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Escaping Fires and Covid

I’m writing this post to help people become more aware of Covid. Chris and I are now recovering from Covid. The closest we can figure is that we got exposed sometime in Idaho.

When we escaped to Idaho, we were fleeing the wildfires and the horrific smoke. We packed up our pugs and cat and a few changes of clothes and left. We wore masks, just to breathe better, for the first 100 miles until the air was safe enough to breathe. On this trip, we tried to be cautious since Covid is so dangerous. We both went into stores, restrooms, rest stops, gas stations, etc. We couldn’t stay in our little cocoons which we had made for ourselves in our home.

When we got home, we both had a lot of lung congestion and cough. We thought it was due to breathing in a lot of smoke. The smoke did follow us to Idaho, but it did reach nearly the dangerous levels it did in Oregon. So we didn’t think anything of it. We took Mucinex to help clear our lungs.

Although after a couple of weeks after returning home, we started feeling exhausted and our breathing and cough didn’t improve. We lived like this the next six weeks. We continued to take over the counter medicine. We were too tired clean our house or do basic chores. We’ve not left our house since shortly after our return from Idaho. We basically fed ourselves, watched tv and slept. Chris fortunately had a lot of vacation, so she didn’t have long work weeks.

A week and a half ago, we started talking to each other and we began questioning where we had Covid or not. We started looking into Covid symptoms. We experienced about half of them. Chris took a medical survey which was available from her work. Their recommendation was to call 911.

We did contact our doctor and our county health department. The conclusion is, we have had Covid but we are in the recovery stages. So it is recommended to stay home and keep taking the over the counter medications and get plenty of rest and drink lots of water. It is too late for us to take tests and get it confirmed.

We really didn’t think about us having Covid, until we kept getting more exhausted as time went on. I thought the symptoms would show up more like a flu, cold or pneumonia. We had some achiness, but mostly it has kept us short of breath and cough which made walking more than the length of our house uncomfortable. We never had lung or heart pain (fortunately). We both had minor issues with swallowing and minor joint pain.

Please be careful and take extra precautions. Not everyone has been as lucky as Chris and I.

NOTE: I’m sure many of your remember the wildfires that were burning in Oregon and that Chris and I and our four legged kids all evacuated and drove to Idaho to to get away from the fires and what ended up being the worst smoke (air quality) ever. If you missed on those posts, click here for a listing of all the posts written by Chris and myself.

I’ve gathered a list of challenges and their hosts.  So if you know a challenge host, please direct them to my blog.  Feel free to contact me anytime.  I hope everyone will be able to use my lists.

Qi (energy) hugs

Cee

114 replies »

  5. I am so sorry to hear you two have been dealing with Covid. It was easy to assume the cough and congestion was from the fires. Would your doctor test you for Covid antibodies to be sure? I know the protocol to get a Covid test is quite an ordeal… my boyfriend was tested and came out negative. I hope you two are recovering well now that you know what it is you’re fighting. Glad your on the back side of it now!

    Liked by 1 person

  15. It sounds like you both suffered plenty for having fairly mild cases. Vince and I have been extremely lucky with all the traveling to see houses, moving, etc. We are more careful about masks now, and have always been careful about sanitizing. Our pastor here has COVID, and we social distanced the one time we went, but we did not wear our masks the whole time. We didn’t go back last week for another minor issue. Anyway, I wish you and Chris the best and hope you recover completely very soon.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Stay safe yourself. Make sure you wear your mask and wash your hands. The mas, is more for your own protection. You don’t want this. Chris and I have been out for basically two months, and we have a minor case.

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  18. My goodness, you have both had a bad time. As others have said, take comfort in the fact that it could have been even worse, and that you MAY be a bit protected now, at least for a while.

    Liked by 1 person

  19. It is scary in retrospect, but in a sense you are among the luckiest of people. It seems that you have had a mild case, and now you are likely to have antibodies against it. You are likely to be safe for many months now. As you said, not everyone is so lucky.

    Liked by 1 person

  20. I am so sorry for all you have had to go through and then Covid on top of it. I am hopeful that you have mild cases and can recover fully. Please take care of yourselves.

    Liked by 1 person

  21. Dear Cee, I send you and Chris my very best wishes for a full recovery. Sometimes we can take every precaution but it is not enough to outfox this tricky infectious disease. Take each day as it comes and get as much rest as you can. We are all thinking of you and so relieved that you didn’t end up in hospital as so many others have.

