A year ago I got my first bout of Covid and I hated it. Weirdly, almost exactly a year later I contracted it again. I was hoping to say it was less impactful the second time around but in truth it totally wiped me out. Here is my brief poem about this irony, entitled ‘Poorly With Covid.’
Last March I was poorly with Covid,
I gradually pushed it away.
Last week it sneaked up upon me,
With a cough and a sneaze on Friday.
Last time you made me feel awful,
Like a horrible flu you consumed.
This week you wiped me out altogether,
And the horrible headaches resumed.
I am surprised it was so bad this time round,
Though my last jab was in 2021.
Mind you, I don’t know what’s expected,
It was never gonna be that much fun.
So, yes, Covid still has a presence,
It’s spreading again in the spring.
But give me a break until next March at least
Or they’ll be calling me THE COVID KING.
————————————————————-
Final Thoughts
This was slightly different to my usual style as I don’t normally write such long lines when I rhyme. I just woke up and wrote it but hopefully it made sense. There is something cathartic about writing a poem straight out, without overthinking it or endless editing. That is the way that I prefer to write.
Thank you for taking the time to read my short poem about Covid. Please check out my World Without Ice Poem. Perhaps also follow my blog for future similar content.
As an Amazon affiliate, occasionally I link to products that I recommend. If you buy one of these products I get a small kickback which is at no extra charge to yourself.
As a book blogger, I come across a lot of people who lose their reading mojo for one reason or another. My mum was even saying to me that reading is tricky without a good lamp nearby or a sunlit window over your shoulder. However, one of the things that causes the most hurdles for us readers as we get a little bit older (I am 45 by the way) is eye strain caused by having to focus on small print. So, in this article I am going to discuss using magnifying glasses for reading books.
Things That Make Reading A Struggle
In a previous article I wrote Why is reading so important? which sums up just how valuable regular reading can be. The trouble is that some of the hurdles to reading are physical ones. For example, not being able to read the text because it is too small or blurry.
Here are a few things that make enjoying a good book harder:
– a scratched kindle reader or iPad/ phone screen
– poor print quality or crinkled pages
– insufficient lighting of the room
– time of day (some are night owls but others find it hard to stay awake and read at night)
– eye strain (sometimes because of eye condition and also because many people use visual display equipment all day so when they come to read their eyes are already tired)
– disruptive or noisy environments (either at home, work or on public transport)
A Possible Solution
If reading itself is becoming a strain and you have already checked your vision and looked into wearing glasses, then consider this. A magnifying glass for reading is the perfect solution for people with eye strain.
I have only come across these devices recently but my friend tells me they are brilliant. Instead of little circular magnifiers, as pictured below, they are large rectangular glass structures which can also have additional features.
I know this is what springs to mind when I say magnifying glasses for reading.
The magnifier linked here is an example of one which includes built in LED lights. As a result it helps with lighting the book as well as expanding the size of the visible print.
Another such example of a book magnifier is linked below. This time it is more like a traditional handheld one. It is affordable and easy to transport as it bends into a key ring holder type cover. You can use this to follow the text line for line, if you prefer.
In A Nutshell
There are many ways to deal with reading barriers. Some of them are easy changes to the environment in which you open your books. Others require making the printed text more visible. It is here that weary eyes can be defeated by using magnifying glasses. They are especially useful if you do a lot of reading at work and your eyes would benefit from a little support when reading as a hobby.
Thank you for taking the time to read my article about improving the reading process. Please share your own thoughts on this in the comments section and consider following my little blog.
As this is my first time having Covid, I wanted to document it so that people can have an understanding of how having covid feels. Clearly many people have experienced it in lots of different ways and I do not represent everyone but this is my personal reflection on the last few days.
How did I know I had Covid?
That sounds like a weird thing to say but it happens to be the case that lateral flow tests are less readily available than before. My work requires me to test every Wednesday and Sunday and I still had a set of the free tests left last week.
Despite testing negative on Wednesday, I woke up at 4am on Friday with a feeling of razor blades in my throat. As the morning progressed, I realised that this agonising sore throat was not defeated by paracetamol and my head began to ache. So I took another test and discovered a clear red line outlining my positive status.
Was I vaccinated?
I had my vaccines in April and June, followed by a booster jab in December. When having these vaccines I didn’t really suffer apart from a headache the first time and the same having the booster.
Can having Covid affect your sleep?
Whilst having Covid has been a lot less extreme than it would no doubt have been if I hadn’t had a vaccine, it has still been quite painful. The one thing that has really upset me is my sleep routine being disrupted. From the moment I woke with that scratchy throat, my sleep pattern has been completely overhauled.
The combination of muscle aches, blocked (and often runny) nose, sore throat and a weird cough has made it incredibly difficult to sleep soundly. I wonder if any of you have had the same or similar experience. For me, the lack of sleep has been by far the worst aspect of suffering from covid.
Is having covid like a cold?
Well for me there are some similarities. The runny nose for instance and bouts of sneezing. However, the sore throat that I have had for the past five days has been constant and hard to numb. Similarly, my cough has been quite harsh, causing my intercostal muscles to ache from the force involved in each dramatic cough.
Another thing I have noticed is that when I move about for a while, as I breathe faster my breaths are fairly shallow. It is like there is a tight rubber band around the very top of my lungs and when I need to inhale deeply it won’t let me.
Which day of having covid is the worst?
That is a tricky one and right now I still have all of the symptoms but I can say that the sore throat has finally eased a bit. On reflection the worst of the symptoms didn’t start until the third day of the infection. When the cough set in, I became extremely tired and achy. Even today, I fell asleep unexpectedly while in the middle of writing this post.
Having Covid has changed me.
I admit I was worried about Covid initially but lately I had begun to relax about it and assumed for a fully vaccinated person it would be just like a mild cold. I was so wrong! It has definitely knocked the wind out of my sails. Having Covid feels like a really annoying flu which makes you sleepless and uncomfortable and sweaty.
Please consider having the Covid vaccination if you haven’t already. For more detailed information about Covid please refer to the UK Covid guidance website. Thank you for reading about my experience of what it really feels like to have Covid.
