I just posted a blog a couple weeks ago about the state of Covid in the new year. Monday I failed to post a blog in a series regarding cardiac risk factors\u2014why? Because I got Covid, just under a year from my bout with it in 2022. I don\u2019t know who I got it from, but it once again occurred when I was away on vacation. While I masked at the airport and in customs, as I was in a room crowded with unmasked people, I didn\u2019t mask during other parts of the trip. No one I traveled with has become ill, so I suspect I got it on one of the shuttles I took to various excursions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It has again felt like a bad cold or flu.  I have had sinus congestion and been profoundly tired and fatigued. Fevers were almost constant for 3 days, topping just shy of 103\u00b0.  Luckily, I never had pulmonary (lung) symptoms\u2014no shortness of breath, and my oxygen saturations remained normal throughout the week. After three days of feeling rather miserable, my energy started to return and, as I write this on a Saturday, I expect to go back to work on Monday. During this week, I lived in a spare bedroom in order to isolate myself from my wife and daughters. When I ventured out to eat or afford myself a brief change of scenery, I wore a mask. To date, no one in my family has gotten sick\u2014a huge relief and blessing to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This experience has been humbling, as I feel that I haven\u2019t followed my own admonitions about Covid.\u00a0I, like many of us, have started to feel a certain complacency about the illness.\u00a0Yes, we are all more likely to recover and not have life-threatening illness.\u00a0But I was actually sicker this time than I was last year\u2014despite having been vaccinated 5 times!\u00a0I lost a week of work and am playing Russian roulette again with long Covid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So I again reach out to you and encourage all of you:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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1. Get vaccinated!\u00a0 While it didn\u2019t prevent me from contracting the highly contagious Omicron BA.5 variant of Covid, I am sure it is what kept me from becoming dangerously ill.\u00a0Most of the people who are currently being hospitalized or dying of Covid are those who chose not to be vaccinated.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
2. Wear a mask in crowded\/enclosed spaces.\u00a0I am confident that my family has avoided getting contaminated by me because I wore a mask when I was in their vicinity.\u00a0Furthermore, I have avoided catching Covid from my patients for three years because I was wearing a mask.\u00a0It was my lack of a mask while traveling that led to my infection.\u00a0Barriers do help!<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

   I hope you don\u2019t experience what I\u2019ve gone through this week. Please take these simple precautions \u201cto heart,\u201d not only to protect yourselves, but those around you.\u00a0It will allow all of us to go back to leading a more normal existence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

   Greg Koshkarian, MD, FACC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

   I just posted a blog a couple weeks ago about the state of Covid in the new year. Monday I failed to post a blog in a series regarding cardiac risk factors\u2014why? Because I got Covid, just under a year from my bout with it in 2022. I don\u2019t know who I got it from, but it once again occurred when I was…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1566,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[24],"tags":[80,76,187,97],"yoast_head":"\n