New Hampshire is feeling it. We now have 327 total cases in my county, with 90 active cases. There are only 8 ICU beds in my county, so if a lot of people need hospitalization, it would be an issue. My Dad was in the hospital one time when they were pretty full all around and he was in the ICU beds despite not needing to be monitored like that. There are only 25 beds in the whole hospital.

We’re kind of lucky that there’s no snow on the ground, despite the negative effect on the ski resorts. With no snow, there’s less drive for people to come up here and still a possibility of keeping the majority of the schools open until Christmas. It also keeps the possibility of asymptomatic people from outside the area increasing the possibility of spread.

I haven’t gone out since my negative COVID test. I want to isolate as much as possible for the people I will be around when I travel on Wednesday. Despite decent weather, there was no geocaching this weekend. I could have pushed myself but just wasn’t feeling it.

In January of 2014 I was working as the night audit (night manager) at one of the hotels in town. We were having a rain/ice storm overnight. I was by myself, as usual. I went out under our porte-cochere to see if anyone had come by and treated the parking lot with sand or anything yet. I didn’t even make it out from under the porte-cochere when I hit a patch of ice and went down. I hit my head, and when I say that, I mean that the first part of my body that hit the ground was the back of my head. I’m not sure how long I laid there and I’m not sure if I lost consciousness or not. I just remember having my eyes open and saying I needed to move – I needed to get up and get out of the puddle I was half in, but my body wouldn’t move at first. Eventually it did move and I crawled back into the hotel where I attempted to call my Front Office Manager first and then 911.

I had a lump about the size of my hand on the back of my head and my eyes weren’t as responsive as the paramedics would have liked, so they talked me into going to the hospital. I was mostly worried about making one of the kids come out and get me from the hospital in that weather. The paramedics said I needed a CAT scan. When I got to the hospital, they basically looked at me, said I wasn’t bleeding, and sent me home. Our local hospital is not known for a great emergency room. I was okay with that and the ambulance hadn’t even left yet. They dropped me off back at the hotel where my relief was. I thanked her for coming in and went home. I warned my kids to check me every couple hours and make sure I was still breathing and if anything happened to sue the hell out of the hospital.

I was out of work for a while after that and I’ve never really been the same. I have long-lasting effects of sometimes not being able to find a word I know I should know when I’m talking. It happens to everyone, but it happens way more frequently to me since this injury. There are other things that I know have only happened since this as well and I cope with it.

The reason I bring this up now is that whenever I get a cold or any serious sinus congestions, my sinuses and head behave in a way they never did before that injury. I get more frequent ear infections for one. I get more frequent sinus headaches that feel like my head had a vice squeezing from each ear. A runny nose almost always means a sore throat as well and the ears hurting or being congested. I’ve even had my eyes hurt from my sinuses. I know some people have been affected like this their whole lives, but it’s all new to me. A cold was annoying, not painful before this.

I’ve been feeling pretty miserable with this cold, but I know it’s not COVID so I’m just riding it out with Advil and cold medicine. It’s one of the reasons I just haven’t been too motivated to get out, despite decent weather. I took a nap earlier today and woke up with one of those sinus headaches making me miserable. I just finished watching the New England Patriots win a pretty exciting football game. All in all, not a bad day.