Halloween is upon us. My daughter is very excited that she will be allowed to go out for trick or treat this year. Last year she went door to door inside our house as my wife ran from room to room to hand out candies. Not the same as going around the neighbourhood. Not that there was many houses giving out treat last year.
This year, the neighbourhood is much more Halloween decorated. I’ll be handing out a limited number of treats having bought only half of what I would normally buy. My wife will take our daughter out for a limited excursion in the neighbourhood. We had debated whether we would do this a couple of weeks ago and decided yes. Our region’s case counts were low, and we have a 85% of the eligible population fully vaxxed. And, it’s just good for our mental state to do something somewhat normal feeling.
I have been COVID-ed. Started feeling it over the weekend and got a test Monday, just came back positive. Feels like a bad cold, nothing more, so I’m one of the fortunate ones on the symptoms front. Being vaccinated likely helped keep it from being worse. It feels remarkably like what I experienced back in Jan 2020 when I was on my trip down the Florida, which makes me wonder if maybe I got an early variant back then too, but I suppose I’ll never know for sure.
Pretty sure I got it from the one thing I’ve done out of the ordinary recently…went to a concert here in Grand Rapids last Wednesday. They were checking vaccination status at the door, of course, but I think that’s more performative than effective in keeping out contagious folks. I knew it was a risk, but even though I failed that disease save, the vaccine is doing its job in keeping me from getting major symptoms.
The worst bit of the whole thing is that I’m now quarantining for a few weeks, which means not being able to help with tutoring at the Refugee Education Center, and missing some gaming events I’d planned on this month. Such is life in these COVID times, I suppose.
Hey, sorry to hear it. Hopefully it stays a mild case and you’re out the other side quickly.
I guess this is something we can all eventually look forward to.
Fingers crossed it stays mild, Bob.
And as Scott says, we are all going to get it eventually. Let’s hope we all stay mild.
Skipper
1876
Get well, Skip. Even if vaccinated, monitor yourself and have someone else check in on you too.
However, speaking of, what kinds of gaming events???
Also, can you still drink good craft beer with COVID? Asking for a friend.
rshetts
1877
A bit of advice. If you tested positive you likely qualify for the monoclonal antibody infusion. I highly recommend getting it. It was incredibly effective for me. Less risk of things going south and with COVID that can happen rather suddenly.
Fortunately I don’t have to worry about monitoring…I’m still in the J&J vaccine trial system, since that’s how I got my vaccination back in late 2020. I report symptoms to them on an app, and they’ve already called me and set up an appt for further examination. I’m one of the most closely monitored COVID patients that’s not in a hospital.
Regular board/card game group, usually we meet every couple of weeks. Plus the MTG Crimson Vow pre-release is next weekend.
Probably, but I won’t, because why risk not getting the full taste effect? :)
Thanks for the suggestion. I don’t think it’ll be necessary, but it’s a good point to bring up when I see the doctor.
Skipper
1879
Shit, completely forgot that symptom. Well there goes my future plans. Glad to hear you’re taken care of though, bud.
Pfizer booster kicking my ass, left arm soreness from armpit to wrist.
Had my check-in appointment with the vaccine trial folks. Answered a bunch of questions, got my blood drawn, about what I expected. They are not kidding about monitoring, look at all this stuff:
Tests every day for 10 days. Hopefully I get negatives by then, if not, we’ll do it all again.
I feel decent, given the circumstances. Headache and sore throat, generally more tired than usual, but I’m functional. If I didn’t know I was contagious I’d be able to continue with normal life, but I’m happy to stay home and rest since it’s the best thing for all concerned.
Ephraim
1882
Get well soon! And hey, at least you can always do the pre-release online in Arena! That could be a nice distraction.
Day 3 post covid booster, this shot continues to piss off my left armpit lymph nodes. Otherwise all other symptoms (sweats,chills,cough,runny nose) are gone.
So what is the forum consensus (Not - A - Doctor) on going out to eat in a restaurant after getting the booster shot? I’d like to have just one meal indoors at my favorite italian place that is fresh from the kitchen, some meals just do not work well for take out (soggy,reheat poorly). I haven’t eaten inside a restaurant since Jan 6th 2020.
stusser
1884
A week after the booster, if you aren’t immunocompromised, your area doesn’t have a high prevelance, and you don’t regularly come into close contact with anyone elderly or immunocompromised, then sure eat indoors. I’ve done it plenty of times, but I live in NYC which has a very high vaccination rate and low positivity.
Skipper
1885
I’m also not a doctor. There are less overall vaccinated in my state (NC) and I’ve eaten out multiple times since vaccination (both single and second shot.) I’ve also traveled to other states (ND, MN, NV, TN, GA,) during my time through COVID. I kind of have to, business travel and such. I try not to go in packed places but even that couldn’t be avoided on a couple of travel trips.
Think of it as probably something inevitable that we will all get, but we’re trying to minimize the effects of it if we do. That’s your third shot, I wouldn’t feel bad at all if you and/or family need to get out for once. Don’t overdo things around others unmasked, but a sit down restaurant observing some distance between patrons shouldn’t be off limits.
stusser
1886
I agree with all that, except if you’re immunocompromised or you visit someone regularly who is. In the former case, I’d treat it like you were completely unvaccinated. For the latter, I wouldn’t eat indoors within a week or two of visiting that person.
Well, now that our kids should (if all goes according to plan) be fully vaccinated by the holidays, the family is moving forward with plans to visit Florida for my brother-in-law’s wedding on New Year’s. Which I must admit I’m not totally happy about, in fact I’ve got a nice little knot in my gut thinking about it, but it is very important to my wife so I guess that’s what we’re going to do.
Numbers in Florida fell off a cliff after that big spike, it’ll probably be fine if you’re just worried because it’s DeathSantis’s state.
stusser
1889
Looks fine now but I’ve certainly learned not to predict the future on this thing.
My concerns are numerous and varied and not limited to COVID, though of course that is a big one. But I am keeping an eye on trends and hoping it continues downward.
CraigM
1891
How accurate is that data though, given we know that there has been intentional reporting lag where backfilling in data weeks later makes it appear the trend is downward even in cases where it wasn’t.
i.e. how much of that downward trend is real, vs how much is it artificial based on reporting fuckery.
