But then I made a series of mistakes.
Step 1 - I spent an afternoon with a friend from out of state.
A friend of mine living in Ann Arbor MI was making plans to visit her family in Las Vegas for the first time in two years. Afterwards she was going to spend two days in Los Angeles, staying at a hotel. I was planning to meet her at her hotel and then drive with her to visit two other friends.
Step 2 - I figured we were both safe because we had been vaccinated.
I had had the Pfizer vaccine on February 25 and on March 18. She had had the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in May and was not sick at all when she left Michigan.
I never stopped to think that she might be exposed to the Delta variant in Las Vegas and carry it to me. I thought the break-out cases were few and far between. Neither of us realized that a high number of Covid cases was occurring at the beginning of November in Vegas, but I knew that was happening in LA County.
Step 3 - I didn't realize I might have just 30% of the ideal number of antibodies.
No one told me that 6-7 months after my vaccinations, I might have just 30% of the antibodies I had built up shortly after receiving the vaccine. Dr. Bill, my brother, told me this fact a week later when I called to tell him I had Covid.
Step 4 - I'd gotten my booster shot on Nov. 3, so I thought I was superprotected on Nov. 4.
Wrong. It takes roughly two weeks for people to manufacture a high level of antibodies after receiving a booster. "You had no more antibodies on Thursday than you had on Wednesday when you got the booster," said Dr. Bill.
Step 5 - I didn't wear a mask while driving my car with my out-of-town friend.
I drove to my friend's hotel to meet her on Thursday at 1 pm. I hugged her while saying hello. We both wore masks in the hotel lobby, but I took my mask off when I got in my car.
"You don't have to wear a mask in the car," I told her. After all, we were both vaccinated, right?
"I'm going to keep wearing my mask," she said.
"She's cautious," I thought. Unnecessarily cautious. It didn't occur to me that maybe she was trying to be careful not to expose me, just in case.
We talked. I drove us to see two other friends in the Fairfax neighborhood north of I-10. On the way back to the west side of Los Angeles, we were stuck in traffic for an hour, laughing and talking. A car is a small space, and I wasn't wearing a mask.
Then we went to a restaurant with a friend, wearing our masks except while eating. It was a huge, high roofed place with 40 tables, only two of them occupied.
Step 6 - I wasn't alarmed when my friend started to feel unwell about 6 pm.
It could be anything, I thought. A flu. A cold. Or possibly Covid. I wanted her to stop by my house and have a piece of the pumpkin pie I had made, but she said no. By the time I dropped her off at her motel, she had cancelled her Friday plans with another friend. She just wanted to rest. She had a ticket to fly back to Michigan on Saturday.
Step 7 - I exposed other people.
On Friday I went to visit a friend whose husband had died ten days earlier. I hugged her. We sat in her living room and talked for 40 minutes. I talked to her toddler grandchildren and held the toys they handed me. (None of them got Covid.)
At home I interacted with my husband and adult daughter, who works at Starbucks. Because I had just had a booster, I thought I could not get Covid-19 even if my friend had it. I thought I was Superwoman. (None of them got it either.)
Step 8 - When symptoms began, I thought it was because of the booster.
On Saturday evening I noticed a teeny bit of scratchiness in my throat. By Sunday I had a sore throat and light cough. I felt tired and chilled, even though I was dressed warmly. I started to wonder if I had whatever my friend had. I lay down to take a nap at 5 pm, felt hot, and took my temperature: a 99.4 fever.
It wasn't much; I've certainly been sicker in the last year and a half. This couldn't be the Big Bad Covid, I told myself. At most, it's the booster.
Step 9 - I kept up with my work deadlines and went to a routine doctor appointment.
I didn't rest. I didn't listen to my body. I wish I had. Instead, I exposed my doctor and a nurse at a doctor appointment on Monday. By afternoon, I was exhausted and had a deep cough.
Step 10 - I didn't own a home rapid test for Covid-19, and I had no idea where to get one.
I decided to try to get tested but had no idea where find a home kit or where to drive to get a swab done and sent off to a laboratory. I should have bought the kit earlier and kept it on hand.
I was exhausted, but I drove around for an hour or more, looking for a home Covid test. I learned that an appointment was needed to get the Polymerase Chain Reaction test-- the PCR-- but none was available for that day or the next or the next.
When Roz got home from Starbucks, she told me they sell them at Walgreen's, but I was too tired to go get one by then. Besides, it was such a light cold. I had no more fever.
But I got a text from my friend in Michigan: "I've lost my sense of smell." I knew she had Covid-19.
The one thing I did right: getting my vaccines.
Because I had received two vaccines, I had some antibodies already in my system. As a result, I didn't become seriously ill or need to be hospitalized.
The next story (Nov. 13):
how I found a home test kit the next morning but couldn't believe the positive result I was seeing.
how I found a place to get a Polymerase Chain Reaction test (PCR) to be sent to a lab.
how Dr. Bill, my brother, told me to get an infusion of monoclonal antibodies.
.
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See this article: "Antigen vs. Antibody: What are the differences?" by Anna MacDonald on the Technology Networks website.
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