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1/ Let me start with, I’m writing this bc I’m bored and people who personally know me may benefit from reading a real experience from someone they know. You might even notice you’ve experienced similar things I have and realize, you too may have had #COVID without even knowing
2/ THIS THREAD IS NOT TO DOWNPLAY THE SERIOUSNESS OF THIS VIRUS. I am very grateful I’ve only experienced minor symptoms and have generally felt fine bc at one point my anxiety had me thinkin I was gonna die, alright. I fully understand a lot of people will not be as lucky as me.
3/ March 15 was my last day I worked. I work in a restaurant in a hotel. Usually pretty high-volume, but due to Corona scares, we were slowing down significantly. We went from 100% capacity to 23% capacity in ONE DAY due to cancellations. But anywho...
4/ I was scheduled off work March 16 & 17, and started experiencing body aches, congestion, and sore throat on the 17. I debated texting my manager (I was supposed to work 18 & 19) bc I experience sinus issues often, especially after moving from LA to TN.
5/ I eventually decided the evening of the 17th to text my manager and tell him, and bc we were so slow, he told me to stay home and play it safe. Just in case I DID have #coronavirus Looking back now, I’m glad I didn’t go in.
6/ So, in theory, I prolly experienced the bulk of my symptoms on March 17, 18, and 19. I had body aches, a sore throat and very minor chest congestion.
No fever, no chills, no shortness of breath, no cough, nothing that felt outside the realm of a possible sinus infection
No fever, no chills, no shortness of breath, no cough, nothing that felt outside the realm of a possible sinus infection
7/ Then, on March 21, I noticed I had completely lost my sense of taste and smell. THIS WAS BEFORE THIS SPECIFIC SYMPTOM WAS EVEN ON THE RADAR. And bc this can also be a result of sinus issues/ allergies, I was still unaware that I was already carrying the virus.
8/ It wasn’t until March 26, 5 days after I lost my taste and smell, that Vanessa researched and found out loss of taste and smell was a common thread between a lot of #COVIDー19 cases being reported. I guess it’s something that’s easily overlooked compared to the other symptoms
9/ V talked to a nurse on the 27 and they said testable symptoms were cough, shortness of breath, fever and low-and-behold, loss of taste and smell, so I qualified. Now, lemme say, the test hurt like a mf. They stuck a swab up my nose and told me I’d have my results in 5-7 days.
10/ I GOT MY RESULTS THE NEXT DAY Y’ALL. Shoutout to @VUMChealth on 8th Ave for being amazing. You hear a lot of stories about ppl not being able to get tested and stuff. I was in the clinic no longer that 45 minutes. They even still had my info from 2017, so also no paperwork!
11/ Okay. So I test positive on the 27, but there's an incubation period between 2-14 days. I experienced the BULK of my symptoms on the 17, 18, and 19, which means I prolly contracted it anywhere between March 3 & March 17.
12/ Do you know how many people I came in contact with during that time? How many people I possibly could’ve given it to, unknowingly? Before I even knew I possibly had it?
13/ If u can carry this virus to other ppl during the incubation period, that makes it EXTREMELY dangerous. More dangerous than the flu. All we heard at the beginning was “it’s like the flu” and “the flu kills more people blah blah”
14/ ITS NOTHING LIKE THE FLU. The length of incubation and lack of pattern is scary. They say when you have the flu, YOU KNOW. Not necessarily true w/ #COVID. Also, our bodies naturally recognize the flu due to exposure and vaccines. Also not true for this strain of Corona
15/ Last I read, 80% of cases will experience minor symptoms like me and home-manage this sickness. This means no hospitalization. That’s good! But, on the other end, 20% is still very significant. THIS is why social distancing right now is SUPER important!
16/ Our healthcare system cannot support hundreds of thousands of possible severe cases. Our hospital staffs are already stressed in certain areas of the country and running out of PPE!
We haven’t even hit our projected peak yet. I think the expected peak is April 15-24.
We haven’t even hit our projected peak yet. I think the expected peak is April 15-24.
17/ Also, I’ve been home for about 18 days now and social distancing measures were just extended to April 30th. Y’all are already losing your goddamn minds and it’s only been what, a week or two for most of y’all?
18/ This is gonna go well past April 30th if y’all don’t stay tf home. Be adults. Recognize that we as humans have a responsibility to protect our fellow humans from spreading this virus.
19/ Now, for those who want to know what I did to help my body “fight off” what few symptoms I did have:
Emergen-C Immune+ w/ Vitamin C & D and Zinc, Mucinex DM 12 hour, vitamins, and a drinking hot fluids. Obviously eating decent food and xtra sleep.
Emergen-C Immune+ w/ Vitamin C & D and Zinc, Mucinex DM 12 hour, vitamins, and a drinking hot fluids. Obviously eating decent food and xtra sleep.
20/ Now, it’s been 6 days since I tested positive, 16 days since I started showing symptoms, and I’m FINALLY getting my taste and smell back. I described it at about 30% recovered. Still not great, but slowly improving.
21/ Hopefully this was informative. Or at least helped with some anxiety over it, bc I know all you read about on the news are these horrifying cases, but if you’re a decently healthy human, it’s highly likely you‘ll be just fine.
Listen to HEALTH EXPERTS and stay tf home!
Listen to HEALTH EXPERTS and stay tf home!
