Covid Day Two: Tuesday 3 May 2022

Due partly to Fester’s sleep apnoea (much improved due to the CPAP machine) I’ve develop the habit of listening to my MP3 player through earbuds to help me get back to sleep during the night.  In OurTime with Melvin Bragg is particularly useful, but most BBC Radio Four or WorldService podcasts will do the trick. 

I woke up in the wee small hours of 3 May feeling hot, popped in the earbuds and managed to drift away.

A couple of hours later I woke up again, very hot and sweaty.  Even my ears were sweating as I slipped the buds slipped out.

At about 6am I woke up and went to the loo.

Walking back to bed I realised my nightie felt heavy, and cold, damp and somehow strangely gritty.

It had absorbed all my sweat.

This is even more disgusting to feel than to read about.

I tore it off, threw it at the laundry basket on the landing and put on a clean one from my drawer.

For most of Monday and Tuesday I had that sort of headache you get when it’s going to thunder: not so much a pain, more a cloud of compression around the head.

I also realised my sense of smell, normally quite strong, had gone.

I tested it by sniffing the lavender bag I keep near my pillow.

Nothing.

I opened the jar of Vicks on the dressing table, put my nose in and breathed deeply.

Nothing, although my head felt a little clearer.

It’s a very strange feeling to know what you should be sensing and there being nothing there.

(I’m glad to say my sense of smell has returned.)

On Tuesdays I normally enable Ferretfingers’ activities at Ouseburn Farm, but this was obviously out of the question.  Instead his father took him out for the day, including a brief visit to Ouseburn to let them know what was happening.  Apparently they handed him a broom and got him to sweep the yard while he was there.