I have completely recovered from my second round of COVID. Thank you for the steady trickle of people stopping by while I recuperated. Sorry, I couldn’t manage to keep writing.

I thought about posting about COVID but It swept through my whole household, so I wasn’t even unique at home. Besides, after more than two years, everyone has a story. Here’s ours.

Our Quick COVID History

2020
Our first time around happened early. In February it didn’t even have an official name. My doctor just called it the weird flu but noted it was particularly mean. There was no vaccine. We were on our own

My wife ended up in the emergency room twice with a fever of 105º. I slept for a solid week. We survived, took a couple of weeks off to “slow the curve”, then put on masks and went back to work. As the year progressed, we felt luckier and luckier to have gotten off so easy.

2021
After a year, our employers dangled promises of getting to de-mask, so my wife and I got vaccinated in 2021.  Within a few months, I had two heart operations. There’s no way to know if it was related. I’m still doing cardio rehab sessions three times a week.

2022
Not only did we never get to take off our masks but we both caught the Omicron variant almost exactly two years after our first experience.
This time the results were different. Suzie slept for a week and I was downright miserable for two weeks.

Just when I thought I was ready to get back to work, I developed more heart arrhythmia problems. I’ve backed off my exercise and am working my way back. I’m looking forward to the day I can hike mountains again. Level ground is enough for now. My cough is almost gone in time for spring allergies.

Still, it could have been much worse: I could have kept writing.

I tried to write but it came out like this:

My Brain On COVID

Grumpy COVID Dennis wants to write. He reminds me of my publishing schedule. He points to the news and is outraged or snarky or has some invaluable insight that can’t wait. He tells me to use my pent up viral energy to really let ‘em have it.

Resilient Dennis tells me to be thankful that my immune system is strong and my symptoms mild. He points out how many dedicated and courageous people are fighting the good fight while I recover and warns me not to get cocky about my small contribution.

Emotional Dennis played back every horrible memory and every friend lost. He reminded me of the prayers raised for people in comas on ventilators. He talked about very smart people doing the best research they could discover only to die like anyone else. He also worries about my family on top of it all.

Logical Dennis quoted numbers and percentages to convince me that the risk of death was, in fact, very small. He stacked charts of the greatest plagues of all time which were far more deadly, some of which I had already survived. The cold truth overwhelmed the thicker, more visceral emotions but left me somehow unsatisfied.

Prayerful Dennis reminds me to use this time wisely to bring our needs before Jesus, who is Lord of all. We depend on God for our every need and there is no higher privilege than to have access to His great mercy.

Optimistic Dennis wants to leap out of bed, shake it off, have a cup of hot coffee and power through! He always has such exciting ideas. If only he’d reminded me how far away the coffee pot sat.

But in the end, Sleepy Dennis taps me on the shoulder and whispers that God holds everything in His hands. He tells me I should just have faith and get better. I like Sleepy Dennis. He makes a lot of sense.

I’ll see you all next week . . .

Narrow Escape

Aren’t you glad I saved you from that! That was close, huh?

In any case, I’m back with a better perspective on important things to write about but I figured I should get this out of the way first.

COVID report, done. Whew! And thanks again.