Late last week, I started feeling pretty sick. I went down the checklist for Covid-19 and all except two of the listed symptoms applied. So I did a Walgreen's rapid test yesterday, which came back positive.

Ironically, the past three weeks, I've been isolated, more-so than at any time since the pandemic started. That was quite coincidental and not intentional. I must have caught it from a McDonald's or other store cashier somewhere since I haven't gone anywhere else.

It came-on Wednesday night with a fever and terrible headache, nausia, and cold chills. Then my lungs got conjested and a dry (but still productive) caugh developed. I use an inhalant perscription for seasonal allergies and that inhalant helps a lot to make the caugh productive at getting some of the junk out of my lungs. By Friday, I was so weak that it was really hard just getting ready to leave the house to get the covid test. Every muscle feels very weak and all I want to do is to sleep at every thought if I get out of bed or expend any energy at all. Just doing the laundry had to be with carefully budgeted energy and with lots of effort when I finally did get the energy to get out of bed. My next big goal is to make it up to Walgreens again to buy an inexpensive O2 sensor. So far my lips haven't started turning blue. I am sleeping most of the twenty-four hour day, for now. Tylenol keeps the otherwise 100.7 degree temperature in the normal range. Other than the initial headache which hasn't come back, none of these symptoms so far seem too threatening. But all of them put together make a person pretty uncomfortable. I've had past cases of bronchitis and even walking pneumonia that were much worse than this, at least as things go so far. But I am feeling a little bit stronger today than I was yesterday. If it doesn't get worse, it'll just be a matter of riding this out at home until it goes away. If this is all the Covid-19 does to me for a few weeks, the threat isn't as big as I supposed it might be. I figured this would happen eventually since I didn't get vaccinated. I guess if it kills me, I'll have been wrong.

Anyone else here get the Covid-19? If so, what was your experience like?

See a doctor. Most people only get moderate symptoms, like you, but the illness can turn south very fast.

Don't take unnecessary risks.

Lot's Wife Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> See a doctor. Most people only get moderate
> symptoms, like you, but the illness can turn south
> very fast.
>
> Don't take unnecessary risks.

I agree absolutely.

(Two days ago my husband died, and although there was another precipitating process going on, in addition to that process he also died of Covid.)

Do not mess around with this. It is serious, and it can be the MOST serious thing of your entire life.

I'm sorry to hear about that, Tevai. I know how much you loved each other.

Lot's Wife Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I'm sorry to hear about that, Tevai. I know how
> much you loved each other.

Thank you.

I feel saddened that your husband died Tevai. I hope you have others in your life now who can surround you with love.

azsteve Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I feel saddened that your husband died Tevai. I
> hope you have others in your life now who can
> surround you with love.

Thank you, azsteve.

I am very fortunate in that I am surrounded by love from family and from friends.

Oh my, Tevai. I am so sorry to read of your tremendous loss.

It's good to hear that you are surrounded by love.

Good of you to still be checking in with us here.

Look after yourself.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/18/2021 11:23AM by Nightingale.

I too am saddened to hear this. I wish I had the words to say. Please do take what help you need and lean on those around you
{hugz}

Tevai, I'm so very sorry for your loss.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/17/2021 11:30PM by summer.

How terribly sad, Tevai! Sending you much love because I don't have anything else useful. Look after yourself.

Oh Tevai, I’m so sorry to hear that you’ve lost your husband. I’m glad you have family and friends supporting you and surrounding you with love. Please know that your friends in this community are holding you in our hearts as well.

azsteve, take care of yourself. Get lots of rest, keep up your hydration and get enough nutrition. I echo the others who have recommended seeking medical help. Covid is a serious illness, particularly with the new variants we are dealing with.

Ask others to help out with doing store pickups for you so that you don’t put yourself or others at risk.

Hope to hear of your recovery soon!

Tevai, dear, please accept heartfelt hugs and condolences. Not everyone is lucky enough to find the love of their lives; it must be somewhere beyond excruciating to lose a cherished spouse.

Tevai, I’m sorry about your husband. What a sad time for you. I’m sure you’ll miss him, and I hope you have many good memories of your time with him.

Hugs and a lot of love sent your way.

TG

My condolences and best thoughts to you and all your husband's loved ones!

So sad to hear that Tevai. You have my mist heartfelt sympathy.

