12/13/21
The post below was written a while back, I didn’t want to post it until I had truly shaken my COVID-19 symptoms which is why it’s taken this long. All in all, it reads pretty dramatic but truth be told, that’s exactly how it felt so I’m not going to sugar coat or use a jovial tone to make it fun to read.
The purpose of this is to encourage any who have yet to 1) get vaccinated and 2) get boosted.
4/27/21
I woke up freezing in my own bed. This was the first shift of three that ultimately sent me in a pretty dismal spiral to the lowest low I’ve ever experienced. My bed has always represented sacred space. Under the covers is the safest you can be, shielded from the outside world, and suddenly that wasn’t true anymore.
I ended up losing consciousness while still laying down and took a 3:30am drive, on Wednesday March 31st, to the ER, I would lose consciousness two more times before reaching the ER bed.
There I soaked up fluids like a sponge while they ran tests showing my vitals were good pending COVID-19 results. After being discharged and napping a bit they called and informed us I was COVID-19 positive. That was the second shift: it was no longer a random head cold I had been fighting, it was the internationally feared virus where anything could happen.
I had initially felt achy on the previous Saturday, thinking I was just sore from exercising, but I got a rapid test just in case. March Madness was in full swing and I didn’t want my sickness to get in the way of my wife and roommate seeing the games with friends. The test came back negative so I felt relieved and decided to stay home until I felt better, after all, I had just scheduled my first shot as vaccinations for those 16 and older would become available the following Friday.
So this is how I fumbled at the one yard line. With the end goal in sight, scheduled on the calendar, I got unlucky. Based on my experience, I consider myself fairly lucky in the grand scheme, I’m alive after all, but here’s a breakdown of the symptoms and what if felt like to experience the big bad wolf:
Day 1 & 2 - achy body, headache
Day 3 - sore throat, still achy, still headache
Day 4 - Inability to focus, general fatigue, severe head congestion
Day 5 - Extreme Chills, intensification of all symptoms, no temperature but all fever feelings on high (trip to ER #1), night sweats, in bed all day, no appetite, difficulty with screens
Day 6 - reversal of Day 5’s intensity, thought I’d been through the worst of it, even played an April Fool’s prank. That evening brought constant diarrhea. Complete loss of smell (no complaints there)
Day 7 - Inability to eat without bowel movements, inability to hold liquids, trip to ER #2 to get fluids and Imodium. Return of day 5’s effects to a slightly lesser degree.
Day 8 thru 11 - Symptoms continue with modest improvements, slowly worked my way out of bed a few times per day to walk slowly around the backyard with a mask on - felt like I lived at an old folks home, drinking Ensures to keep my calories up as appetite was still nonexistent. Gatorade was a constant, screens were not an option, I survived on Podcasts, Audiobooks, Tylenol, and DoorDash.
Days 12 thru 14 - Appetite slowly returned, headaches persisted especially in the evening to cap the day. Smell almost completely returned, though not for my own bodily functions.
Day 15 - Complete return of achy body, severe headache, spent the day in bed wondering what life is.
Days 16 to 24 (when I originally wrote this post) - Slow rebuild from Day 15s backslide of symptoms, walking twice daily in varying amounts. Smell 100% back. Wearing blue light glasses religiously. On days where I put in more effort, the following day pays the price. Still feel achy from time to time and headache is subtle but present, more so in the evening.
Months 2 thru 7 - An anxiety-filled tightrope of returning to normalcy while trying not to trigger a resurgence of symptoms. This was later diagnosed as my variety of long covid, in which you are subject to the good day/bad day rhythm: if you feel like today is a good day, you push, enjoy, act carefree falsely thinking the worst is behind you. The next day you’re on your ass with fatigue, headache, mental fog, and occasionally achy.
Month 8 onward - Finally close to normal, after seeing a few specialists including a nutritionist and balancing out my food variety to a religious degree, I feel I can do what I used to do before coming down with COVID-19.
This was the majority of April, however at first I couldn’t even handle a small cat touching me, body aches suck.
Throughout the entire journey Lauren was an absolute saint, bringing nourishment and care at all times, even delicately suggesting when I should take a shower (when my sense of smell had failed me). Given I am (or was) a healthy 31 year old when this happened, I shudder to think about the effects this virus has on those with preexisting conditions or old age. Though I’m told stories of geezers who get no more than a sore throat and go about their lives. My limited knowledge tells my the reaction is completely random, so ask yourself: do ya feel lucky?
The final shift I felt from this was the abject helplessness our doctors have in treating this. All they can really do is check to see if your major functions are failing and tell you to rest and hydrate. Hospitals are filling ups again, and it’s with unvaccinated patients. So get your booster, I just did.
My aforementioned roommate ended up getting COVID-19 as well, but Lauren never got it because she works in healthcare and was…wait for it…VACCINATED.
PS - Shoutout to my friends and neighbors in Denver who were insanely generous with their time, support, and Gatorade in the very intense moments of this, you know who you are!