COVID

I’m 60 years old and I look after my body as best I can.  I follow what I consider to be a healthy lifestyle. I exercise everyday (I’m a dance & yoga teacher so I have a bit of a head start) and although I love coffee, wine and the odd Danish pastry or bag of salty chips, I have a good diet.  I try not to get too stressed and I make sure I get adequate sleep.  I get out most days in nature and love sunshine.  I am not overweight, I have no underlying health conditions that I know of and nor do I take any drugs if I can help it.

I did think that maybe I was immune to COVID – as I’ve also not worn a mask or really followed any of the social distancing guidelines since SARS-Cov-2 arrived in the UK.  I did have a funny sort of virus at the end of 2019 that knocked me out for a few days, so even if I was not totally immune, I thought that maybe I’d already had COVID – who knows? 

I also chose not to be vaccinated.  I’m not an “anti vaxxer”, I’ve had all my childhood immunisations and so did my kids, but I’ve never had a flu vaccine.  I totally believe that natural immunity is far superior to vaccinations – especially if you do lead a healthy lifestyle.  I mean – if our immune systems were as useless as we have been led to believe – then surely the human race would have died out by now? 

Anyway, I guess some people would probably say it serves me right that I did eventually catch it – but we all weigh up our own risks and make decisions accordingly – or we should do.  I totally accepted the ‘risks’ I was taking.  

I recently had COVID.  This is my COVID TIMELINE:

DAY ONE
Felt a bit tired and headachy.  But put that down to lack of sleep and stress (it had been a bit of a week!). My morning coffee tasted a bit odd – but I thought it was just that I’d changed brands.

DAY TWO
Woke up with what felt like a hangover – except I’d not been drinking.  Still felt tired and a bit “off”, but with nothing specific, apart from the headache.   Coffee tasted the same – just a bit odd and not really like coffee.  Took a couple of paracetamol for my headache and felt better.  The day went on as normal. Went out for a meal later, but wasn’t that hungry (most unusual) and I noticed my G&T also tasted a bit strange too.  I thought perhaps the tonic was slim line (I’d asked for ordinary)

DAY THREE
Much the same as day two.   Felt a bit tired, a bit weird and a bit woolly headed.  But the coffee thing was worse!  It tasted like this sort of chemical compound that was completely unidentifiable. Like nothing I could put my finger on.  I also had a funny little tickly throat, but no cough and I wondered if I was actually imagining the tickly throat.  I upped my normal 500mg vitamin C daily supplement to 1000mg and ordered some high dose Zinc tablets from Amazon – just in case.

DAY FOUR
Got the dreaded text message from NHS Test & Trace telling me that I had been in contact with a positive case and must now isolate for ten days – just what I don’t need as no work means no pay, but on the other hand, there was no denying that I was feeling very odd.  Not exactly ill – but again a bit like having a hangover but without the drinking.  The coffee thing was baffling.  It tasted foul.  And I love coffee!  I tried a glass of wine later with supper and that too tasted completely weird and like a sort of mix between bleach, nail polish remover and underarm deodorant (not that I’ve ever drunk any of those things.)  I even opened a bottle of my absolute favourite wine, just in case the current bottle had gone funny overnight.  Even my favourite wine tasted disgusting.  Added a higher dose of vitamin D to the Zinc and vitamin C dosage.  Could it be COVID?

DAY FIVE
Couldn’t smell or taste the coffee at all this morning.  Probably just as well – it had been getting progressively more horrible!  I knew I wasn’t right.  I felt very, very strange.  Not exactly ill enough to want to stay in bed and not tired or achy like you do with flu.  Just odd.  Like an observer who was not totally inhabiting my body.  I wasn’t hungry, but tried to eat a banana.  I knew what it should taste like, but I just couldn’t taste it at all.  That’s a proper head fuck.  Looking back – that’s one of the worst things – not being able to taste or smell.  I’d rather go blind.  Honestly.  My partner tried to convince me that maybe it was just a head cold and often when you have a head cold, you lose your sense of taste and smell.  Even though I had none of the ‘classic’ COVID symptoms. No fever. No cough.  No headache.  No sore throat.  This was definitely NOT a head cold and it wasn’t flu either.  Given the NHS Test & Trace message, not being able to smell or taste – and feeling so strange – I self-diagnosed COVID. I also burst into tears at least half a dozen times today for no reason.  Bet you didn’t know that was a symptom, did you?

