Today’s Symptoms In Quarantine

This is not good.

Long Island. NY. Grey. Cloudy. Dark. Weather doesn’t matter all that much to me right now… I don’t have the strength to walk downstairs.

This is without a doubt the worst day yet. A few days ago it was just an ache in my hip and knees. Odd, but whatever. I’m a runner and sometimes things ache and I just shrug it off as nothing.

Then each day became a parade of ever-changing symptoms. Cough for an hour. Vertigo next. Up in the middle of the night, wheezing on the floor. For a while, the inside of my mouth tasted like wet cardboard. Oh, and that weird sudden chest itching. It was a random hourly spin on the wheel-o-sickness.

I’m lying in bed right now under every heavy blanket we have and wearing a bathrobe. Still not enough. My actual temperature fluctuates wildly from 97.5 to 100+ during the day. I’ve sweat through lots of clothes.

The difficulty in breathing is not what you think. It’s not like a cold or congestion. It’s a constriction. More as if my diaphragm is no longer capable of making my lungs work anymore.

Lie on your back. Place a 30 pound dumbell on your breastbone. It’s that feeling.

I'm weak. Every part of me feels weighted. Like the lead x-ray vest at the dentist. Every joint aches. My sternum…