Health & Hilarity
When your body says COVID but your brain blames the sewing machine.
GUESS WHAT? Remember saying that to your Mom when you got home from school - Hey Mom guess what? As if. As if she could ever have guessed BUT if she was in a good mood she might try to solve the puzzle. She’d say something like, you got an A in Math. As if. Or her favourite was - you want to iron for me for the rest of the month. As if.
Remember back in the 60s, absolutely everything needed ironing. I remember Mom got this gizmo from someone that ironed flat things, like sheets. It was a big round pressing machine. I remember I wanted to try it. Operative word being ‘try’.
For some reason, I was now the de facto sheet ironer. Hello? Are you bat-shit crazy? So, no that was never my ‘guess what’ news. So, I’d have to wait for her to finish playing her little game before I could jump in with my very important news!!
Because, you know, when you’re 9 or 10 everything is important.
Well here I am 60 years later doing it on FB - with people who would know less than Mom did - but obviously I haven’t outgrown this tedious habit! LOL
So, here it is - I have COVID. Yup big ol' COVID. Thankfully, Barry doesn't have it. YET.
I found out late yesterday afternoon.
Just to give you a little background - I’ve taken up sewing - yup sewing - you heard it here first! I’m having so much fun learning how to sew through YouTube no less. Easy things, of course. I'm saving the hard stuff for my seamstress extraordinaire friend, Nancy Dykman who is going to teach me how to sew dresses and coats etc. The sky is the limit. It's also been fun messaging with Elaine Burke, another seamstress extraordinaire friend, talking sewing!
Anyway, while I was sewing sewing sewing I was feeling worse and worse and worse. I began to think that sewing was a lot more strenuous than I ever imagined. Sometimes my pulse went up to well over 100 and all I was doing was cutting cotton fabric and pinning it and then sitting at the sewing machine sewing. And I was having a hard time breathing sometimes. And the fatigue was real. What is going on?
I started out feeling all stuffed up and then of course came the ensuing sore throat. I thought maybe it was allergies which would cause post nasal drip which would then make my throat feel like cotton balls - possibly??
Even though I have no environmental allergies I was convinced it was from the humid weather. I’m a doctor now, don’t you know. But clearly not a very good one.
I wasn’t concerned that I was sick but rather concerned that sewing was physically tough. Why was I having a hard time breathing when just cutting fabric? And man the damned sore throat and stuffed up nose was getting on my nerves. I thought if my nose wasn’t so blocked I’d breath easier. I actually was beginning to feel like a bit of a wuss because after hours of sewing I was knackered. Geez Deb you have got to get into better shape LOL.
Sometimes I would be sweating so much that I had to put our big fan right in front of me while sewing. In the meantime Barry’s got a long sleeve t-shirt on because it’s that cool in here. But I didn’t have a temperature so none of it made any sense. So the only conclusion I could draw from all this was that sewing was more strenuous than I had thought. I think that’s why I’m secretly relieved it’s COVID.
Anyway, Barry’s family was going to be coming over today because Andrew will be 10! So Barry says to me, Hey Deb maybe you better check for COVID just to rule it out. We already told his daughter that I had a cold but otherwise everything would be ok. Huh, lo & behold I have COVID. Are you freaking kidding me??!!!!
Now everything makes so much more sense. Sewing is not and never will be an aerobic sport!!! And someone doesn’t sweat profusely while pinning fabric together. This I now know!!
Anyway, I’m probably a touch better today in that my throat isn’t quite as sore. Still sore but not as bad. And I’m not sweating yet. Still tired as evidenced by the fact that I’m writing this from bed.
I’m just relieved that I have answers as to why I was feeling so badly. All day yesterday, I kept looking at the table with my half sewn project but just couldn’t finish it. I was too exhausted to even consider doing it. Interestingly, I didn’t sweat as much yesterday and I didn’t sew. Hmmmm so maybe there is a correlation after all. Maybe sewing should be an aerobic sport in the Olympics!!! LOL
So that’s all the news that’s fit to print - I have COVID but the good news is that Barry doesn’t have it. Remember last December, Barry had COVID and I never got it. So, here’s hoping…
Turns out the real mystery wasn’t the project I was sewing—it was what my body was trying to tell me. Now I know: COVID’s got me, but sewing’s still got my heart. Just maybe not today.