My COVID-19 Experience

As soon as news broke that this virus had made its way to the United States and was spreading quickly I knew I needed to make necessary preparations. I am immune compromised and I have struggled with asthma for most of my life. The first thing I did was cancel all cake orders for the last two weeks of march and all of April. Despite the media and government urging people to do social distancing I was still getting requests for orders for kid’s birthdays so I had to make a graphic to post on all my bakery social media letting people know I was high risk and would not be taking any orders until further notice. My boyfriend works in two hospitals that have had confirmed cases and he came home after the first few sick for a few days. Just like clock work I got sick shortly after and I went downhill fast. The worst part of all of it was the breathing issues. I had chronic asthma as a child and it was the only thing I had been hospitalized for. There was an occasion where my Mom had to rush me to the hospital in the middle of the night because my wheezing, gasping for air and cough were really bad. That was the hospital trip where I got my nebulizer. That is a special machine that helps put steroids directly into your lungs, I was connected to it for 30 minutes a day sometimes more than one time a day. I had issues with my asthma all the way up through high school. Once I got into college the issue became less and less and up until this past week it has been almost 9 years since I’ve even needed to use it on a regular basis, let alone every 2 hours. I recorded as much as I could of my symptoms, which you can read below.

I called a walk-in clinic and got their voicemail so I left a message letting them know I had a fever, cough and that I was having a very hard time breathing even while taking my albuterol inhaler every 2 hours. They didn’t call me back for almost 2 days, they ended up leaving me a message but I did not call them back. When they didn’t answer I called the CT Hartford Hospital COVID-19 hotline and told them I had a fever, cough and a very hard time breathing. The woman on the phone asked what my temperature was and I told her 100.9 and then she told me I’d have to be at 100.4 to qualify for testing. I know that didn’t make any sense, but I’m not going to lie - I had worked up mid panic attack that morning and I was crying on the phone with her and did not have the fight in me to ask her what in the world was she talking about? So I hung up with them and waited until my primary care Dr office opened on Monday and gave them a call. I had a virtual appointment with my doctor the same day and she prescribed me another inhaler to take along with my albuterol inhaler. It took few days for me to get relief from the breathing issues but I’m happy to say I am able to talk without getting winded again!

The most frustrating thing about this whole COVID-19 situation has been how there are so many people not taking this seriously and disregarding social distancing. In particular I have had to literally lock my older and vulnerable family members out of my apartment because I don’t want to infect them regardless of their lack of understand on the seriousness of the situation. My family aren’t the only ones who have been an issue, I see so many people (and their children) still going about their normal lives - playing at parks, getting haircuts. Idk. I want this to be over and I wish people would stop being so selfish and just stay home.

Below is the note directly from my phone that I have been keeping for the last 11 days.

March 25 - fever of 100.9, no appetite, diarreah

March 26 - very sore body standing up and moving takes a lot of effort and energy i have to sit, coughed a few times, no appetite but made myself eat when i finally got out of bed and took medicine but forgot to do temp first, i feel extremly feverish, diarreah is worse

March 27

-99.5 temp at 1am

-10:46am headache, general soreness and tired

-2:16pm so, so weak and head hurts stomach hurts just feel like complete crap

March 28

-woke up to lungs hurting so took inhaler

-been on dayquil and night quill plus inhaler every 4 hours and am feeling a lot better in all aspects except lungs i have to keep taking inhaler

-heart beating really fast just moving a little but at 3:06pm but u did clean my appt and i’ve had to use my inhaler 3x today so far not 4 hours apart

-3;34 INTENSE ringing in left ear, never heard ringing like this before lasted an entire minute until 3:35 i had to plug my ear a few times to get it to stop being so loud but i still hear it faintly

-3:46 chest still hurting and i notice when i take a drink of smoothie it hurts more but plain water it’s a little longer for the chest pain to come - it feels like it’s very deep down and it feels like not a lot of air in there

-3:48 took dayquil again (every 4 hours)

-6:22pm dry cough getting more and more

-6:22pm Inhaler three puffs all together hold it in for few seconds then let it out

-6:38 eating rice, carrots and shrimp first time eating today besides cup of coffee and few sips of smoothie also having coffee now, i think coffee is helping but it still feels like something heavy sitting on my chest

-10pm - went six hours with no fever meds and i’m at 99.8 and feeling feverish, hurting and headache

-chest felt better at 8pm when i did not re-take the dayquil but now at 10pm it’s starting to feel heavy again and i’m coughing more

-10:06pm inhaler 3 constant puffs

-12:36 inhaler 3 puffs

-12:54 inhaler 3 puffs

-4:39am i noticed laying down for psy few hours and pulling up my chest helped but now that i’m up

-fell asleep at 630am

March 29

10:20am-woke up with terrible feeling in chest i would desdctibe like anxiety and feeling of diarreah and when trying to go i could not

-temp 98.7 at 10:30am

-called walk-in clinic and left a message

-10:51am temp 99.5, same at 11:31

-2:08pm feel tightness in chest

-730pm my breathing became worse so i took inhaler and nyquil so i can sleep becuse i have to work tomorrow

March 30

-breathing issues waking up, took inhaler (7:45am) and coffee and feeling better

-10:22 inhaler, temp 99.5

-1:25pm 99.1 temp

march 31

-temp 99.5 8:50am, already took all asthma medicines but i feel naucious, tired and crappy

-11:30 temp 99.5

-12 out of work instantly went to lay down don’t feel good extreme nausea and feverish feeling

-2:15 temp 99.6

-6:18pm temp 99.6

-12:06 temp 99.8, 98.8 and 100 (took 3x) already took nyquil at 745, taking one 500 mg tylenol now

April 1

-got up and took tylenol and new inhaler plus albuterol , having tightness in chest this morning and like my lungs can’t fill all the way up again

-coughing more this morning

-11:50 temp 100.2&& took albuterol again

-took tylenol extra strength (500mg) at 12:05 and 330

-4:35 temp 99.3

-4:44 took albuterol inhaler not very helpful so took other one too

-5:48 breathing feels worse

-645-7 did the boiler citrus and salt truck and i think it actually helped!

-7:11 temp 99.3

-7:17 took tylenol 500mg

-8:52 have taken inhaler (both) in last hour and still having a hard time breathing

-10:29 temp 98.9, took nausea meds and tylenol 500mg

April 2

-5:19 temp 98.9

-730 took all meds - inhalers, nausea and tylenol

-8:46am pooping for first time since being sick

-10:01 99.5 temp

-12:44 did breathing in citrus and salt steam & took inhaler, tylenol and nausea meds && temp 99.5

-4:58 took inhaler and tylenol

-10:00 temp 99.5 taking tylenol, both inhalers, nausea meds, breathing has gotten worse over last few hours

April 3

-5:58am temp 99.3, took tylenol and inhalers

-3:05pm , took albuterol inhaler

April 4

-7:44pm temp 99.1 took 1000mg of tylenol cuz headache