State of the Hart

[white_hart]

Lateral flow tests still negative. I also ordered a postal PCR test yesterday after I found myself wondering if my expensive Dorset Cereals muesli always tasted like sawdust and I'd never noticed it, but I'm not actually expecting it to come back positive.

I didn't get up until about 4pm yesterday, after spending most of the day dozing. At about 10am the postman rang the doorbell with a parcel of fabric, which T brought upstairs and put next to me on the bed, where it lay until about 1pm when I finally managed to summon the energy to open it.

Today when T brought another parcel of fabric upstairs I opened it straight away, and was able to get up at lunchtime and sit on the sofa without a quilt over me. I am taking this as a sign that things are moving in the direction, though I have a tightness around the chest which I didn't have yesterday.

I'm not sure whether I should try to work from home tomorrow or take another day off. At the moment doing almost anything at all seems to leave me feeling wiped out, so maybe I should take another day even if that feels like indulgence rather than risk tiring myself out by trying to work?

Comments

[qatsi]

maybe I should take another day

Yes. Even WFH, struggling through at half-strength will do neither you nor your colleagues any good.

[angelofthenorth]

Take 2 days off. Seriously. You need it and it might just prevent the incoming burnout appearing for another few weeks.

[mountainkiss]

Is a viewpoint on this question useful or just annoying?

[white_hart]

It's probably useful if it's helping to convince me that I should take another day off, or maybe try and clear some of my email if I feel up to it but not try to do meetings or anything that requires actual thinking. Echoing the bit of my brain that says I should get back to work ASAP would probably be less useful.

[mountainkiss]

It's definitely door number one. I do not want to be alarmist but it seems pretty clear that at least one massive factor for long covid is trying to "push through it" rather than recognising that it's really important to rest. I did this at least a bit, and have ended up with long covid symptoms despite being fully vaxed - it's far better than it might have been but has reminded me that it really must be taken seriously. I know how hard it is with vicious inner voices and also your workload, but I think it really does matter if you can.

[white_hart]

Thanks. I'm sure you're right and it's better to err on the side of caution, and that there is a huge difference between "well enough to sit on the sofa without a blanket and read or watch undemanding things" and "well enough to work even from home".

[mountainkiss]

I think there is because the first offers the possibility of recovery and the second leaves you with less petrol than the start of the day and therefore more to recover from. They are very different I think.

[jesuswasbatman]

Absolutely agree from everything I've read about long covid and post-viral fatigue in general.

[nineveh_uk]

If you spent most of yesterday dozing and half today in bed, you are not fit to work tomorrow whatever you have. Take at least tomorrow off, and I'd think Thursday, too.

My diary from spring 2020 is full of "I didn't feel quite so terrible today! Clearly I am fit to work all day tomorrow!!!" As you can imagine, I regret these choices. Don't make the mistake of pushing through it. If it is flu, you'll feel crap and delay your recovery. If it is Covid, you'll feel crap, delay your recovery, and risk seriously prolonging the period you are unwell even if just by a couple of weeks.

[white_hart]

I decided that I would take today off. I feel better than I did but a long way from normal, and actually trying to do anything more than reading/watching TV is still incredibly tiring.

[hilarita]

Stay off work - it's one thing to idly write a blog post and despair quietly at Twitter, and another to try to do work.

(Yes, I split my infinitive. So sue me. I decided a little while ago not to force myself to write English according to the rules of some 19th century grammarians who had a fetish for Latin style.)

[perennialanna]

Rest tomorrow. It's not indulgence. I'd argue that I think you need rather more than a mere one more day off, but definitely rest tomorrow.

[kotturinn]

Another vote for taking at the very least another day off. I'd recommend the rest of the week if you can, officially that is, although I acknowledge you may want to keep the inbox a bit sorted from Thursday!

[lnr]

Take another day, you're not well. But I hope the improvements continue.

[rmc28]

Take at least two days off. You've had nearly two years of pandemic stress to live under, assume you have way less cushion than before. Better two days now than burning out by pushing through.

[girlyswot]

Day off. No question.

[lilysea]

Speaking as someone who knows a lot of people who ended up permanently fatigued/Disabled after trying to push through not-COVID viral illnesses - take a day off!

I don't want to see you getting permanently fatigued to the point that you are only able to work part time...

[mrs_redboots]

Don't even think about working for the next couple of days. You are recovering, I daresay, but are obviously very far from well, and it is unfair on your employer to try to work when you aren't well and risk staying that way! Far, far better to take a few days off now and get really well than try to work and collapse again! I wish we could convince you to take the whole week off, but I can't see that happening....

[coughingbear]

Really glad to read you are taking today off, and strongly of the view that others have expressed about taking it very carefully and very possibly having tomorrow/the day after off too, or at most doing half a day. I had Covid over Christmas, when at least we were closed so I didn't have the 'should I work?' dance, and kept thinking I was definitely feeling better - which I was - then doing one thing, and not a very tiring thing, like hanging up a wash, and having to have a nap to recover.

[white_hart]

I think you're right. I got up at lunchtime today (I might have got up earlier but our boiler was being serviced so I hid in bed) thinking that I felt much better and would definitely be up to working tomorrow, and then by the time I'd heated up some leftovers for lunch and sat down on the sofa with them I felt awful again and spent the afternoon huddled under a quilt watching Hamilton.

[serriadh]

Really glad to read you're taking today off. It's what you'd recommend someone else in your team does, isn't it. Can you tell the brain weasels that you're modelling good behaviour?