FLiRTing…

I avoided it for four and a half years. Four and a half years. And then it came, FLiRTing…

I’ve had covid. For the first time.

Well, the first time that we knew of - I suspected an infection early in 2020, before it was officially in the UK, but I have never tested positive before. I assumed that both Mr Squidge and I must both have had, at some point in that time, an asymptomatic infection, because it would have been far too difficult to avoid for so long. And I’m lucky - thanks to a minor heart condition, I have always been offered booster vaccines (apart from this year’s spring one), so even if I did get an infection at some point, it would be milder, wouldn’t it?

Our response to the virus suggests otherwise.

Mr Squidge and I went to London on the Friday (to see Squidgeling T play in a band at the Royal Albert Hall - we had a great day!) On the following Monday, I couldn’t get warm. Tuesday, I couldn’t get out of bed and tested positive. (Wednesday was my birthday so that got postponed). A week to the day after our London trip, Mr Squidge felt rough - and also tested positive.

So we’ve both been in isolation, Chez Squidge, since. (Mr Squidge has popped out a couple of times to do a click-and-collect trip for food, but that’s it) Currently on Day 17 since the onset of my symptoms at the time of writing. Thank goodness the weather’s a bit better this week so I can at least take a slow trundle around the garden, but both of us are still feeling exhausted and coughing whenever we try to speak for too long or move around too much.

I’ve had to go back to my daily positives approach, looking for the good moments in this enforced lethargy and isolation. So things like seeing the clover finally flowering in my lawn…the poppies in my wildflower beds blooming…managing short writing or editing sessions…hearing the toddler next door giggling as she’s having races with her grandad in the garden…reading LOTS…and receiving almost daily sketches and pictures from my illustrator for The Rainbow Flower… They’re the kinds of things that have kept me going.

And soup. Soup has been a lifesaver while my appetite has been non-existent but I know I have to eat. I might be feeling dizzy and brain-foggy a lot of the time, but my taste buds are still functioning! (And the weight I’ve lost means I might not have to alter the trousers I started making myself last year as much as I thought…)

We are both on the mend, slowly but surely, with a couple of events in July we’re aiming to manage if we can. As to all of you reading this…

Keep on keeping your distance and washing your hands. You don’t want or need this, believe me x