Covid-19 is Quite Unpleasant: A Personal Testimony

Nurses COVID

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My family had a rough Winter after moving to Wisconsin last year; adenovirus, common cold, stomach flu, influenza A & B strains, and now this.

About 7 days ago the entire family came down with flu-like symptoms Mixed with cold symptoms. Very weird illness, didn’t bother going for testing and just isolated. Sporadic spikes of fever, chest tightness, piercing headache, body aches, sinus drainage, dry cough, and sneezing. The kids were the first to recover, followed by me today, and my pregnant wife is starting to feel a little better.

We had been shopping in a town in Wisconsin where people are showing up sick with covid-19. I honestly believe that vastly more people are sick than what is being reported due to a lot of people just staying home like we have. I doubt it will be possible to contain this, and herd immunity will have to come into play if the vaccine they are testing isn’t successful. I pray it is.

What a super unpleasant virus. I’m grateful my broncheactasis and asthma didn’t result in me needing hospitalization. Using my cpap without humidifier really helped dry out my lungs each night.

13 minutes ago, MunoRN said:

Mild to moderate cases are certainly similar to the various respiratory viruses that circulate this time every year, one thing that differentiates COVID is the duration of the symptoms, which is typically at least two weeks and up to 8 weeks.

That sounds about right. I’m on day 8 of symptoms and I still feel like I’ve been hit by a truck, but I am no longer getting worse.

My wife still says she doesn’t feel any better, but at least the chest pain stopped.

reports say children seem to recover faster.

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Update:

we still feel like dirt in day 9, but it was easier to breathe last night and I have some more energy now.

My primary care NP with the Department of Veterans Affairs had a nurse call in to check on my progress as I had notified them of my condition early on. Because of my history of lung problems and my symptoms I met the criteria for testing, but since we are getting better I declined so they could ration the tests for the more ill.

fun times! Stay safe out there.

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Day 13:

My wife still feels horrible, and my chest is still feels sore. We thought we were getting better for like a day before we started to feel more chest/lung pain. This garbage lingers. At least the kids all got better. We don’t seem to be getting any worse, but not significantly better either. For everyone’s sake I pray to God they develop a successful vaccine ASAP. I don’t want to catch this again ever.

This has been real motivation to go to nursing school. I wish I could be out there helping others instead of just caring for myself.

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Hi @anewmanx,

How do you know you have COVID-19? I get that the symptoms match up, but I don't know if that's enough to make a likely diagnosis. So far, most states have only been testing probable cases, the nationwide positive rate is about 13%. (33,277 positive tests /243,823 total tests https://covidtracking.com/data/). This means that, most likely, anyone with positive symptoms still probably does not have COVID-19. It sounds like you didn't get a test, so how do you know you have COVID and not some other thing going around?

In response to your previous post, taking care of yourself right now could be the best way you have to take care of others. Here's to hoping you a speedy recovery.

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Specializes in Vents, Telemetry, Home Care, Home infusion.

News stations reporting that virus in US hitting 20-59 harder. PA has 644 cases, most in 5 county Philly area.

Chester and Delaware Counties reporting coronavirus stats online bear out this trend: most cases under age 60.

DELCO:

https://chesco.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bce5af8a6f454ee78e00b5adc67f4c4a

CHESCO:

https://chesco.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/975082d579454c3ca7877db0a44e61ca

Hope your wife has been in contact with her OB/midwife.

You might want to view the COVID19 symptom tracker which will tell you type of care needed if any based on ones symptoms + when to seek emergency care. Severe illness seems to peak around 3 week mark post exposure.

Hope you all recover soon.

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31 minutes ago, NRSKarenRN said:

News stations reporting that virus in US hitting 20-59 harder. PA has 644 cases, most in 5 county Philly area.

Chester and Delaware Counties reporting coronavirus stats online bear out this trend: most cases under age 60.

DELCO:

https://chesco.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bce5af8a6f454ee78e00b5adc67f4c4a

CHESCO:

https://chesco.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/975082d579454c3ca7877db0a44e61ca

Hope your wife has been in contact with her OB/midwife.

You might want to view the COVID19 symptom tracker which will tell you type of care needed if any based on ones symptoms + when to seek emergency care. Severe illness seems to peak around 3 week mark post exposure.

Hope you all recover soon.

Much appreciated. Last night she finally had a good nights sleep and at least looks better

I’m by no means a health professional, but in desperation to see what we could do to help her situation I ran across this article.

https://emcrit.org/pulmcrit/cpap-covid/

I figured use of CPAP might be why I was doing better than her. I had a second mask sitting around sanitized so my wife put the machine on 3 times yesterday at a pressure setting of 13 cmH2O, gradually for more time each time. Her lungs immediately hurt when she used it the first time and her skin color got better. Going to continue using it as a supportive treatment just in case. So far we both appear to be very gradually getting better. We were likely exposed during a long shopping trip surrounded by people in Brookfield, WI the 8th or when I was at appointments all day at the VA hospital in Milwaukee the 9th. The headache started 3 days later give or take. What a headache. Like a knife in your head.

I hope and pray all of you stay safe. You’re very brave facing something like this head on. God protect you.

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Specializes in Vents, Telemetry, Home Care, Home infusion.

You have not posted about any contacts with PCP/ OB for your wfe. CPAP should only be used by person prescribed as CPAP pressure settings vary by individual, especially in a pregnant women. Please contact them TODAY as this is a safety issue and could jeopardize unborn child.

Per our websites TOS, we can not provide personal advice. Since OP not nursing professional/ student I've asked Admin Team to review for conformity to guidelines. Wishing your family improved health.

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Yeah, I wasn’t asking for advice. I also wasn’t getting into specifics of what providers we have or have not contacted. Just needed to vent and share what we were going through. It helps to not feel alone by interacting with others even through the internet. Social interaction outside of the internet is horribly restricted at the moment.

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Everyone is finally starting to feel better. Able to breathe deeply again.

Thank you all for what you do for society! This incident really reinforced my desire to apply to a demsn program.

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Specializes in Vents, Telemetry, Home Care, Home infusion.

Happy to hear your over the hump.

Best wishes choosing a nursing program. Check the ACEN Nursing Accreditation website for programs in your area

http://www.acenursing.us/accreditedprograms/programSearch.htm

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