Test result said “negative,” but the Omicron-like symptoms said yes. We will never be sure.
For about a week, Tod & I had raw sore throat & congestion, cough, runny nose, exhaustion, brain fog, and digestive problems. But neither of us had fever, so no way to get an official PCR test. On the 3rd day of symptoms, I used one of our antigen tests. The results (pictured above) were negative or the test was bad. It is possible that our vaccinations kept the viral load low enough not to register on the cheap drugstore test.
We have figured out that we would have been exposed at one of two places – an outdoor party on a Saturday with lots of friends and not so many masks, or a cafe lunch two days later where a woman at a nearby table was sniffling. By Wednesday we were sick. Fortunately, not as sick as many people get. We felt awful, but somehow slogged our way through work and meal preparation, then slept as much as possible.
In Kamogawa, case numbers have been rising. We started the year with 199 cases on record since January 2020 and as of yesterday we have 406, about 80 of which were registered in the past 3 days. Omicron is really contagious; Kamogawa has doubled its cases in 5 weeks. And there must be more people like us – not ill enough to get a PCR test and become a statistic – so the numbers are certainly higher. Here’s hoping our neighbors all stay healthy.
