The Surprising Symptoms That Are Still Lingering.
Around the 9th August 2021 I tested positive for Covid-19.
An experience I never thought I’d find myself living, happened to me nearly 3 weeks ago, I caught Covid-19 and I don’t think I fully comprehended what I was in for.
Before I knew what was going on, I was experiencing cold and flu-like symptoms that I’ve coped with countless times before; a foggy head, sensitive skin and swollen glands, nothing a couple of paracetamols couldn’t fix. My younger sister had also been experiencing these same symptoms a few days prior, she works on a makeup counter and had been feeling a little off, so you can see where this was all heading.
A few days into dealing with what I thought was the flu, I realised something just didn’t feel right, my body wasn’t coping and by day 4 I was feeling no better than I did on the first day. I was feeling hot every time I did something menial, exhaustion had also set in — the kind you feel when you’re pregnant, inexplicable, severe exhaustion. A day or two after that, I had lost my sense of smell and therefore my taste had also become hindered because of it. At the time you’re never really sure what’s going on inside of your own body, you become hyper aware of every feeling and occasionally you can make yourself believe things that may not be there in the first place. My nose was partially blocked and so I felt like that was the reason for my loss of smell, however, when my nose started to clear, my loss of smell did not return, and food was tasteless in my mouth. This was the turning point where I knew that what I was going through wasn’t a ‘normal situation’ and that I may be more ill than I first thought.
Dealing with Covid for the first 7 days was excruciatingly frustrating, my mind was foggy but I knew I wanted it to be over, the virus felt like it was attacking every part of me; as one symptom was relinquished from my body, another piece of it was torn into. One symptom that really shocked me was the nausea; I would stand up from sitting and it felt like I was going to be sick, and so I was hit with waves of strong nausea for a good week; it was agonising. Then there was the anosmia; smell blindness that stole my taste buds away from me, making even the smallest pleasures unbearable. Not even a whisper of a scent came off of anything I tried to smell, it was like living life in black and white.
It took a total of 14 days to recover from Covid-19, but not fully.
Symptoms are still lingering within me, extreme fatigue has been getting in the way of most daily tasks, and going out for a day can knock me out for ages after. When you read up about Covid, rarely does it talk about just how much of a toll it takes on your body, and will continue to do so for weeks after, I have now been recovering for almost three weeks and still I cannot muster the strength to get back to my daily routine. My anosmia hasn’t completely faded either; whilst my taste has returned as well as my sense of smell, it isn’t all there yet. Complex scents and tastes are still only feeling like one note, there are certain scents that I cannot detect such as most ice creams, apples and homely/peoples scents. It’s also transformed my taste buds as certain flavours, especially those containing vinegar, do not taste the same as they once did.
One last lingering concern is my menstrual cycle. Not anywhere have I found anybody talk about the effect it has on women’s periods, but it has completely thrown my cycle out of balance, something I never thought would be a side effect after contracting the virus.
All in all, having Covid was both better and worse than I thought it would be. I never had to experience the horrors that some unfortunate people on this planet have had to endure, I didn’t get the dreaded cough, my airways were clear and I never once suffered with a temperature. It did however completely debilitate me, stripping me of everything that made me feel human. Everything took a really long time to get over, which shocked me the most, and by day 6 I was pulling my hair out as my body could no longer keep up with my mind. I am extremely grateful to have made it through, with almost no long term damage, and it is most certainly an incident I would never want repeated again.
