It started off with the socialite’s wife. Her fever was about 37.5 degrees, but when she was diagnosed by her family doctor, he diagnosed her with Corona and prescribed Gelabrio. (I hadn’t gotten sick yet, but I figured it was just a matter of time, and since I hadn’t had the vaccine for a year, I was a little worried.)
Late February and early March seems to be back to midwinter. I stay still and make a good old man at home.
Symptoms of coronavirus infection
Symptoms and status by date.
- 2/24 (Sat.) Wife develops fever.
- 2/26 (Mon) The family doctor diagnoses corona.
- 2/27 (Tue.) My fever begins to rise around noon and spikes to 39.5 degrees by night. At first, I take the molnupiravir prescribed by my wife. I sleep soundly in a daze. I felt detoxed and it was surprisingly easy.
- 2/28 (Wed.) When I wake up in the morning, the temperature is 37.4 degrees Celsius. It is rapidly dropping. I went to the doctor at 4:00 p.m., but he didn’t even run any tests! And that was the end of it. He said he would prescribe some medicine, and I thought it would be the same molnupiravir as my wife’s, but it was only acetaminophen (fever reducer). The price was 200 yen. My wife’s medicine cost 3,500 yen.
- 2/29 (Thu.) The fever has gone down already, and I thought I would be able to act in a few more days, but I still have a cough, runny nose, and aching joints. I wondered if I would have what is commonly referred to as aftereffects.
- 3/1 (Fri.) I still have a cough at night, and I can’t sleep because I feel like I have occipital neuralgia.
- 3/2 (Sat.) Same symptoms. 3/2 (Sat.) Same symptoms, but I had no appetite only one day of high fever.
- 3/3 (Sun.) I think I’ll be able to go back to my normal life tomorrow or so.
If I can return to work in a week, I guess I’ll be good as a late-retiree!
Learning about immunity and genes
I bought a book titled “Super” Introduction to Immunity at a bookstore in early February and am in the process of reading it. I thought it would be super easy, but it is a bit difficult for the elderly because of the many symbols in the clever mechanisms of immunity.
However, as a person infected with coronavirus, I was able to read the book with great interest because the author explained immunity by using a case study of coronavirus. Anyway, the control of the gas pedal and brake of immunity seems to be a great information war.
I used to hear that American fashion models have few allergies, because they take a pilocyte capsule and live in symbiosis with pilocytes in order to lose weight. In this book, too, it is written that “Th2 cells work to eliminate parasites, but in today’s world where parasites have decreased dramatically, Th2 cells overreact to harmless pollen and mites, which normally do not react,” which supports the above episode. The above episode was backed up.
The immune system was built to protect us from foreign enemies over tens of thousands of years in a dirty (natural) environment, so I think it is bewildered by the sudden change to a clean environment where everything is disinfected. Nevertheless, medicine, microbiology, and genetics that unravel the grand drama of the immune system are now becoming more interesting!
Gene Study
Since I started farming after retirement, I had to become interested in plants and organisms. It was during this time that the genetic test 23 and Me became a hot topic. I thought that both vegetables and people are controlled by genes, and when I started to learn a little about genes, CRISPR-Cas9, a genome editing technology, was being talked about as being amazing. A year later, Dr. Doudna and Dr. Charvanti won the Nobel Prize.
Later, when coronas were raging around the world, a completely different mRNA vaccine was developed in a short period of time. The goal was simple: to deliver mRNA, which encodes an antigen protein, into a cell, but since mRNA is a foreign substance, it would be found and destroyed before it could do its job. Dr. Carrico, last year’s Nobel Prize winner, made the mRNA work as a ninja (a protective suit that cannot be found and cannot be destroyed).
It seems to me that this was a time when the activities of tenacious female researchers in this field flourished.
About the time I became interested in genes and understood what it was all about, the mRNA vaccine was reported in the press, and I was chomping at the bit to find out more about it. I bought a book on immunity and was immediately infected with corona. I would like to deepen my understanding further. It’s a bit difficult to travel to something you don’t know, but it’s fun.
When I start reading this rather difficult book before going to bed, I feel that I fall asleep quickly and it is good for my health.
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