Thanks for the Advice Lot's Wife. I'll be calling my Doctor on Monday to see what he suggests. I was originally going to call my doctor, just to be sure that I can get an appointment for my eventual clearance to return to work. But I think now that I should ask also if he thinks it's necessary for me to come in to see him sooner.

I don't know if there are any treatment drugs available or not. Hydroxychlorophen (I probably spelled it wrong) seems to be more of a political issue to many people, more-so than a useful treatmemt. I don't know what the truth of it is. So I don't have a high expectation that there is an available and effective treatment. This being a virus, I think that the only options are to wait it out until you either recover on your own, or go on a ventilator and then continue waiting it out until you either get better or die.

They have quite a few things that can help both with survival and comfort. Do NOT go out to get anything and expose others. Get anything you need delivered. Don't even think about going back to work. I only have one acquaintance that has gotten it and she and her husband are still dealing with problems three months later. The latest is an infected jaw. They got it at church (not mormon) and both refused the vaccination even though they had it available.

Good luck, I hope it isn't Delta. Keep us posted.

Susan I/S - I hadn't heard about the infected jaw. Now I'm kinda nervous.

About four days ago, I started having pain in my right lower jaw, a very sore throat, and pain extending up into my right ear. I called my dentist, and described the jaw pain (which is really nasty - I've been reduced to eating yogurt. She called in a prescription for Cephalexin - one of the very few antibiotics I'm not allergic to.

I can't imagine where I could have picked up cooties. We have been living like hermits for what seems like years. Other than my throat, jaw and ear I feel fine.

Guess I'll have to wait and see. We have an oximeter. And we are both fully vaccinated.

Well Catnip, seeing as you got your shot and have been very careful (as have we) I don't think it is 'Rona related. This gal has been really run down since getting it and still has the cough. They think she had a cavity and it just turned into a full blown root canal experience. I don't think she has been resting and taking care of herself like you should after an infection like 'Rona. A TON of denial even after her brother in law died from it. Her sister was very ill and is still in a rehab facility. They are in different states but they all got it in church. A TON of denial about the whole thing. She insisted it was all a hoax for a long time, refused to wear masks, the whole bag. Her Dr. has advised her, and her husband that had it, that they really need to get the shot. Just having it does NOT give you the greatest immunity especially against the new Delta. It will be interesting to see if she takes his advice.

Be careful when you go to the dentist. Be careful period!

One of the symptoms of long-haul COVID is dental problems. COVID attacks the circulatory system--in fact, it may be primarily a circulatory illness, for that would explain the brain symptoms as well as the heightened risk of DVTs and PEs that ensue and the dental complications.

In any case there are a cluster of symptoms ranging from teeth falling out to the exacerbation of pre-existing dental issues. That may be what your friend experienced.

There is a time sensitive window for people not yet on oxygen who might become very ill to administer monoclonal antibody treatment. At least call the doctor to find out exactly what and when to report in case you take a turn for the worse.

Most chances are that you will be fine, but for others, it can be very serious.

Plus you are now a harbor for potential new variants which might not respond to the vaccine. This is a serious issue for us all. Take care of yourself. Hopefully it won't progress in your case to any oxygen issues.



And Tevai! What a shock to hear about your husband. I'm so sorry for your loss.

tell us about getting vaccinated

In answer to your question Dave, at age 59 and being in reasonably good health still, I decided to not get vaccinated. The decision was related to strictly medical self preservation and had nothing to do with any political belief nor anything from the partison news channels.

On one hand, we have an experimental drug with no long-term trials yet. Through no fault of anyone's, we haven't had five years to long-term test either the vaccine nor the new RNA technology in it yet anywhere. With a statistical 97% chance of surviving the Covid-19 if I caught it, I decided that for myself, the safer route was to likely catch Covid-19 sooner or later instead of being vaccinated against it. Either way five years from now, I'll be older and more medically vulnerable than I am now, and probably in need of the vaccination then as long as nothing significantly bad about it develops between now and then. The sample size of the current Covid-19 long-term testing (in process now) is probably the largest initial sample size in history for the long-term testing of any drug ever. I think that the decision for all of us is a highly personal choice and that no one should be disparaged for their choice. If I were in my 70's or older or had significant medical problems to begin with, I probably would have been vaccinated as early as was possible. Since the vaccination is available to everyone who wants it, I didn't see any potential altruistic reasons to get vaccinated. Either the vaccine works or it doesn't.

The way a sixty-five-year-old colleague of mine at work said it, "I want to catch it. I want to get over it. And then I want to move on with my life".



