Rona Knocks

And I answered. We all expected that the pandemic holidays were going to be different but I never expected I’d be experiencing them COVID-19 positive, in quarantine, while being slowly roasted by endless mean-spirited political TV advertising. The special U.S. Senate January 5th election for both seats for Georgia has turned the nation’s, and maybe the world’s, attention to the outcome. Money has poured into both sides with the result being all TV inventory bought up 24/7. The only escape is the streaming services, well, some of them. Certainly not YouTube.

The past year was already guaranteed a place in infamy worldwide, but now it’s gotten personal. Especially after I made it this far, virus free. Universal distribution of the vaccine is still months away, but at least it’s in sight. And I had hopes of making it to my day of inoculation. That is until I was exposed during my “holiday” haircut. My barber texted me 24 hours later to inform me of her sudden loss of taste and smell. A drive through test confirmed my fear and sure enough today, sixteen days after exposure, I too have lost my sense of taste and smell, have a foggy feeling, fatigue and a mild headache. Thankfully, no fever.

I was literally just coming out of what turned out to be a successful back surgery, having just completing the first 6 weeks of physical therapy when the virus struck. Of course the back surgery was another high-low-light of the past year. There’s no doubt that the cleaning and clearing of 5 Bigelow Road had a heavy hand in the cause. Debilitating sciatica struck in early June, which quickly expanded into bursitis in my left hip. Non-invasive treatments and an epidural steroid injection failed and surgery was scheduled for September 10th.

While performing the laminectomy the surgeon nicked my spine, causing a loss of fluid, so my outpatient surgery resulted in an overnight stay, flat on my back, in the hospital under observation. Coming out of anesthesia was especially confusing since I was expecting to see my wife Kim ready to take me home. I had no cell phone, no eyeglasses, no clothes and no wedding ring (a whole other issue that’s never resolved itself). The line phone in the room was dead. It would be 4 hours before someone was able to tell me what happened.

Upon getting home my trick knee buckled and I immediately fell onto the floor. Which set off the worst sciatica attack of all, so bad that I was convinced that I had cracked my hip. I could not sit without searing pain and spasms. After several days of this, and having mastered the art of executing bowel movements while upright, an Medrol Dose Pak calmed the spasms while a shot in the hip killed the bursitis. The knee was still weak, but physical therapy has since worked wonders as well as getting in my 10,000 steps a day.

So, here I am counting my blessings on December 30th feeling like I made it through 2020 mostly intact. My income is down 30% from my earlier projections, but hell, we sold my mom’s house. My immediate family is healthy and happy. The right candidate won the Presidential election. I make my Trumpenstein father-in-law uncomfortable. I’m starting to enjoy the flexibility of semi-retirement. I’ve got a couple of fun video projects going. Life’s good.