So I’m writing this hopefully at the end of my experience with the dreaded Covid 19 Coronavirus.
It was a new years eve gathering in the Snowy Mountains, Australia. It was a fun few days spent before and after NYE on my friend’s acreage. There was boating on the lake, kayaking, campfires, trampolining, swimming in ice-cold rivers, both kids and adults played and had lots of fun. Perfect really.
On the 3rd of January, we packed up and drove to the coast and met up with another family for a week.
Day 1 – 4th January 2022
I woke up with aches and pains. It was fine though as I suspected that it was due to all the activities that we’d been doing the days prior. Water-skiing, dirt biking and then taking the tent down and packing down our camper trailer. I’d got rather sunburn the previous days whilst packing up camp. I figured I was a bit tender from that and possibly a bit of heatstroke. The only other symptom when I look back now was the single cough that I had when I woke up.
Around midday, we were out on the boat fishing and playing around in the lake. I looked at my phone and had several missed calls. I returned the call to find out about 5 people from the new year’s eve party had got Covid 19 positive tests.
At that point, the aches, pains and cough that I woke up with all connected and I laughed it off on the phone but thought we better go get tested. The only trouble was we were in a holiday town 5 hours south of Sydney and the testing stations were all shut due to the Christmas and New Year break. Perfect!
Later that evening after feeling relatively normal the whole day I started to feel a bit hot. We measured my temperature which was 38 degrees. Ok, so I had a temperature and I did feel a bit hot now and feeling more and more tired. Just before I went to bed, the mirror showed I had bright red bloodshot eyes. I went to bed pretty much straight away. Through the night my whole body was hot.
My Oura ring provided some pretty interesting results the next day. Categorically the worst health data I’ve ever had. Resting heart rate was elevated, HRV balance was extremely low, Body Temperature was up 1.7 degrees Celcius from baseline. It was the same across all stats – the worst I’ve ever had in the two years of wearing the Oura ring. Things were definitely not good.
It’s almost certain that I caught Covid 19 amongst the group we spent New Year’s Eve with.
Day 2 – 5th January
I felt pretty normal the next day. I was a little tired and congested in the nose but otherwise fine. Throughout the day I was waiting for more symptoms and hoping that these were just the only symptoms I would have. I even said to my wife that if that was all the symptoms then that’s great. I was in isolation in the cabin and stayed in there the whole day on the bed, just resting.
Day 3 – 6th January
Famous last words eh. I woke up and immediately felt weird. I was dizzy and lightheaded. I went to the bathroom and had a massive rush of dizziness and vertigo. I must have got up too fast, I thought. The day went on much the same with feelings of being lightheaded and dizzy. Plus I now started to feel nauseous. At one point I went to the toilet to vomit but in the end, didn’t.
Day 4 – 7th January
Another day of feeling dizzy and lightheaded. I stayed in bed all day again. Each time I got up I was dizzy. So I went back to laying in bed where the dizziness and lightheadedness mainly went.
Day 5 – 8th January
Still lightheaded and dizzy, not quite as bad and getting better. However, a slight cough had now appeared. It was a dry cough. It wasn’t a cough I felt like I needed to do, but when I tried to cough there was definitely a cough there.
Day 6 – 9th January
The day we had to head back to Sydney. woke up, feeling still a bit lightheaded but not as bad as before. The slight cough had definitely developed on by this point. My chest started to feel a little bit congested maybe?
This was the first day I had to move around a fair bit and pack the car up with all our stuff. It was a warm day and the physical exertion of packing up the car meant I got a bit sweaty. It didn’t feel like normal sweat though, it was more of a fever type of sweat. I didn’t have a temperature. We drove back to Sydney and I felt ok.
Day 7 – 10th January
We went to our COVID tests first thing in the morning. I felt a little better today however my cough was a little bit more prevalent and I had very slight shortness of breath after just walking around the house. Late that afternoon we received our results back. It was confirmed. Both my wife and I returned a positive result. Interestingly enough, our youngest son who’s five years old also returned a positive but our eldest son who’s seven years old returned a negative test.
Day 8 – 11th January
Now I’m not sure if I felt worst because of the confirmed positive result or whether I actually did feel worse. The shortness of breath still was there and possibly more panicked by the possibility of impending doom. I think I read one hundred articles on Covid 19 from google. Ranging from government websites, medical journal articles, people’s own experiences and then people’s experiences.
At this point, both children still have no symptoms and seem to be fine, which I am thankful for.
Day 9 – 12th January
I woke up feeling normal. The shortness of breath is not there and no symptoms. Walking around I almost felt normal again. As the day went on, the shortness of breath in the chest came back again. Is this just anxiety I wondered? More googling. I thought I would watch symptoms for any more or progression. At this point If it gets worse, I would get in contact with the health system.
My wife has had a scratchy throat and shortness of breath after doing stuff around the house. Her back has been bad also. I’ve googled that bad back pains can be a result of Covid 19. Something that yoga and stretches are yet to be successful in removing.
To be continued…