Six weeks of Covid

It is late, late on a Monday night. The night following the first time we moved our rig all by ourselves. It has been over eight months of moving every three week, still it was the first time of moving by ourselves. 

Augie, our trusted man with the truck, moved back to Texas on May 9th. 

Wide awake, though exhausted, like I have been every night in forever. Sleep always escapes me in the wee long hours of the night, I am perpetually living in a fog.

I have been have been sick for weeks, at least since the beginning of April. Much longer than how long the Covid19 illness is suppose to last. Having had asthma for almost two decades, I have my own nebulizer machine. 

10 coronavirus symptoms you may not be aware of, from malaise and dizziness to digestive issues

As soon as I began to feel a bit short of breath, I contacted my doctor and was able to get a refill of Albuterol sulfate without an appointment, thanks to the whole pandemic thing. It took almost two weeks to get that prescription filled. Thankfully, I still had some Albuterol left over from the last time I had pneumonia.

It started off with just that, shortness of breath. As long as I laid down I did pretty well. If I didn't talk, I didn't cough. I could almost pretend I wasn't sick. For two weeks I stayed in bed and slept. Occasionally I watched television or played Animal Crossing. 

I could still walk out to the couch and sit out there for a little while, then go back to bed. Nothing so bad to make it feel like this dreadful terrifying pandemic going around. 

Until I stood up. And then I couldn't catch my breath.

Around the second week, husband brought my computer into the bedroom and set it up. At last I had access to the whole wide world. At least what I could reach at RV park internet speeds. 

Well, there were the three days I was suspended from Twitter (for the first time in 11 years, by the way) because Luci Kitty laid down on my keyboard while I was logged in. As I slept, he managed to spam tweet me into a 3 day lockout. 

Then, one day, this is almost three weeks in to this sickness now, I couldn't even stand up. Literally. I was so weak and shaky, my husband had to carry/drag me to the bathroom multiple times. 

My arms were too heavy and painful to even lift them up off of the bed. 

For a couple of days they felt too weak to even hold up my Nintendo Switch (birthday gift from my 'essential' Target worker of the North) to harvest my virtual oranges and cherries. This was a tragedy!

My whole body itched so badly I wanted to rip my skin off. My husband literally got rolls of cotton wrap.  We covered the bed in towels and poured coconut oil over my legs and wrapped them up  just so I could sleep. This was all at between the third and fourth week. 

Since I have fought eczema for years, it never occurred to me that the severity of this rash could actually an other symptom of the COVID disease. 

Are COVID Toes and Rashes Common Symptoms of the Coronavirus?

Still, with the use of the nebulizer, as long as I stayed in bed, my breathing was okay. By this time, we had purchased one of those finger 02 sensor, just to be sure. My oxygen levels have never fallen below 95%.

Along with the weakness and body aches, came the headaches, The only thing that would touch them was ibuprofen. I know I was not supposed to take that, but I was not able to swallow the giant Tylenol pills. The headaches were just so bad, I didn't care and took took ibuprofen.

Updated: WHO Now Doesn't Recommend Avoiding Ibuprofen For COVID-19 

At about the end of the fourth week I started trying to spend more time up our of bed. I could only be up about an hour before I just had to lie down again. And, still the shortness of breath held on. Though I only got snippets of time out of bed, I did manage to sew up some masks during this period of time.

The seven county Bay area of California has finally opened up the parks so people go sit in their cars and watch the sunsets. Social distancing strongly enforced. We drove over to one of my favorite places, RANCHO SAN RAMON COMMUNITY PARK. 

Having not been there in months due to #ShelterInPlace it was so nice to just sit there and watch the sun glistening through the wildflowers. The red winged blackbirds reminded me of being back in Minnesota. Our home on Moon Lake used to just be surrounded by blackbirds. 

I miss their songs. And frogs that serenaded us all spring long. 

It was so nice to get out of the RV and just breath the fresh Spring air.




Then, unbelievably, I hit the nausea and vomiting phase! 

WTF universe! 

After those wicked hours passed, I slept for the next eighteen hours straightish. A couple more days without getting out of bed at all. 

This stuff is relentless. 

Finally, I decided that even though my breathing issues have never been serious enough to think I needed to go to the hospital, I thought perhaps I should talk to a doctor.

Starting in June, they will try and find me a doctor! Since I don't think it is life threatening way more people are ahead of me. 

**Update: July 20th. After a round of blood tests for regular physical, doctor comes up with COVID-19 diagnosis from back in the spring. Hopefully it is enough to give me some immunity going forward.

Once I was back on my feet again, or at least back out to the couch more than the bed, I tried to do a bit of walking. Just once around the RV park and I was completely breathless.  I did manage to take a couple of photos of what has become the new COVID-19 testing site.

Not being able to walk but a few yards made me feel lazy and useless like I had been completely wasting my time and not just recovering from having been dreadfully sick. After all, just weeks earlier, we were out walking two to three miles at a time when taking Rocco for his walks.

It is way to easy to hear voices in your head tearing you down, even when you are sick in the midst of a worldwide pandemic.

Then there are the people online on more than willing to jump right on board and join into that destructive band of drummers. No science, just opinions! 

All of which will lead to one of my favorite quotes of all time from the TV series Leverage:

Hardison: “...there might be some side effects.”

Parker: “Like what?”

Hardison: “Organ failure, death, deathlike symptoms.”

Parker: “I vote for plan B.”

But the trolls persist.

"It's a hoax...no one actually knows 

anyone who has actually gotten sick."

"Don't wear a mask. It will MAKE YOU SICK!"

Or, my personal favorite.

"Just let the weak DIE!"

After another two weeks, I am starting to feel almost normal.

Somewhere in the midst of this we had Easter, my birthday and Mother's day. Like everything else happening right now, they just got lost to this pandemic world.

Wear a mask, because this is what being 

NOT so SICK you have to be hospitalized with 

COVID-19 is like.