, although I have yet to recover my energy. But today I am determined to write. I’m not sure if I have been avoiding returning to my novel because I’m too ill, or because I have arrived at a difficult section I’d rather avoid.

In a roundabout way, the novel evolved from a class, “Writing Your COVID Memoir,” that I took in the spring of 2021. At that time, COVID was a potential death sentence and I wrote about the existential dread I was feeling. Today, while there are still risks, particularly of “long COVID,” the disease holds less terror.

Perhaps I was getting too cocky. I was fully up to date on vaccinations and boosters. I still masked indoors, but not when eating inside restaurants. I had also given up my mask during Pilates. When I called to let the studio know I had COVID, it turns out my instructor also had it. Not sure who gave it to whom.  

If I didn’t know I had COVID, I would feel like I had a bad cold (since I’m in Florida I think of it as a “summer cold”) and keep my normal schedule. But since I did give it to the one friend I managed to see before the symptoms started, I will exercise an abundance of caution.  

I hope you all stay healthy.