The Rona on the Farm

Are we even still calling it that? Or is it Covid? The plague? I’ve lost track. So anyway as previously mentioned I have always believed that one day I would catch or maybe already had caught the symptomless, but still may have symptoms-up-to-death disease. So in mid-August Darling Husband went to Oklahoma to work a horse event. Offspring and I visited him at said event over the weekend. I’m not saying this was a super spreader event, but show management and many competitors all came down with the same symptoms which is weird because most people were forced to social distance by the nature of a horse event. Some of them tested positive for the Covid, some negative, but the resulting symptoms were the same. Darling Husband ended the event feeling unwell, and brought home whatever he caught there to Offspring and I.

So DH laid up in bed for two weeks acting like he was dying, which for the record is no different than any other man cold he has ever contracted. I slept on the couch, not because I was worried about getting sick, but because DH makes it impossible for another human to get rest if he is not feeling well. I started to get the sniffles and feel generally blah, but we live on a farm with 15 very demanding equine and the 70 some chickens DH accumulated this summer. I’ll write another blog on that later…Anyway someone had to haul 50 lb feed bags and 70 lb square bales daily to keep the farm running and that fell to me. I didn’t have the luxury of being ill.

Life went on. I took the occasional lunchtime nap during the work day, but still worked my day job. I put training rides on Johnny Cash, did a little farrier work on the ponies, you know the basics of having a farm. Around week three Offspring, who had shown no signs of illness, is sent home from daycare due to a fever. I opt for going straight to Urgent Care to make sure Offspring did not have Covid or share it at school. Offspring tests negative for Covid, positive for strep which just so happens to be making the rounds at daycare. I was showing symptoms of Covid, but like what isn’t a symptom of the mysterious virus? I was 12 days since the onset of symptoms so Urgent Care opts to treat me like I have it.

As a side note the Urgent Care could not get me out of the office fast enough when I asked about the possibility of getting an Ivermectin prescription. The PA condescendingly asked if I even knew what Ivermectin was, which I gleefully informed her that having purchased a minimum 15 doses for 1,300 lb animals on a quarterly basis, I was well aware of what Ivermectin was. I even had experience with accidental dosing of myself and was sitting here as proof of life. It didn’t matter, I already had a list of human doctors willing and happy to prescribe me Ivermectin pills on request. I just felt like needling her a little bit after she threw attitude at me over a legitimate question.

We were all quarantined, which isn’t any different than usual except Offspring is sitting home for the week. Other than a fever, Offspring never misses a beat. I’m convinced that the white powder solution suspended in water the pharmacy passes off as Amoxicillin is really just cocaine. Our kid bounced off the walls super charged for the length of that prescription.

DH finally staggered to the couch after two and half weeks of being bed ridden, and then the fever gets me. At that point I’m not sure if my misery was due to the actual Covid or the allergic reaction to the Amoxicillin the Urgent Care thought I needed to not catch strep on top of Covid. I spent three days light headed not being able to control my fever, nauseous for hours after taking the meds. DH is informed by me that three weeks was more than enough time to be laying around, he needed to take over Offspring and the farm chores. After four days I decide the strep can have me and chuck the antibiotics. Exactly twelve hours after my last dose of Amoxicillin I began to feel exponentially better.

There was some residual exhaustion for a week or so, but not debilitating to the point that I couldn’t feed, ride, or take care of the farm. I lost my appetite for around two weeks, but sadly no weight loss occurred. Then just as quickly as we came down with it, the Covid became a distant memory and as I had predicted, life just went on…Now our family is just another group to add to the 99% survival statistics.

Side note: I’m fully aware that everyone’s experience differs, and the virus varies between the extremes of mild to fatal.