canopus 

So after reading a few threads here I am sickened by all the armchair crap being spilled onto the pages. I have only seen one or two threads about having actual covid so I decided to start one after FINALLY getting my results back today. I want to hear from us who have had the illness and what you experienced. If you haven't had it, don't post. If you didn't immediately care for some one in the house you live in, don't post. If it is your opinion, don't post. Finally if it is a political thought. DON'T POST.

Yes I have been tested as SARS-Cov2 positive. My wife was tested but we haven't seen her results yet. I'm going with positive since we live together ;-)
She started feeling bad on a Thursday and having a low fever. Over the next few days her fever would spike and go down (99-102) I got a sore throat the Sunday after that Thursday and started my saline nasal flush and gargling with salt water. I work from home so I worked that Monday but went right to bed as soon as possible, Tuesday I worked in the morning for about 3 hours. Then I passed out onto the floor at my desk and had to lie there sweating away till I could gather the strength to get down the stairs to bed. The next four days were nothing but a blur of sleep with Nyquil, Tylenol, 7-up and toast as sustenance. During that time it was all we could do to walk to the bathroom ( 10ft away) and back. That Saturday and Sunday I was feeling better and able to eat. My wife wasn't however. It would take her another 7-10 days before her appetite would come back and she could stand longer than 2 minutes. While we were sick I kept an eye on our pulse ox stats and I never got lower than 95% with my normal being 97-98%. My wife fared a little worse with hers getting down to 93% and her normal is 98%. While I was concerned about our lungs I gotta say I haven't felt body aches like that ever... My kidneys and lower back felt like Mike Tyson (young people can look him up) had used them for 3 rounds of practice. Everything was sore... And tired. I have been lazy but having to rest from a walk to the bathroom is disconcerting. This wasn't a "let me sit for a minute" rest. This was a "Thank God I made it back to the bed so I can sleep for 5 hours" rest after a restroom brake.

So after getting sick on Sunday I managed to call the Doc and arrange for testing on Thursday. At the time I talked to the doc on Thursday afternoon I still had a sense of smell and taste, That evening after the test I couldn't smell anything nor could I taste it. Unfortunately, you have to keep eating whether you taste it or not and a world without taste is not something I want. My smell and taste have improved but my taste is still bad with most things still tasting oversalted. I managed to go back to home office work that following Monday. I would not have done that without working from home. The wife took a week longer to come around and still tires easily after 5-10 minutes of exertion. She still has body aches but hopefully those will dissipate shortly. Overall I was down for 6 days and the wife was down for 15-16 days. And we are still taking it easy.

Essentially we were blessed as it really only hit us like the worst flu we have ever had. On this side it isn't so bad, going through it sucks, and before you get it you can be eaten up with fear from all the media out there reporting the worst. But put your trust in God, not men, and let him handle it. It took us 11 days to get our results back. Guess what though. To manage exposure correctly we have to be tested again. and possibly again.

I have opinions on everything else going on but I don't want this thread to be that. If you have or have had SARS-Cov2, I just want to know what you experienced during the illness.

PS: I have been asked a few details which is why I wanted to post this.
1) Did we take our own pulse ox at home? Yes with one of those finger meters, good or bad it can't be that far off and we have used for a few good many years.
2) What is our age bracket? I am now 51 and better 1/2 is north of 65. I have diabetes and she has sleep apnea and asthma and allergy breathing issues.
3) Where do we think we got it? We have no idea. We socially distance. She would wear a mask, I would be the one to go out and do most everything at the store if needed but we didn't go anywhere to eat out I would not stop during the trip, even for a bathroom break. The location we went to the weekend before was a family gathering and no one has been reported as being sick. And we aren't particularly huggy feely people so no hugs there except for my mom and her parents (both doing fine BTW). But that brings me to a point I really want to make. Just because you socially distance, and wear a mask and only had 8 people at your party doesn't mean you wont get it. Those are helpful guidelines, not rules that viruses obey. Ultimately it only takes one little whif, snif, sneeze, or touch to get it (or some other way we will learn about 3 years from now.)

Hope that helps with a little more detail.
Y'all keep the rubber side down.

Hondo Gravel

Covid doesn’t exist in Texas that is a myth. I know it’s true because Bubba and Bubbette told me so.

Podagrower

Thanks for starting this, hopefully we won't all have a story to contribute.

sirjag

I can tell the tale of my sister, brother in law and father in law that all had it...and have recovered. but no personal exp.....

JAG

Seattle Forrest

Good friend of mine had it a couple months ago. She said she had all the major symptoms including painful toes. Mostly she says she felt very run down, sore and achy, fatigued, like she had just run a marathon. It too about a week and a half to get mostly over, and a month to really be free of. Her husband never showed any symptoms, but obviously can't have escaped being infected.

Juan Foote

We are 98% certain that we had it, as a household, in Nov/Dec. Everyone we came in contact with over the Thanksgiving holiday also got sick. At that point the doctor didn't know what it was, or wasn't saying.

