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So as promised here is a (long) thread of my experiences and my symptoms etc... I’ll try my best to put the symptoms in order of experiences. I wish I could number the days, I can’t. There was a point everything just went blurry and I had no idea whether I was coming or going 
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="😔" title="Pensive face" aria-label="Emoji: Pensive face"> https://twitter.com/ChelleChipato/status/1244013797871927296">https://twitter.com/ChelleChi...
I had said I will put a thread together when I am emotionally strong but I realise if this can help somebody out there, I would have positively contributed to tackling this awful thing
I remember tweeting this. On the Friday I had been fine all day, got home, played with the kids, watched tv and had a glass of wine. after a cple of hrs my throat was dry and I felt super tired so went to sleep after all it was a busy week. Woke up on Saturday and felt terrible https://twitter.com/chellechipato/status/1238788466319785984">https://twitter.com/chellechi...
I spent hours in bed, my whole body was stiff. I felt like I was coming down with a cold. Still felt weak so I shook it off and slept on the couch. I kept checking my temp and it was fine. Wasn’t coughing either so convinced myself it’s probably exhaustion or a cold coming
The following day same thing. It was a slow burner. I still felt like I am coming down with a cold. My throat hurt at this point and all I wanted to do was sleep. Txt my boss and explained what I was feeling, again coz I had no high temp and cough we thought it’s nothing.
Went to work all week and came home, working from home as much as I could coz my body was truly struggling to keep up. If anyone asked me what I was feeling couldn’t really say. I just felt pain everywhere. Friday was the worst, this must have been day 7.
I remember driving home and leaning my head on the door whilst driving coz I couldn’t keep my head up. I have no idea how I made it home but I did. Couldn’t even park the car so asked Cliff to do it. Couldn’t breathe and talk so went to sleep. Still no temp and no cough
But I knew there is something wrong here. This isn’t right. My skin was super sensitive. I woke up the next day and my clothes were hurting my skin. Water hurt my skin. Walking up the stairs hurt. Then the temp went high. My sinus hurt so much that it hurt to breathe
I still had to battle between speaking and breathing. From then on it went down fast. Cliff started feeling the same symptoms. We called for advice and were told they are not testing but to just self isolate. Tbh we couldn’t even walk to the front door. Joints were aching so bad.
By day 10 everything was a blur. We have 2 kids aged 5 and 11, we couldn’t look after them. Couldn’t talk coz I was struggling to breathe so talking was limited. My son began filling the gap and this made me sad. He wd watch his lil sis give her food and make sure we have fluids.
I started hallucinating. Didn’t wanna sleep on the bed coz I felt like it was trying to throw me off. I felt like I was in an earthquake and the ground was shaking. I have never been so scared in my life and the one man I was relying on couldn’t even open his eyes https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="😔" title="Pensive face" aria-label="Emoji: Pensive face">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="💔" title="Broken heart" aria-label="Emoji: Broken heart">
Having the lights on hurt, the skin was like i had my skin grated off and it was raw. Any touch even my own clothes hurt so so much. My sinus cd be best described as me having a fizzy drink go up my nose. The headaches were immense and the fatigue was indescribable
I remember one day and the children were in their room. My husband and I started talking about who would care for the kids when we are gone. None of us could stop the other, we thought this is it. It makes me cry to this day thinking of this. We couldn’t be there for them https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="💔" title="Broken heart" aria-label="Emoji: Broken heart">
The cough then came, the chest felt very heavy. Lying down or relaxing seemed to make it worse. The nose was runny and sinus was excruciatingly painful. Diarrhoea then came on. I thought a lot about my kids and how I was about to leave them. Don’t know if I’ll recover from that
I had no desire to eat, lost the sense of taste and also the sense of smell. It felt very strange and I could feel every bit of my body dying on me. What hurt was no matter how much u called for medical advice we were told to remain isolated.
What helped?? Paracetamol every 4 hours, lots of oranges, fluids, hot baths or showers but baths were for me coz I couldn’t stand. Lemon and honey tea and lots of sleep. Friends and family also helped they kept us thinking positive.
My mum in law described what we had gone through as similar to her undergoing chemo. My dad thought at one point we had malaria lol. I laugh now but this virus kills.
It angers me that not everyone can get tested. People are dying in their homes. Looking back I can see that my symptoms had been ongoing for 7 days before things went south. I’m a social worker so how many families did I get in contact with? The guilt is a lot
But I relied on the symptoms that said you had to have a temp and a dry cough and had made contact with some1 in a risky area. I was neither of those things. I’m sorry for the long thread, had to share it all.
We are now recovering. Still no sense of smell, still tired but I had my appetite return yesterday. At one point had a metallic taste but that’s all gone. I hope this will help someone. You know your body so take action at the first instance. May God cover you and take care https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="❤️" title="Red heart" aria-label="Emoji: Red heart">
