I went a whole year without getting Covid-19. I wore my mask, I stayed away from people, we didn’t go to church or out to eat or anywhere with people in close proximity. Then, it happened. I was devastated. Here’s what I remember about those two weeks.
Day 1
Monday – Went to hang with Henry… like I do at least five days a week. I’m so blessed to be able to watch him while Ian and Katy work. I woke up with allergies. This time of year my allergies ALWAYS go haywire.
By Monday night I had called Ian… “Ian, you’re gonna have to help me with Henry tomorrow. I have a horrible allergy headache and I feel weak.”
Day 2
Made it through the day! Felt ok but still headachy, weak, and stuffy behind my eyes.
Day 3
I called Ben to come help me with Henry because I was starting to feel flu-ish. Achey, feverish, nauseous, yucky. I went to the walk in clinic near our house around noon and told the nurse I had felt like this before when I had a kidney infection and was dehydrated. She did a urinalysis, a flu test, and a covid test.
I was COVID-19 POSITIVE.
After that, the rest of the week became a blur. Panic and hysteria ensued because I had been with my sweet grandbaby every day, and my son who is immune deficient. I was praying they were all safe.
No dice. Ian, Katy, and Henry all three went to get tested. Katy had Covid, as well, but neither the baby nor Ian got it. How in the world did that happen when I’m with the two of them daily?
Days 4, 5, 6
We realized on Day 4 that Jacob had probably brought it home… from work? Friends? Who knows, but he got tested and he had it too.
I was in the bed for the rest of the week. This was bad stuff. Ben was so worried about me he didn’t leave my side. He ordered an oximeter from Amazon and he checked my oxygen every 3-4 minutes to make sure it didn’t get below 90. I’ve heard people say it’s like a bad flu. Some of the symptoms DO feel like you have a really bad flu. The aches and fever were a lot like the flu. Y’all. IT WAS SO MUCH WORSE THAN THE FLU. The lethargy. Just laying there in the bed or on the couch and not having the energy or the stamina to do ANYTHING.
I didn’t want to watch tv. I didn’t want to read or listen to a book or podcast. I didn’t want to scan social media. I didn’t want to talk on the phone. I didn’t want to text. I didn’t want any attention at all. I didn’t want to move. I just wanted to lay there and LITERALLY DO NOTHING but stare at the wall, or the ceiling, or whatever my eyes landed on.
You find yourself NOT THINKING. I know it sounds weird but I don’t remember anything that went through my head. You just lay there and stare, not thinking.
Day 7 – Ben took me to the local emergency room to get some fluids. I was so dehydrated… trying to throw up but not being able to get anything up. I couldn’t drink ANYTHING… water, tea, anything.
We waited for over 4 hours in the waiting room. They put me on a bed in the hall… gave me fluids. The whole place was full and I felt like I was in some third world country where it was actually hard to get medical attention. They sent me home with cough medicine.
Ben shouldn’t have slept next to me that night but he did. We were both so scared. My fever had still not gotten above 100.4 but oh my gosh I was sick, sick, sick.
Day 8 – The next morning I was still so obviously dehydrated. The fluids from the night before hadn’t helped at all. I couldn’t keep anything down and didn’t want anything to drink or eat. Sometime Monday afternoon, my oxygen level dropped to 87 and my temp went from 100.2 to 102.9 out of no where. Ben was on the phone with my sisters and they urged him to call an ambulance. He did, thank goodness.
They took me to another hospital and I knew I was in the right place when they took me in. They immediately started giving me fluids and oxygen, and I spent the entire night and most of the next day in the emergency room before they had a regular room for me. Sidenote: The hospitals are still so full of covid patients, and I was thinking the whole time, “are they ever going to get control of this?”
Day 9 – Once I was in a regular room and they started the plan of care, I learned so much about Covid 19. This disease is no joke and it doesn’t care who it attacks. There’s also no way to know HOW it will hit, which is what seemed so strange to me. Jacob’s was like a bad sinus infection… headache, runny nose, pressure behind his eyes, and he was tired and weak. Katy, well, that little momma flew through the week with basic cold symptoms and feeling tired and weak. She slept a lot and that helped, but by the end of the week she was nursing Henry with her mask on. I felt like I was dying. And I feel like I have a pretty good tolerance for being sick. I mean, I birthed three boys. I’ve had kidney stones and kidney infections that have sent me to the hospital, and I’ve ended up in ICU from an anaphylactic reaction to an antibiotic.
I was in the hospital with Covid-19 and I wanted them to make me feel better. I know when you’re sick and in the hospital, you SHOULD keep up with what they’re giving you. Honestly, I just wanted them to give me whatever they could to make me feel better. If it killed me, so be it. But, over the next couple days, they pumped me full of fluids, oxygen, steroids, cough medicine, plasma, blood thinner, and remdisivir.
They told me I had Covid Pneumonia, which is evidently different from REGULAR Pneumonia. Pneumonia caused by COVID-19 causes your lungs to sort of look like shattered glass… and they crackle when you listen to them.
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