After all of this time

Greetings, my friends.  It's been a while, but I have a very good explanation.

Two weeks ago tonight, I returned home from a three day business trip and didn't feel quite myself.  Felt like the beginnings of a cold or perhaps even a sinus infection.  Friday I felt worse, but soldiered through my day's schedule.  Didn't sleep well that night (didn't have any decent cough medicine in the house) but did better the next couple of nights, as I got some over the counter stuff to put that cough at bay.

That Sunday evening my wife, who also wasn't feeling that well by this time, suggested we do at-home COVID-19 tests, just to be sure.  Worth mentioning that by this point in time we had both had two vaccinations and three boosters, the most recent administered in October 2022.

We both did tests.  I tested positive for COVID-19, my wife tested negative.  Then I happened to glance at the test kit box and saw that the tests we used were expired.  Since we had several on hand, I went to another batch, found one that was date-valid and did them again.  Same result, I was positive, my wife negative.

Hmm.  After going through the entire spectrum of events associated with the coronavirus, I now had contracted a case of COVID-19.

The next morning I did a few things for work (weekly reports, mostly) and then contacted my boss, who advised that I would need to see a doctor to get a work excuse.  My company allows two days sick before requiring an excuse and I expected this, as all of the CDC and other documentation is clear in recommending at least five days of isolation before resuming normal activities.

So I went to the local urgent care, since I don't have a family doctor, and was assigned to see a very personable and practical nurse practitioner.  He reviewed my past test results and suggested that I would be a good candidate for Paxlovid, the anti-viral medication to lessen the effects of the COVID-19 virus.  He also took me off work for the remainder of that week and the first four days of the current work week, with today being my final day off.

I sent that in to my employer and reported my extended leave to our absence management company, as they must approve my days off in order to be paid from a different accrual fund.

I spoke with someone from that absence management company the following day, and was told I would need a PCR test, and not simply my at-home antigen test, before my leave would be approved.  So I went back to the urgent care and saw a different provider.  She insisted on prescribing me a steroid inhalant, even though I explained that I had actually begun to feel better in the past couple of days, particularly after beginning the five day course of Paxlovid.  She won, and an albuterol inhaler is unopened in our bathroom closet (but my wife has asthma and sometimes uses that, so it won't go to waste).

Great.  Not one but two urgent care expenses.

I was promised a package of information by our absence management company but never received it, so began exploring their website to determine how to view the notes of my case and to upload completed documents and test results.  I found the right area for all, wrote a note to my caseworker asking for my email address to be corrected and uploaded everything I had.

Next step was to get a form completed by the provider that detailed virtually everything I had already submitted, and got quite the runaround from the hospital system of which this urgent care clinic is an affiliate.  Finally succeeded in explaining to someone there that I needed this by a certain date and the manager was gracious enough to complete it AND have the NP who saw me earlier in the week complete and sign his part.

Big sigh of relief, as I wanted to be absolutely certain that my claim was accepted and approved, or else I would not be paid for these days off without some struggle.

Since that determination I have gotten a few little things done around the house and yard.  Nothing big, just a handful of small undertakings that require a little more time than my normal work travel schedule requires.  

Back to work tomorrow.  And that will feel strange, going back for a day and then having the weekend....