another little adventure?

 Teaching/doing office hours from home today.

I was chilled when I got home yesterday, didn't think anything of it at first. Spent a while working on advanced biostats stuff kind of crunched up in a chair - noticed I had some minor abdominal cramps. Still felt cold. Did a workout, which I hope I will not regret later

Late in the evening, took my temperature when I thought "huh, could I have a fever" (usually why I feel chilled).

99.9

Crud. My "normal" is closer to 98 than to 98.6, so

Still felt cold, figured maybe I just needed to go to bed - put on heavy pajamas and got under the covers. Of course my mind went to the bad place - yes, I could still smell and taste, no I did not have any body aches or headaches, yes, my breathing was fine (and my pulse oxygen was normal for me). Made sure to "prone" myself in bed just in case.

Slept for a couple hours, got up to use the loo, felt light headed. Took my temperature again. 

This time it was 100.2, which frankly scared me a little. Checked my pulse oxygen, still normal. 

But my doctor has a message service set up so I messaged her with the information and my fears, and asked where she'd recommend getting a COVID test done.

Took my temperature again after sitting up a bit, it was down to 99.5, but that was small comfort to me.  Changed into lighter pajamas as I was no longer cold and briefly wondered if the temperature spike could have been getting too warm while I slept.

Went back to bed but did not sleep well.

I did not take any Tylenol - the only thing of its nature I take - because I wanted my morning temperature to be "honest" and not affected by an antipyretic. 

Got up this morning, still feeling fine. Temperature was 98.6. Now, in truth, my normal temperature is closer to 98.1, but....that's not really a fever, even for me. (And more recently, after being up a while, it was 98.2).

My doctor still suggested I teach from home, and said she'd set up a televisit to determine if I need to get tested and set that up. (I hope it's today, the one class that would be impossible to teach from home is tomorrow, and while I have someone who COULD sub and I warned the students about it, I'd rather not).

She did say "you should wait a day or two to get tested to avoid the chance of a false negative" so I don't know. 

Right now I think it's *unlikely* I could have COVID but I'm still within the window of getting exposed from my JoAnn's/Ulta/Kroger trip on the 15th. Or when I went to Pruett's more recently. Or even at church. In all those places I am masked (and for the big trip I used a N95)  but masks aren't perfect and distancing isn't perfect. 

I suspect I'm what they call "worried well" or I'm being hypochondriacal but I also don't want (a) to expose anyone else if I have it and (b) if I have it, keep a big eye out to be sure I don't, like, stop breathing or something. 

I hate this all so much though. All of it. 

Edited to add, noon:

Official word from my doctor is (a) I should isolate for at least today and tomorrow and (b) tomorrow midday, I should go get a rapid test at the hospital. Apparently they have decent testing capacity? And I should know by the end of the day, hopefully.

Unfortunately it's the swab-up-the-nose and that scares me. But hey! It's my punishment for thinking I could go out to JoAnn's and grocery shopping I guess!

If I'm positive, this is going to be an issue. Good thing I have so much shelf-stable UHT milk and canned beans; may be eating those for a while if I'm positive. 

I guess from here on out, until I'm vaccinated, I just pick up groceries :( And I try to deal with the mental health fallout from being alone and without any kid of "fun" (even grocery store) after the pandemic is over. IF IT EVER IS.

Edited to add, 4 pm: almost 16 hours since I had a temperature over 100. (99.6 was the current, which is a little high but not danger zone high). Pulse oxygen still in the high 90s. Took a shower and washed my hair and I could still smell all the soaps. A little tired but that could be having been worried all night. 

but this sucks a lot. My only hope if I'm positive is that this is a very light case and I manage to shake it off pretty fast. Though I don't know what that would mean for me being vaccinated eventually; if I need to wait longer after I get better than if I had never had it.

I also wonder where I got it: JoAnn's? Pruett's? In class? I had a skin rash starting over the weekend and that seems to be an early symptom for some people so it COULD have been I got it from that student who tested positive, would be in the 2 week window.Or it could be dang community spread. 

I just hope I don't get REALLY sick. I sent contact info for important people (my mom, etc.) to a couple trusted friends with the idea that if I do get really sick, I put together a little network of people to text me every few hours during the day and if I don't text back within a short window, they call my contact people and get the EMTs to my house.