My Experience of Getting Covid After All This Time
I got diagnosed with Covid two weeks ago.
But it is SO last year! No, worse than that, it is so 2021!! Nobody gets it now. The world has moved on.
Hardly anyone wears masks these days. Or worries about the odd cough.
We all think it has gone away.
Until it happens to us.
Covid Diagnosis
Well, I went abroad for a few days and came back very, very tired. And had aches all over my body.
Just getting too old, I thought, always over-doing it. Can’t expect to lead my life exactly the same anymore.
And I must have also sat badly on the train. I should have walked around to avoid back ache. I usually do.
But no, the next day I had a temperature and that old horrid feeling that my daughter sums up as “feeling kak”. You know what it’s like. You realise that you have flu and there’s no getting around it.
My daughter urged me to take a Covid test and, as I had a few kits in a box in my cupboard, I took one. Of course, it wasn’t Covid. I never thought it was.
But I didn’t get better. I was sure it was just a bad case of flu. And two days later, muttering under my breath that I would try one more time “just to prove my daughter wrong,” I took another test.
And there they were – those two red lines.
I wanted to argue. I don’t get Covid. Other people do, but I don’t. I never have in all these three years.
But there was the evidence to the contrary.
Having Covid
It hits everyone differently, they say. Mine went mainly to the gut, but it didn’t last too long.
I tried to follow all the advice. Stay in bed, drink lots of water. Rest. Sleep a lot. Don’t do too much.
It’s very boring. I guess we all know that. You can’t do anything. You can’t go out. You can’t see friends.
And I was one of the lucky ones. I didn’t get nausea. I didn’t even get a cough.
Several people asked me why I took a test at all. No one does these days, they said. Just treat it like a flu and move on. No need to treat it differently.
But some people do have to be careful, and it’s best to know what you’re dealing with. At least I felt that way. My son and daughter-in-law are both vulnerable for different reasons.
And eventually those two little lines go away and you can go back to real life.
Only I didn’t.
The After Effects
What I didn’t count on is the post disease part.
Recovery seems to take forever. You sleep a lot. You can’t get anything done. Days go on and on, each one like the other.
Or you have a good day and think it is gone. Which is followed by a bad day, and you get very discouraged.
You’re allowed to go out, but you don’t feel like it. It is one big DRAG.
And it is then that everyone tells you how this latest form of Covid is the worst for the recovery period. I met someone who had had Covid four times and the most recent was the worst.
Someone even told me you should expect one week of recovery for every decade of your life. I didn’t like that prospect at all.
Much too long!
So, all I can say is don’t you know there are new issues these days? Ukraine, Artificial Intelligence, ultra-processed food…
No one wants to think about Covid now.
Let’s Have a Conversation:
Have you had Covid recently? Were your symptoms bad? Did it take a long time to recover?
Tags Medical Conditions
I only had two doses of the vaccine due to having a bad reaction to the second. I had swollen very sore lymph nodes that felt like having a golf ball under each arm. That lasted for 5 months. I had been at a party with friends who told me I should do a test due to a couple having covid19. On the day I tested positive I had no effects. When I woke the following morning I had a very bad headache (something I never get), I had backache and was sick once. I went back to bed to sleep it off. I woke after 4/5 hours and all symptoms had gone. I never had any residual effects and had plenty of energy. Of course I still kept away from others until I had a negative result approx 5 days later.
I should add that I’m 74.
Ann I hope you are ok – sending healing thoughts and good wishes ❤️🌺🙏
Thanks, Margaret. I am doing OK and feeling a little better each day. Clearly, a lot of other people have had a much worse time.
I had Covid earlier this year, at the beginning of February, and it was the first time for me. My main symptom was a persistent cough and I never even considered doing a test until my eldest daughter suggested doing one. I couldn´t believe it when I tested positive and I was gutted as I was supposed to be going out with friends for a celebration. It lasted for more than 10 days, but I didn´t really feel ill, only annoyed that I couldn´t see friends until i was negative! I´m 75 by the way so I´m grateful that it didn´t take me 7 weeks to recover! My daughter has just had Covid, though not for the first time. In her case it´s more like a heavy cold. As you said, it isn´t going away.
People are still getting Covid. Many people. And, people are still dying every day
Many of them are also getting Long Covid which can last for years. I have it for over three years now. Looks like it’s never going away.
The vast majority of Ameticans are in complete denial… not bothering to wear masks anymore. Appalling.
I agree, it is very appalling not bothering to wear masks anymore, especially in medical facilities now! Those of us with pre existing conditions can’t live our lives, with so many in denial, not caring about infecting others.
I don’t think I could go back to mask wearing. It was claustrophobic for me. My language skills went backwards as I could not hear properly what people were saying – I am in a German speaking part of Switzerland and had taken lessons for 2 years.
Interestingly, in 2021 I took an 8 session meditation course as I felt the pandemic situation was making me lose my confidence. One of the participants was a highly experienced virologist and he maintained the mask wearing was of no real use. In his professional opinion it was merely in place to give the public a feeling of safety.
We went for 3 years and missed it too. But then in April we both got it. Even though we wore masks at indoor spots still. It took over 3 weeks to test negative. And we both had the full gamut of symptoms. Weeks later we are still not 100%. We are over 60 and marginally compromised. We knew we did not want to get it because we figured it would hit us harder and we were right. Covid is not over. And not a minor issue for many. It is double masking for us for some time still. I don’t want it back again.
I too caught covid for the first time. I recently went on a trip to visit cousins I have not seen in years. I was very careful, as I have always been, wearing a mask indoors, at the airport and on the plane. I caught covid anyway. I tested positive the night I came back from my trip. I was the only one who got sick. My cousins and husband, thankfully, did not get sick. My symptoms were horrible – high fever, fatigue, nausea, congestion. I took paxlovid for 5 days. This medication made my stomach so upset that I could not keep any food down. Other people I know who are older than me and have medical conditions had much more mild symptoms than me.