Covid Tests Make Me Sick

I thought I had a cold. You know -- sneezing, headache, a sort of washed-out feeling, but no big deal. After a few days I started to feel better and happened to talk to a doctor friend who suggested I get a Covid test. Actually he said I couldn't enter his home without one, so I complied as I did want to visit with him and his wife. Lo and behold, it was positive.

Immediately I felt worse. I called my primary care physician and he put me on Paxlovid, which I have to take twice a day for five days and which makes food taste funny and my mouth feel really dry. Psychologically I morphed into a sick person, remembering the early days of the virus with old people dying and not enough ventilators and everyone holed up at home for months. I was so depressed I barely noticed that my cold was gone and I basically felt fine.

Meanwhile my husband did not test positive, at least not for the first few days, and he was not sick at all. But this morning when I woke up I found him sitting in his bathrobe staring into space, looking grim and saying he felt pretty bad. The reason: he had just tested again and it was positive this time. So now he's sick with Covid too.

I'm telling you: stay away from those Covid tests if you know what's good for you.