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  • Vol. 016–I got COVID-19 the Omicron Subvariant BA.5, My story and What I've learned

Vol. 016–I got COVID-19 the Omicron Subvariant BA.5, My story and What I've learned

Author

Martin Martinez
July 17, 2022

1 oz of water to garden your health

2 Tools for growth

1 Cool Product

Random Musings

Reading Time: 3 minutes and 8 seconds

Action to water your health

I got COVID

Day 0

A couple of days ago I had this sudden neck pain and back spasms. I usually roll a towel and put it underneath my neck like this. Most of the time it works, except this time it was getting worse. Later that day I started to feel like I got run over by a truck. My wife (much smarter than me) brought up that I should do a COVID test. I tested negative. Maybe I have meningitis I thought, as I fell asleep.

Day 1

Worst sleep of my life, last night. Dreams were vivid. It was a Goosebumps choose your own adventure, type of dream. I've never experienced such realistic, intense, and lucid dreams before.

I tested again for covid (if negative I'm going to the ER, as I likely have meningitis), positive this time. Where could I have gotten it? when I did the groceries (I wore a mask) when I ate at the restaurant? (I ate outside)...Thankfully I have somewhere to isolate. My neck starts to feel better and overall I'm a little tired but overall well.

I go to sleep and assume tomorrow I'll be fully recovered. I'm superhuman after all, I think.

Day 2

I wake up to the feeling of hundreds of fish bones stuck in my throat. Talking, breathing, and drinking water is painful.

My neck pain is worse, and that truck that hit me on day 0? well, it made a U-turn and ran over my body again. My gas level is empty, afraid to speak, drink, move, breathe...I try and lay motionless like a puppet.

Thankfully there's another day.

Day 3 and beyond

As of this publication, I'm currently on day 5. My new symptom is a hacking persistent strong cough. My neck pain, sore throat, and generally feeling like crap are still there but greatly improved.

Medications I Took During Covid

At this point in the pandemic, I have no specific medication recommendations. Treat each symptom as it arises AND as soon as you're positive let your primary care physician know. Why? some medications are prescription only and should be taken within a couple of days of being positive.

For example, my mother-in-law had COVID a couple of months back. She let her primary care physician know and was given Paxlovoid, as she was at higher risk of hospitalization (it worked!).

Yes, there are tons of other herbal remedies and concoctions that I left out of purpose.

Omicron’s BA.5 and other subvariants

As of July 2022, Omicron subvariant BA.5 makes up ~60% of cases in the United States. Similar rates are likely in other countries.

How is it different?

  • Lab studies consistently suggest that antibodies triggered by vaccination are less effective at blocking BA.4 and BA.5 than they are at blocking earlier Omicron strains, including BA.1 and BA.2

  • BA.5 is the most highly transmissible strain so far.

  • Manages to at least partially sidestep some of the immunity people may have from prior infections and vaccinations.

  • So yes, if you are vaccinated and have had other variants you can get re-infected.

  • Although easier infection we are lucky it's not more deadly than previous strains.

If you get re-infected with a different type of strain you have a higher risk of long-covid according to this pre-printed new study ( the first study that I could find to state this as well).

If you have a story please share, email me. Someone could benefit from it in some way.

Tools for growth

The Sound of Colleagues: Some countries have a strict work-from-home policy. This website was made for people who work from home but want office sounds. Pleasant to use, once you get over the people you don't like at work.

Speare: This formating on writing is the first I've ever seen. You almost write like you text. Fun to use and easy. If you don't have a set writing app would give this a shot.

Cool Product

Mantel: Their ceramics look beautiful, with excellent craftsmanship. Minimal yet visually pleasing. They also have other funky things. Take a peep.

Random Musings

Taking Citrulline (an amino acid) found in watermelons, cucumbers, and other melons, before strength training can boost the number of repetitions achieved before failure and help with fatigue (study here).

This is thought to work due to citrulline's potential to clear ammonia during exercise (the build-up of which may promote muscle fatigue) through the urea cycle.

You're an awesome human

Martin, CEO of braincrumbss

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