My corona virus experience, part 2
On Sunday my family and I all tested positive for COVID-19 following PCR tests the previous day. This is part 2 of my blog of my corona virus experience.
Monday
I’ve slept better now that my husband is back upstairs and not downstairs trying to isolate from the rest of the family. We’ve all slept in longer than is normal for us, but we’re all positive for corona virus and getting more sleep is a good thing for us all.
I’ve started to feel like I have a cold so I’m doing what I would do if I had a normal cold. I start off with a fizzy Vitamin C + Zinc drink before having a cuppa. I’ve started to cough a little but I can feel a little nasal drip so I take a decongestant. I’m feeling rough. Fuzzy head, a little dizzy and everything seems like effort so I take some paracetamol too.
While I don’t feel like eating, a wave of nausea tells me I need a little something to eat, so I opt for a little plain toast which almost immediately takes the nausea away. I know that I should eat something but all I can manage is a little more toast.
Knowing full well what corona virus is capable of, I’m hypersensitive to what my body is doing. I’ve got a sharp pain in my right food which feels like someone is trying to burn me with sunlight through a magnifying glass. The top of my right wrist is painful like an RSI pain. These pains go as quickly as they came on, thankfully.
This isolation is different to others we’ve experienced during national lockdowns. We’re not all in this together, its just our household. Unlike national lockdowns, positive test isolations means that we are confined to the house without the gift of the lockdown exercise golden hour, no walking the dog as we lost the last of our dogs earlier in the year and absolutely no trips to the shops for groceries or medicines. Thank heavens we have a garden to help the children to run off steam!
I feel like I need to retreat into a quiet space, so later in the day I take myself upstairs for a lie down and it’s not long before I drop off.
Covid or not, we still need to function. Clothes need washing and put out to dry, we all need to eat even if appetites aren’t what they are normally.
We were going to be having family around to make the most of a Cockerel that we’d bought from a local poultry farm, but what can only be described as a super chicken now needs eating amongst the 4 of us.
I set out to make a basic roast dinner knowing that we’ll have a bounty of leftover meat that’s going to see us through a few days.
Reassuringly the children seem to be coping well with the whole situation under the circumstances. We are managing to keep their body temperature under control, they only occasionally fall out with each other and they are as lively as ever. While 6 year olds don’t have the greatest of attention spans, I can see that my boys aren’t quite themselves so dominoes, jigsaw puzzles and games of ‘Go Fish’ are welcome distractions.
Once the children are in bed I’m ready to sit down but I am worried if I will manage to get to sleep having snatched an our later in the day. Before I get too comfortable on the sofa I start to experience pain to the left side of my chest. I try not to worry but have to admit feeling a little unsettled. By the time I go to bed, my chest isn’t bothering me anymore.
Tuesday
I’ve slept really well much to my surprise but during the night my husband woke me up. He was drenched with sweat so he’s obviously broken a fever and created a pile of washing at the same time!
I feel nauseous upon waking. I’m ready with the fizzy Vit C drink again, some tea and a little toast. My sense of taste and smell are ‘normal’ for me but I really don’t feel like eating much. I can drink tea for England but I’m just not feeling it today. A cup of tea on waking, a coffee later in the day and water in between.
My husband rings the boys school to speak to someone about the children and they are very understanding. I was concerned that I was in for another bout of home schooling but thankfully at this stage it’s not forthcoming. I don’t think the children would be receptive to it and I’m not sure I’d be capable of delivering it.
Today I’m really feeling out of sorts. My skin feels sensitive. My hair hurts and I don’t want to do much to it. I’m feeling quite irritable. In the morning I manage to get on top of some washing, stripping the bed and getting it on the line, but after lunch I snap at the children and feel it’s best that I go rest on the bed after I’ve made it again. I can’t lie on an unmade bed.
I sleep for 2 hours but I feel so much better for it. I come down and apologise to the boys and sit. I top up on paracetamol and decongestant, and while I wait to feel better, but I’m finding it hard to settle. Today is probably the worst I’ve felt so far.
The postman pops the mail through the letter box and it includes an antibody test for me to complete. It’s strange that my husband hasn’t been invited to take an antibody test especially as it was his positive test that triggered the sequence of events that’s lead to this point.
Bedtime isn’t affected by the 2 hours sleep I snuck in earlier and the children seem to be sleeping well too.
Wednesday
Another good nights sleep and I feel a little better. I still feel delicate and my stomach feels like the other side of a gastric episode for some reason. Gurgling and feeling sore after a drink even.
I know I’ll feel better after a shower. I have my usual shower routine. Wash face with face wash and let it sit on my face while I wash and condition my hair. Then after I rinse my hair I rinse my face. Then wash myself with shower gel on a body scourer and then turn the water temperature to cold to rinse for at lease a minute.
You might think it’s crazy having a cold shower finisher but there’s lots of evidence surrounding the benefits of cold showers increasing the white blood cells and stimulating your immune response – click here for more details.
I want to dry my hair, but my scalp feels sensitive still, so I find my diffuser attachment and give myself a tussled hair do.
As I’m sorting out lunch I get a call from NHS test and trace. Essentially they’re checking up on me. Checking that I’m isolating, checking how I feel, checking if I need any groceries or medication, checking if I need financial support. They remind me how long I need to isolate for and to make it clear on the circumstances that would mean that my isolation would need to go beyond the 10 days normally stipulated.
After lunch I decide to do my antibody test. Click here to read my account of taking the test.
Today I haven’t felt the need to take myself off for a rest but mid afternoon I’m feeling less than perky. I’ve noticed that I’m coughing less, but that being said my chest is feeling ‘heavy’ much like it would after a heavy cold. I am experiencing cold symptoms, but I’ve experienced worse. It’s the fatigue, light headedness and generally feeling unwell that’s made the difference and having the whole family home and in the same boat has meant that we’ve had to make the best of the situation.
I’m expecting to sleep like a log tonight and with everything crossed I’m hoping to feel much much better tomorrow!
To be continued……
Blog links
Click here to read about my Antibody Test experience
Click here to read about Losing my Senses
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