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/17/2021 11:44PM by azsteve.

Thanks for your concern everyone, and for the good advice.

Someone else went to the store and picked up that pulse-oximeter for me. That's the little clamp that the doctor attaches to the tip of your index finger. They cost around $50. That joke about my lips not turning blue yet was about the oximeter feature. Just like a thermometer does with temperature, the oximeter gives you an exact blood oxygen level number. So you can arrive at the hospital if necessary, long before your lips start to turn blue from blood oxygen starvation. In this pandemic, everyone should have access to one. Fortunately, my oxygen level is in the middle of the normal range right now, even though I feel a tightening in my lungs now. To test the oximeter, I held my breath momentarily and watched it go down, and then hyper-ventilated and watched it spike to above normal. There are tables online that say exactly when the lack of blood oxygen starts to enter the danger zone and when the person's life is at an imminent risk of death or will likely die. I wanted that meter not so much now, but to be able give a doctor's office or ambulance an exact number to go by when we call, if things go that way in the next few days. I think that a blood oxygen deficiency is the biggest lethal symptom of Covid-19 as the lungs lose the ability to absorb oxygen and distribute it to the rest of the body. If the fever isn't too high and your blood oxygen isn't too low, then you should be safely recovering.

So you refused to get vaccinated ?

Once again, and a lot of people can't seem to get this, it's not a simple binary choice of death vs. full recovery. Even those who "recover" can experience long-term effects to their vital organs (heart, lungs, kidney, liver, and brain have been mentioned).

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/long-term-effects.html

https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20210712/long-haul-covid-recovery

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/coronavirus/in-depth/coronavirus-long-term-effects/art-20490351

Absolutely correct.

Lot's Wife Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Absolutely correct.

Ditto.

There's also the fact that choosing not to get vaccinated means risking the health of others, vaccinated or not, who may catch it from you. It is the pools of unvaccinated people in the States and globally who facilitate mutation and the emergence of new strains.

Yes, LW. I'm concerned about news this week that the US/Canada border is opening back up soon. Here in Canada a higher percentage of our population is fully vaccinated than in the USA. That's just one cause for concern. Even fully vaccinated folks aren't 100% guaranteed to be totally immune to COVID. But it's the best preventive measure at hand. Another is not mixing with unvaccinated people.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/17/2021 10:40PM by Nightingale.

You needn’t worry about unvaccinated Americans visiting Canada. Most of our unvaccinated folks wouldn’t be caught dead visiting “The Socialist Republic of Canada.” ;)

ETA: I just checked today's figures. Canada has 48.6% fully vaccinated. US has 49.0%



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/18/2021 03:00AM by Brother Of Jerry.

Brother Of Jerry Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> You needn’t worry about unvaccinated Americans
> visiting Canada. Most of our unvaccinated folks
> wouldn’t be caught dead visiting “The
> Socialist Republic of Canada.” ;)

Haha.


> ETA: I just checked today's figures. Canada has
> 48.6% fully vaccinated. US has 49.0%

Stats I saw today (from Sunday - 2 days ago)

Canada: 48.8%
USA: 48.1% (55.5% have one dose, apparently).

Canada is opening the borders for vaccinated US citizens in early August, I think it is. So far, Canucks not permitted to cross into the US? (Other than essential services both ways, I think - truckers etc).

Oh no. I just read a blurb about border workers possibly going on strike.

The challenges never end.

I'm hoping for a visit from my sis who lives in MN. Can't come fast enough for me.

Sorry you're ill, az.

I second LW's advice to seek medical advice. Don't mess about with an O2 sensor. By the time you need to utilize that you could be in trouble. Blue lips is not the best measure of when to call for help - it can be a later sign of significant oxygen deprivation, obviously harmful to you.

I'd call the MD's office rather than going in. They likely have COVID precautions in place and wouldn't want you to enter their waiting room. You must, must, must take measures to prevent potential spread of the virus, if that's what you have.

Depending on how ill you feel, and your symptoms, maybe you shouldn't even wait until Monday - perhaps your area has a phone help line for COVID queries or a nurse help line etc - if so, I'd utilize it to get the best advice asap. Both to protect yourself and others.

Another aspect of this is the potential that public health officials will want to try and find out where and how you contracted the virus. There is also the matter of perhaps needing to warn others of potential spread. If you were wearing a mask, or even if not, a brief encounter at a takeout joint may not be the time or location where you contracted CV, if you did. And if that is the source, perhaps that same employee is still a risk to other customers. That should be investigated and remediated if needed, asap.

