I have Covid

Three weeks ago today I had at the time I felt was a sinus infection. I get them every year at season change. Strong headaches yet I still could function.

Luckily or maybe not so it was my wedding anniversary that following weekend and my wife and I had a friends three season cabin and a long 5 day weekend to recover.

My wife also being sick we layed low and made the best of a sick 30th anniversary.

On Sunday I woke up with a fever. The headache had grown into an all day affair. The best way to describe it is having a railroad spike inserted into my temple and piercing my other temple. I could barely function. Yet I could taste and smell though both senses were distorted. Any OTC meds taken did little to help. My only reprieve was sleep. Of this I was out about 12-16 hours a day.

Monday I had to go to work. My fever was relentless the night before and I went from completely covered and freezing to tearing the covers off as I was overheated. The next day work lasted 45 minutes. I had no focus or concentration. Things required to do my job.

I went home and slept the morning away. I was gonna visit my 87 year old mother that weekend so I went and took a covid test that afternoon still thinking – no way. But better safe then sorry.

Terrible test. Almost puked as they scraped my brain so I felt.

This week of sickness was bad. Headaches so intense I couldnt function at all. Tuesday night I tried making kindling in the snow and cold. I couldnt breath the cold air and coughed and gasped for air. At this point I finally realized the cold hard truth without a test result. I have covid.

I missed the week of work. Tested positive and was locked down with my wife who had lesser symptoms but still was pretty sick in her own right.
Next week I was cleared to get out of the house but with covid headaches still present and very little energy for anything I missed work until Wednesday. I worked half days to finish the week but hindsight this was foolish. In a last gasp of covid ass kicking I got three days of diarrhea. Yaaaa.

Finally today I feel O.k. though many symptoms remain. I can function again. Worse sickness I ever had with only Lymes disease being close as it took awhile to diagnose.

All this is meant as a public service to my IDO family.

Do not take covid lightly.

It’s not a cold or the flu.

It’s a complete ass kicking.

Note that I am middle aged
5’10, 190 pounds. Very active and pretty fit with no underlying health problems.

TAKE IT SERIOUSLY OR IT WILL TAKE YOU DOWN.

Glad you’re feeling better. I just got an email from a friend yesterday in pretty much the same tone. It hit her like a semi and was the worst she’s ever felt. Her hair hurt and she slept 14-16 hours a day. It definitely helps to hear the warning from people you know and trust.

Glad to hear you are bouncing back. It’s out there for sure.

My neighbor and wife that are in generally poor health and go no where, have it from one trip to Costco. We have been putting dinners on there doorstep after we heard that they hadn’t eaten in a few days.

Glad you’re doing better.

Any idea how you got it?

Oh man. Sounds terrible. Let this post be a lesson to those that still consider it to be a minor problem. Thanks for the information and I hope you continue to improve.

Ok I’m confused here… Tuesday the 27th you made a post early morning you were going ice fishing…

Coletrain27 wrote:

Ok I’m confused here… Tuesday the 27th you made a post early morning you were going ice fishing…

Yup. I had my moments. They didnt last. Btw: I can first ice fish from my living room. All my ice gear and the minnows are still were I left them that day

Kinda like the idea of going to work last week. Once I was there I realized it was a bad idea and I wasn’t ready.

Bass Thumb wrote:

Glad you’re doing better.

Any idea how you got it?

No clue. We cannot figure out where

From the CDC:

“The overall cumulative COVID-19-associated hospitalization rate through the week ending October 24, 2020 was 199.8 hospitalizations per 100,000 population.”

Also know some younger folks who got it and was out a month. Serious ass kicking. Glad the vast majority of it doesn’t require hospitalization.

It seems to be flying around really bad right now. We know several people who had it and many many directly exposed. Rough winter ahead.

Basically every state that borders MN is in miserable shape right now. The Dakotas are 1 and 2 based on infection rate and Wisconsin is number 3. Iowa is also in terrible shape

Hope you and your wife get back to 100% soon, that sounds very miserable.

Just for you bigpike I hope the Packers win today to brighten your day!

Best of wishes for the two of you bigpike. Get well and then go fish. And work.

Yikes bigpike, that sounds rather frightening. Glad to hear you and the Mrs. have the worst behind you…hopefully.

I was rather sick about a month ago and believed I had it. I didn’t have the migraines but couldn’t breath. Got so bad I drove myself to the ER on a Sunday expecting to end up in ICU with a vent tube.

Thankfully it was not covid, but I did get tested…and yes, unpleasant is an understatement.

I am rather surprised it caught up to you living in a somewhat remote location compared to the more urban centers with so many more people out and about, in and out of stores.

I’ve felt a little less worried where I live being a small town but the local VFW closed last week due to a positive employee. So obviously, no place is immune.

Since mid summer I limit my outings to just grocery/hardware/liquor stores. In and out, no more dining out or camping on bar stools.

Walleyestudent Andy Cox wrote:

Yikes bigpike, that sounds rather frightening. Glad to hear you and the Mrs. have the worst behind you…hopefully.

I was rather sick about a month ago and believed I had it. I didn’t have the migraines but couldn’t breath. Got so bad I drove myself to the ER on a Sunday expecting to end up in ICU with a vent tube.

Thankfully it was not covid, but I did get tested…and yes, unpleasant is an understatement.

I am rather surprised it caught up to you living in a somewhat remote location compared to the more urban centers with so many more people out and about, in and out of stores.

I’ve felt a little less worried where I live being a small town but the local VFW closed last week due to a positive employee. So obviously, no place is immune.

Since mid summer I limit my outings to just grocery/hardware/liquor stores. In and out, no more dining out or camping on bar stools.

