It’s Time to Tell My Story
The only thing you have to fear, is fear itself.
March 23rd, 2020 Woke up with excruciating headache. Not just any headache. Something I have never felt before. Stabbing pain, radiating out through my entire brain.
The significance is that I rarely have headaches. I have headaches when I am exposed to petroleum based chemicals, even living in North Texas during the Natural Gas Boom, nothing has ever compared to it.
I was scared, nervous, but really didn’t think any of it. It kept me up for 2-3 hours, I was finally able to get back to sleep about 3 am.
Again, there was nothing that stood out to me. I was thinking, maybe this is just another layer of the onion. As toxins store in our fat tissues, and can be released when we lose fat.
The week before March 20th I began wearing my Buff everywhere. Only seeing clients without. All my errands were treated like flu season, Buff, and hand sanitizer. March 20th is the day I began wearing a dust mask, or surgical mask, under a buff, and gloves while I went on any supply runs.
March 24th, I decided to not run long. I had lost quite a bit of sleep, and felt a bit off. So I decided to run between 6, and 8 miles, on the Tram/La Luz connector trail. Even for me, it was slow. I was running in my Mizouno Waves, so I was a bit slower for stability, and safety. And the 2.5 hours, includes tons of pictures, and a lunch break.
The next day, I am so tired, I can’t do anything, I have to do something I have to get outside, be in the fresh air, I have to move. So I muster 1 mile hike out in the East Mountains, and almost an hour and a half.
For the next two weeks, my energy is low, very low, and I have intermittent headache. So I am beginning to think, that there is something wrong. It’s difficult to decipher because it’s also juniper season.
On March 27th, I am feeling better, I actually felt normal, I needed to get out, I needed to move, I go by myself, and am unsure how it’s going to go. It was great to be outside, the fresh air, and the freedom was divine. I felt unnaturally strong, I felt ‘good’.
I am not able to do anything for 3 days. Those of you who know me, know, this is uncommon. It’s reason for concern.
March 30th I feel great! I am joking before bed, laughing, singing. Within minutes I cannot swallow. Dysphagia is terrifying. It literally takes me 5 tries before I am finally able to swallow. I have what I describe as a a quarter sized skipping stone in my throat, this lasts for days. The dysphagia last for a few hours, and hot liquids, and chest rub are the only things that seem to calm it.
Before this, I was taking a Benadryl as needed. Which was almost every night. March 30th, I begin Over the Counter (OTC) medication more regularly. Having taken a Benadryl earlier, decided I needed to take pseudoephedrine.
I also begin to drink hot liquids regularly, breathing in the steam. I would have two cups before bed, and the next two nights I began taking a 12 hour pseudoephedrine.
I also had been experiencing a mild fever. My temperature was averaging between 99.5-100.5. I’ve been communicating regularly with a friend, getting support, as well as advice.
I’m still experiencing headache, tightness, and chest. By this point I have done my timeline. I know that March 17th is the only possible day, I was unprotected, I also know that none of my clients, I saw the week of the 16th are experiencing any kind of symptoms. My appointment on the 17th, has told me no one in the office is sick, so I have to believe, it’s likely, I picked it up from an asymptomatic person.
March 31st, I am feeling well, I have no fever, and I go for a ride. Nothing exceptional. Just freedom.
April 2nd, 2020 I wake up with a cough. I begin taking what I have at the house, a homeopathic cough syrup, both a suppressant, and an expectorant.
I know that I don’t have the key symptoms to get tested. My fever is low, the only muscle pain I am experiencing, is headache, and a small part of my back, which only says hello every once and a while. I also tell my friend, that even though I have tightness in my chest, and a cough, it is not bad, that it has not gotten to the level of the yearly bronchitis I would get in the Saint Louis winters.
I know there’s at least a 30% chance of the test coming back negative, and having it, and I feel, I am more likely to get sick going to a testing site than not. And I know there are people who need the test more than me.
April 3rd, I wake with a cough. I have pretty intense tightness in my chest, but still not STL bronchitis bad, am regularly doing cough syrup, benadryl, and pseudoephedrine. I manage to suck down a bottle of the homeopathic cough syrup, and have Tim stop at Walgreen’s to pick up old faithful, Robotussin. It’s do or die, have to start looking, because I am down to half a bottle of the other stuff. He scores. I spend the next day and a half coughing out the depths of my alveoli. I have to get out, I have to get sunshine, by now I am feeling the best thing for me is to exercise, and exert my breathing, my lungs. So we go for a hike. We do just over a mile, in about an hour, and a half. I am moving so slow, yet my breathing, is like I’m doing a Zone 3 run up the mountain.
April 4th my fever is higher, still not at the 101+ level.
April 5th, I have no fever, but I have the chills.
I don’t exercise again until April 8th. I have weened off the OTCs. Still using the pre-bed time routine of hot tea, and steam. The last week of March Tim begins doing the cystic fibrosis, respiration therapy, of back slaps, up and down my back, and side to side. This is a several times a day thing. And even yesterday. No, it’s not gone.
I am still having slight chest tightness. I still am having mild intermittent headache. Less, and less frequent.
