All-TigerNet [12539]
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Joined: 11/21/11
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My Corona Virus Experience: Very Long
Apr 18, 2020, 3:47 PM
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I am not posting this to give medical advice. I am not a doctor and that would be a disaster. I am posting this because throughout my experience, I was yearning for a diary of some sort by someone that I could compare my experience to.
As many of you know, I came on here March 21 to say that my wife had the Corona Virus. To this day, she has never been tested. At the time, her fever spiked for about two days. We called her doctor and she was put on 14- day quarantine without a test. I have a job that the state of Georgia had placed on work from home beginning March 13, so I had been home a week when she got sick. She is a pharmacy technician for Sam's Club pharmacy. Anyway, she was sick for about two or three days and after that she was good as new. She had to continue the quarantine for the full 14 days, but went back to work on April 6. She threw that Corona Virus off like it was nothing. Of note, my wife is 47 and I am 57.
My turn came on March 30th when I first noticed a fever. The fever was on March 30 and 31. I felt sure I had it, but for the next three days, I felt fine. I don't even think I had a fever from April 1 to April 3. Then on April 4th it came in with a punch. From April 4 through 7 temps were over 100 degrees as I would take readings at wakeup, 3 p.m. and 9 p.m. These three days of April 4-6 were miserable. Lots of chills, sweats, no appetite, writhing around on the bed and couch, no desire to do anything, not even change the tv channel. One day the tv was on national geographic and there must have been twelve straight shows of Lockdown. I never even had the energy or desire to change the channel as I was in and out of grogginess. I think if I ever end up in prison, I will now know all of the tricks of the trade from commissary rip-offs of fellow inmates, to how to make snacks and get drugs etc. I will be ready, LOL.
On April 7th, I was actually feeling a little better when a friend called. He said check out the local news, they are giving tests at Georgia Tech for people that qualify. I live very close to Georgia Tech, walking distance if you are a good walker. You have to go on a website and answer some questions and then hope a time slot is available. I filled out the questionnaire and, since I had had over 100 temps and cough the previous 48 hours, I qualified. I drove over and the police and health care workers ran the show. I never left my car and would not have been allowed to. They corralled the cars through this street at Georgia Tech and you looped back around to a parking garage where the tests were being given. They had plenty of signage explaining the steps, but you could also tune in to 88.9 FM and that station had a loop of directions. Signs said do not leave your car for any reason. There are no restrooms and if you feel you can’t wait, you will have to leave the premises. When you pulled up, you cracked a window and they gave me the swabs to self-test and then give back to them. They then told me to pull up to a waiting area and they would have my results within 15 minutes. The chances of a false positive are practically zero, but larger chance for a false negative. Within 15 minutes a nurse called me and verified my ID. She then told me that I had tested positive for Covid-19 and asked how I was feeling. She then said that she wanted me to crack the passenger side window of my car and she was going to come over and drop some information into that window and then back away.
So, after being sure I had it since March 30th, it was finally confirmed on April 7. I went home and called my doctor’s office and spoke with his nurse. She asked a lot of questions about my symptoms. The next morning my doctor called. We had a good talk. He said he wanted to see me so he scheduled a video appointment for Friday, April 10.
The nights between talking to my doctor and the video appointment were really rough. Fever, cough, chills sweats, no appetite. I lost a lot of weight here. I am kind of a slim person, normally 6-3, 175 lbs. in normal setting. By April 10, I was 6-3, 163 lbs. Twelve pounds is a lot of difference on a 6-3 frame. The weight loss comes not just because of the virus, but it makes you have no appetite. At times, you can’t imagine eating anything. At other times, you feel like you could eat and try to figure out what, but you are just too lazy or wrecked to get up and get it. Before you know it, the feeling of wanting to eat passes for another eight hours. Keep in mind my wife is back at work. When she was home, she’d be making me eat and bringing things to me. The first video meeting with my doctor, I had some questions because I was getting scared that I might not have what it takes to shake it. I told him I had no desire to go to a hospital, but in case worst case scenario, what would be the hospital, and protocol etc. I had a bag packed for the hospital just in case. I was also worried that if I didn’t beat it by day 14 that would be an ominous sign of a long battle and perhaps hospitalization. He said that I didn’t need to worry about day 14. He said they had a medical assistant in his office get very sick and it lasted about 3 weeks, but no hospitalization. He said my symptoms were normal for the time frame I was in.
But my doctor made a couple of things clear. He said, first of all, as bad as you look and feel, you are not at a point to be admitted to a hospital. IF you went to a hospital today, as sick as you are, they would not admit you. They would send you home. He said because even though I have bad fever, cough, loss of weight, and headaches, I did not have shortness of breath. He said let me be clear about shortness of breath. He said shortness of breath means a person can’t complete a sentence without gasping for air. Shortness of breath is NOT that you are winded because you just walked upstairs in a weakened state from fever and lack of proper nutrition. He scheduled another video appointment for Tuesday, April 14. He said as many had already said to do the following:
Take Tylenol to reduce the fever, use a cold compress, hydrate, hydrate, hydrate and try to eat. I will say that the Tylenol would help almost instantly and for a brief couple of hours I would feel normal. If you have anything you need to do, start it right after taking the Tylenol because you might be able to do it. But right on time the Tylenol would wear off and the fever and headaches would all come back.
April 11 and 12 were more bad days of just feeling bad, but I could see little baby steps of improvement, fever was dropping, but I could still feel the activity in my lungs even though the cough was subsiding also. On April 13, I started to feel like a real person again. By the April 14 video appointment, my doctor said he could see the improvement in color and eyes the minute he saw me. So I am 99% sure I am out of the woods. No fever in about three days now, bust still very sluggish in my body. I think it will take my body about another week to feel 100%. But I would really say I got it on March 30th and the worst of the worst was April 4 through 12. I am now on day 20. Like I said, I am probably in the clear and would probably test as to not having it at this point. However, I doubt I will be lucky enough to get the post test for antibodies. I would like to, but doubt it happens. I feel very lucky to have gotten the test on April 7. That just kind of fell in my lap.
Personal advice, not medical advice:
Have your doctor’s number handy and the hospital you would go to if it came to that.
Be packed for the hospital, and keep your phone or tablet with you.
Have a thermometer handy
Have Tylenol on hand
Have plenty of liquids: I used Water, Gatorade, Pedialyte (3 times the electrolytes), Ensure for when you don’t feel like eating.
I know you are probably safer in South Carolina than I was in Metro Atlanta, but please, please, please don’t get over confident. Please keep your social distancing as much as you can. It won’t be long and South Carolina will be in a great place regarding going down to zero cases or deaths, but for now, please continue to social distance and protect your family and yourself. Act as if everyone has it. Act as if you have it.
Sorry so long, but this is the type of account I was looking for when I was going through this. I know everyone's case is different, but something in here might help. At times, during this, my imagination would runaway with me and that was not a good feeling. Maybe this will keep someone from going through that. Also note that it is always worse at night and late afternoon than in the morning.
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