My taste is back, my congestion seems about normal, maybe a little sub-par, I am uncertain whether I feel chillier or more tired than normal, but it's not bad. My blood pressure has not gone back to normal. I am concerned about this. It's not good. Even I have overly-focused on death statistics, tending to ignore those things that might take five years off our lives over time, which is a real consideration but easily forgotten and buried. Especially by those who want to forget and bury it.
My wife's congestion is almost normal. Her sense of smell is coming back. She is more worried about her foot surgery recovery at this point.
A word about the recent New Hampshire bad numbers, of which I am a part. Yes, there has been some moving north/moving into new populations of the Delta virus, and places that have done well up until now (NH, Maine, Western MA) are seeing high case rates, hospitalisation rates, and death rates. I have disliked the triumphant crowing in some corners over this from places which feel they have been unfairly accused since summer. The simple facts remain that it will take a long, long time for our death rates to reach theirs - we are still in the bottom few states overall - and our increased rate is still much less than the high previous rates in other places. And frankly, it's really ugly to go there.
Will we end up being one of the worst states that made the worst decisions? Possibly. I don't think you'd put any serious money on that after looking at the numbers.
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FWIW, my blood pressure isn't back to normal either. It may be that changes from either the vaccine or COVID itself have a negative effect on blood pressure; I theorize that perhaps they cause the blood to thicken in some way, so the heart has to work harder to pump it. That is a hypothesis I'm not really in a position to test, but if I were a laboratory scientist I'd think it would be relatively easy to design an experiment.
Perhaps, if they can sort out why it's happening, they can do something about it. The usual blood pressure medications don't seem to help much.
I am glad to hear your taste is returning. You'll enjoy our beer in the spring much more if it isn't sour.
Had my own Delta case late October into early November. Mild case, two days of fever/chills and about six of congestion ... more than half of which is probably my 50-year passenger that hides in the lymph nodes of my neck and comes out to play for every respiratory illness.
My layman's opinion is that Covid is a disease of air conditioning. Covid season in the South is summer, when it's too hot to be outside. Covid season in the north is winter, when it's too cold to be outside.
We changed our HVAC air handling in the 1970's and 1980's in a drive to save energy, using less make-up air and so having less turnover of interior air. That may not have been so wise from a public health perspective. Tight filtration and UVC can only make up for a certain amount of that ... and those countermeasures are far from universal.
My blood pressure was unaffected by COVID. My sense of smell and taste has never completely come back after 14 months though, and I find this extremely disappointing - I used to have terrifically sensitive smell, especially outdoors, and on top of that I really enjoy cooking.
Very happy to hear you are doing better.
For the BP, try deep, very hot soaks in the tub. Repeat daily.
Thanks. Will do
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