Jose Francisco comes back, and so does Covid19!

Saturday, September 2nd, I leave from Bush International Airport to meet Jose Francisco in Tampa and drive him back to Houston.  He has had enough of life in Florida.  Actually, I think he is just frightened of the restrictive laws that Governor Desantis has enacted.   Texas laws are still a bit more lax than Florida when it comes to an illegal immigrant… er, I mean ‘asylum seeker’ driving a car without a license.  So back to Texas it is! 

As I land in the airport for my connecting flight (which happens to be Las Vegas. Yes, I fly from Houston to Vegas to connect to Tampa Florida), Ivy calls me on the phone and asks, “Are you feeling sick?”  No, why?  “Because I am!”  In the background, I hear Holly dismiss, “It’s just allergies!” 

Long story short, I drive all the way back to Houston (almost 1,000 mile drive in one day.. ugh!) on Monday the 4th (Labor Day about 2 a.m.) to find Ivy and Holly a bit ill.  I’m exhausted beyond any sensibility, but I get up at the crack of dawn and start dealing with more of Jose’s drama.  But by 11 a.m., something amazing happened… he found a FREE place to stay for 2 months!  One of the women that he worked for before needed a dog-sitter for awhile as she goes to take care of dying mother (some other city, not sure where).  This is the same woman who gave us all kinds of Christmas stuff a few years ago (full story here).  So it’s kind of amazing that occurred because he had no plan and nowhere to stay.  Luck?  Or a Godsend?  Not sure, but that totally worked out great! 

Meanwhile, I’m dealing with Holly and Ivy’s drama as well.  Neither was terribly sick at that point, so I ask, “Are y’all going to go to school or work tomorrow?  I’m not sure.  Holly wakes up Tuesday morning somewhat ill and decides to ‘work from home’.  Ivy decides to go to school…. but only about 1 hour later, she calls and says the school nurse has ordered her to go home.  The nurse says Ivy might have Covid and that I should check that out.  Well, it just so happened that we had several at-home Covid tests leftover from the pandemic, so we did the tests… both Ivy and Holly were positive.  I am negative.   

I stay in close contact with Jane, as well.  She has had just about the same amount of contact with Holly and Ivy as I have over the weekend.  So we’re crossing our fingers.  Jose, as well, was exposed to Covid on Monday. 

By Wednesday morning, Holly is very ill.  Can barely breath or stand or anything.  Her pre-existing poor health conditions/decisions are making this worse.  So we call the ambulance and she is shipped off to the hospital.  She spends the day in the hospital.  We pick up her in the evening.  She’s going to live.  

Thursday is just a boring day of laying around the house for these two, and I think Ivy and Holly are enjoying being waited on hand and foot.   But for myself, I begin to feel a little strange.  By Friday morning very early (about 3 a.m.) I’m waking up in a cold sweat and feeling very chilly.  Friday morning I go to find a free Covid test (which aren’t all that easy to find these days), and sure enough the results were positive.  So now everyone in this house has bat-flu!  Or shall we call it Chinese flu?  Or Fauci Funk?  Or just Covid19?  Whatever.  It sucks. 

Okay, so it’s Friday afternoon and Ivy is much better.  Holly is also.  But I’m just getting started.   My symptoms are mild so far.  I may update this in the morning depending on how I feel.   I also learn that Jane has tested positive, too!  Omg.  Our turn, I guess.  My concern for myself is a pre-existing condition of Asthma and respiratory problems. 

Btw, YES, for all you progressive white ̶s̶u̶p̶r̶e̶m̶a̶c̶i̶s̶t̶s̶ savior purists and ‘science’ (fiction) Fauci followers out there, we’ve all been vaccinated.   But we caught Covid anyway.  Yes, we quarantined ourselves.  But where and how did we catch Covid?  I have no idea.  I suspect Ivy caught it at school.  Or possible Holly got it from a coworker who was also sick with Covid.  Whatever the case, the symptoms have been fairly mild, and we fully expect this to pass like any other flu.  I must admit, the vaccination SEEMS to be working and preventing us from utter disaster.   But then again, did we ever really need a vaccination at all? 

Update: 9/10/23… Ivy is feeling fine and has no symptoms, so we buy a Covid Test and she takes it.  NEGATIVE!  She is covid-free.  So that’s about 7 or 8 days from first sign of symptoms to testing negative.  Not terrible.  She’ll go back to school tomorrow.   Update: 9/12/23 – Holly tests negative and goes back into the office.  Update: 9/17/23 – Jane tests negative, and so do I!  Hurray! 

Gathering data about this experience has been kind of interesting.  Maybe even useful for other people?  Hope so.   Ivy’s symptoms appeared on a Saturday, then Holly’s symptoms began appearing Monday (Labor Day).   Jane was exposed on Sunday, and I was exposed on Monday.  We began feeling symptoms on Wednesday and Thursday.  We mainly noticed that the time from exposure to symptoms was about 2 to 3 days for each of us.  Also, it was about 7-10 days for the flu to run it’s course in each of us.  Symptoms were mild and no worse than a common cold or flu (which are still very unpleasant, mind you).  Plus, it seemed clear that Covid really tries amplify pre-existing conditions.  With Holly it was fatigue.  With me it was respiratory issues (I have asthma) and digestive issues (Couldn’t eat much of anything).  I also felt an uncomfortable amount of fatigue and body aches, so much so that I couldn’t sleep at night.   

By the way, Jose did NOT get infected even though he was exposed to it for maybe 6 hours or so.  He didn’t take any extra precautions (like face mask or sanitizer), so I’m not sure how he evaded the Covid.  

Overall, it raises questions about the whole pandemic and whether the Quarantines ever necessary in the first place?  I’ve been following the Texas Medical Center charts (interesting stats here) for more 3 years, and the results seem to say there were obvious patterns and ‘seasons’ or waves of flu just like any other flu.  Was there ever a need for a quarantine?   Obviously, there was never a need for a $20,000,000 make-shift hospital built at NRG stadium (which never saw a single patient).  Didn’t everyone who died in the early days of Covid19 die because of pre-existing conditions (heart conditions, morbid obesity, asthma, etc), and NOT covid itself?   I don’t really know the answers.  I only know 4 of us (all vaxxed) got infected with Covid and it wasn’t really any worse than a common cold or flu.  Plus, how did we evade covid for 3 years even while NOT being terribly cautious… yet then catch Covid after being vaxxed and once the pandemic was over?