My last pre-COVID-19 hike
Pics by Harlan W S
December 17, 2020
I planned to meet Tracy F on Dec 17, 2020 for a long 4x4 trip and hike
to a very distant peak; I drove down 10 miles of 4x4 roads the night
before, so I wouldn't have to drive in the dark. Even 2 days before, I
could tell something was not quite right.
As it turns out, about a week before, I was very likely exposed to
COVID-19.
How did I know when I likely got exposure? Because up to that point I
had been extremely careful, wearing goggles and mask, carrying
sanitizer wipes in my hand, and scrupulously avoiding crowds. I went to
stores at off hours, fast as I could, and avoided people not wearing
masks. But I needed to make one more trip to the supermarket.
At the supermarket, after I was well inside, a group
20-something-year-old kids started crowding down the aisle, chatting
away, masks down... and coughing, that mucousy cough that sounds like
pneumonia. One kid pulled down his "mask"
(a bandana), turned and
coughed directly in my face. He knew he was about to cough, and
probably didn't want to soil his bandana; he may have been surprised to
see me. They say intensity of infection is proportional to initial
viral load, and I bet mine was big. I went home and washed up, but I
had probably already gotten virus in my lungs and eyes. Strictly
by demographics, these were not rightest Libertarians, but more likely
just careless selfish kids (who want you to pay for their college).
So a week later... I did a quick hike the first afternoon, and though I made good time, I
could tell I was flagging. The body aches and joint pains were so
intense that I had to take pain meds to sleep. That was a pretty grim
night, with alternative sweats and extreme chills, when the temperature
was 37F. I got up at 6AM and drove home, and that afternoon took an
RT-PCR test at UMC Quickcare. The results came back positive for
COVID-19 early next morn.
I'm over the worst now, but a month later, have lost 17 lbs (I was just
about 142 lbs, and very lean, to start). Mercifully I was very
fit to start. I got bad enough that measures like d-dimer (>70x normal) and
SpO2 (<84%) put me in the very serious COVID category (i.e. close to death for the less-fit). But I was able to
"recover" at home with supplemental oxygen, serious blood thinners and
dexamethasone.
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