Take Me as I Am - episode 119
Here is something I really like about traveling. You get to see a lot of new things and learn about them, but you also get to connect with people. Anne Rosenberg is one of those people. Anne is friendly. She asked us to lunch on our first day and we hit it off. Full of stories, determination, and fierce loyalty, she is our guest this week for Le Voyage en France.
I respect that Anne doesn’t want to be told what to do. I relate to the statement as I have a streak of that as well. It doesn’t mean we aren’t whole, healthy people, we’re wired to bristle when we feel that intention. And of course you can take anything to the extreme in both directions. I suspect Anne is an Enneagram 8. I like her advice to do a bucket list item each year while you can because things happen. So go to all the places while you can. A solid suggestion, thanks, Anne.
Warm. Friendly. Doer.
— Anne Rosenberg
Yep, I Got COVID-19
Thoughts from Take Me as I Am
Let’s start with this. Anne, Bruce, Ron and I further bonded over COVID. We were on a text thread with several others once we left the ship. Many left for the 3-day add-on in Barcelona but I had my heart set on going to Nice so Ron and I did that on our own. As I’ve written in these pages, we loved Nice, Monaco and all the things that make up the French Riviera. From there we flew back to Paris for a few days to do more exploring.
At that time the US required international travelers to test the day before flying in. About ten days earlier I experienced one of the scariest things I’d ever been through. We were finishing up a hike from the top of a beautiful vista and were walking back to the ship. As we got closer I started to get a tickle in my throat. It got worse and worse, by the time I scurried back to our room I was in full cough mode but couldn’t get sufficient air through my mouth or nose except for the slightest bit. I was desperate for air making these strange, gasping-sucking in vocalizations. This continued on for what felt like a long time. Probably a minute or so maybe less. In that time I wondered, Is this it? If I pass out will I start breathing again normally? Do they have oxygen on the ship? Where is Ron? Well by the time I collapsed on the bed, breathing heavily, he came in the room. He was visiting with others and had no idea what I had just gone through. So much adrenaline courses through your body at a time like that. I was also equally drained and exhausted. I recovered. What was that?
Of course I didn’t know what a laryngo spasm was until I looked up what I had just gone through. I couldn't believe there was a name for it! Like we do when we have information, I felt a bit relieved. What came next was laryngitis for several days. My throat had been through a trauma and it made sense to me this came next. I went on vocal rest (not easy to do) and sipped tea with honey and lemon. We continued on with outings. I didn’t feel bad at all. Once we got to Nice we decided to test and I was negative. Fast forward back in Paris we go to the pharmacy the day before we are scheduled to leave. In the retelling of this story I do use a French accent to convey how our caring pharmacist handled our testing. “Madam, I am so sorry the second line has come and you have the COVID.” Honestly I started laughing because I was probably in full denial that such a thing was possible. I had laryngitis! We wore masks whenever required on the ship, bus, etc. She quickly said, “I do it again. I do it again. Oh no, madam, the second line, she is coming already!” And that was that.
Ron tested negative. How is that possible? We shared a dinner the night before including dessert and sips off of his wine. This was not uncommon for us when we travel or even at home. We were sleeping in the same bed, occupying the same space. It’s a wonder. Next came lots of emails, phone calls, texts to change our departure date, let the kids know, etc. Plus I had to find a French doctor as there a couple of meds I needed. (That would take a whole other blog post to do it justice.) At the time France required you to stay an additional 5 days before officially testing again. Our friends who went to Barcelona, those who tested positive, were required by Spain to stay 11 extra days. Oy vey! (Yiddish for grief or dismay.) We kept in touch by text, sometimes the phone, and strategized. It made it more tolerable. My attitude was, oh well, there’s really nothing we can do about it, so let’s accept it and move on.
We eventually started testing in the hotel room to see where we were at. The way I’ve calculated it, I was likely positive for 5 days, one I knew of. The first day I tested negative again, we were off to see some more sights in Paris. (Time actually went pretty quickly in the hotel room with keeping in touch with others on updates, movies, Rummikub, eating and resting.) The day before we were to fly out we went to another pharmacy. We were in a different part of the city as our initial hotel was booked for the remaining nights we needed due to the French Open, and the UEAF finals between Liverpool and Real Madrid. (A whole other blog post about soccer fans. Real Madrid won 1-0 and we happened to tune in for the goal scored.). Thankfully we both tested negative and we were on our way back home. We actually enjoyed the extension. What choice did we have? Better to soak in the goodness around us than be bitter that we were there beyond what we’d planned or could control.
The symptoms were never bad. I had the cough, dry throat, voice issues, and was pretty tired when we got home. Two months later as I write this I still have a bit of residual COVID symptoms. A tiny bit of cough left and my energy level isn’t back to 100%. But it will get there. I know it. In the meantime we found out three days ago we were exposed to the virus again by one of our kids, her husband, and their two children. Oh well…C est la vie. (French for, that’s life, that’s how things happen.)
COVID-19 is capitalized because it is an acronym for COronaVIrus Disease, first detected in 2019.
No matter how much falls on us, we keep plowing ahead. That’s the only way to keep the roads clear.
— Greg Kincaid
Elevator in our second hotel. Every day different colored lights - it felt like an incredibly small disco.
