My Journey with Covid

Some had said in comments of other posts that they would be interested in a blow-by-blow Covid story, so here is mine.

There is no death or hospitalization in this story, so no worries.

I could have waited until tomorrow to make it the twelve days of Covid, but eff that.

My husband and I just got married September 2021.

On December 23rd, 2021 I woke up and my husband was on the couch. He said “uuuuuuuugh I am sick!” and I knew we had a problem. That was the day we were slotted to leave for a 1 hour road trip to my in-laws’ house for Christmas.

After talking with the family, we decided that even though we were all vaccinated, we would play it safe and stay home. We concluded that once we had our negative test and felt better, we would do Christmas for New Years.

Per our family policy, the first one sick gets tested, so my husband went and got tested that day.

That took all the energy he had, so dinner was Arby’s.

My Symptoms:
Slightly itchy throat
A sense of impending doom (not really, but I knew I was going to get sick)

After a sad night at home when we should have been celebrating, I woke up feeling unwell. It was still just mild cold symptoms at this point, but it was clear that I had caught what my husband had. The symptoms worsened at an alarming rate throughout the day.

I was very glad that our extended family encouraged us to not come down, as traveling is hard for me even when healthy, and I was glad to be at home resting. The twins denied being sick, but a nap from girl and a runny nose from boy told a different story.

Neither of us was in any shape to cook or even drive to pick up food, so we searched for food that could be delivered. This was more of a challenge than expected on Christmas eve, but we finally found a local pizza place open.

My symptoms:
Mild dry cough
Mild sore throat
Moderate fatigue
Mild headache
Mild fever
Runny nose
Diarrhea

It was Christmas day when the results came in. In the past 2 years, we had been tested two dozen times or so between the 4 of us. All negative. Colds happen, right? We were sure this was just more of the same. I woke up to my alarm at the agreed upon time of 10 am, so the kids could open gifts. My husband had just gotten his results. He showed me his phone in shock. Positive. Now what?

The first thing I did was (update facebook, then) go on messenger and thank my sister-in-law for encouraging us to not come down when we were on the fence. The next thing was to inform my doctor by MyChart.

Clearly Christmas for New Years was not going to happen. My son suggested Christmas for Birthday, so that is what we will do. (The twin's birthday is mid January).

I was feeling quite shitty at this point and wondering how much was psychosomatic because I knew I had caught the plague and how much was truly illness. It turns out it was all true illness, and it was just beginning.

We opened gifts, and I laid back down right away as I was struggling to breathe a little. It was an odd sort of “hard to breathe”. It didn’t feel like asthma, which makes air hard to move. It just felt like no matter how much I breathed, it wasn’t enough air. I spent that day and many more having to consciously focus on my breathing and mouth breathe to feel like I was getting enough air. I even wore my CPAP while awake for a while to get some relief.

My husband said he still felt really shitty, but the unrelenting fatigue of the past two days had loosened its grip, so he made a simple meal of frozen cod and tatter tots – our family’s version of fish and chips. What a feast for Christmas dinner.

We spoke over dinner to the kids about how it was ok for them to think of this as the worst Christmas ever, and it was ok to be sad or angry about that. I mentioned that this didn’t even make my top 10 worst Christmases. I didn’t know it at the time, but this meal was the last time I would have dinner at the table with my family for a week.

My symptoms:
Mild breathing issues
Mild dry cough
Moderate sore throat
Moderate fatigue
Moderate headache
Mild fever
Stuffy/runny nose
Diarrhea

When I woke up the day after Christmas, I felt so relieved that the holiday was over and I could just stay in bed. I watched Netflix on my tablet most of the day, but I noticed that my eyes were watery. By the end of the day my eyes burned like there was sand in them, and the watering was constant. Turns out, this is what happens when a virus enters your eye – viral conjunctivitis. It helped take attention away from my raging headache. My sinus congestion lead to plugged ears, which would stay plugged and painful for the next week. And the body aches began as a dull roar on this day.

My doc responded to my message and told me that I should be able to get monoclonal antibodies, but I would need a test of my own, so I ordered a mail in test.

Thank God that my husband got some energy back. He fed me in bed for the next week. I would die without him in so many ways.

My symptoms:
Mild body aches
Moderate conjunctivitis
Mild breathing issues
Mild dry cough
Moderate sore throat
Severe fatigue
Moderate headache
Mild fever
Stuffy/runny nose
Plugged ears
Diarrhea

At this point, I was in the thick of it hard. I could not have gotten out of bed if I wanted to. MY EYES!! OMG MY HEAD! I spend most of the day writhing around and groaning. Everything hurts! Tylenol became my friend on this day, and it was the only medicine I ever took for Covid. I also had waves of nausea, but fortunately I have Zofran on hand, so no vomiting. Weighted blanket helped the body aches, but conflicted with the fever (hot!).

I was aware at this point that my usual cold progression is start in the head and move down the throat and into the lungs after a few days, so I was breathing ok at this point, but concerned about how things would progress.

My symptoms:
Moderate body aches
Severe conjunctivitis
Mild breathing issues
Moderate dry cough
Moderate sore throat
Severe fatigue
Severe headache
Mild fever
Stuffy/runny nose
Plugged ears
Nausea
Diarrhea

This was the day I noticed the illness making its way down to my lungs properly. The cough went from dry to wet and only got thicker from here.

Another day of only leaving the bed to bathroom.