As an aside, the OTC tests can give false positives. It's important to yourself and for public health reasons to confirm whether you do/did actually have CV.

You will also want to seek medical advice before, not after, you become more ill, were that to occur.

Make the call!

Hope you feel better soon.


Edit to add: As well as not going to the MD's office if you suspect you have COVID, you shouldn't be going out and about anywhere, including to the drug store to purchase the O2 metre, and the grocery store,etc.

Get medical advice to protect yourself and others.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/17/2021 10:59PM by Nightingale.

Oh yeah, one more thing: It's a crapshoot whether insurance is going to pay the med bills. If they do pay, you can bet it will be the absolute minimum, and that grudgingly.

https://www.newsweek.com/concerns-mount-over-looming-surge-bankruptcy-covid-medical-debt-soars-1599755

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/medical-debt-engulfing-more-people-pandemic-takes-its-toll-n1265002

Long-term covid symptoms and bankruptcy — a high potential price to pay for refusing **free** vaccinations.

I'm sorry that you are sick, Azsteve. I agree with the others to seek the advice of your physician or PCP. I also agree that you should not be going out to the store. You don't want to expose others. Have things delivered to your home, or failing that, do contactless pickup.

Oh, no Tevai. I am so sorry to hear of your loss.

azsteve, I hope your illness doesn't get any worse. This is not something to play around with. Having an Oximeter would be a good idea. You can get some very inexpensive, but effective ones, on Amazon. I got one for my Mom. She doesn't have Covid, but has congestive heart failure, so I figured it would be handy and it has been.

My Mom and I are both fully vaccinated. Being over 60, obese, with high blood pressure, diabetes, asthma, being prone to bronchitis, and also having sleep apnea, I really don't think I would stand a chance against that thing.

I was more scared of the disease than I was of the vaccine. I just hope it does actually work, at least enough to keep me safe from serious illness.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/18/2021 12:12AM by Greyfort.

Tevai, I’m so sorry to hear of your loss of your dear husband.

Azsteve, please take extra care for yourself; I agree with Nightingale; you should call your doctor as soon as you are able.

It's a good thing to have. It's easy to get anxious if you're feeling like you're getting enough oxygen. The anxiety just makes it worse. But then you take your oxygen saturation level and find that it's actually okay. It can help to reassure you.

When it comes to Walgreen's rapid Covid-19 testing, I think that the validity of the test results is quite solid. You go to the Walgreens website and click on a link to Covid-19 testing. Then you enter all of the relevant personal information and pick a Walgreens location there, near you. Not all of them do rapid testing. I drove an extra two miles to use a store that does rapid testing. There are no financial questions. If you put check marks in enough of the symptom boxes, you will be approved. About an hour or two later, you get an official approval letter via e-mail. You have to print that letter and take it with you when you go in for testing. On the website sign-up, you can only select next-day or later appointments. But after you have the letter, you can call the store and get an approval to come right in immediately or maybe the same day, depending on how busy they are. Bring your state issued ID and your medical/RX insurance card with you. When you get there, you'll probably have to wait in line at the drive through. They won't let you come in for the test. When you get to the window, they will give you what looks like a giant q-tip in a sealed package. You open it, swab it in each nostril for fifteen seconds each, put it back in the package, and give it back to them. A few hours later, you get an official letter via e-mail, from the testing laboratory, stating the result, positive or negative. They didn't ask for any money and said that the government pays for people that don't have any insurance. I had my insurance card with me but they didn't ask to see it. Maybe they already had it on file from a different Walgreens store. But they did require the approval letter and my drivers license.

Wishing you a speedy recovery.

All tests have a certain percentage of false positives and false negatives. I would ask your doc if you should do the slower test to confirm. The rapid test is slightly less accurate, basically trading accuracy for speed.

That said, you certainly have the symptom profile, so I’d say it is highly likely you are infected.

I had it in January during the local surge. I couldn’t keep anything down for two weeks. Sicker than I’d ever been in my life. It left a horizontal depression in my thumbnail. My lungs were messed up for a couple of months.

I know other people who had the same thing. The inability to eat is the common feature. They lost 10 or 20 pounds, as I did. I can see how the death rate would be higher in places like India and Myanmar. Death from dehydration could be a problem. My friend’s mom had an IV. She was so sick she was seeing dead relatives.

