I’ve been COVID-ed!!

Just wanted to jot down the course of events/symptoms in case this helps someone:

For a few days, I had the chills and a really bad ache in the lower back area. My first thought was “Do I have COVID?” And from what I’ve read, one of the symptoms is loss of smell/taste. But I was able to smell/taste, and there was no cough etc., so I thought this was some other kind of infection. I took a test just in case — and it turned out positive.

PS: Am feeling better now. I think the worst happened BEFORE I took the test, which is what I hear from a lot of people.

PPS: If others would like to share details of their events/symptoms, would be happy to add to this post.

Madan:

My experience was similar in some ways to yours. I am also documenting the symptoms below for reference and would also encourage others to do so to help each other.

1) I never ran a fever and never had cough
2) I would get chills without it being the malaria/typhoid or even viral fever type of chills
3) I had a sore throat that refused to get ok after a week of antibiotics. That was the red flag. As a singer with good breathing habits, I generally don’t tend to have a sore throat and when I do, it gets cured quickly without much medication
4) I never had any loss of taste or smell
5) I did feel a strong sense of weakness and fatigue. I would struggle to get out of bed and to attend to work in the last couple or so days before I took the test. I had been attributing that to the stress I have taken on in the workplace

Also, I tested because the fact that three of my colleagues had tested positive within a week made me worried. Less so for myself but because my parents are both aged over 60 and I didn’t want to end up transmitting the disease to them. I tested positive and spent 10 days in the covid center. A further one week of home quarantine was imposed. I am ok now and went to office yesterday.

Siva: Here is the sequence of events in my case.

1. It started with me getting conscious of an elevated heartrate that I ignored for a day. And the temperature next day was 102C with a hear rate of 115-120 constantly.
2. As per doctor advice, waited for 2 days (to avoid false negative) and then took the COVID test that came positive.
3. By then I was admitted to hospital (have comorbidities inc. COPD) and was running 102 fever for then next 5-6 days.
4. I had lost the sense of smell by then. I still maintain that it is the hospital food that was tasteless and I didn’t lose the sense of taste.
5. Saw other patients (that I was sharing room with) suffer more, especially breathing troubles.
6. My breathlessness started almost a week after the initial symptoms. And was fortunate (These were the times when getting a hospital bed was challenging) that I was still in hospital at that time and was treated for that.
7. Was discharged after 10 days in hospital minus 7kgs lost (yay, weight loss goals!!!).
8. Fatigue, erratic heartrate (53-115 per min) for the next few weeks.
9. Almost normal now but still get tired fast with less resistance to cold (and it is cold in Chennai nowadays).
10. Proteins, soups definitely helping in the post COVID recovery.

Pranesh:

1) Was chatting with family and friends all day and felt ok, but felt feverish (101), enough body pain to prevent me from sleeping, and starting signs of a sore throat. Appetite was shot. All of these symptoms seemed to come on in an instant.
2) I took a test (kudos to the infra in chennai, someone collected the test in 2 hours at home and the result was available before end of the day) and tested positive
3) started a dose of medicines (Dolo, antiviral, corticosteroids, anti-parasitic, and vitamin supplement) that took down the fever and body pain pretty much instantly.
4) A few days in I completely lost my sense of taste and smell. Interestingly this coincided with my appetite coming back; so eating a lot of food that I cannot smell or taste.
5) Developed a late bout of cough and phlegm that we just dealt with steam inhalation.

Priya Arun: I’d like to add my experience:

1. Developed fever (102) and a severe leg ache.
2. Took a test a day after my husband tested positive.
3. Fever lasted just for one and a half-day. Loss of taste happened between Day 5 and Day 12.
4. A huge challenge was reverse-quarantining my 12-y.o. who had to be shut in her room all by herself for 14 days (she, fortunately, tested negative)
5. The doctors allowed me to cook for her. I ensured that I served very carefully.
6. Everything was fine and smooth. My problems kicked in only after the 14-day isolation ended. Day 16, I woke up with diarrhoea, vomiting, headache, double-vision, disorientation and a vertigo-like feeling. Was rushed to the Emergency and discharged by the evening.
7. Took me a good 15 days to recover from the weakness, giddiness and headache.
8. Completely lost taste and smell at that time and it is not yet back. (2 months now)
9. The vertigo-like feeling is very slowly getting better.
10. My doctor’s observation: The virus reacts differently in different people. In my case, it had affected my nervous system 14 days after I tested positive. Some people get allergic to wheat for a few days after covid.
11. Gratitude is a big healer when you notice how kind this Corona has been to you and spared you from anything worse.

Satya: Mine started like this. BR, I don’t know how to send it to you, but if you wish, you can add this too.

A relative passes away and I go to the final rites with all precautions. Then I reach home and everything is fine. Suddenly I get fever, neck sprain, knee pains, irregular breathing and snoring. Eyes would burn and head would go dizzy. I went for a test and got positive. I was in the Covid center, recovering very well. The staff was very attentive, but the experience was very scary.