    Liked by 1 person

      • I’m quite familiar with post-viral fatigue, Cee. I was exceedingly ill with a virus after my eye op last Feb and I haven’t been the same since. Many of my ongoing symptoms appear to be quite similar to post-covid symptoms, but as we were prevented from taking a test due to test kit shortages at the time, I will never know what I actually had at that time. But then, I also inhaled all that Aussie bushfire smoke! So take care. It may take quite a while before you are your old self again.

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        • I know, we both had wildfires to content with this year and that screws up the lungs. That’s why I never thought of Covid until it just kept lasting and not getting better. I am not able to take a test either because it only shows up when it’s active and not in the recovery stage. So we are in a similar place 😀 Take care.

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  22. So glad to hear that you guys are over the worst & continue to get well. We’re going through a second wave here & fortunately most are being sensible. My biggest worry is the up coming festive season where, I think, people are going to be really stupid (they’re basically being told by the UK Gov to go out & have Christmas as normal) & we’ll see a third wave in the New Year 😩

    Liked by 1 person

  23. I’m so glad to hear that you two are in the recovery process, honestly the more I was reading the more nervous I was for you! Wish you both a speedy full recovery! 🤗

    Liked by 1 person

  24. I had a severe covid attack. I chose not to go to hospital because of the severe isolation. But my doctor told me afterwards of the growing list of after effects. My shortness of breath is slowly going away, but I now suffer from covid stress. Emotionally I am not well. I go into fits of crying and issues regarding my teaching career upset me so much that I have to take a tablet to think clearly again. Luckily my fiance understands. I am 58.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Oh I hope you continue to get stronger and healther. Your life as a teacher and front liner has been so altered. It must be hard to deal with. Take it easy on yourself and be gentle with yourself. I can’t imagine what you went through and continue to go through. Stay safe my friend.

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  25. I hope you will soon have a complete recovery. Covid is a deadly serious disease. I am grateful that here in Canada we are having a second wave but it is being taken very seriously.

    Liked by 1 person

    • I’ve always taken it seriously, but with the fires ….. it was a whole different thing. When we were in Idaho I barely saw a mask. The US is finally taking things a little more serious too.

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  27. I’m happy to hear you seem to be over the worst of it.. I’ve had friends and acquaintances test positive for the virus, but fortunately none have had the most serious symptoms. Take care!

    Liked by 1 person

  29. I am so sorry to hear that you and Chris got Covid but glad that you are recovering. You were put in an impossible situation. You had to leave home because of the fires and on such a long drive it was unavoidable to have contact with others. An impossible situation to be in. Naturally you would think that your symptoms were due to the smoke and the stress of what happened. I do hope that your sister and hre family are OK as well.
    The scenario you described is one that worried me, not so much for myself but people in general. You know that we had terrible bushfires in Australia last summer and the summer before in Tasmania that I had to evacuate from. In those cases people find themselves crowded together at the evac centres and social distancing would be extremely difficult. I worried about how we would manage if we have fires like that again this summer.
    They say that we will have a la Nina weather situation this summer and that it will be wetter so maybe the risk of fire is lessened a little and luckily in Australia we seem to have Covid under control but we can’t become complacent.
    I hope that you are both feeling a lot better. Stay home and stay safe.

    Liked by 1 person

  37. Oh, Cee–you go out of state to avoid fires and come back with Covid. I am so sorry to read this, but hope you and Chris stay on the mend. Love to both of you. ❤

    Liked by 1 person

  38. My goodness Cee, you and Chris were so lucky. Being in a bubble was the right thing and using the correct medications as well the other stuff you have to take. When I started reading I thought Covid straight away. Do you have an inkling where you may have caught it? Stay well and hope the symptoms clear soon xx

    Liked by 1 person

  39. Glad you are recovering from the virus. The part of Idaho you were in has a high number of cases. We may be uncounted victims as late last December Bob came down with a flu-like illness. He saw his doctor and was told he hadn’t come it would gone into pneumonia. A few days later I became ill. I saw my doctor and I waited out. We were both checked for flu and it was negative as was the test for strep throat. Our caregiver had a mild illness. This has not been a good year for a lot of people. Get a lot of rest.

