From Traumatic to Typical by Craig Fuller

Turns out, January brought a health care challenge….let me start with the conclusion: I feel and am just fine!

After an enjoyable trip in early January through Austin for a meeting with my Redbird Flight Simulations colleagues and a visit to the California wine country, I returned home to Easton. The day after returning, a Thursday, a bad head cold was enough to take suggest a Rapid COVID test would be in order.

It was positive. So was the PCR test the next day recommended by my physician.

I realize for way too many people the experience is not as favorable as mine. However, my head cold symptoms disappeared as fast as they came upon me over the course of the weekend.

No one I know of and was in contact with tested positive. Where did I get this? I really don’t know. And, while it’s easy to say commercial flying or a big airport were likely locations for exposure, my symptoms came only a day after I returned.

What I found most interesting in going through this was discovering the very professional approach my physician and his staff took as they efficiently addressed the situation. They explained they have a protocol and that likely my symptoms would be not much more than a bad head cold BECAUSE I had both vaccinations and a booster.

While talking informally with a doctor outside my house one day, he asked how I was doing and I explained I was in day 5 and really had no symptoms. His response: “…that’s pretty typical.”

I thought a lot about that. For two years, we’ve been collectively traumatized about the risk of contracting COVID. Now, for those of us who are vaccinated it is “typical” to experience no more than cold symptoms if the virus finds us.

As I said at the beginning, many people including those who have been vaccinated, have had more challenging experiences than I. But, to face this pandemic with the medical science now available makes the experience far more survivable with only modest effects.

The truth is, “typical” is a whole lot better than “traumatic.”

If this sounds like a message to make sure you’ve been vaccinated, it is!

Be well!

Craig Fuller served four years in the White House as assistant to President Reagan for Cabinet Affairs, followed by four years as chief of staff to Vice President George H.W. Bush. Having been engaged in five presidential campaigns and run public affairs firms and associations in Washington, D.C., he now resides on the Eastern Shore.