Fever this past week is back to to .5 to 1.0 higher than normal, this to is intermittent.
I have gotten to the point, that I know it’s better to get the lungs moving, I exercise the 8th, 9th, and 11th. I am feeling better, and better.
I know better, so I am being more gentle on myself than usual. I am still going, and taking it easy.
April 13th, I cough for 2 hours, and I have an on going headache. It is not as bad as the original headache, on the 23rd, this one, since I am awake with it can describe it better. It is my brain in a vice grip, with a drill going through my forehead back to my spine.
And the 14th-today April 18th I have mild chest tightness, I can’t speak of any headache really, maybe just moments here and there, and I haven’t felt obligated to check my temperature. I have been exercising regularly, still not my usual load, or intensity.
I am blessed. Since the last week of March, I have been 98.5% sure that I have had, and do have the Corona Virus, CoVid-19. No, it’s not definitive. Either is the test. For the last 2+ weeks, I have felt strongly I would get the anti-body test, and now I am hearing of reliability problems with those as well. Although I am hearing that they are more reliable than the test itself. I am less certain as of today, if I will get it.
I’ve had 3 terrifying moments through it all, March 30th, April 2nd, and April 13th. Nothing I wasn’t able to handle, and nothing that was scary enough to warrant going to the ER.
Through this entire time, I have walked the dogs for roughly 45 minutes per day, I have worked in the yard, and gardened, daily. I got at least 3 x 1 hour sessions in the sun per week.
I immediately upped my Vitamin C to 2000 mg/ day. I basically increased my dose, until I got diarrhea, and then, I went to the previous dose.
When the market had Elderberry I began supplementing with that. I also began drinking about 4 ounces of tonic every night.
I got plenty of rest. More than I usually get. My body has been demanding it. Tea every night, until the last few evenings, now I just have it, if I feel that thickness in my throat in lungs, and my respiration therapy back slaps.
I still have a cough every once and a while, very intermittent, chest feels tighter than normal.
I took an easy day, today, mostly because I want to have a really good ride tomorrow. I feel, I am out of the woods, and can resume carefully executed normal exercise.
I should probably say, that sometimes my heart has hurt, through this time. I sometimes get what feels like heart ache, this has been a little more regular than normal.
All other systems have been a go.
It has been a long strange trip. I have learned a lot. I know it’s a numbers game. With a 30% false negative. That means, take the number of tests we have done, and divide it into 3, and then, add that in to the total number of confirmed cases. I also know, because it has been well documented that the number of deaths due to CoVid-19 are being over exaggerated in some cases, for hospital benefit. So the numbers aren’t as powerful, as we are making them.
I have known at least a dozen people since November, I am certain who have had it. With the high likelihood of me getting it from an asymptomatic person, through all the reading I have been doing since the beginning of March, I don’t feel it would be unlikely to say that half of our population has been affected. The average positive tests on asymptomatic people is 50%, with the navy ship, having a rate of 60% of positive tests showing no symptoms.
It’s not a big deal.
The scariest part of this are people who feel they are in power recommending mass vaccinations. Or recommending certificates showing antibodies. I was happy to see the opening of America plan put out by the White House didn’t suggest either of those things. We should all be very aware of people pushing that agenda.
I honestly think, people should be more scared of the stuff they are spraying in the skies. Which, I have noticed they are cloud seeding significantly less than they were before the pandemic. Having my canary blue skies in New Mexico makes my heart sing.
For 3 weeks I told myself I wouldn’t write. This last week, I have been more open with people I care about sharing my experiences. And contemplating writing about my experiences. And a good friend, and a Zoefitness Ambassador, said YES!! I should write about it, so less people would be fearful.
People have been surviving this more than likely since November. I have seen half a dozen people elicit symptoms since December, who no one even knew about the disease then. They are still alive.
I will say the last week of March, first few days of April all I wanted was an inhaler, and a Zpak.
One of the articles, of what has probably been hundreds, I have read was in the Medium, and talked about how the virus attaches to hemoglobin, by kicking off the Iron, and the iron, then causes a cytokine storm, damaging the organs. I have not been able to verify the article. The physiology was sound, and made sense. I will say that my 2 hour coughing episode, with my head in a vice grip, came the night of an iron supplementation. It is my hypothesis that the other two days I had set backs, it was highly likely those nights proceeded an iron supplementation.
The other really interesting part of the article was as a result of that reaction, the body produces more erythropoietin, thus increasing our red blood cells. I thought it was interesting that the days I felt better, and rode, I felt strong. Healthy, solid.
I told my friend, if I had to go to the hospital, I would ask for the RA drug, supplemental O2, and a blood transfusion. I told her that’s why Doctors don’t like me, and she laughed.
So that’s my story.
If you have questions, please feel free to ask. I’m happy to have shared my experience with you.
The one thing I definitely need to mention, and you may have noticed, is the worst of my symptoms have been at night. It’s like it waits, to come out and play at night.
Thanks for checking in. Be smart, be safe, exercise, drink lots of liquids, and get lots of vitamin D from the sun, without sunscreen. (sunscreen blocks vitamin production.
The only thing you have to fear, is fear itself.