Another first-person account of an experience with the Creeping Chinese Crud.
My first hints of the virus were on Tuesday 3/24. A little coughing, lots of mucous, etc. Not a dry cough. By Thursday, Mrs. Bulldog was saying “You’re coughing too much, I don’t want people on our walks to think you have it, so stay home.” Fine…I stopped taking walks. I had started having headaches (sinus) anyway. The headaches got worse. By Friday, my head was pounding, the cough was persistent, and it was dry. No fever. No rash. 3 days of (sorry) diarrhea began.
Over the weekend, the headaches intensified, the coughing got worse. I was more or less stuck on the couch watching movies, in a very annoyed frame of mind. By Sunday, it was suggested I get tested.
So we arranged it, and yesterday at 3pm the results were back. Positive.
Of course, by now the headache is starting to fade. It’s still there, but Tylenol keeps it reduced. The coughing is still there, but laying down helps it stop (don’t lay down too much…no need to promote pneumonia). I’ve been sleeping 10 hours a night. The really weird things, and there are 2 of them, are the general haziness of frame of mind – I can’t concentrate very long – and what I’d call “fever dreams without the fever.” I don’t know how to describe these, but I have the strangest dreams all night. Then I wake up in the morning very dehydrated and have to drink a pint or two of water.
My doctor voiced concern over the number of cases, but also pointed out that “it’s just a flu that is worse for at-risk people, you’re not at risk. Just stay vigilant, take care of yourself and you should be fine.”
So if this were the normal world – I’d take 2-3 weeks off from work, and get better. Instead, I’ve had 3 weeks off, and based on current protocol I will have AT LEAST (if my symptoms play out normally) 3 more weeks off (because my office says 2 weeks after cessation).
For what it’s worth – most people in the US, after 6 weeks off from work, will be broke. If it goes longer, who knows. At this point, the “cure” is worse than the disease. Trump is right to consider opening some counties as soon as possible – like any other pandemic, this has areas of concentration. We can limit exposure to those regions, and keep the rest of the nation working well.
Stay healthy. Stay vigilant. I do believe there is much more, politically, to play out. At this point I no longer believe it’s mainly a health crisis (if it ever was). It’s a political one.
YMMV, as always, but until the body count increases drastically enough to justify thinking otherwise, I couldn’t agree more. Glad to hear you’re feeling better, B-dawg, and thanks for writing up and posting the story of your ordeal for us. The more info we all have, the better off we’re going to be. In fact, the scarcity of reliable information out there is a big part of why we are where we are now.
- Entries
EDIT: I am IN NO WAY saying this is “just the flu”. For many it is way deadlier. I am merely discussing the wide variations amongst those who get it.
Henry at DP had a friend who also got it.
Thank God both are doing well.
For many it is a very bad flu, especially as you get older. For many younger people it is a bad flu. Under 25 seems mostly to be just the flu OR are never symptomatic.
It is strange how this seems to have a correlation with Immune Deficiency Diseases in that the more compromised the Immune System the worse it seems to affect people.