    Liked by 2 people

    • My sister works in one of the hospitals in Idaho Falls. In fact, her hospital is the only surgical hospital right now. All other hospitals are full of covid patients. I’m being good and resting. 😀

      Liked by 1 person

  42. I am so sorry that you caught Covid. Thank goodness that both of you are on the road to recovery and thank you for telling your story. Too many people still think that that is just a little bug and it is no big deal. My husband and I are concerned that we will get this virus and obviously, we really don’t want it. We do all the staying at home stuff and we order groceries through a delivery service. But I realized that I have been a bit lax with my grown children. Since I know that they are also being super careful, I’m not as careful as I should be around them. Take care and get well!
    Judy

    Liked by 2 people

  43. Ironically, Cee, I got a mild case of Covid after our road trip through Oregon on the way to Spokane in mid-October. We were unknowingly exposed to covid when we spent the night at our nephew’s house near Bend. His family all tested positive a few days later and we began feeling cold symptoms once we were back home. Like you, we never felt terrible, had no fevers, or other hallmark symptoms, just dry coughs, fatigue, and muscle aches we chalked up to packing and driving a loaded Uhaul. Hubby was symptomatic first, then myself. In 3 days I lost my sense of taste and smell and went straight to Kaiser for a test. I tested positive, although my case was mild. Hubby never got tested because his symptoms disappeared well before I tested positive. Our doctor told him he wouldn’t have enough viral load to test for, but he suggested that because hubby was around me, he likely had it, too. We changed some get-togethers, notified friends, etc and I was told to quarantine for 10 days (14 days for those who are exposed).

    We notified our realtor about our exposure and symptoms, but he elected to come to our house anyway, taking every precaution with masks, physical distancing, everything. He caught a severe case that put him in the hospital with pneumonia. One thing he did not do, he admitted, was to wash his hands after being in our house. He is fine now, but, severe or mild, we don’t know what the long-term effects are to covid. My guess is there are thousands of people who had mild cases and never tested, therefore not becoming a positive statistic.

    I also believe that having a mild case does not produce enough anti-bodies to be immune and we could catch it again. Six weeks later, I still have odd symptoms. As I type this, I’m fighting a middle ear infection likely due to sinus congestion.

    Wise words, my friend, and a post that defines 2020. Stay well and be careful my friend. In a few short days, we are moving north! I’ll wave your direction as we pass through Oregon, taking Hwy 5 this time.

    Liked by 3 people

  45. I know you had to leave your home. The smoke made the air unbreathable and right now, COVID is everywhere. I’m actually heartened that you are both on the way to recovery. I’ve got so many issues, I live in dread of it as does Garry. Our age and various conditions make us feel like we have targets painted on our backs. I’m hoping, for ALL our sakes, that we get vaccines quickly and are able to get vaccinated quickly, too. If we lived in a bigger city, I think it would be more likely we’d get vaccines — even tests! — faster, but we are all the way “out here.” Famous for the heaviest snowfalls in the region, but little else.

    I’m sorry you got sick, but I’m really really glad you are recovering! It gives me hope and right now, I could use some of that.

    Liked by 1 person

    • I’m with you. With me now being 60 and have weak lungs and respiratory system, I was terribly afraid of covid. I think that is partly we didn’t think it was covid until we just never got better. I feel very lucky it wasn’t worse.

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  47. Oh, heck! Well the better than good news is that you’ve come through this without even knowing yo had it! Wishing you a good recovery, hon! What a world! Sending hugs to you both 🙂 🙂

    Liked by 2 people

  48. Oh Cee, I’m so sorry you guys are having to go through this. And I’m so glad you have each other. I find the whole thing terrifying and have been mostly locked away in my house since March. My daily photography walks through my wonderful country-like neighborhood have been my saving grace so the 10 days of deadly smoke here just about did me in. That was serious lockdown.

    I dream of a Road Trip in a camper to visit my most favorite Blogging people all over the country. We were supposed to have left for that in June…sigh.

    Keep taking care of yourselves and each other.

    Liked by 1 person

    • I basically have been locked in my house since April with the exception of the trip. That’s the only way I could have gotten it. We both started feeling real exhausted about two weeks after returning. I long for a road trip too! Escaping to Idaho was not fun, except I did get to see my sister, her hubby and my niece. 😀

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