Because so many have been asking, and because I think I’m gonna want to have a record of this when I’m done, I’ll post my Covid “diary” here. It’s 2021 and I’m feeling much better now. But here were my thoughts when I had Covid in 2020.
Day One (Wednesday, December 2, 2020)
Temp: 99.5 Symptoms: Headache, body aches, slight cough, fatigue, congestion
I worked a full day today. I had a monster of a headache and I was exhausted between calls. I actually slept through my lunch break and went to sleep at 7:30 pm. I did a live video at 6am (to finish the NaNoIsh challenge) and I felt exhausted. I knew I’d need a break after the NaNoIsh challenge was over, so I set aside Saturday to rest completely, and sent some emails to lighten my workload.
Day Two (Thursday, December 3, 2020)
Temp: 99.1 Symptoms: Headache, body aches, fatigue, cough when talking, congestion, loss of taste and smell
I’d been feeling logey since late in the day Tuesday (thought I had a sinus infection), but I’d been resting as much as possible. When I lost my sense of taste and smell, I immediately decided to get a Covid test. My doctor had ordered one around November 15th because I’d been exposed to a positive case in the middle of November but never developed symptoms. But since I had one ordered, I decided I would go the next morning. I ordered groceries from Instacart (Tylenol Cold & Sinus, cough drops, lemon, vitamins, soup) and went to sleep early. I almost had to cancel calls today because I was so exhausted and my head was banging. But I made it through and then rested right after. All night.
Day Three (Friday, December 4, 2020)
Temp: 99.6 Symptoms: Headache, body aches, fatigue, intestinal distress, congestion, loss of taste and smell
I went to get the test in the morning and then did a full day of calls. Coaching, course live calls, and the last of the live NaNoIsh videos. I immediately laid down after the last of the class calls and stayed in bed until I got my positive results (which happened at about 3:30 pm–less than 8 hours after testing). My doctor called me at 5:00 to let me know the results, but I’d already gotten them on the health app that our hospital system uses. And I’d been unintentionally quarantined since Sunday afternoon. Just hadn’t left the house. I knew we’d caught it early, and I worried that the worst was still ahead of me. I spent quite a bit of time Input’ing and then the rest of the time cancelling as much as I could.
Day Four (Saturday, December 5, 2020)
Temp: 98.9 Symptoms: Body aches, fatigue, congestion, loss of taste and smell, congestion, headache
The fatigue hit last night in a major way and I’m definitely not up to doing much other than occasionally warming up some soup. We did a live video this morning that was a bit stressful because BeLive wasn’t working and we were supposed to announce big prizes. After that, I went straight to bed. I haven’t eaten much, but I’m drinking liquids like a champ because I don’t want to get dehydrated and have to go to the hospital. Our hospital isn’t quite at 100% capacity right now, but it’s getting close, and each day, I’m keeping an eye on the number of beds, hoping to avoid that place. I watched Supernatural a lot today, did a bunch of admin when I could, and slept a lot. The county health department called today to do contact tracing. I had no one to trace.
Day Five (Sunday, December 6, 2020)
Temp: normal; Same symptoms as yesterday
The fatigue is very real. My second job is at a church where I lead music every week and I watched the service online, which was a bit surreal. I’d planned it, prepped it, and then I just sat and watched it happen. That was probably a good experience for me. Seeing people wear masks was good for my soul, sitting at home with Covid. We’ve been extremely socially distant since June (were in lockdown for April and May, so we were online for services) so that still continues, but it was good to see people being cautious. I watched more Supernatural today and I think I’m through the annoying part where Dean is a demon. I may need to watch a bit farther to get through that. I’m not sure I’ll make it much farther into this show. I’m still answering emails and doing content posts. I’ve worked on some course materials and talked to my parents and sister every day. That’s been nice. I’m also definitely exhausted still. All the time.
Day Six (Monday, December 7, 2020)
Temp is normal; I’ve started testing my Oxygen Saturation levels all the time (because a friend encouraged me to), but they’re above 95 all the time. 97 and above most of the time. Same symptoms as yesterday
This was the first day that I’d had to aggressively cancel my schedule (calls rescheduled) and it was strange to go through the times when I would have been on calls, without seeing people. Everyone is doing a good job checking in with me (parents, friends, significant other), and they’re asking me about fluids and food because they know I’ve lost my sense of smell and want to make sure I’m staying healthy. Grateful for that. The fatigue was real today. I tried getting up and walking around the house several times a day, though. That’s been good for me.
Day Seven (Tuesday, December 8, 2020)
Temp is normal; Oxygen Saturation is normal; Symptoms are still intestinal distress, fatigue, and congestion; still with no sense of taste or smell (it’s been six days since I lost that)
I keep expecting to wake up feeling worse than I do. I mean, the fatigue is intense (I can barely walk around the house without needing to lay back down), but I really expected other symptoms to get worse. In the past, I’ve been likely to get cold/flu symptoms aggressively, so I keep expecting to wake up worse. None of that yet. I’ve been mostly the same (minus body aches coming and going, and minus the headaches that were really bad the first two days) since Thursday. I tried sitting up a bit today and got tired fast. But it was good to try, in any case. Today was the first day I intentionally ate three meals. I’ve lost 13 pounds in a week.
