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My COVID Experience [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-04-04
I stopped wearing a face-mask in Dec. ‘23. I got COVID in January 2024. I was up-to-date on my vaccinations, which may be why I’m still here. I post this so others may better understand what COVID is and isn’t. It’s not “just the flu.” It’s its own thing.
Of course I don’t know exactly how I got it. A friend came to visit who said she’d just got over COVID but I doubt she was still contagious, although it’s possible we should’ve been more cautious about a face-to-face visit so soon. I also encountered someone coughing with no face mask, but that’s a definite “maybe.”
About a week into January, I got the feeling I was “fighting something off.” I probably should’ve quit doing my normal activities and got tested right then, but when someone is in “fighting something off” mode, hope has a way of convincing us we’ll win. I thought what I likely had was a touch of the flu. I’d spent most of Dec. ‘22 fighting a flu that at first I mistook for COVID. At that time I went to my local urgent care clinic, expecting to be told I had COVID. They tested me for both and said, “It’s the flu.” That flu was bad enough to keep me from fully functioning for most of that December. So when I started feeling sick in Jan. ‘24, I at first assumed the same thing was probably happening again.
By Wed. Jan. 11, 2024, I was no longer “fighting something off.” I was SICK, as in can’t-get-out-of-bed sick. (See my previous post about Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: www.dailykos.com/...). I managed to struggle into some clothes and drive a mile to the nearest urgent care clinic. Just like before, they tested me for flu and COVID, and this time said, “You have COVID.” The doctor explained, “It wasn’t anything you did or didn’t do,” and, “The vaccine isn’t like the measles vaccine, where you get it and you don’t get the measles.” COVID vaccines, he said, simply help stimulate the immune system to protect against the virus.
I was given a prescription for five days of Paxlovid (not the same as Remdesivor, although until I researched this story, I was unclear about the difference) and told the COVID infection should clear up after five days. Paxlovid is actually a cocktail of three tablets, two 150-mg. tablets of nirmatrelvir and one 100-mg. tablet of ritonavir, and they come packaged in blister packs containing all three, with each set of three pills labeled, “morning dose” or “evening dose.” They typically come in ten doses to a box, five morning doses and five evening doses. Sometimes a ten-day course is prescribed.
I immediately drove to the pharmacy, although I was so weak I had to clutch the store shelves and the counter. The pharmacist told me my prescription wasn’t ready yet. I was too weak to wait until it was ready. I had to struggle back in the afternoon, clutching shelves and posts again, before I could start the meds.
So began what turned into more than a week where I barely had strength to get out of bed unaided. I honestly could’ve used a cane. I could get up to feed the cat and make bathroom visits and that was it. Whenever I picked the cat up, which normally is easy, I struggled—it was like she was double the weight. I had no appetite, no interest in eating, so being too weak to make meals, to sit up and eat, wasn’t a problem anyway.
Some of the strangest symptoms I’ve ever had from any illness, I experienced in those five days. I had long depressing fearful nights, not in the sense of, “Am I going to die?” but, “Will this long dark strange chilling (not so much cold-chilling as full-of-dread-chilling) night ever end?” I found those long strange nights comparable to fear-filled nights in childhood, of “seeing” ghosts in the hall, except I didn’t “see” ghosts, I just experienced an inexplicable dread comparable to when a child “sees” ghosts.
I had weird vivid nightmares, one, a feeling of being trapped in and fighting my way through something that resembled cobwebs, one a sense of looking up through some kind of strange neon-glow foiliage blanketing over darkness, and being frightened of those glowing neon plants and that darkness. Where did those come from? Where was I? I woke up—to that dreadful endless dark.
Usually when I’m sick and bedridden, oral care gets neglected, but this time I suffered such severe “morning mouth” 24/7, I had to struggle through brushing my teeth, and using mouthwash, too, several times a day. My lips got so chapped, I used more chapstick that month than I’ve used in the entire 21st century otherwise.
My Facebook activity shows nothing, Jan.10-14, and a couple more gaps for a period of several days after that, indicating I wasn’t even able to go online during that time.
Facebook post, Jan. 14: “COVID finally found me. I've had it since Th. at least. The doctor said I should be over it in about five days ('til Tues.) and prescribed Paxlovid, which is actually a cocktail of three pills and I've been taking those. I've gone out without my facemask a few times in the past weeks and that's probably when I was exposed.” That day’s Facebook entries also indicate I got some cat treats delivered. Once or twice more, during my weeks of recovery, I resorted to ordering groceries online and getting them delivered.
