MY COVID EXPERIENCE

Yep, after two and a half years Covid has finally caught up with me too. I guess I’m quite proud of having held out for so long.

It started at night, being woken by my hungry cat, when I realized I had a sore throat and some ear ache. Thinking, I caught a cold by the draft wafting through my apartment during those cool nights. It took me ages to fall asleep again and then had to get up at 5:30 to start home office at 6:00 am. Fighting my way through the day with one MS Teams call after another, barely having time to catch my breath and getting at least some productive work done apart from the early morning hours. My throat was still sore, coughing had started and I was still thinking I had just caught a cold … because, it’s not as if I had been meeting tons of people. 

It hit me for real in the late afternoon with a bad headache, feeling cold all over and deciding to go to bed at 5 p.m. with a hot cup of honey milk. Well, my old trusted and old-fashioned mercury thermometer showed me 38,2 °C. And the quick self-test I had at home clearly proved two distinct lines. Yep, Covidpositive. On a Friday evening. Fricking marvellous. Not much to do apart from taking an Ibuprofen and getting a good rest. (My medicine chest is sorely lacking medications. All I got is Ibu, Aspirin, pain relief cream and band aids.)

Day 2: I woke up feeling better, at least headache and fever were gone. But sore throat, coughing and clogged up nose had become worse. So, I took it easy, spending the day lounging around, reading, sleeping and soaking up some sun on the balcony. With raised temperature again in the evening. Yippie.

Day 3: Sore throat, coughing and snivelling. Not the best of nights, constantly waking up due to the painand not being able to fall asleep forever, drugging myself with Ibuprofen once again.

Day 4: Very bad night with sore throat and ear ache plus coughing fits. I did some work in the morning and then headed to my doc’s appointment at noon. Having my first PCR test ever – what an ugly experience, one fears the fricking Q tip is being pushed up to your brain – and apart from sick leave for the rest of the week I thankfully received some meds to ease the pain.

Day 5: Slowly getting better. But still suffering from sore throat and ear ache. Drowing myself in honey milk and sucking on throat drops.

Day 6: A little better again, cough attacks less painful but more often. Nose less runny.

Day 7: Same

Day 8: Same

Day 9: Still some coughing, still some snivelling, being less tired. Feeling nearly as good as new.

Day 10: Yippie, quarantine – or self-isolation – is finally over, my self-test is negative and I can’t wait to get out and about again to get some much-needed groceries. (Darn, have to get through another day because it’s SUNDAY and everything is closed!) Mylong-life milk supply has dwindled down to the last litre due to my honey-milk self-medication and the fridge is nearly empty. (Oh well, it is most of the time anyway!)

Well, all in all, this has been not much different than one of my 3-day-colds. Just with the symptoms taking a few days longer to go away. Is it because of the vaccinations? Or because the variants are less aggressive and severe than the first ones? I don’t care. I’m just happy it didn’t totally knock me down…