My Experience with COVID

Hello everyone!

Today I want to share something more personal. Usually, I write about being a translator, my translation work, working as a freelancer, etc. But I’ve decided to share a personal experience that might help you.

At the beginning of July (of this year) I got COVID. Yes, COVID, you read that correctly. Do you remember that the pandemic still exists? It certainly does. And new strains are appearing almost every day.

I was vaccinated against COVID. I think this might have made a difference in how not-so-bad it was.

So, it all started on a Sunday. I woke up feeling like I was coming down with something. I couldn’t say what but I just felt like something was going on inside my body. At first, I thought it was my allergies. I suffer from rhinitis, and when the weather is changing all the time, sometimes it gets triggered. That night I took an antihistamine and went to bed.

On Monday, I had more allergy-like symptoms. My nose and throat itched, so that night I took another antihistamine, thinking that by Tuesday I’d be OK.

On Tuesday… Well, things took a turn for the worse. My symptoms were no longer those of an allergy, they were definitely the symptoms of a flu: nasal congestion, runny nose, throat pain, headache. The thing is, I don’t remember when it was the last time I had the flu! I rarely get sick, so that made it even more suspicious. Plus, another member of my household had the same symptoms as me, and they started at the same time as mine.

Immediately, we were tested and we were both positive for COVID. I must admit since I hadn’t gotten infected during the “peak” of the pandemic, I thought I wasn’t going to get infected at all. And I think a lot of people think this. But we can all still get infected.

Since the WHO lifted the sanitary measures a while ago, almost no one here is using a face mask or keeping their distance. It is impossible to know who got infected first or if we both got infected and the same time, where we got infected, etc.

We made sure that the rest of the people in our household left and got tested. Fortunately, they were all negative and never got any symptoms. We also alerted the people we had been with during the past two weeks. None of them got sick either, and they all tested negative.

My family was great! They brought food (so we didn’t have to cook), medicine, oral saline solutions, vitamins, etc. Since there isn’t a medicine made for treating COVID, I started taking medicine for the flu symptoms.

On Tuesday night, I woke up in the middle of the night because the nose congestion was so bad, I couldn’t breathe through my nose anymore. I also started coughing and I couldn’t go back to sleep, which made me feel even worse.

Nevertheless, I didn’t stop working that week. Now, I didn’t work full-time. I only worked for a few hours a day, and then I would rest. I was lucky that it was a slow week, so I only had to work on ongoing projects, and nothing urgent or huge came up. I didn’t have to tell any of my clients that I was sick.

I have to say, getting ready to work and then working, helped me to get distracted, even if it was just for a few hours, from the fact that I was sick. I don’t enjoy staying in bed all day doing nothing but complaining. That is not my style.

On Wednesday late afternoon, I got a fever. Again, I don’t think I’ve had a fever since I was a little girl, so it caught me by surprise. First, I got really cold, like I was shivering and actually shaking from how cold I was. I took my temperature, but it was at 36.9° C. So, I didn’t have a fever. But less than two hours later, the coldness went away and I felt like I was burning up from the inside: my fever had gone up to 39.5° C. I took medicine to help bring down the fever. By 9:30 PM, the fever was down to 38.5° C. And by the next morning, my fever was gone and never came back.

I definitely think the first 3-4 days are the worst when it comes to the severity of the symptoms. Besides taking my temperature, I also measured my oxygen twice a day. My oxygen was never compromised.

I didn’t lose my appetite, and I didn’t lose my sense of taste and smell. It just felt like having a really bad flu. The worst symptoms for me were nasal congestion and headaches. I don’t get headaches often either, so it was terrible to get headaches that wouldn’t go away easily.

After being in quarantine for 14 days, I took another test: NEGATIVE! I never thought I’d be so happy to see what word!

I hope this helps you to remember to take care of yourself and your loved ones.

What about you? What was your experience with COVID like? Or are you still one of the lucky ones who hasn’t got it? I’d love to read all about it in the comments.

Thank you to Day Translations for sponsoring this post. Make sure to click on the link to find out more about the services they provide.

Until next time, take care and stay safe!

XX