A tale of Covid

So this is what happened:

Last year I attended Miyakocon. The last sci-fi-adjacent convention that actually occurred in 2020, I’m pretty sure. That was the weekend of the 22nd of February.

By then the Previous Administration knew damn well how dangerous the Plague was gonna be, but they weren’t talking, to the rest of us at least.

So: altho Miyakocon is not (yet) a very big con, it’s over-attended for the size of the hotel. The hallways were frequently as packed as pathways on Saturday at the Country Fair. I talked at length with a pretty large number of people, face-to-face, with not a mask in sight.

That was the last time I was in a public place unmasked. Seems weird now, in retrospect.

(It was a great weekend BTW. In addition to my usual gigs at Creation Station, I taught an informal Fiore-I33-Silver longsword class to a bunch of young folks who were playing around with those “combat ready” light saber simulators. That was fun.)

Anyhow, about two weeks later, Starting March 9, I had a *VERY BAD WEEK* where I was sick with overall body aches and could barely function enough to make tea and wake up Marian.

By Thursday that week, I felt mostly — but not all the way — recovered.

I did not immediately connect that illness with either Covid or the con. Covid was still mostly a lung misery then, or at least that’s how most of the media reported it.

Here’s the thing, tho: for a year, I never really fully recovered. Some days were better, some worse. But constant joint and muscle pain, sometimes enough to make me completely useless. I’d get up in the AM, walk around enough to warm up, go to work or set myself up to write, and when I was done, I was *DONE*.

Rarely got a good night’s sleep, either. Pain would wake me up a couple times a night.

I started to get suspicious. I read more about the virus. By mid-June, I’d heard about people suffering horrendous whole-body pain as part of the virus. And I also realized that not everyone (or even most people) were presenting with all of the possible symptoms of Covid.

EGAD.

On Sunday last I got my first shot of Moderna vax. My shoulder was sore the rest of the day — like I took a hard shot through armor from Davin or Willem.

I slept through the night Sunday to Monday.

I woke up Monday morning with a sore shoulder…and almost no other perceptible pain. Well, I had a little here and there: I’m 66 years old. But *NOTHING* like I had been putting up with for the previous 12 months.

So…I’m no longer suspicious. I read about “long Covid” symptoms going away after a first dose of the vax. I never would have believed it could happen in less than 24 hours. But here I am.

No longer suspicious. Pretty much certain I had Covid in March 2020 and “long Covid” symptoms for a year afterwards.

At the moment, I’m actually feeling fairly “spry” as they say about old guys.

How many of y’all have similar stories to tell?

When you get your vax, pay attention. See if some unpleasant things you’ve been putting up with just disappear.

Gotta go. See ya!