Dear
@truenorthpilgrim, I hope this story inspires you! We spent some time healing in Burgos last summer too.
We started out walking the Vasco del Interior from Irun to Santo Domingo de la Calzada. It was a difficult route with lots of ups and downs. My husband's knee was bothering him and he actually stopped and bought a brace in Haro. We turned onto the Frances at Santo Domingo and breathed a sign of relief -- we knew this section of the route and anticipated it would be less rigorous. We were also ready to meet other pilgrims after our quiet walk on the Vasco. As we walked up the long gentle hill to Granon, Tom turned to talk to a couple of other pilgrims and ... BAM!... he twisted his knee badly. Aaargh. We hoped it would feel better after we stopped in Granon, but after supper his knee was still aching badly. So we decided to take the bus into Burgos, go to the emergency room and take a rest.
Despite the fact that the doc at the emergency room said, very firmly, "No Santiago!" we decided to see how it went walking short days and sending Tom's pack using a mochilla service. Three day's rest, and the good anti-inflammatory medication we got helped a lot and we started out walking 10-15 km days. Things went well and we relaxed -- we were on our way again.
We were doing well by Leon and back on our plan when Tom developed a runny nose. It seemed like it was probably allergies. We stayed at Oncina -- just past Leon. The next morning Tom's nose was really running and he had developed a cough. He felt fine otherwise so we felt certain the culprit was allergies -- it was spring and we had been walking through farm county. We happened to bring a couple of COVID tests with us from the US and Tom decided to test that morning -- better safe than sorry. And... BAM!... positive COVID test.
We decided to keep walking since he felt fine other than the runny nose and cough. We thought we would just mask around others, stay far away from other pilgrims, eat on our own and stay in private rooms. That plan quickly proved unworkable. It is truly hard to stay away from other pilgrims! We stayed in a private room at Hospital, walked to Astorga and decided we had to take some more time isolating at a hotel in Astorga until Tom got five days past his initial infection without symptoms.
You know what happened next -- on Tom's fourth day, I tested positive. We were planning to turn off the Frances onto the Invierno at Ponferrada. So we decided to take the train to Las Medulas and rest there until a few days had passed. We thought the invierno would be much more quiet and that we would be able to stay away from others (we were right). By now, Tom was testing negative and I was basically symptomless. So we masked around others, ate on our own and stayed in private rooms. Two days after Las Medulas I tested negative and we just kept going. The fatigue (probably left over from COVID) did catch up with us near Monforte de Lemos and we decided to train past a stage and take another rest day.
After that we were fine. We walked into Santiago with no further issues. I should add that I walked the entire route with a total ankle replacement and my husband has two cervical disc replacements in his neck.
You can do this! Hang in there and keep walking once you feel better!
Rooting for you! Ultreia! LizB
So I decided to take the hint and went home for the winter.
