Sickness in a Pandemic

For the past year and a half, my roommate has consistently spoken this refrain in response to most everything that happens:

“What a weird time to be alive.”

She’s right, obviously. Many weird and unprecedented things have happened and are happening, and we just keep having to adjust. No one knows how to be alive right now. Wearing a mask has become a complicated moral decision. Who would have said that two years ago? Hand sanitizer has gone from a must-have for germaphobes (and anyone sober who used a port-a-potty) to a must-have for every business and home. I could go on. There are a lot of previously weird things happening that are now normal.

But one of the particularly odd things I’ve experienced since the pandemic is the awkwardness of being sick. Like not Covid sick. Just…regular sick.

I came down with a cold this week and suddenly I didn’t know the protocol. Do I stay home? Do I quarantine? I didn’t get a Covid test so I don’t know for sure it’s not that. If I don’t go to work I can’t be as available and helpful to my coworkers as I want to be. And then what about other places? Do I skip the gym? The grocery store?

I went to work and then regretted it. No less than six people asked me if I had Covid. My boss said, “Why are you here??” And, bonus, I felt terrible. So I felt morally confused and also physically miserable. Not a great combo.

It’s a weird time to be alive. And it’s a particularly weird time to be sick.

Have you experienced this phenomenon? Thoughts?