Now seems like a good to talk about this...

My husband & I have had COVID19.

But we don't count in the official numbers. And I'm willing to bet at least 75% of the people that have had it don't either.

I also had weird early symptoms that you should to watch for.

A thread. https://twitter.com/janemarielynch/status/1249330176502059008

This experience started for me late on Sat, March 21. When I was getting ready for bed, my upper arms started aching. It felt similar to how my muscles feel the day after overdoing it at the gym, so I didn't worry about it and went to bed.

A cpl hours later, I woke up in agony.

My neck, shoulders, back, & arms down to my fingertips felt like they were on fire. It was that same muscle pain but turned up x10. By the dawn hours, my abdomen joined in. I was awake all night, sitting on the couch with my arms propped up on pillows, trying to find some relief.

My husband was so worried, he wanted to take me to the ER. But neither of us had any thought to connect it to COVID19.

He went to work that morning and by mid day, I fell asleep, exhausted from the pain & crying so much.

When I woke up late afternoon, the pain was mostly gone.

Monday I felt fine, if not tired, which I credited to not sleeping at all Saturday night.

Tuesday 3/24 came the stomach issues.

I'm sorry for the graphic detail of this next tweet, but I'm being as upfront as possible with what to watch for.

I started having diarrhea a couple hrs after I ate anything at all.

Not in a little way. In a bad, scared I'm going to have an accident if I'm more than a few feet from a bathroom at any given time, kind of way.

I'm 3 weeks from the onset of that & my stomach still isn't right.

At this point, on March 21, that is the totality of my symptoms. There is no reason for me to believe they are connected and no reason for me to believe they are COVID19.

I'm still going to work, in person. I work for a medical lab. One that is doing COVID19 testing.

On Wednesday, March 25, I go to work.

Luckily, I'm in administration and work in my own closed-door office on a side of the suite where we've mostly sent people home, so I don't encounter anyone in the 4 hrs or so b4 I feel the body aches and chills and realize I have a fever.

I go home early & take my temperature. It's a boring 99.7, just enough to make me feel like garbage, but not enough to make me worried for COVID19.

At that point, the media reports were all saying high grade fever was a staple. I had no worry at all with a temp in the 99 range.

By late that night, I started to worry.

I had had a cough at that point for weeks, but it was a wet cough - I have seasonal allergies & my nose was stuffy on and off and I was coughing in my sleep. Not out of the ordinary for me. But the cough changed.

It turned dry.

I didn't know what a dry cough meant, though I'd seen it in coronavirus symptom lists, until mine changed. It was a constant tickle at the back of my throat. Instead of feeling like I was coughing because of mucus or to cough phlegm up, it was just this sensation triggering it.

The last time I took my temp that night, my fever was up to 100.2. I took Tylenol and went to bed.

I woke up Thurs March 26 with a headache and a fever of 101.7, which was (luckily) the highest mine ever got during this ordeal.

This is where my story gets wacky. Buckle up.

I'm immediately concerned. I have a fever, dry cough, and headache. The three symptoms I've been told to watch for.

I contact the urgent care (that I can see from my back porch) by phone, and they set up a Telemed appointment with a PA to discuss my symptoms.

(See how close?!)

(I'm pointing out it's so close to me to explain why I picked it, as a way make myself feel better about using them given how poorly this next part goes, in hindsight.)

The PA listens to my symptoms, has me take my temp in front of him (100.2 at this moment, on Tylenol)...

And tells me I have NOTHING to worry about. I do not have COVID19. I probably have allergies or the cold that's going around. My fever is too low, I'm not coughing enough.

He tells me to take off Thurs-Fri. He's certain my fever will be gone by Sat & return to work on Mon 3/30.

He seems to be right - I stay the course with the Tylenol, & my fever is gone by Saturday.

Though, I'm absolutely exhausted. I take two long naps during the day. This is strange as I rarely take one. Two is unheard of.

Also, my husband's fever starts.

Sunday, I feel better.

I even felt stupid for being worried I had COVID19.

I follow the PA's instructions and go to work on Mon 3/30, note in hand that says I can return.

Again, I (luckily) don't encounter a soul as I enter the building. Almost the entire 16-floors of staff is working from home.

My company is still working on logistics of moving me to work from home, which is why I'm still having to show up.

I sit down at my desk & start working. When I reach for my coffee, it tastes like nothing.

It also, I notice then, smells like nothing.

I immediately freak out.

Right before I'd fallen asleen the night before, I'd read this article.

I remember thinking to myself "my sense of taste is always messed up when I have a fever. Especially when I have the flu."

But this was something completely different. https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/03/26/821582951/is-loss-of-smell-and-taste-a-symptom-of-covid-19-doctors-want-to-find-out

My sense of smell & taste was GONE.

I'm an ex smoker that hates the smell of cigarettes but I keep a pack handy for emergency situations. (I have anxiety, yall. Don't judge.) That pack will last me years.

But when I smoke one, I can barely finish it before I'm grabbing gum.

When I left work that day, I lit one and took a drag. Nothing. I couldn't smell it or taste it AT ALL.

I suddenly fully believed I had coronavirus. And I was out and about with people. I hadn't been closed to anyone, but still.

I actually cried on the way home. I was so upset.