Day Eight (Wednesday, December 9, 2020)
Temp is normal; Oxygen Saturation is normal; Symptoms are the same (no worse, but no better)
Today was garbage day, so I had to go around the house getting the garbage together to take out, and then I walked the can out to the curb and walked back. It took me 45 minutes and I had to take a nap afterward. This fatigue is no joke. I sat up for an hour again in the afternoon and I talked to my parents for quite a bit. I’m aware that, at some point, I’m going to have to go back to work. Friends are trying to convince me not to take calls tomorrow and I’m considering it, but I want to see how I do. Two of my calls cancel late in the day, so now I only have one call tomorrow. I watched Jane Austen movies all day and worked on the 2021 calendar for my fiction books. I’ve been getting a fair amount of admin done around all of this laying down. I’m extremely grateful I’ve been able to work at all.
Day Nine (Thursday, December 10, 2020)
Temp is normal; O-Sat is normal; Symptoms are the same, but I had my first little inkling of salty taste
I haven’t gotten my taste and smell back yet, but I definitely have gotten at least a little inkling. I drank some Cinnamon tea yesterday and it tasted just a tiny bit sweet. I couldn’t actually taste the cinnamon. but I tasted just a hint of sweet. And then I had some cashews tonight, and I tasted a tiny bit of salt. Not much, but a hint. It’s definitely made me hopeful. However, I also talked to a friend who had the same strain (I’m assuming–he lives here) who still hasn’t gotten his fully back after a month, so that was a tiny bit depressing. Hoping it will continue to come back. But I have now lost 18 pounds in total (probably most of it water weight) so the no-taste-and-smell thing definitely has an impact.
Day Ten (Friday, December 11, 2020)
Temp: 99.1 in the morning and 99.7 in the afternoon; Symptoms are mostly the same, but now I also have headaches again (could be from how I slept, though… here’s hoping)
Today is the last day of my official mandated quarantine. But I likely won’t leave the house for another four days at least. I know they shortened it for a reason, but I would feel better knowing that I wasn’t out there infecting people. Especially because the headache has returned and I just want to make sure that I don’t infect anyone else. This disease is not kidding around. I still feel fatigued enough, I can barely sit up for a call for 30 minutes without needing to take a nap afterwards. I’m doing all my calls from bed today. We’ll see how that goes. I haven’t taken much medication throughout this (I’ve been taking a TON of vitamins, though), but today, I’m taking Tylenol to manage the headache, just in case. Thinking about my body, fighting off this virus, and wishing it the best <3
Day Eleven (Saturday, December 12, 2020)
Temp: Normal; Symptoms: fatigue, no taste/smell yet, some congestion still
I’m still doing almost nothing. I had a small group to coach, and I wanted to do that. Then I had to record a couple of videos for classes, and I really wanted to try to push myself a little bit today. It ended up being good because I feel like I’m building back my “sit up and work” muscles. That’s been a blessing. Today, I watched a bit more Supernatural and I’m getting past the parts that I dislike (Rowena and Crowley fighting). Hoping to be a bit better tomorrow.
Day Twelve (Sunday, December 13, 2020)
Temp: Normal; Symptoms: same as yesterday
I’m definitely feeling a tiny bit better every day, and I’m really glad for that. I’ve been sleeping almost eight hours a night, plus sleeping a little bit during the day in the past and today was the first day I didn’t really sleep during the day. So that was nice. Tried watching Regency movies/shows and historical shows again today. Trying to make Input energy pennies because I know this historical mystery series is coming up. I still have not done a “content” post for Patreon and I still have not worked on the nonfiction book. My brain is just too foggy. But I hope to get there sometime next week.
Day Thirteen (Monday, December 14, 2020)
Temp: Normal; Symptoms: same as yesterday
I’m back on calls today. I did four (mostly clustered together in the afternoon) and I did feel pretty exhausted by the end, but cognitively, I felt completely fine, so that’s a blessing. My symptoms haven’t changed much. I can taste a tiny bit of sweet and a tiny bit of salt, but no noticeable change.
Day Fourteen (Tuesday, December 15, 2020)
Temp: Normal; Symptoms: same as always…
By this point, I feel like no symptom change is a normal state of being for me. It’s a tiny bit frustrating to have no change. But everyone keeps telling me that the change takes a long time. I did my first “night” meeting today and by the end, I was so exhausted, I needed to sleep right away. But I’ve gotten back into the habit of watching YouTube videos to try to go to sleep, and so I’m going to sleep later than I would. I really need to go back to my earlier bed time because the late morning wake-ups are going to make work a lot harder as the year progresses.
Day Fifteen (Wednesday, December 16, 2020)
Temp: Normal; Symptoms: same as always…
It’s now Day Thirty Nine (January, 2021) and I still don’t have my taste and smell back. But I’ve heard about this “Jamaican remedy” where you burn an orange and mix in a tablespoon of brown sugar and eat it hot. I’m thinking of trying that, just in case it might work. I can’t smell anything, but I can taste the difference between salty and sweet now. So we’ll see how this goes! Otherwise, I’m back to probably 95% overall. Still a bit tired more often, but I’m hopeful that will go away, fully, soon.
Thank you all for your concern about me. I’m much better!
I’m so glad you’re taking time to heal. Keep going with Supernatural. The annoying parts are super-annoying and the drama is ultra melodramatic. Embrace it all. The end is worth it. Hope the days since Saturday have been increasingly symptom free.
Thank you so much, Sondra! I’m doing much better. <3
OMG…I had no idea you have Covid. Please, please take care of yourself and don’t wear yourself out.
I definitely am! And I’m doing much better. I should update the diary! 🙂
How’s your loss of smell and taste now? Any better? Keep us updated 🙂
Thank you so much, David! It’s definitely doing better. I don’t have taste and smell back fully, but it’s getting there. 🙂