I took zinc and vitamin D to try and fight it. I don’t know how much it helped. It was like a bad flu, which I suppose it is, with a little extra punch that hits like George Foreman. But anyway I’m fine now.

I'm glad to hear it.

For many people, with Delta increasingly those in their 30s or 40s but even younger than that, "long haul COVID" lasts for months and entails permanent damage to lungs, blood vessels, even the brain.

You got off easy--and I'm glad of it.

Logically, if you put a bullet in a revolver and play Russian Roulette, your chances of survival are about 83% by the numbers. It's still a really foolish thing to do if you happen to fall in the 17% category.

No, it's a foolish thing to do for 100% of the participants.

I think so, but some people apparently take their chances in life based on statistics.

Tevai, I’m so terribly sorry for you loss. I hope and pray that you stay well.

Thank you, everyone, for your kind and caring support. It helps far more than you know, and I deeply appreciate all of your messages of concern.

I wasn't going to say anything, but azsteve changed my mind! :)

I decided that letting everyone here know what happened to my husband would help to halt Covid's further progress....at least on RfM.

Please, everyone: Covid kills--and when it does not kill, it seems to significantly physically harm, long-term, those who survive it.

Please do not gamble with your life.

This time around, this life you are living is the only one you have, and living the rest of it without disability is always, moment by moment, going to be an exceptionally good thing.

Thank you for caring about my husband's death, and know that I care about YOU.

Let's all get through this together, as healthy as we all can possibly be.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/18/2021 08:06PM by Tevai.

Tevai, it's lovely of you to think of us in your time of great loss. You continue to selflessly help others.

Thinking of you. Take care.

My younger sister got COVID about a month or so ago. She and I have been on the outs since my son was in the hospital for mental health issues a year ago. When she turned out to have COVID, then I took her food (stayed out of the condo, but left it on her patio and she knew). She tested positive and 2 weeks later, she tested negative. She works for the IRS and as soon as she was negative, she had to be back at work.

BUT she hasn't been careful and ended up passing out in her bathroom a week ago and split her lip inside and out, has stitches inside and out. Her whole face almost is black and blue.

Thing about the doctors is that they didn't want her in the office. The ER told her not to come in unless her temperature went over 100 I believe and her O2 sats went below 90%. BUT she was supposed to take Tylenol, so you don't know if you temp is over 100. Her O2 saturation went down to 89% and they told her not to come in. The medical community was not any help at all.

I heard on the news that there is a surge in Israel and in Britain (Britain has the most vaccinated). That scared me. I am not going to tell my older sister, who is a school teacher, about hearing that. So nothing is fail safe.

Again, Tevai, I am so very sorry.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/20/2021 08:17PM by Concrete Zipper.

He had to have a negative PCR test within 72 hours of crossing the border, so he had it on Friday afternoon at 2 p.m. and headed out on Saturday morning, crossed Monday morning. He'll be there at least 3 weeks. He just retired. His daughter owns a place on Cortes (spelling?) Island. He hasn't seen her in almost 2 years because of COVID. He has to stay at least 15 days and then when he gets back here, he has to quarantine for 14 days. I CHOSE not to go along.

I'm sorry about your sister, cl2.

I was ready an article in the Washington Post in which it was stated that if you have Covid, it can take a sudden, sharp turn. So you might be home for say, five days, with what you think is a mild to average case, and then you might suddenly need to be hospitalized. You can't take any case for granted.

I, too, am sorry about your sister, cl2.

I hope she recovers well, thoroughly, [at least relatively] "easily," and quickly.

I've read that scientists scrambled to create a vaccine for the Spanish Flu of 1918 with varying results.

I know my Pop's (1904) family would have given anything for it.

At that time, wagons rolled through the streets and men called,
"Bring out your dead."

kathleen Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> At that time, [Spanish flu] wagons rolled through the streets
> and men called,
> "Bring out your dead."

Same as in the Plague:

From the Net:

“Bring Out Your Dead” came From London's 1665 Outbreak. London suffered another terrible epidemic of the Black Death in 1665. By September of that year, thousands were dying every single week. ... Thus the “bring out your dead” call, perhaps now best known for its use in a Monty Python skit, was put into use."



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/20/2021 02:55PM by Nightingale.

Too bad people can't learn from the distant past, or relatively near past (1918), or from Monty Python movies, how dangerous these things are.

Pop lost his sister.