This is wierd to me also. We had many tourists up here all summer long and very little covid. Then summer left and so did the tourists for the most part and now we are getting hammered as a community. Luckily no deaths so far and I know some compromised people who have gotten it.

Glad your feeling better bigpike . 3 out of 4 of us in my family here in wis just had it . My wife , myself , and 17 yr old son . 15 yr old daughter somehow didnt get it . None of us were as sick as you , but it sure disrupts everything in your life.

I’m on my last day of quarantine today.
I thought I had a regular cold with a rocking headache until I learned that I had been exposed.
Wife got it too, she got the same headache with little cold symptoms.
We are both pretty young and in decent shape.

I’m glad your and your wife are doing better. It sounds like hell.

I gotta ask though, why with knowing Covid is running rampant around the country, would you go into work being that sick? Even in a “normal” year why would you do that?

Last Friday night all of a sudden I couldn’t taste or smell anything. I woke up Saturday early to go hunting and I couldn’t taste my coffee. I sat for a while and decided I better head home because something just isn’t right. I got home and just sat at home the rest of the weekend. Monday morning came and I still just didn’t feel right. I called in sick to work with what I thought was just a cold (I never call into work) to just rest for another day and go to work Tuesday. Well, I decided Monday morning to go get a covid test and good thing I did because I tested positive. The only symptoms I had were congestion, a slight cough, and loss of taste and smell. I never had a fever the entire time that I have had covid. I am going on 10 days since I lost my sense of smell and taste and I would say I’m still at a 80% or so loss. Hopefully my sense of taste and smell comes back within the next few weeks.

blackbay wrote:

I’m glad your and your wife are doing better. It sounds like hell.

I gotta ask though, why with knowing Covid is running rampant around the country, would you go into work being that sick? Even in a “normal” year why would you do that?

I was thinking the same thing. Why chance it…unless you work alone.

We wear masks and practice sociol distancing. I generally work at my own station with far more than a 6′ window. I have my own computer station and I cant afford to take off for every sniffle or runny nose. My work ethic wont allow it. I have never missed more than 1 or two days of work in my life until Covid. That being said when I did feel real sick I went home. I had the test. Stayed home as was requested until the county cleared me even 5 days longer not by choice. Furthermore nobody from my department or family or friends has gotten sick as a result of my actions. Not sure how else I can answer that.

Good luck to you in your decisions if you are in the same position.

I’m also wondering why you went into work with obvious Covid symptoms? Seems selfish to put others at risk. The chances you spread it to someone else are rather high.

Gitchi Gummi wrote:

I’m also wondering why you went into work with obvious Covid symptoms? Seems selfish to put others at risk. The chances you spread it to someone else are rather high.

Lets not turn this into a bashing thread. The man explained himself and wrote a thoughtful post with the intention of giving advice and helping.

If you want to look at it like he did something wrong then take that as your lesson from the post

Good luck. Not gonna respond. Not going to read.
Stay healthy.

Everyone take it from me. I would have went to work any other year thinking what I had was just a cold. I just had a hunch that I should go get tested because I lost my sense of smell & taste. Any other year I would have just went to work and battled a cold just like any other day. Learn from me, this year is different, if you feel sick go get tested.

When I was sick it ended with me feeling like I had a sinus infection. I find it interesting you said that. Still as I said before the antibody test 4 months later was negative for covid for both my wife and I, so I still have to go with I didn’t have it. Even though I never had an illness quite like that before.

The faster it spreads the faster this is over.

I’m glad to hear you recovered from the new strain of cold, and I’m sorry to hear that you were one of the rare exceptions to catch it and show any symptoms.

It doesn’t sound any worse than the bad strains of cold we’ve all experienced going around. I’ve never missed a week of work but there’s been plenty of times in the past where a coworker missed a week after catching it and being hit hard by it.

Coronavirus cause colds. This is a fact. Novel means “New.” This is thus a new strain of cold. A bad cold sucks and is nothing to sneeze at, no pun intended.

But we’ve never shut down the economy, put millions out of work, closed businesses, made social distancing and masks mandatory over a bad strain of cold going around.

Perception is reality and the media has warped people’s perception of this. Had you not been told this is something different than just a cold I’m very confident you would’ve viewed what you had as a bad cold….because that’s exactly what it was.

Thank you for reminding us of where you stand on the handling of the pandemic joneser. It had been a few days since the last time

Joneser why don’t you do your part and purposely get infected to speed the herd immunity along?(sarcasm)

joneser wrote:

The faster it spreads the faster this is over.

I’m glad to hear you recovered from the new strain of cold, and I’m sorry to hear that you were one of the rare exceptions to catch it and show any symptoms.

It doesn’t sound any worse than the bad strains of cold we’ve all experienced going around. I’ve never missed a week of work but there’s been plenty of times in the past where a coworker missed a week after catching it and being hit hard by it.

Coronavirus cause colds. This is a fact. Novel means “New.” This is thus a new strain of cold. A bad cold sucks and is nothing to sneeze at, no pun intended.

But we’ve never shut down the economy, put millions out of work, closed businesses, made social distancing and masks mandatory over a bad strain of cold going around.

Perception is reality and the media has warped people’s perception of this. Had you not been told this is something different than just a cold I’m very confident you would’ve viewed what you had as a bad cold….because that’s exactly what it was.

Everyone has their own situation regarding their job and choices they have to make. I thought this was a very insightful post with what I thought the obvious intent of helping out another person if possible, so I going down the road of asking why would a guy go to work should be a conversation for a different time. I know I would’ve done the same thing as bigpike as I simply just don’t miss work for being sick. The last time I did was about 21 years ago and Dad had to milk cows alone that night.