Navigating COVID

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On January 20, I received the surprising news that I didn't have bronchitis, I had COVID. Why was this surprising? The doctor who diagnosed me as having bronchitis told me the test was a precaution, but he doubted it would be positive.

Except it was a positive result.

My symptoms over the next two weeks confirmed it, too.

Unfortunately, my husband and granddaughter got it, too. Our grandson, somehow, managed to not get it even though he'd been stuck in the house with us thanks to e-learning days during the snowstorm that came through here in January.

I'm better today, but I get exhausted easily. I have done very little work during this time.

This will be a short post, but I wanted to share some of the things I've come to realize about COVID.

  • When you get the results back, they come via email or MyChart, not a phone call. I stared at the word "Positive" for several minutes. I thought for sure I was misreading it.
  • Forget trying to figure out how you got COVID. It's impossible to trace it. We hadn't been anywhere and the kids had been out of school for a teacher-in-service day and the MLK holiday (a 4-day weekend). Thanks to the snowstorm that turned into a whole week out of school.
  • My symptoms started three days before the positive test result. We thought I was having a heart attack. My chest and back hurt horribly. It came on suddenly and, after a few minutes, would subside. If I laid down, it got worse. If I sat in a chair, it would eventually creep up on me. We went to the ER where they ran every heart test they could only to discover my heart looked great. They couldn't tell me what was wrong. They did not give me a COVID test.
  • Overall body aches came next. Again, this was prior to the positive test result. I thought I had the flu and went to the doctor because I was so miserable.
  • Many people said, "It's not that bad. I felt fine after a day or two." Guess what? I didn't feel fine for the majority of two weeks. This made me wonder how bad it might have been if I hadn't gotten the vaccine. I do fall into the immuno-compromised group.
  • Many people told me: "Everyone's getting it." That may be the case, and from what I've seen, it probably is. It still is no joke.
  • The exhaustion is very real. I still get tired after just a short bit of work. Just getting up and dressed sometimes wears me out. I have done very little that requires any exertion.
  • I did lose my taste but not fully. It went wonky around the eighth or ninth day. When you can't taste food, you actually crave textures and REALLY strong flavors...that is if you're actually hungry or have the energy to eat. Often, I wasn't. Often, it was too much work to eat or drink anything, but I forced myself to do so.
  • My taste came back yesterday, but in between it did weird things. One day everything tasted like pepper. The next day, everything tasted like chemical cleaners.
  • Everyone has a remedy to make it better. I won't list them here. Some helped. Others were beyond my abilities to obtain.
  • You can help people who have COVID by bringing them soup or offering to go to the store for them. I don't know where we would have been if it wasn't for the people who provided food and store runs. Soup was the best, fyi!
  • School districts can't make up their minds on how to treat the quarantine. I could write an entire post about this, but I won't.

I could probably think of many more points to share, but the key one is I'm slowly getting back to work. I have revisions to complete on my current work in progress, so I hope to finish that next week.

Stay warm. Stay safe. Stay healthy.


Comments

L. Finley said…
I'm so sorry you had such a rough bout of Covid. I wish you and your family a full recovery without lingering side effects.
February 4, 2022 at 2:23 PM
Barbara V. Evers said…
Thanks Lisa! It’s amazing how some people experience very few symptoms and some of us get our feet knocked out from under us. I can’t complain, though. I’ve lost many people to COVID and know others whose families have been devastated by this disease.
February 4, 2022 at 11:09 PM
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