My wife had double pneumonia, twice, and breathing difficulties of a level that they put her on steroids and inhalers as well as antibiotics to stave off the pneumonia portion. We were both very feverous, very sore, no appetite, took energy to even lay around, just VERY miserable. Our son brought it home from work and even in spite of the wife's health issues he seemed to stay the sickest, longest. We all had a lot of chest congestion, coughing sneezing, but his carried on for months. Even now he still has a chest rattle 8 months later.
We have specifically asked our GP, my wife has been to a dozen doctors since then and none of them WILL perform a test for anything. Our GP claims he doesn't have them to administer and the others just don't seem to care.

Tusk

Juan, Do you donate blood? Oneblood and Red Cross test each donation for antibodies. Then you would know.

indyfabz

On a Sunday, months ago, I got the runs really bad. The next morning I woke up totally fatigued and feeling like someone had beaten my entire body with a baseball bat. I have a small house. Walking to the computer room in back and downstairs to feed the cat was a struggle energy-wise. Also had chills, but my thermometer was in my office so I don’t know if I had a fever. Emailed my PCP, who told me to presume I was positive and act accordingly. By Friday I was back to probably 70%. Took maybe another 4 days to get back to 100%. Never had any respiratory symptoms. But I know I had something because TheraFlu made me feel somewhat better. Was also a good excuse to exhaust my supply of NyQuil PM. 😀

genec

There was a regular Flu going around back in Jan/Feb. Flu shots were available. You may not have had COVID. I had a co-worker that was sick for around 2 weeks, and then took even longer before her cough cleared. Other workers kept telling her to stay home. This was in early Feb. The tales of COVID were just coming out.

Ultimately she said she was tested, and did not have it.

At the same work site, now, many months later... a few folks do have COVID. Nobody knows how, mask protocol and questioner before entry.

I have been WFM since March 13... so not exposed to that environment at all.

Sorry OP to "crash" the thread, but I just wondered if the two above just had the regular flu.

Juan Foote

Yeah, SO and myself did NOT test positive for the flu. Not sure about my son as he never went to the doctor but I think it would be safe to guess. They told my wife she had upper respiratory infection with "double pneumonia". I did not have the breathing difficulties she did but spent about a week and some pretty much unable to move. It had her down as a total well over 6 weeks.

Juan Foote

I was NOT aware of that. The wife is a regular donor, has her card and all...up until recently. Personally have not donated in years.

indyfabz

I got sick in mid to late March. My birthday was March 13th. Got sick the following Sunday or the Sunday after that. I’d have to check my email records to be sure.

Seattle Forrest

I misread that somehow and thought you had to check your email records to be sure what your birthday was.

tywebb

I had Covid and if I were to give details it would be a wall of text so here are the Cliff notes, I got it from a religious event on March 14 and I've been suffering from it since. From mid March to mid June I was in and out of the ER always being sent home as I was told there was nothing they could do for me. Many days I didn't think I was going to live with everyday being different, just when I thought I was getting better I'd regress. During that time the worst issues were the struggle to breath and constant massive chest pains. Typically when I give details about how bad I was I get the feeling people think I'm exaggerating. For over 2 months the only reason I got out of bed was to go to the ER or the bathroom.

I'm 44 years old and I've been a bike commuter for 7 years and a roadie for about 4 years. I'm 6' tall and about 170 lbs. I've never done a FTP test but I do have a power meter and prior to Covid Strava estimates fluctuated right around 3.5 W/kg (which obviously I think was low). Even though I'm still having issues breathing, constant chest pain and against my doctors advice to not exercise I have ridden a few times. In mid June I wanted to know how far my power so I went on an ride and tried for an hour at 100%. I was only able to manage 1.9 W/kg (edited for bad math) over 50 minutes and I feel it was only that high because of leg muscles as I had to keep my cadence below 60rpm or I'd lose my breath. During this ride my heart rate was almost 20 bpm higher than I'd ever seen before. This effort was probably a bad idea as I was unable to get out of bed for 5 days after. I've done a few other rides since but they have been very slow and under 12 miles.

I'm desperate to find out if I'm ever going to recover but the cardiologist and pulmonologist I've seen say there just don't know as the illness is still new. Because of the tests I had done during the times I was at the ER the doctors now don't want to do any more test to see how my lungs are now because they don't want to add to the radiation I've already had.
My SpO2 numbers from my doctors visit prior to Covid where all 99%, During the doctors visits March to May it ranged from 90 to 96. During my visit to the pulmonologist last week I was 96% when I got there but they had me walk around with the meter for 6 minutes and it lowered to 94%

genec

Well, ya get to a certain age...

noisebeam

Thank you for sharing.

gsteinb

I came down with a high fever and fatigue, cough, on 2/1. I felt like I got hit by a truck. I soldiered through the tail end of the vacation the next day, flew home and tested negative for the flu. Doc shrugged and sent me home. I tried to ride the trainer, lasted a minute and took a week off. Started riding again. Recovery rides saw my HR in the 160s. As time passed I''d ride at like 225 watts and avg 160 and be wrecked. I developed the covid toes, which were obviously not a symptom at the time as no one even was saying covid was here. They were painful, purple, swollen. Even as I recovered my HRs were off the charts for me. In january right before my vacation where I got sick I did a 20 minute interval

20 - avg 320, Avg HR 160, Max HR 171

Recovering from this being sick, a few months in I did

20 - avg 280, Avg HR 172, Max HR 183

I've only seen HRs that high sprinting at the end of a hard race.

I'm still missing 25-30 watts across any zone. Nothing I've done has brought them back.