Okay, I’m behind on everything and I don’t know what’s happening or how everyone’s doing. Something about tigers. I maybe shouldn’t say this, but: I think I had coronavirus. I’m saying it because PSA tl;dr SOCIAL DISTANCE FFS YOU DON’T KNOW IF YOU HAVE IT 1/

I’m fine. I think I had the mild two-week kind. I can’t waste a test on finding out so I don’t know. I was already isolating like a pro. I could have gotten it during Apocalypse Shopping 3/12 or from someone asymptomatic before that. HERE’S THE POINT I WANT TO MAKE: 2/

I did not have fever, dry cough, or trouble breathing. The “do not pass go, go straight to hospital” symptoms. I had lesser known secondary symptoms that I only recognized because I had noticed them in news or personal accounts of people who were diagnosed. 3/

Instead of my usual tension headaches, intensely painful one-sided headaches. My back problems were worse for no reason, and I had ab soreness that wasn’t right for menstrual cramps. I wrote in my journal, “I feel like I have a black hole in my chest.” Extreme fatigue. 4/

But I have depression, right? I was coming down from a hypomanic episode, it was just a crash, right? My journal: “I don’t understand why I can’t get out of bed. I don’t know what I have to do to get myself out.” “I can’t get comfortable at night.” “I can’t hold my head up.” 5/

There’s pollen out, it’s my allergies, right? I don’t have the Big Three Covid Symptoms? But then, I started seeing the things I was saying about myself repeated in officially-diagnosed accounts. I went back to my journal and scanned my entries. It lasted about 12 days. 6/

I thought back over other people around me who also had off-brand symptoms, as it were. Severe muscle aches seemed to be the common denominator, but we all had a mix. No one person the same. Someone only lost their sense of taste/smell—before we even knew that was a thing. 7/

My ultimate point: I am pretty sure a number of us had it, mild or asymptomatic, and the symptoms either sounded like issues we already deal with or like common seasonal problems. We were able to explain them away. PLEASE SOCIAL DISTANCE EVEN IF YOU THINK YOU DON’T HAVE IT

I am honestly horrified that I easily could have been spreading it if I weren’t a recluse anyway. They’re advising cloth masks, yes? I learned how to MacGuyver one up from the Surgeon General: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/cloth-face-cover.html