I've reached my tweet thread limit, so now I'll be adding tweets one at a time.

Stick with me! This is where I start talking about the BS surrounding testing and how the country is woefully under-reporting the numbers.

The first call I make is back to the 1st urgent care. I explain to the receptionist that I'd had a Telemed appt 4 days earlier & that I was told to call back if my symptoms changed/worsened, and they had.

She tells me they don't do testing. She directs me to another urgent care.

I call that urgent care. Immediately, that receptionist screens me for testing.

-Been out of the country in last 14 days?
-Over 60?
-Been in contact w/ someone that has tested positive?
-Have respiratory distress?

All my answers are no. She tells me I don't qualify for testing.

I briefly explain to her that another PA told me I was fine/could work & now I'm scared I'm infecting people.

She tells me that she shouldn't say it, but that no one is going to test me. I'm too young (34) and my symptoms are too mild, though they are consistent with COVID19.

She says the only way I'll get tested is if I go through the ER.

I can't afford to go to the ER. Period. I'd have to be near death to go there.

So, I call my PCP, who is always my last choice when I'm actually sick, bc even though I love her, she's hard to reach.

I actually get through to her nurse, and the nurse tells me she'll have the Dr. call me back by 2pm.

This is still Monday, March 30 (just a reminder) and we are days after the searing muscle pain. I still haven't connected that or the stomach issues to coronavirus.

When my Dr. calls me she immediately says she's diagnosing me w "assumed COVID19." She says the symptoms are spot on. Especially the muscle aches, stomach issues, and smell/taste loss, which she's not seeing reported, but hearing a lot from actual ppl.

Which prompts me to ask...

If she's seeing a lot of COVID19 cases? At this point, my locality (Virginia's 9th largest city) hasn't reported a single case.

She said she's seen "dozens" of people with my symptoms.

Then she said only 5 of them qualified for testing, & that all of their tests were pending.

She pointed out the test was taking 10+ days (which, it was at that point. She was using my company & they were behind) & since the quarantine period is 7 days from "symptom dissaption" per the CDC, she was putting anyone with symptoms on quarantine.

So I went into isolation.

She set that day as my first day of symptom disappation (no fever for 2 days, my cough was almost gone) and put me out of work for a week.

My husband's fever was still high and his cough was worse than mine ever was, so that same day, he called the original urgent care.

Unfortunate, I know, but he's in between PCPs & we wanted to talk to the original PA again. I wanted some kind of answer about him sending me back to work.

So, we had a Telemed appt w him for my husband. But this one went way different.

For one, the PA was wearing a mask.

He hadn't been during mine. And he took my husband's symptoms way more seriously. He said he probably had COVID19. He also said that many people probably do, but that no one is testing for it. There's not enough tests. That the ER is really the only way, but he'd stay far awayu.

Unless of course, my husband got to the point where he couldn't breathe/had respiratory issues. Then he needed to to go the ER.

Because my husband's cough was so much worse than mine (he would cough so long & hard, he couldn't catch his breath) he ordered two cough meds for him,

And told him to isolate for 2 week, because he still had a high fever.

And then we proceeded to sleep for about a week, no joke.

The exhaustion is the one symptom that was the worst for me the entire time. I could barely function. I'd sleep 14 hours, get up, do a couple things,

Then sleep 9 more hours.

Somewhere in there, I saw this tweet.

And it somehow made me feel better to see someone working with COVID19 patients in NYC describe my symptoms exactly, except luckily I didn't get to the point of respiratory issues.

After sleeping like 22 hours a day for most of a week, we felt better by the weekend of April 4.

Not better enough to do anything, but better enough to stay awake and watch TV.

I'll also mention the loss of appetite. I lost more than 10 lb. I completely stopped eating.

I'm working from home (they figured out the logistics while I was out) & husband goes back to work Wed.

But while we've been off & sharing our story w friends/family, we've encountered so many people like us.

That have symptoms, w a range of severity, that couldn't get tested.

It's constant - someone's cousin. Someone they went to college went. Their best friend from childhood. People right and left have what is clearly COVID19 but won't get the positive result and won't ever count in the official reporting.a

A doctor friend told me he thinks the number is 1 in 10.

10% of people who have it are getting tested. He thinks most people have mild symptoms, think they have a cold/the flu & don't even think about it. Then there's a large group like us, that clearly have it & don't qualify.

So these coronavirus numbers being reported daily, while huge and awful, are likely just the tip of the iceberg.

I hope at the very least we will have access to widespread antibody testing, so we can find out who has been exposed/has had COVID19 and has immunity status bc of it.

The sooner the better. If Trump wants so badly to get the country back to work, this could be the key. If people could find out their immunity status, they could be free to work without fear of being infected.

Because I'm willing to bet many have already had it & don't know it.

But the first step would be the administration admitting the infected number is much higher - maybe 10x as high, maybe more - than previously stated.

And I don't think they're capable of that even if it's for the best for the economy, which is all they've proven they care about.

So that's my story. Watch for the weird symptoms. Wear your masks and keep your social distance.

We traveled & went to live music within 10 days of me showing symptoms, when nothing was shut down in VA/NC yet, so who knows where we got it.

Happy to answer Q's if ya got em!