DAY 7

Improving?

Apart from the cough I’m actually feeling pretty OK today. The cough is still driving me completely insane and making my throat hurt, but it does seem to be lessening now.

My heart rate is coming back down again, too.

I’ve noticed a few days this week that I smell. There’s no polite way to put it, my armpits are smelly when I wake up. This is odd because I’m still showering just as often, and I’m not doing any exercise.

I googled it and apparently you do smell more when you’re fighting an infection. It’s some kind of immune response. Maybe it’s an evolutionary thing – who wants to mate with someone who’s sick? That doesn’t make sense though. Natural selection should go the other way too and suppress the odour, shouldn’t it? Hmmm…

So again today it’s mixed signals. I feel like I’m doing a lot better, but apparently my immune system is still working hard.

I am officially allowed outside again tomorrow (the 7 day isolation period ends) and in theory can go back to work on Monday.

Whether I will make it to work is another matter, as the trains have drastically reduced their timetables, which was only announced on Friday. With not having been at work this week I don’t know if anything has been said about this. I’m really not impressed by the fact that my workplace hasn’t proactively switched to home working like many others have.

I also find it frustrating that the train services have been cut at all. There is the obvious point about overcrowding and infectious diseases, but also there’s the fact that it’s not the commuters who decide whether or not to come into work – it’s the employer. There’s a mismatch here. Don’t cut train services unless you’re also willing to enforce that workplaces close.