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 hurts. I have a headache behind my eyes as if I'm staring into bright light even when my eyes are closed.
The best overall description I can come up with is it feels like I’m slowly turning to stone.
As of today, I’m on hydroxychloroquine. That’s in restricted supply so I feel like I’m in a special club. I really hope it works. Of course, I also am on unending stream of Tylenol in an attempt to find comfort. When I turn my head, each neck vertabrae hurts.
My doctor has extended my quarantine another 2 weeks. Which means no one in my house is allowed outside contact. I really hadn’t planned on going more than a few rooms over. It’s exhausting.
On the topic of doctors, the test doesn’t hurt, but it ain’t fun. They push a 6 inch plastic q-tip straight back into each nostril. You feel it hit the back of what would be your throat if your throat went above your mouth. Had I sneezed at that moment, the sample would probably include part of my brains.
I’m in a somewhat higher risk group. I’m in my fifties and diabetic. I stopped going out before PAUSE was implemented, but still had to go out on trips to the supermarket and such, so I guess my source was one of those people not wearing a mask because they declared they weren’t afraid.
I’m afraid.
