The week of February 17th was great, I was out and in front of customers every day, ending with my first meeting @ [redacted] on Kirkland on Friday the 21st. Saturday we dropped by Costco in Woodinville to pick up a few things, it was pandemonium as people were buying stuff to prepare for extended time at home. Crazy.
Sunday February 23rd I began to feel symptoms of a cold or flu, nothing specific just a general “don’t feel great” kinda thing. So I went outside and split three cords of wood. This general feeling of blah went on all week, with a dry cough. My wife had the same thing, but her’s ended and she felt just fine. We both got our flu shots several months ago, so I figured I was likely getting a common cold.
Monday March 2nd the coughing really got going and that changed quickly to a wet cough, the intensity/duration cranked up. Just to keep things interesting, diarrhea decided to join the party. Not pleasant and is it turned out, lasted throughout the week.
Tuesday brought the aches, but not like a normal flu. Usually you feel achy all over, get the shivers, etc. This was targeted and intense, shoulders got it first, subsided after several hours, then back took the brunt of it, followed by ankles, etc.. it’s like the virus goes after a part of you, does as much as it can, then moves on to another area. This went on until Thursday.
Throughout all of this the headaches were ever present, but they got super intense on Friday and Saturday. Fever was hovering around 100F on Friday, crept up to 102F on Saturday. These two days were a tsunami of symptoms, I binge watched HGTV and did nothing. Sunday afternoon the fever was gone and the coughing dropped by 75%, all that’s left is fatigue. I imagine I’ll feel just fine by the end of the week. This thing hits hard but seems to be relatively short in duration.
It’s worth noting that the medical professionals you rely on aren’t gonna help unless your symptoms are considered serious. Pneumonia and/or persistent high fever will get you plenty of help, otherwise stay home. In fact, if you do decide to see your doctor they’re asking that you call ahead so they’re prepared, I imagine they have you come in a back door or something. If they think you’re positive (note, there’s no test kits available) they’ll send you home and you’re supposed to monitor breathing & fever, if it’s apparent that you’re in distress they will hospitalize you. So, you’re sick and it sure feels different from a run of the mill cold or flu, but you have no way of knowing exactly what you have. The symptoms I had were consistent with the known Covid-19 symptoms, so I’m guessing that’s what it was.
What we did throughout the week was focus on self treatment:
- I drank about 2 gallons of water a day
- Breakfast was various fruits, lots of blueberries. Glass of pure Pomegranate juice, sometimes mixed with orange juice.
- Lunch was soup. I make my own soups and freeze ‘em, sure came in handy.
- Dinner was fish and green salads, mostly halibut and salmon.
- Before bed I took some melatonin. It really helps you sleep
Saturday and Sunday I did absolutely nothing, binge watched television and read my Kindle. Sunday afternoon was good as the symptoms were mostly gone or greatly diminished. In hindsight I shoulda done the complete rest thing much earlier, other than that I think the steps we took were sensible.