My Experience with Covid-19

My Coronavirus Experience

I remember hearing about the virus in China and not thinking very much of it.  I recall going to work while the virus was infiltrating the US and I would listen or read up on the virus every second I could.  It was like breaking news every day.  I knew people who left their homes and went to isolate in their second homes way before anything was even really happening.  It was all consuming. I went to the gym and kept wipes with me and would wipe everything and take breaks during my workout to wash my hands.  The gym closed probably a day later.  That first week when businesses closed on their own, I had a cold… or allergies. My nose was running and I had a slight headache and a little bit of a sore throat. I called the doctor’s office twice. I didn’t have a fever or a cough, so they did not think I had the virus. They still recommended staying home until I was better.

I worked from home that week just to be safe. The next week I was fine, so I went back to work armed with hand sanitizer and locked myself in my office in order to stay away from others. I only did errands when I had to in order to get supplies for my family.  I always carried hand sanitizer in my purse, in my car, on my desk, on my counters. Hand sanitizer was always there for easy access.  I was extremely careful and cautious.

On Friday, we had one of our best days as a family. The kids had been out of school for 2 weeks, and I was dying to get us all out of the house. We went to the beach for an hour. A kind friend let us park at her house since the beaches were closed.  Even thought it was windy and cold, it was a wonderful day.  That night, we went to a friend’s house and hung out with our best friends for 2 hours around their fire.  We were socially distanced, armed with hand sanitizer, had our own cups and drinks so that we didn’t contaminate each other in any way.  I was so happy because not only did we have a great day, we managed to have a great night as well with some kind of normalcy. Little did I know, that was going to be our last great day in a long time.

The next morning I woke up with a headache.  Was it a hangover? No way. It didn’t feel like that.  It was different, and I honestly didn’t even really drink very much at all. I sipped it and threw most of it out after.  My husband kept saying it was a hangover… Again, I knew it wasn’t. I wanted to lie down on the couch, but I hated to waste the day, so I really tried to push through it. I remember getting the chills, so I went down to our sauna in our basement to warm up.

On Sunday, I woke up and that headache was still there.  It was in the front of my head and very painful. I was able to tell my husband I told you so… It definitely wasn’t a hangover yesterday.  I felt sluggish and like I didn’t want to do anything. Again, I pushed through it by taking some Tylenol. I had the chills and went into the sauna again to warm up.   By Sunday night, I knew I couldn’t work on Monday. We ended up sleeping in until noon on Monday, which was crazy. I couldn’t remember the last time I slept so late. My husband was still sleeping with me. I woke up and my headache was still there. I had the chills.  I called my Doctor’s office, and they weren’t sure, but they said I needed to assume I had the virus and should quarantine. I felt like it was the same answer they give anyone who is sick, since I had already gotten this answer over a week ago when I called before. I didn’t 100% think I had the virus, but knew I was sick. During this time, I kept trying to take my temperature, but my thermometers were inconsistent and not working well, My forehead thermometer would really 100, but then a minute later it would read 97. I had no real sense as to whether I had a fever. In hindsight, I know I must have had a low grade fever during this time, but I was unable to answer anyone as to what my temperature actually was.

Tuesday I was getting really cranky as I really didn’t feel good and was lashing out.  By that night, I was sitting on the couch snacking on Swedish fish.  I turned to my husband and said, I actually can’t taste these at all.  His eyes grew wide.  We both knew one of the big differences with being sick or having a cold or allergies was losing your sense of smell and taste.  We ended up talking to family members who are very well educated with everything going on and told me I definitely had it and that my husband and I had to separate immediately. My husband has diabetes and is in the higher risk bracket. He had been petrified since the virus was even first mentioned on the news.  He moved down to the basement that night, even though we have a guest room in order to be really far away from me. Things got really serious fast.

The next day I called the doctor, they just basically said assume you have it and isolate.  They would not schedule me to be tested.

