startling! but in a good way

I'm in the "get it all out" phase of my recovery from COVID, i.e., all the mucus still in my lungs and nasal passages has to be sneezed, coughed, and blown out of me. There's still a vestigial stuffy/runny nose, some coughing, and some annoying hiccupping associated with the coughing. The best hawk-the-mucus moments come when I'm in the hot, steamy shower: I hawk up a huge wad of mucus from deep in my lungs, and it's satisfying to watch the gunk slide grudgingly and resentfully down my sink's drain.

Overall, recovery seems to be happening faster than last time, and get this: my senses of smell and taste are already coming back. I'm nowhere near 100%, but today, as I was boiling my Korean stew for lunch, I blew my nose and was suddenly able to smell the jjigae's aroma from across the room. So I'm hopeful that my smell and taste will be up and running by, oh, late next week. I'll also be restarting my staircase work next week, and all that gasping ought to hasten the unblocking of my airways and the bringing-up of any remaining mucus. 

Now, as gross as mucus is, I do realize that its very existence shows my body is doing what it's supposed to. Mucus catches all sorts of bacteria and viruses; they get trapped and eventually horked out. So God bless Brother Mucus. This time around, the path to recovery is swift, and this, I think, may be a benefit of natural immunity.