Monday, 20 April 2020

Has Covid-19 been around longer than we realise?


Clever Bird has been completing the Covid-19 symptoms app. every day, trying to do her part in helping the experts to try and track and make sense of this ghastly virus. Each day, as Baggy is "Not feeling her normal self", she's asked a bunch of questions about her symptoms. Today, as she was answering the questions, it occurred to her, that she and Calum might already have had Covid-19! Not recently, but last December! Had Clever Bird been completing the app. then, she would probably have been saying 'yes' to every question. The beauty of writing a diary, or in Baggy's case, a blog, is that you can check back on things that otherwise you might have entirely forgotten. Hormonal Hannah makes Baggy forget most things, but not being extremely unwell a few months ago. She thought that it was in January, but on whizzing back through her blog, she realised that it was in December last year.


In fact, to be more accurate, Baggy was ill for most of December! Number one furry was ill first. Really ill! A week or so later, Baggy followed suit.

It started with a general feeling of tiredness and headaches, which after a few days got so bad that Baggy was literally sleeping for 18+ hours a day. Bad cough. High temperature. Difficulty breathing. Aching all over, to the point of not being able to get up without help. Stomach cramps. Then seemingly getting better for a few days, before rapidly getting much worse - sickness and diarrhoea, weak and achy, high temperature, the shivers, tight chest, dizzy and breathless!

Sound familiar Baggees? Yes, that's what Clever Bird thought! It took weeks to get over it and it turned out that quite a few people in the area had also had similar illnesses, and been stuck in their houses for a while. Was it Covid-19? Clever Bird presumes that she will never know, unless a test is available for everybody, which could identify whether a person has been previously infected. 


Partly with that in mind; partly because Clever Bird thinks it's likely that social distancing measures will be in place for months to come; partly because Furry Mama is worried about Pepper Pooch's mental health; partly because it's exhausting getting up at 5.00am; partly because Hormonal Hannah is struggling with all of this, Clever Bird decided to take charge today! She persuaded Furry Mama to take Pepper Pooch out for a late morning walk, and to risk meeting other people.


They headed off up the mediaeval track that runs directly past the house. Much to Freda Fretter's delight, absolutely nobody was on it.


Hormonal Hannah began to relax, and to enjoy the birdsong, as the Pooch sniffed his way along the track.


To add a few extra minutes, they then headed around the village. Passing through its dead centre...


... where Psychic Ploppo admired the old church, and wished that she could go and sit in it for a while.


The truth is that Hormonal Hannah needs to be strong, and to try to get back to as normal a routine as she can, within the current limits. The sunrise walks will continue, but only every other day. Yesterday's was interesting.


Clever Bird decided to do the walk they've done a couple of times, in the reverse direction. Why not? It's a circular walk, so what could be different, other than the views?


And the views are very different! It's as well that Calum was with her, or Baggy would have managed to go the wrong way completely. Grotty Groom thinks that perhaps she is more like her horse than she realises. Wesley will happily walk past something on a daily basis - but if Grotty then rode him past that exact same spot in the opposite direction, he'd jump out of his skin, as if he'd never seen it before. Baggy now totally understands that concept!


It also hadn't even occurred to Clever Bird that undertaking a circular walk, in its opposite direction, could be any different physically. Until that is, she heard Baggy saying every few minutes, "My knee hurts Cal," or, "We're going uphill again."

 

From here on in, she will be doing the walk in a clockwise direction, and taking advantage of the fact that the majority of it is downhill! 

But Baggy's arthritic knees coped, if somewhat noisily, and they made it home, thanks to number one furry having a sense of direction.


Baggy remains extremely grateful to be safe and well, and forever thankful to all the people who are fighting this awful coronavirus by working for the NHS, working in essential services, or doing their best to follow the social distancing rules...

Baggy's daily state!
Depression (Black = really bad/Grey = not great/Blue = okay/Yellow = sunny day): Blue.
Anxiety (From 1 = barely any to 10 = gibbering wreck standard): 5.
Tears: Baggy woke up in them during the night.

Overall day: Fine.

Note to readers: For the avoidance of any doubt, every character in this blog is Baggy! No Baggy was harmed in its writing, although some of them get pretty confused!

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