I was really miserable on Wednesday and very cranky again.  I wasn’t accepting I was sick and really needed to just be in bed. I hated that I had to self-isolate and be in my room to protect my family.  I am not one to rely on others for anything. To be honest though, I couldn’t do much anyway, and I was fine just staying in bed and binging Netflix because the only difference would have been I would have been doing that on the couch.  Instead, I was locked in my room.  Also, for background, in 8 years, we probably used our bedroom tv a handful of times. We are just not people who watch tv in bed.  

I was able to work with another Doctor who scheduled a test for me. It felt important for us to know since my husband was in such a higher risk bracket. Isolating from each other was hard and we didn’t really want to continue being so careful unless it was truly necessary. Plus, my husband was convinced that if he actually got the virus, he would die. My doctor was able to schedule a drive up at an emergency room where they administered the test while I sat in the car.  It hit me how crazy it all was going through that experience.  To see face masks, guards, and shields.  The test involved sticking a very long q-tip type thing way up higher in your nose than you know even existed. It didn’t even bother me because I had such a headache and facial pain that I didn’t even really feel it.  I would say the headache felt a lot like a sinus infection type of headache.  

The whole process was pretty quick and they told me that it could take up to 5 days to get the results.  Days ticked by slowly.  But again, I was just useless anyway. I just kept taking Tylenol and laid in bed watching tv or reading.  Saturday morning, I got a phone call from the town nurse that I had missed. I called her back, and she was like I’m calling regarding your positive results. I was like no, I’m sorry, I was tested, but I didn’t get the results yet.  She was like, oh, well, you tested positive. We get all the results.  You will need to quarantine and yada yada. It was almost like I couldn’t hear what she was saying. IS THIS REAL?? This is how I just found out?  It was crazy.  My husband had just said on Friday, I doubt you have it. You are just really sick.  We were still in denial.  I mention this because there were so many times where people are just in denial that they are sick. I am sure that there are so many people who went through something very similar where they were sick, but couldn’t get tested and kept convincing themselves it wasn’t the corona virus and did not self quarantine as a result. It is not easy to stay home. Also, there is a question of doubt from others as well. Yes, people are afraid of the virus, but they also don’t necessarily believe you have it until you get that positive test result.   I strongly feel that anyone that shows symptoms needs to be tested so that they are under a doctor’s care and also being told when they can end their quarantine.

As soon as I got off the phone, I tried to yell for my husband. At this point the cough had developed. It was hard to talk or project my voice. The cough wasn’t painful, it was jut annoying.  It was like I had no breath.  I gave him the news, and again his eyes went wide. We were in shock. We really couldn’t believe it.  It was so real and so definitive.  Now, I had to tell everyone it was positive. Even though people already knew I was sick and that I might have the coronavirus, the fact that the test was positive definitely changed everything.  (Again, the reason the testing is so important)

I went back to my room to self isolate.  My girlfriend called me and I teared up.  I couldn’t process what it all meant.  It was so overwhelming.  I would say this was the hardest day and night for me.  That night it hit me so hard and I was so sad and felt so alone.  To not be able to be comforted by anyone… no hugs… to not be able to be with my husband.  You feel like a leper.  The picture above was from that first night in my room after the positive diagnosis. My lowest point during this experience.

Sunday night was my husband’s turn to feel sad.  He would FaceTime me from the basement.  He felt so bad he couldn’t help me and do more for me.  This virus was affecting everyone.

The cough really took over my voice. I couldn’t get more than one or two words out without coughing.  Again, the headache was just always there.  If I let the Tylenol lapse, the headache would just cripple me. I had body aches, but honestly they were nothing compared to the headache. I definitely go the chills, but I never really got the night sweats I heard about.  I would stay up late and sleep until noon. There was no reason to get up anyway. I was self quarantined.  Plus, I was exhausted. I had zero energy and my body needed the sleep to heal.  I was weighing myself, and even though I was hungry and still eating, I was losing weight.  I probably lost about 5 pounds. I started to notice something else bizarre. I would get itchy on my back and it was so annoying because I couldn’t reach it. I also got itchy on my legs and realized that they were hives. I remember thinking I wonder if this is part of the virus, but at the time had not heard anything about it. Now, I am seeing reports of this in the news as one of the symptoms.