DAY SIX
Still kept crying on and off all day.  Couldn’t t taste anything.  Couldn’t smell anything.  Felt totally weird and almost like I was having an out-of-body experience, but inside my body.  Couldn’t even think straight.  Felt nauseous all day and with absolutely no appetite and had ringing in my ears that was just short of deafening (my ears always ring when I am sick).  Didn’t even try to eat anything.  Took some high dose vitamin C, drank water and cried even more.  My chest hurt a bit too.  Kept trying to breathe deeply and to see if I could gauge if my lungs were OK. 

DAY SEVEN
See day six.  No change really.  Maybe cried a bit more.  Felt absolutely weird.  Like my body was not my body.  I wanted to sleep, but wasn’t tired.  I wanted to run away from my head.  Kept desperately trying to smell things.  Everything smelt and tasted of nothing. I could detect hints of sweetness and saltiness, but nothing had any taste and besides, I wasn’t hungry anyway.   I started to worry that my sense of taste and smell might never come back and my body would feel this weird forever.

DAY EIGHT
No real changes.  My ears still ring. My head feels so odd.  My body feels like it doesn’t belong to my head and vice versa.  My chest hurts. It’s a bit like heartburn, but not heartburn.  Can’t taste anything.  Can’t smell anything.  FML.  Crying is the only thing I seem to be able to do.

DAY NINE
Began to think I might not ever feel right again. Tried to drink coffee again this morning.  It’s absolutely foul.  My head still feels odd.  A friend who’d had COVID recently said she felt like someone had taken out her eyes, shook them hard and then put them back in again – but the opposite way around.  I know exactly what she means.

DAY TEN
Had to miss my partners daughters’ wedding today.  Stayed in bed until gone lunchtime feeling sorry for myself.  Got up and made a coffee – but it’s no good – still can’t taste or smell anything.  Overdosed on vitamin C, Zinc and D and wondered at what point you end up going to hospital.  Chest still hurt.  Got a bit of a cough.  Eaten so little over the last week – I’ve lost half a stone.  Don’t know what to do with myself. Fed up feeling shite. 

DAY ELEVEN
I thought I could almost smell and taste my coffee this morning.  Wishful thinking. I can taste something, but it’s like a bizarre alien chemical taste that I just can’t describe as it’s akin to nothing on earth that I have ever come across.  However, the good news is, my eyes feel like they might have swapped themselves back without me noticing as I don’t feel quite as weird as I did.   Still not like I know I normally feel, but only about 75% shite as opposed to 99% 

DAY TWELVE
Chest still hurts with the heartburn feeling.  Obviously I’m just waiting to be gasping for air or maybe I’m having a heart attack?  But OMG.  I can definitely smell and taste again although it’s very faint and intermittent, but it’s there.  Felt OK enough to sit in the garden.  Didn’t die.  Cooked supper and I can taste something. Not sure what exactly, but something.   Yee hah! 

DAY THIRTEEN
Almost feeling halfway to normal (whatever that is!) although my head is still a bit woolly, but nowhere near as bad as this time a week ago.  The ear ringing is not quite as loud and even though my chest still hurts, the cough has gone and I can taste and smell again, although I have to concentrate hard as it’s like my taste and smell have been watered down.  But never has shampoo smelt so amazing during my morning shower!  Sadly, wine still tastes a lot like I imagine toilet cleaner might taste – but then a friend reminded me I shouldn’t be drinking it anyway as it depletes your immune response!  Rock on. Old habits and all that…

DAY FOURTEEN
Feeling so much better when I compare how I was this time last week. Not sure I’m quite ready for a full on Zumba class, but I can definitely smell the coffee!   Went out for a walk.  Felt surprisingly OK apart from some intermittent chest pain.  I’m not sleeping quite as well as I used to, but maybe that’s because I’m basically doing nothing and I’m used to days full of movement and dancing.  But hey! I’m actually OK. I think.

DAY FIFTEEN
More OK than not OK.  My coffee still tastes a bit strange but I think I’m now over the top and down the other side of the COVID mountain and heading back to the carpark.  Still feel a little weaker than normal and I’m sure I’ve lost some muscle tone, but I taught a class – which ten days ago I thought I might not ever be able to do again.

I would not wish COVID on anyone.  But I am actually glad that I have had it as I’m now hoping that I have such superior antibodies and if I ever meet that bloody spike protein again – it’s got NO chance.