By Phyllis Merriam — The Buzz

Both my husband and I contracted Covid-19 from an un-boostered participant at Christmas dinner. At first I panicked. My symptoms have been mild, with no breathing problems and good vital signs. My husband has been more debilitated and had a high fever one day that Tylenol brought down. He’s had no breathing problems. He had the Regeneron monoclonal antibodies infusion via the VA and in 24 hrs. felt better. My four most prominent symptoms: frequent vital signs monitoring, frequent laundering, frequent disinfecting and fatigue…

I received the Regeneron monoclonal antibodies infusion, as well. It is an experimental treatment for covid in the immunocompromised and may or may not be helpful. But I felt better in 24 hours. Both the VA and PenBay’s Walk-in Clinic have been terrific resources. The VA gave us a 24/7 triage nurse contact; a Telehealth nurse, a daily remote reporting system of my husband’s vital signs. I suspended my husband’s VA contractual home aide visits, a former Marine, once we were exposed to covid. But he insisted on driving us to the VA ER when my husband became so debilitated from insufficient hydration that I couldn’t get him to our car. His aide picked him up and put my husband in a transport chair and to our car. Even with masking, I’m afraid he will have gotten covid from us. His PCR test just came back negative! Once a Marine, Always a Marine: Semper Fi.

Neighbors, friends and relatives have been wonderful: bringing us food & supplies left on our porch, calling, and texting to check on how we’re doing. I’ve become tearful at such kindness and generosity. Mango has become a bit confused by all the unusual activity in our home. Giving him catnip has helped. He gets animated, and then takes a nap.

Despite frequent disinfecting, I feel like we and our home are so unclean from covid. Amazon has PDI Super Sani-Cloth germicidal and virucidal hospital grade disinfecting wipes I can use for household deep cleaning once our quarantine ends.

Everyone out there: Be vigilant to stay healthy and don’t let your guard down like I did at Christmas. Omicron is a speedy, sneaky, viral replicate demon! Happy New Year 2022. Let’s hope this third year of the pandemic will be better than 2020 & 2021. One of my favorite German language poets, Rainer Maria Rilke, wrote, “And now we welcome the new year, full of things that have never been.” For The Penobscot Bay Language School’s German students: “und jezt begrussen wir das neue jahr voller dinge, die es noch gegeben hat.” (Of course, “full of things that have never been” can go both ways…especially during our Covid era.)