I also had times were I felt queasy, but I never threw up. It was only a couple of times.

I had one scare where I was having heart burn, and then I also developed a sharp pain in my right chest. I asked my doctor, how do I know if that is just a muscle? He said there is no way of knowing, you have to get a chest X-ray. Since we know this virus is about developing pneumonia, he didn’t mess around.  I had to get myself together and drive myself to the hospital for an X-ray. It was probably one of the worst experiences of my life. I felt absolutely terrible because I was so sick.  I also had to wear a mask for over an hour and it was so difficult to breathe.  The whole experience was so eye opening as to how hard everyone was protecting themselves from getting WHAT I HAD.  That is really eye opening and painful to experience.  There was a guard at the door to greet you, people in masks and shields at a table by the door to check you in. Someone to walk you to the elevator.  Someone to take you up the elevator. Someone to greet you off the elevator. Tape on the floor in different colors to follow. Chairs spaced out 6’ apart with letters on them.  Everyone who worked there was in full gear and shields.  It isn’t that I didn’t understand.  But it was worse than being isolated in my room.  There was no compassion or empathy, and all that went through my head was that they were dressed that way to protect themselves from what I had.

Luckily, my X-rays were fine and my oxygen levels were great. I ran out of there as fast as I could to get home. As soon as I was home, I bathed and climbed back into bed and tried not to feel worse about myself.  I was completely exhausted. However, it was great to finally be seen by doctors and know that I was ok. I had not been seen my anyone my entire illness to give me any personal treatment.  But wow, had I known it would have been like that, I would have just skipped it all together.

By 3 weeks with the virus I was frustrated.  How was I not better yet?? As the week went by, I slowly started to see improvement.  It felt like I was cured just to have any improvement at all.  The problem with feeling even a little bit better is that it deceives you and tricks you.  I found that I really only had 5-6 good hours a day where I feel pretty good. I couldn’t do very much without getting exhausted. I still can’t get up early, but I’m working on pushing this.  I started to work out again.  Nothing too hard or intense and I do it every other day.   The cough was slowly going away and I had some sense of taste and smell back.  The headache would come back if I did too much.  But I was feeling so much better and more like myself.  My husband was still staying separately from me, just waiting for me to be 3 days symptom free to come back.  However, I was not quarantining anymore. I was hanging out with everyone again and even started to sit on the couch.

It is so crazy that no one else in my family has shown any symptoms. It is almost 4 weeks since my first symptoms on March 28th. I had a couple of bad days this week that I blame on just trying to do too much too soon. What I mean by a bad day is just that I felt exhausted and my headache would come back.

But, the last two days have been better, and I am convinced I am on my way to having 3 days of being symptom free very soon. I do think it will take me a while to build up my stamina again, which is one of the reasons I have been trying to workout little by little. I need to be able to go back to work and to take on doing more around the house again. I was always someone who didn’t stop or slow down from the second I got up until almost 9:00 at night. I have enjoyed slowing down in a lot of ways, as life is so much more simple. I also know that I really didn’t miss much during this whole ordeal since the world was pretty much on lock down during this time. Honestly, I am just really grateful. I am so grateful that I didn’t get so sick that I needed to go to the hospital. I am so grateful that no one I know got the virus from me. I am so thankful for so many reasons…

I also really hope that I will now be able to help others with my antibodies. I have an antibody test scheduled and am so hopeful that I can help someone else who might really need it.

So, I may not be 100% yet, but I know I will be soon.  Thanks for coming on this journey with me, for cheering me on, for your well wishes. It all helped me so much.

Be well,

Laura