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My Experience of Getting Covid After All This Time

I got diagnosed with Covid two weeks ago.

But it is SO last year! No, worse than that, it is so 2021!! Nobody gets it now. The world has moved on.

Hardly anyone wears masks these days. Or worries about the odd cough.

We all think it has gone away.

Until it happens to us.

Covid Diagnosis

Well, I went abroad for a few days and came back very, very tired. And had aches all over my body.

Just getting too old, I thought, always over-doing it. Can’t expect to lead my life exactly the same anymore.

And I must have also sat badly on the train. I should have walked around to avoid back ache. I usually do.

But no, the next day I had a temperature and that old horrid feeling that my daughter sums up as “feeling kak”. You know what it’s like. You realise that you have flu and there’s no getting around it.

My daughter urged me to take a Covid test and, as I had a few kits in a box in my cupboard, I took one. Of course, it wasn’t Covid. I never thought it was.

But I didn’t get better. I was sure it was just a bad case of flu. And two days later, muttering under my breath that I would try one more time “just to prove my daughter wrong,” I took another test.

And there they were – those two red lines.

I wanted to argue. I don’t get Covid. Other people do, but I don’t. I never have in all these three years.

But there was the evidence to the contrary.

Having Covid

It hits everyone differently, they say. Mine went mainly to the gut, but it didn’t last too long.

I tried to follow all the advice. Stay in bed, drink lots of water. Rest. Sleep a lot. Don’t do too much.

It’s very boring. I guess we all know that. You can’t do anything. You can’t go out. You can’t see friends.

And I was one of the lucky ones. I didn’t get nausea. I didn’t even get a cough.

Several people asked me why I took a test at all. No one does these days, they said. Just treat it like a flu and move on. No need to treat it differently.

But some people do have to be careful, and it’s best to know what you’re dealing with. At least I felt that way. My son and daughter-in-law are both vulnerable for different reasons.

And eventually those two little lines go away and you can go back to real life.

Only I didn’t.

The After Effects

What I didn’t count on is the post disease part.

Recovery seems to take forever. You sleep a lot. You can’t get anything done. Days go on and on, each one like the other.

Or you have a good day and think it is gone. Which is followed by a bad day, and you get very discouraged.

You’re allowed to go out, but you don’t feel like it. It is one big DRAG.

And it is then that everyone tells you how this latest form of Covid is the worst for the recovery period. I met someone who had had Covid four times and the most recent was the worst.

Someone even told me you should expect one week of recovery for every decade of your life. I didn’t like that prospect at all.

Much too long!

So, all I can say is don’t you know there are new issues these days? Ukraine, Artificial Intelligence, ultra-processed food…

No one wants to think about Covid now.

Let’s Have a Conversation:

Have you had Covid recently? Were your symptoms bad? Did it take a long time to recover?

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Lotus

Hope your recovery lessens & you are up to feeling better very soon. I am sending good vibes 💕💕💕💪💪💪🌻

Ann Richardson

Thank you, Lotus. I am definitely improving and have not had anything like all the bad experiences of other people commenting here. I’m just a very active person and when anything sets me back, it makes me cross, like ‘How dare you?!’

Linda

I caught Covid from my husband last year, he picked it up on a trip to London to visit family.
It started with a hacking cough that wouldn’t shift, also a banging headache. I had the test done with the brush up the nose to the back of the throat and had a text to say positive the following morning.

The cough medicine I was prescribed could only be taken for 3 days as it contained a highly addictive drug. I also had a gargle for my throat.

For both of us the absolute worst part was the terrible fatigue that dragged on for weeks after. Husband works from home a lot of the time, but could only manage part time hours for about a month as he kept having to sleep.

We then had a very bad flu virus over Christmas, a nightmare as family had flown to Switzerland to stay with us for a week. They went down with it 2 days after returning home!

My sister picked up Covid on a trip to Portugal in the spring, now my brother has gone down with it.

The final lockdown we had during the pandemic was one too many for me. I lost all motivation and struggled for about 12 months after as everything felt so pointless.

jen

i work in admin in one of the large public hospitals in Melbourne (Australia), & the current COVID patient numbers are posted on our staff online notice board daily. We have people in ICU with COVID, every, single, day. I wear a mask when out in public. Most people do not. It could be them in ICU next week…..

Debbie

This past January (after 3 years, 2 shots and all the boosters), I woke up one Saturday morning very nauseated and no appetite. I continued to get worse with chills and fever and a headache. All I wanted to do was sleep. This continued for over 10 days where I was in bed mostly all day. I took a couple COVID tests, which were all negative, but I may have taken them too early. Later in the week, I ran a temperature of 103.8, getting very close to going into Urgent Care. I finally started feeling better about 2 weeks later, but the nausea and tiredness/exhaustion lasted for over a month.
I really believe I had COVID, and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. Unbelievably, my husband did not get it.

Kris

My partner and I tested positive a day after a trip to Europe. We’re both 65, had all our vaccines and even a second bivalent two weeks before our trip. I had a fever, congestion, slight headache, slight cough, dry throat and fatigue. He had nothing but a dry throat and fatigue. We both took anti-virals, me Paxlovid and he took molnupiravir. We recovered in 4-5 days and are doing well!

The Author

Ann Richardson’s most popular book, The Granny Who Stands on Her Head, offers a series of reflections on growing older. Subscribe to her free Substack newsletter, where she writes fortnightly on any subject that captures her imagination. Ann lives in London, England with her husband of sixty years. Please visit her website for information on all her books: http://annrichardson.co.uk.

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