After testing negative, I lost so much strength and could barely walk (my right knee was paining so much). Back at home, I was in a 14-day quarantine again. In these 14 days, everyday, I would close my eyes and sit in a corner observing my breath. Then I would note my heartrate. Both started improving. In order to keep myself sane, I started writing/thinking of something surreal around us.

It did help because, with surreality, your mind can go anywhere and hence you can divert your thoughts from self-pity and wallowing. Now here I am, testing negative again yesterday, and yet feeling weak and down. And yes, I developed allergy to wheat too. I think I have a long journey to complete.

gnanaozhi:

I was an earlier victim, caught it in Aug (people are convinced it was the gym, which had just opened up after the lockdown but I don’t agree… But whatever).

Saturday, was at the gym actually when I felt this acute sense of fatigue. Usually am a iron pumping nut and no matter what I always get a natural high when I lift but this particular day, I could barely even curl a 5kg dumbbell and that was a serious concern.

Went home by around 11 AM, hot shower and instantly severe chills. Crashed after a small lunch.

Fever would spike in the evenings, the fatigue was insane though. I tried to change the water in my tank (it is in my room and I was in self quarantine, luckily the wife and kiddo were at her mom’s), usually never break a sweat but this was enough to break me.

Figured it was the dreaded C. Called my family doc, he told me to wait 2 days and then get it checked but stay in strict quarantine.

Tuesday got it checked, and positive.

Zero sense of smell and taste on Wed, fatigue continued to ravage me, fever was gone though.

Never lost my sense of appetite but it was like eating paper.

A week of this and the fatigue started to lift.

Though I was in very strict self quarantine (as I had by Rama’s grace zero comorbidities, I was given a self quarantine certificate), my blood tests were normal, heart rate was normal, it somehow spread to mom and dad.

Mom had the same symptoms I did, dad was 100% normal. Like literally zero and I mean zero symptoms. I came out of quarantine but mom and dad had theirs so now the tables turned and I was the chef, caretaker etc.

Then on the 12th day dad was diagnosed, he got a massive stroke and passed just like that.

Another covid fatality. Though am to this day convinced it had nothing to do with Covid. Both his parents, his elder sister and Younger brother all passed in the exact same, painless, sudden manner. There is also the matter of what used to be a family joke, albeit dark humour, but is now scarily real. Not one person in his family, over 3 generations has crossed 72.

He was 71.

We are all healthy now though, sadly no weight loss from my side, I have about 4 kgs left on my annual weight loss goal target and am only now getting to it.

Naren:
The following might sound scary to some people but these r the facts and experiences of people from around the world:

Popular Symptoms are fever, nausea, diarrhoea, pain in different parts of the body. Some of the other less common symptoms r impaired vision, incoherent thought processes . . . if the virus reaches the brain. Also, difficulty in breathing, involuntary muscular spasms etc. There’s also the condition called “Long COVID” where people have suffered from the infection for almost a year on and off. In such cases, the symptoms r permanent lung damage in approx. 1 out of 10 people, especially smokers. Apparently the lung becomes hard and heavy as a rock. Other organs have been permanently damaged too in some other cases.

In cases of women specifically, menstrual disruptions and highly irregular blood discharges have been reported. But this condition has been described as a biological and evolutionary protective measure for themselves and the offspring. Singapore reported a case of a COVID infected mother giving birth to a child with antibodies.

An early study noted that people with blood type ‘A’ and ‘AB’ r more vulnerable to the infection, ‘B’ 50/50 and ‘O’, the least among the three. Although there have been increasing evidences to support this study, I don’t know what is the current status.

Apparently men r more likely to b infected than women because they have a lot more of ACE2 [Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme 2] receptors in their bodies in comparison. The first thing that the virus does is latch on to this ACE2 receptor in the nose which is the key entry point.

Even though it’s very rare, cases of reinfection and even death due to it have been reported. Co-Morbity cases have also been reported aplenty. Since the virus has no species barrier, the infection can happen both ways i.e. humans can infect dogs, cats etc. and the other way around too. So people with pets need to b careful about this.

Even Antartica has reported COVID cases just a couple of days ago. Apparently, there r about 6 tiny islands in Oceania that haven’t reported any case yet. U.K., as we all know has reported a mutated variant of the virus that is even more potent and contagious. Now Nigeria has also reported yet another possible new mutated variant. Studies r going on to know about the potency of that strain.

As I mentioned before, HCQ, Azi, Remdesivir have been widely discredited. No Ayurvedic or Herbal concoctions have been proven to have any positive effect. In fact there have been cases of severe blood thinning, vomit and even a few deaths due to ill-advised alternative concoctions. Regeneron has shown some positive effect in some cases [Trump]. The politics behind Regeneron is another thing . . . Trump is pro-life but one of the key components of Regeneron is embryonic stem cells.

This is a highly mutative and intelligent virus and hence the symptoms, conditions etc. all vary at anytime for anyone. All that have been mentioned above is strictly for the purpose of education and precautions and is in no way meant to offend or scare anyone whatsoever. All disputes are more than welcome as that wud b more education.

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