I caught the Covid 19 - My experience

I am aware this is a post tittle that I wish was fake, a click bait or just a bad dream but the truth its that my husband and I caught the Corona Virus.

H E R E   O U R   S T O R Y 

Sometimes we often think, as a society, that 'shits' happened to others, that its never you but always others and then you realised that you are not different to anyone else or that there is not a 'special' force protecting you above. The truth it's like you are like everybody else. One day you wake up with all the Corona virus symptoms and this is when you realised that you have between 2-3% of chance to not make it because you are part of the high risk group (I am diabetic and I have blood pressure). That person is me.

What are the symptoms?

You probably hear it or read already a thousand of times but the Corona virus symptoms are:

A dry caught, tiredness, fever and loss of smell and taste.

My husband and I had all those symptoms but the thing that really ring the bell for us its the fact that ,even so our noses were NOT blocked (like a nasty cold) we both lost very quickly our taste and smell sense. 

This was probably the most worrying part as we both went for about 7 days (for me)  and 10 days (for my husband) without being able to taste and smell anything even so, as I mentioned above, our noses weren't blocked. Which made the experience extremely bizarre.

Also once our sense of smell and taste started to come back it was not at 100% I am not sure how to explain this but it was a gradual expereince. Each day we could smell / taste better but it was not 100% yet . Overall I would say it take us a bout 2 weeks for us to completely recover our smell and taste senses. 

Of course we contacted the NHS corona virus number and we end up talking to a doctor that confirmed with us that he was himself 99% convinced we caught the virus. 

So of course we were told to self isolate immediately for 2 weeks and if our symptoms were getting worst ,especially for me, to call our local hospital before going there.

We immediately self isolated (this was few weeks before the official UK lockdown).

How was those two weeks?

Surprisingly we kept our cool most days, we both did not show any signs of things getting worst. Having said that , as I suffer with anxiety, during that time my anxiety came back stronger than ever and with that I started having this tight sensation in my throat something rather common for anxiety sufferers. 

This got me very worried as I was not 100% sure if it was my anxiety or that I was developing breathing problem due to the virus. I was quickly reassure by my mental health nurse (by phone) that it was just my anxiety.

During those 2 or so weeks I did went to dark a place on few occasions. Thinking that I won't make it and I was already telling my husband how much I love him and our daughter and already telling him all the thing he need to tell etc to my daughter once I 'll be gone.

I mean I can be melodramatic at times but when you are face with a virus where there is yet no a vaccine and your health can quickly turn badly, your thought can quickly escalated in your mind.

PS: By the way our daughter did not show any sign of the virus (Most children are usually not affected by the Corona virus or do not show any signs).

How do you think you caught it?

This is the big question really? 

How did we managed to catch it living in a small town, that at the time, did not have any Corona virus sufferers known by the health services yet? We do have few explanations but the the truth its we'll never know for sure.

One of them its Chris, my husband, visited London to collect a computer drive from one of his client ( we used to live in London and most of our clients are based there so its common for us to go London once a month to collect drives, media kits etc) so we think he may have catch it there while travelling by train and on the Tube. Having said that we also had the visit, on the same week, of 3 people living in London, so we could have catch it from one of them too as London was and still remain the epicenter of the virus. Turned out one of our London friend that visit us did end up with all the symptoms too at the same time of us so it could be him? Or we may have gave it to him before we were aware we had it? who knows? (He recovered too). We'll never be entirely sure?

Have you both recovered entirely?

Yes but even so the actual virus was in our system for about 1 to 2 weeks it took us around 6 weeks for us to recover. After 2 weeks we were no longer contagious but like any illness (as told by our GP at the time) Your body take few weeks to recover and re generate its immune system and we could feel it at the time as we were both feeling very tired. We are now both completely heal.

Any positive note?

During that time our friends were amazing, providing us with our grocery (when we were in self isolation)  with no question ask and for that I will always be thankful to be surrounded by generous and kind people.

We are now immune from the Corona Virus or at least immune from 1 to 2 years as like any virus, the Covid 19 will mutated. By then a vaccine should be in place each year like the flu (the flu mutated each year too). The Corona virus will never go away, it would be around forever but at least we defeated him on is first attack.

My advice:

If you do caught the Corona virus (of course I do not wish anyone to catch it) its take yourself into immediate self isolation and make your family and friends aware and any people you are sharing your household with. Contact the NHS Covid 19 help line but do not go to your local hospital or surgery. It goes without saying do not try to go to grocery shopping or else.

If your symptoms are getting worst contact your local hospital before going there and they will advice on what you need to do.

Also do not panic. It is most likely you will recover from the virus. Few people I know or friends of friends that caught the virus (including us) well....they all recovered from it.

Until then stay safe, always wear your face mask when out, keep your distance and all would be fine. 

   

Marie