BJR vs COVID part 3: Californication

Fresh from our time in Alaska, despite wearing a mask, I must have contacted COVID-19 on the flight from Anchorage to San Jose, California. Within a day of arrival, I had a minor scratchy throat, and two days later tested positive for your and my favourite novel coronavirus, let’s hear it for COVID-19!

The latest analysis of the molecules that compose the COVID-19 virus. Or maybe “generate an image that looks like a scientific diagram of a molecule but has lots of feral badgers running around inside it”. I think they look pretty well groomed, and not so feral, myself.

We were going to be in the Bay Area for two weeks and had a packed agenda: seeing some of my closest friends in Palo Alto, seeing Kim’s friends and family, visiting my cousin and kidney donor Diane and the extended family up there, seeing my Aunt May, and visiting friends in San Francisco. COVID wiped out almost all of that.

The Quest for Remdesivir

While it sounds like Boromir’s second cousin, Remdesivir is an anti-viral that I’d had great experience with from my last title fight with COVID-19. (Quick review: lost ~6kg in four weeks in June of 2023, discovered it was due to COVID, then finally had three treatments of Remdesivir and all was well within a few days).

Back in 2022, when monoclonal antibodies were all the rage (and later proven to be a giant waste of money and time), I spent a horrible night in the Mary Washington Hospital ER in Fredericksburg, VA, only to discover that I could have gone to urgent care for the infusions back them. So, with a new COVID diagnosis in 2024, to an urgent care center I went….

Not so fast! Urgent care clinics no longer dealt with infusions — partly because Remdesivir was a three infusion course, more complicated than a “one and done” drip, so it meant hospitals with outpatient infusion clinics were our only option outside of being admitted through the E.R.. Luckily, nearby Stanford Hospital had an online form to apply for treatment, and I was called the same day to be scheduled for my first treatment the next day. Game on!

Some patients do not appreciate being photographed while being infused

Life in a cramped hotel room was not fun, and fortunately a friend has a guest cottage (correction, an incredible guest cottage) and he insisted I move in, and then I insisted I move in, and then I moved in.

USA! USA! USA! And Aussie, Aussie, Aussie!

Normally a week mostly in bed would be torture, but the Olympics were on! I hadn’t really watched the games since the time when I was applying for my Australian citizenship, but I was now a captive audience and could gorge myself on every track and field event that the public NBC channel was showing. Holy Cows! The US had an incredible games, and Paris (despite the water quality of the Seine) proved themselves excellent hosts. BJR medalled in eating his favourite US cereals, and airballing many pool-basketball three-pointers.

Leaving the US Feeling Incomplete

I began to feel human right about the time we needed to leave for Europe. While I was happy to be feeling better, I had missed out on some of the most important parts of our time in the US: seeing my cousin-and-kidney-donor Diane, visiting my Aunt May, and spending time with Kim’s father. My Aunt May passed away just a few weeks later, and I had missed a chance to spend time with her in her final days. I’ll never get that chance again.

My Aunt May, in what I assume is Alaska, but could be California, but is definitely some place with bears. Aunt May had an incredible laugh, always told me she loved me, and helped me through more than one rough time in my life. She was an amazing aunt and I was a mediocre nephew.

Europe Under the Influence

Unfortunately I don’t sleep well on flights, and even over the counter and under the counter sleep aids couldn’t deliver more than a few hours sleep from the US West Coast to Helsinki.

The next week was not wonderful. I still didn’t feel 100%, and low points came in waves. While I wasn’t contagious and didn’t require multiple naps per day, I still couldn’t exert myself without triggering subsequent fatigue and exhaustion. I spent most of my 24 hours in Helsinki sleeping. I was a near zombie for my first day in London, but managed an outing to see “Much Ado About Nothing” at the Globe Theatre. It’s not the Royal Shakespeare Company, but it’s a good deal of fun.

The Globe Theatre, a recreation of The Globe Theatre, which in its heyday was known as The Globe Theatre.

From London, we traveled to Vienna, which was just our gateway to train to the Austrian Alps to see my friend Wojtek. I was still only about 50% healthy, and so Vienna was another roller coaster of energy, feeling good one moment and feeling exhausted the next. When I’m sick, I really don’t want to be around people, and so I’m a terrible guest, because I just want peace and quiet, and I’m not very social. This doesn’t make it easy on Kim or on any one else around.

Wow, Bryan’s feeling good on this hike! Just wait 24 hours…

The Austrian Alps are stunning. Sadly I still didn’t feel great. I tried a medium sized hike the first day, and did not feel great that night, so I rested alone the second day and let Kim enjoy an e-bike ride. The third day, I managed a little bit of walking, but feel mediocre and felt guilty that my friend had come to Austria just for us, and I just felt like sleeping all day.

We half-limped out of Austria, and hoped I would be back to 100% soon.

Beautiful mountains with the unfortunate man-made lake below.

The Show Must Go On

Weirdly, if I had to pick a place and time to get COVID on this trip, I would have picked California, because of the health care and support options available. I have friends and family there. They have great Mexican food. But the price of getting COVID in missing out on the important things we had planned, is much more than I ever wanted to pay.

We did discuss that if we ever do another trip of this length, if it would be worth getting COVID before we leave just to maximise our anti-bodies and minimise the interruption — and then of course immediately dismissed the idea that intentionally getting COVID would ever be something we’d want to do.

Despite all the adversity of this three week period of our four+ month trip, great things lay ahead for us, even though we didn’t know it at the time. On to Croatia and Greece!