It is believed that I had it right before Christmas. The symptoms were
straight down the line that of Covid-19. The only thing that made us
think that I didn't have it is timeline (until recently, it was
believed that no cases were in North America until a couple weeks
after I had gotten sick) and that I would have likely passed it to
others around me and non of them got sick. However, I was very careful
and did practice reasonable hygiene methods to limit spread to others.
Fortunately, my wife didn't get sick, but she was certainly exposed
within the home environment. But I did isolate at home too and we were
constantly spraying down everything. Timing is everything, too. I
replaced our furnace filters right at that time, which are expensive
HEPA feature ones, and we also sprayed them every day with a "Lysol"
type of product.
At the time I was tested for everything else and turned up negative
for the known stuff. As to exposure? Anchorage is a major cargo flight
location and is the refueling/recrewing location for cargo flights
coming from Asia. I know some of these crew members as well as
ground-support personnel. Many of the cases in Alaska are directly
related to that, and Alaska implemented the first quarantine, isolate,
trace, etc. in the country--but after I had already gotten sick. I
absolutely did have direct contact with individuals in early/mid
December that may have been asymptomatic.
Assuming it was either COVID-19 or a similar thing (my symptoms
matched no other current virus going around), I can honestly say that
it was one of the most brutal illnesses I've ever had. I couldn't
breathe and my cough couldn't kick out anything that was building up
inside my lungs. The doctor almost had me admitted to the hospital.
That all said, I believe there is reasonable risks that can be
assumed. It's not like the entire outdoors is conspiring to kill you.
The human immune system is a powerful thing and is capable of
controlling most viruses when the "attack" is reasonably sized. If my
exposure to whatever it was is what I think it is, it was not a casual
moment in passing.
AG Schnozz
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