My symptoms:
Moderate wet cough
Moderate body aches
Severe conjunctivitis
Moderate breathing issues
Severe sore throat
Severe fatigue
Severe headache
Mild fever
Stuffy/runny nose
Plugged ears
Nausea

So there was only one symptom of Covid that I didn’t have at this point, so of course my sense of smell is about to go. I tend to have vivid and “informative” dreams as my husband calls them. The morning of day 7 I had a dream that I lost my sense of smell. In my dream, I opened a bottle of peppermint oil pills but could not smell them. I also saw an orange being peeled, but could not sense the sweet smell. I noticed that I could imagine and remember the smells, but my nose couldn’t actually conjure the smell. Then I woke up, and immediately thrust a bottle of peppermint oil under my nose… and nothing. I could feel the tingles of the powerful scent in my nose, but I could not actually smell anything. I turned on my oil diffuser with my favorite homemade oil mix and watched the odorless mist in dismay.

Loss of smell is odd because unlike the other senses, which are always getting input all the time, there are lots of times where you really don’t smell anything. Because of this, it is easy to forget that you have lost this sense. Until you strike a match and don’t get that sulphury burning smell you expect.

At this point, I was more intrigued and amused by this development, but that was because my assumption was that this was a temporary. Now I am bit more distressed as it seems the damage is permanent for some. I have always been a super smeller, and I will really miss it if it doesn’t come back.

Since this total loss I have had just tiny glimmers of scent. I always put peppermint oil in my CPAP at night, and on the night of day 7 I put on my CPAP and smelled… somethi- and it’s gone. I’ve had just a couple other glimmers of scent like that since. It is almost more like my brain saying “SCENT!” than actual distinguishable smell though. It is hard to think that I may never smell petrichor or the scent of Fall ever again.

Anyway, if this is the only permanent damage anyone in my family receives from Covid, then we are doing pretty good.

My symptoms:
Moderate wet cough
Moderate body aches
Severe conjunctivitis
Moderate breathing issues
Severe sore throat
Severe fatigue
Severe headache
Mild fever
Stuffy/runny nose
Plugged ears
Nausea
Total loss of sense of smell

My mail in test finally arrived. I took it immediately and sent my husband out to express mail it back within an hour of receiving it. I really want those llama antibodies!

This day was unremarkable – totally miserable as before – but in the middle of the night is when things got interesting. I woke up coughing… and coughing… and coughing. I finally had to sit up in bed to clear my lungs and I coughed up a mouthful of white foam. I continued to cough up white foam for the next hour. My husband, of course, woke up and was very concerned.

In all my years of severe asthma, I have coughed up some weird stuff, but never foam. It was so hard to move through my air ways, and impossible to clear entirely. It rattled in my lungs when I breathed and tickled until I had another coughing fit.

I’m sure most of you have had a cold and had to cough when your head hurts – you still have no idea how terrible the headache was this night with all the coughing.

My symptoms:
Severe wet cough with foamy secretions
Severe body aches
Moderate conjunctivitis
Moderate breathing issues
Severe sore throat
Severe fatigue
Killer headache
Mild fever
Stuffy/runny nose
Plugged ears
Nausea
Total loss of sense of smell

After that fitful night, I slept until 5 pm. I have hypersomnia as part of my chronic illness, but this was extreme even for me. I checked my messages, and the doc had left me a number to call to get triaged for the antibodies… the hotline closed at 5… and was not open on weekends…. It was Friday. Terrible timing.

This was my first day out of bed in a week, and honestly, I only got out of bed at all because it was New Year’s Eve, and we had told the kids we would play a board game. So, we had dinner, played a game, and watched Encanto (OMG so good, you have to watch it!). The kids still seem sniffly and a bit tired, but still nothing really slowing them down.

During the movie I was struggling to breath, but in a more typical asthma sort of way. I have two different inhalers which each have a limit on how often they can be used. I maxed out both of them and was still struggling by the time the movie finished. We had to bust out the nebulizer for the first time in years. Fortunately, it worked, so no ER visit was needed.

I was not nauseated at all this day, and some other symptoms started to lighten.

My symptoms:
Severe wet cough
Moderate body aches
Mild conjunctivitis
Moderate/Severe breathing issues
Mild sore throat
Severe fatigue
Moderate headache
Mild fever
Stuffy/runny nose
Plugged ears
Total loss of sense of smell

This was the first day that I could say I felt a bit better. My headache only hit if I coughed a lot. The fatigue is real, but I was able to at least sit up at the computer and type the first few days of this story. My lungs are really the only big symptom now. Well, the nose still keeps running like a faucet, but that’s not too disruptive.

My symptoms:
Moderate wet cough
Mild body aches
Moderate breathing issues
Very Mild sore throat
Moderate fatigue
Stuffy/runny nose
Total loss of sense of smell

And finally, we reach the present. Today I am feeling quite a bit better. The only issue is really the lungs. I had a few coughing fits that resulted in nasty gobs of yellow mucus coming up from my lungs. They were about the size and texture of bubble tea bubbles. Sorry for the visual.

I have decided that I will not be calling for monoclonal antibodies. I will leave them for someone who needs them more. I appear to be mending just find.

My husband got his appetite back today and actually ate three times today – I was not stricken with this symptom. When I am sick, I tend to eat more often as the dopamine from eating helps the pain of illness. Thanks to my secret Santa for the 1lb Hershey’s bar. It served me well during my illness.

The kids are a bit upset that they have to miss a whole week of school when they feel fine, but they understand why. We live in a suburb, and the city’s school district is doing all virtual for the next week so that basically everyone is isolating from holiday travels. Smart. Unfortunately, our district is not doing this, so the kids will be behind. Oh well. Better than spreading the plague.

My symptoms:
Moderate wet cough
Mild breathing issues
Mild fatigue
Stuffy/runny nose
Total loss of sense of smell

Cat tax! Front to back this is Kitten (4), King Arthur (7), Catana (12), and Butter (10)

I hope you found my story interesting.

Remember to get your booster shot, get tested if you have symptoms, and stay safe.