Coronavirus - Did I Have COVID-19 Last Year? I Think I Did.

I read where now they say the virus was probably here as early as September. I seriously think I had it, and I may be having a mild relapse. I didn't understand why I was so sick, because I was eating well, taking all my vitamins and supplements. I just attributed it to to stress and fatigue from trying to get ready for my son's Christmas visit.

In late November and all of December, I was very sick. It started with an unnatural fatigue with body pain, mostly in my left hip, knee and foot, but elsewhere also. I was in so much pain, I would have to take prescription doses of ibuprofen (800 mg) for relief. They are saying now that ibuprofen and all NSAIDS make it worse, so I think that may be why it lasted so long. I never had a high fever, but how could I have with all the pain meds I was taking.

Then the coughing started, and it was HORRENDOUS! I would cough so hard, even taking cough meds, that I would throw up. Almost passed out once from coughing, because I couldn't catch my breath. I was sucking on cough drops constantly, and taking a cough med with Guafenesin and Dextramathorphan, which helped somewhat, but didn't take the cough away completely. I coughed less when I was sitting still, but I couldn't sit still, because I had to get the apartment ready for my son's visit, so I was going constantly. I had to do most things 10 minutes at a time, because I would cough so badly when I moved around, I had to sit back down to catch my breath.

I had intense headaches that were not eased at all with OTC meds. Taking Sudafed helped somewhat, but it was like a dull ache that never went away.

I remember being short of breath when I was walking a few times. Once I woke up in the middle of the night so short of breath, I had to boil water to put in a bowl with Vicks and put a towel over my had to suck in the steam. It took about 10 minutes for this to break up the congestion in my lungs, so I started doing it twice a day thereafter, and it helped ease the tightness in my chest.

This illness started the last week in November, and when my son got here in December, I was better but not completely well. I was still taking OTC meds daily, still carrying cough drops around in my purse, and still very, very tired. I was taking Ritalin at the time, and it was the only thing that got me through the days, but when it wore off, I crashed. I can't even describe this level of fatigue, but I attributed it to stress and my lupus. I remember my son and I were arguing about something during his visit, and I started crying and said "I'm just so tired. You have no idea how tired I am."

I didn't lose my sense of smell, but things smelled strange to me. Some foods smelled "off" although they were brand new. My lavender oil smelled bad to me, but it smelled fine to my son. Just recently, I woke in the middle of the night with my nose very stuff, so I was looking for the Vicks to put on my lips to help me not only with clearing my stuffy nose, but because my lips were excessively dry. I opened it up, put it on my lips, but I couldn't smell it. I put my nose to the container, but I still couldn't smell it. I panicked, and went into the kitchen, opened the fridge and started smelling things. I could smell them, but I couldn't smell the Vicks. The next morning, all was well, but it was scary, because I was afraid it was coming back.

Strangely, the gastrointestinal symptoms were mostly to do with my GERD (acid reflux). I would take my meds, go to bed, and wake up in the middle of the night with bile-tasting acid rushing up into my mouth. It was so painful, and it took forever for the pain to pass. I found that eating a teaspoon of coconut oil made the pain lessen faster. I couldn't drink anything hot, just at the time I needed something hot, because my esophagus was scalded. I had to use Chloraseptic tablets for the throat pain. I did have diarrhea a couple of times, but mostly the opposite.

This went on for about 6 weeks, and when it was over, it was just -- OVER. I woke up one morning feeling great, had energy, no pain, no headaches, nothing.

Now the cough is back, and I was having tightness in my chest, which I wrote off to allergies. I'm  sometimes confused and dizzy. I've tried to get in touch with my doctor, to no avail. They have a COVID-19 line that just keeps ringing and ringing and being routed over and over to another line, I suppose. So far, it's been ringing for 10 minutes. I'm going to call the health department and see if they can give me any help.

Wish me luck.