Three Beautiful Things 07-12-2024: Positive Covid Test, Patrick and Meagan Arrive, I Cooked Dinner and Retired for the Evening

1. At the transplant clinic on Wednesday, the two physicians who met with Debbie and me made it clear that, as a recent transplant recipient with a lowered immune system, it was likely that I would continue to test positive for Covid for two weeks or more. 

I tested myself this morning, knowing Patrick and Megan would arrive in the afternoon. Sure enough, I tested positive again. Today was the twelfth day since my first positive test on July 1. 

As has been true, though, for these twelve days, I continue not to have a fever. I don't have any symptoms to speak of. Okay. About four times a day I blow my nose to clear out the most minimal of nasal congestion. For the rest of the time, my nasal passages are clear. 

So, I guess the best way to put it is that bits of the virus are hanging on, making the test positive, but they aren't having much of an effect on how I feel. 

2. Patrick and Megan arrived mid-afternoon and we all agreed that I would keep my distance from everyone. Fortunately, with the way we had our house remodeled, the opening between the kitchen and living room is wide. I could sit at the kitchen table while Debbie, Megan, and Patrick were in the living room and simultaneously maintain distance but feel like we were in the same room. We easily conversed. 

3. Before long, I put on latex gloves and cooked our dinner. I fried a batch of chicken thighs and accompanied it with a vegetable stir fry with brown rice and made a stir fry sauce. 

After dinner, Megan, Patrick, and Debbie went out to the patio and, at some point, Christy joined them. 

I was bushed.

The combination of socializing and fixing dinner wore me out and while the others enjoyed time together on the patio, I brought Copper into the bedroom with me, spent time in the Connections archives doing past puzzles, and, after a while, punched up the Sirius/XM app on my phone, put on Lou Simon's Jukebox Diner show, and listened on my wireless earbuds until I went to sleep, Copper at my side. Thanks to the earbuds, I couldn't hear the others on the patio just outside one of the bedroom windows and I have no idea when they called it a night and came back in the house.