I never thought I’d be writing this, but here we are. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t think of aiming to be the last person on earth yet to get COVID-19. That’s no longer the case. I thought of documenting this process as this is something I never thought I’d ever have to experience, but while I am here, it’s worth sharing my experience of having COVID-19 while being in a high-risk group with asthma.
This shows that no matter how safe you try to be, it’ll somehow find its way to you. I have been and still am wearing face-covering even if it is no longer required by the government. I have been actively avoiding crowds where possible, so I was shocked when I finally tested positive. Safe to say, I caught this from my partner, and it wasn’t when I was out and about.
The worse part of the timing of when I tested positive for COVID-19 was that the UK was going through a heatwave, making it the hottest country in the world for two days, and those days were the days that I tested positive and had my worse symptoms. To my luck, I got it barely a week after my birthday and while I was on my annual leave about to return to work. The day the symptoms kicked in was when I had to return to work. The timing couldn’t be any better. To top everything off, the current module I’m taking at university is extremely demanding where we have to do activities with the group daily, but given the different timezones of the group members, for me, it’d be 1.5 hours after work every day for a while, and it would sometimes overrun to 2 hours.
Thursday 14th July 2022
Owen started getting a fever and tested for COVID-19; the test result was negative. Owen’s fever got worse and developed throughout the day. Because Owen had tested negative, we both assumed I would be too because he was the first person with the symptoms, and I didn’t suspect that I’d catch this ‘cold’ from him.
Friday 15th July 2022
Today, I woke up feeling like I had a mild fever. We had booked for Dumpling’s annual jab at our local vet, but since Owen tested negative, I took Dumpling to the vet with Owen waiting in the car since he was the person with the fever. I wore a face covering while I was there.
My fever symptoms were mild throughout the day, and I still haven’t started taking any medications.
Saturday 16th July 2022
I had plans to go to the beach with my friends today, but I had to cancel it yesterday as they work with kids, and I thought just in case this will somehow turn into COVID-19 and we were getting false results. Regardless of whether or not this was going to turn into COVID-19, if I had a cold, the last thing I wanted to do was spread my virus to everyone else trying to enjoy themselves at the beach.
I stayed home while my symptoms were still mild.
Sunday 17th July 2022
I woke up feeling very weak and poorly, with no sign of high fever yet. The temperature didn’t help because it was hot while my body was producing even more heat due to the mild fever.
While the fever remained mild during the day, it got worse throughout the evening, and since I will be returning to work tomorrow, I asked Owen to check for COVID-19. He tested positive.
I was shocked.
I tested to check if I caught it.
I tested positive.
Monday 18th July 2022
I woke up and thought I would die, but I made it to work for the first half of the morning. My nose was blocked, I had a sore throat and a headache, my head was spinning, and my body was aching. I felt guilty for calling in sick after a week of annual leave. I could no longer power through the day, so I took the afternoon off.
The temperature was at its highest, 36 degrees, and it will worsen tomorrow. Can you imagine taking a lemsip in this weather? For those who don’t know what lemsip is, it is a medication we take when we’re ill. It comes in a form of power, and you have to add hot water to it and drink it like hot tea to help soothe the nose block and sore throat. While I must admit that it did help, drinking it in this heat is horrible.
Tuesday 19th July 2022
I have been waking up throughout the night, and I finally woke up at 6 am once just to have a lemsip, and at 6:30 am, I went back to sleep for another two hours before I woke up again for work. When I woke up, my head was spinning. Regardless of that, I still turned up to work.
The temperature was at the highest it has ever been in the UK at 40 degrees and combined with my body heat, I can’t tell you how much of a struggle it was for me to just try and carry on with my day; working, taking lemsip and trying to breathe and survive in this heat while living with other coronavirus symptoms.
I was sweating from the combined heat my body was producing and the heatwave we were (not very) blessed with here in the UK.
Today was the worst day of the symptoms, so it didn’t help.
Wednesday 20th July 2022
Last night was the best sleep I had in a while without having to wake up so many times for drinks and headed to the loo straight after for drinking too much water.
I woke up at 8:45 am and felt better than the previous days. I haven’t completely recovered and still have a sore throat and aches all across my body.
Owen tested negative today.
I went to bed with a bed cough and a headache.
Thursday 21st July 2022
I woke up at 8:45 am with a headache, but I slept better than on any other night, so I can’t complain. I’m definitely on the journey to recovery but slowly getting there.
Today my nose is blocked, my body is still aching, I feel fatigued, and I still have a sore throat.
Friday 22nd July 2022
Today, I still have the same symptoms I had yesterday, but at this point, I have already gotten used to it.
I finally tested negative today, but I don’t think I’ll be leaving the house yet for a while. It doesn’t sit right with me to only self-isolate for five days just because the government said so when previous we had to self-isolate for two weeks.
Saturday 23rd July 2022
Today, I feel like my sore throat is improving, but I still can’t breathe properly due to the blocked nose. My energy was extremely low today, and I had spent all day in bed because I had no energy for anything.
If I were to wake up, leave my bed, and try to walk, my head would be spinning, so I decided to spend the day just resting in bed while I could because I won’t have this luxury on weekdays.
From Saturday 23rd July to Wednesday 27th July, the symptoms have remained the same daily: tiredness, fatigue, and a sore throat.