Sorry if this graph is TMI, but bloody mucus was present for several days. On the final night of taking Paxlovid, the last pill stuck in my throat—that horrible feeling of not coming up, not going down, not really choking but not really breathing either. I didn’t know if I was going to spit, choke, cough, or vomit. I grabbed a Kleenex, put it to my mouth, and at that moment, the pill went down and a fist-sized gush of green phlegm came up, over the Kleenex, over my hand, down the front of my robe. I think that was the moment the infection cleared.
On Jan. 16, the five days were up, the Paxlovid was finished, but I still felt just as terrible. I could only find one sign of improvement. At least I was back online and clearing my backlog of email.
On Jan. 20, feeling just as terrible, I quit procrastinating and went back to the urgent care clinic. A doctor wasn’t on duty, but the PA tested me for COVID again, and the test was negative. Her diagnosis was that I was now suffering a sinus infection, serious enough to warrant a prescription for 500 mg. antibiotics 3x daily for the next ten days. She also advised using a neti pot daily. Back to the pharmacy, once again clutching furniture for support, get the antibiotics--and a neti pot kit, which I’d never used before and had to learn how to use.
Jan. 21, Facebook entry: “Good news, I've tested negative for COVID! Bad news: the PA told me I have a sinus infection and prescribed several days of antibiotics. She also advised doing that wash-out-the-nostrils thing. . . It must be a big one, because she prescribed 500 mg. antibiotics 3x daily for TEN days!”
To which a friend replied she’d suffered the same sequence: COVID, then sinus infection, then, “Pink Eye, apparently it’s part of this wave.” I got some eye irritation off and on, but whether that had anything to do with anything else is impossible to tell. It could’ve been my allergies.
Just as I started noticing improvement—the kind where you can at least get out of bed to do some light chores and keep something resembling a schedule (like the song, “I’m not sick but I’m not well”), my cat, Faith, got sick, as in, need-a-vet sick.
Facebook entry, Jan. 24: “Faith's sick, too! . . .I put my hand on her forehead, just like with a kid, I can feel she's feverish . . . if she's still sick tomorrow, I'll have to be well enough to tough out taking her to the vet.”
Jan. 25, I struggled out of bed, again, got dressed, again, and drove the cat to the vet. They gave me several doses of liquid antibiotics I had to give her. They said, if she’s not better in three days, bring her back.
Facebook entry, Jan, 27: “Faith appeared to be worse these past couple of days, despite the liquid antibiotics.” As if I hadn’t had to struggle out of bed, get dressed, and drive somewhere enough times already. Faith’s regular vet was booked, so I had to get another vet, and drive to a more distant office. Again, from my Facebook entry, “They gave me two sets of pills to get down her over the next four days, plus eye drops. They said if she hasn't improved and still has no appetite by Monday, bring her in again. As for me, I'm still living in my pajamas and bathrobe, but at least I seem to be eating better, too. I've still got several days of antibiotics to go.”
When I was diagnosed with COVID, I didn’t eat a thing for more than a week. When I did try and start eating again, more than a week went by of eating only a few bites every few days, just a banana, or a few spoonfuls of oatmeal, or a few sips of cocoa. (I drink cocoa instead of tea or coffee.) Every time I tried eating anything, I experienced an almond-like taste. I dimly recalled some basketball player, I think, saying he had COVID and everything tasted like almonds for a few days. For me, everything tasted like almonds for a lot more than a few days.
Facebook entry, Jan. 29: “For nearly three wks. now, I've had no appetite. A banana and a cup of cocoa every 2-3 days has been "a meal" for me, every 4-5 days I'll try and eat a bowl of oatmeal, only eat about 4-5 teaspoons. . . . At the vet's a woman suggested I may want to boil some chicken for Faith, and I refrained from answering, "First I'll boil some for myself!" Last night, I finally felt ready to cook that pot of chicken. When it was ready, I thought, just eat a leg, see if you're still hungry. I ate a leg, a thigh, another leg, another thigh! Now this morning, I ate a full breakfast! Progress!”
Another Facebook entry: Jan. 29: “Faith and I are both still taking our antibiotics. Faith's well enough she can get from the bedrm. to the kitchen w/o having to stop and rest along the way, and I'm well enough to put some clothes on and give my sleepwear a much-needed wash.”
Then just like that, I was back to normal, at least as “normal” as a person with CFS can be. I was able to get groceries on Jan. 30. A Jan. 31 Facebook entry shows I was well enough to take a bath “a few days ago.” My appointment book shows I resumed a normal schedule—and Faith got well, too--by Feb. 1.
That was enough to make me go back to wearing a face mask, and to this day I still wear one when I’m in a crowd or a confined or close situation. Getting an updated COVID booster is on my “to do” list.
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