My direct, personal Covid story is rather dull.

I am vaccinated and boosted, and due to my age and weight, I am in a moderately high-risk group. Unfortunately, the night before an important (but non-urgent) hip replacement, I received the results of a pre-op Covid nasal swab: POSITIVE! This resulted in an immediate four-week delay of my much-needed and wanted surgery. I did eventually get my surgery six days ago, and so far I’m doing quite well.

Retrospectively, when I think back to the weeks prior to my positive nasal swab results, I did have a few days of fatigue but without any significant other Covid symptoms such as cough or fever.

And currently, a few days out of my hip replacement, I do feel a little tired—but it’s hard to say if that’s from getting a big surgery or some residual Covid manifestations. (Another possibility for my fatigue is that my positive Covid test resulted in me being slightly more deconditioned prior to my hip replacement. After I receive my test results I isolated myself for the appropriate period of time and after that, I was still unable to go to the health club to work out; the only exercise I’ve been able to do for the past year because of my hip arthritis is an hour of reclining bicycle, and I certainly miss doing that in the month prior to my surgery).

However, I would like to make something very clear (and keeping in mind that Covid is not over): if a few weeks of inconvenience and fatigue turns out to be my only Covid story then I’m the luckiest person alive.