Life in Time of COVID-19

On the other side: Gratitude, so much gratitude.

I am so incredibly grateful to be recovered, alive, and able to breathe.
I’m grateful to be employed and have access to healthcare, sick days, food, and shelter. I know that, sadly, this is a privilege and not the norm in this country. And it’s not okay.

Light in dark times

I am connecting from a distance. Phone calls, texts, video chats, and meme sending.
Hearing and watching spring birds. I may be a bird lady now; it makes sense.
The power of dog snuggles. While sick, my little Ella refused to leave my side. And Gus offered some much needed comic relief with his long grumbles and resting beagle face.
I am giving my emotions space to be. Some days are okay, and others are heavy.
Self-compassion. I haven’t had the strength to do yoga yet, and that has been taxing both physically and mentally. I’m letting go of expectation and understanding that these are weird times, and we’re all moving through it differently the best we can. My daily habits and rituals are fluid and can change one day to the next without judgment.

Hello, sweet friends. My how life has changed since the last time I sat down to write a post. I questioned even writing a blog, not truly knowing how to give words to the magnitude of what is happening all around us. The only place I can speak from is my experience, which is limited and ever-changing. So here’s an update and a few things that have been coming up for me.

First off, I was sick for two weeks with *presumed* COVID-19

It started on March 19 with fatigue, dry eyes, and then the following day, a low fever. I called my primary care physician, and she advised I quarantine (luckily I had been doing so already). Still, I would not have access to testing, despite underlying asthma and having traveled out of the country to MX recently. The following three days were the worst of it: fever, dry cough, fatigue, pounding sinus headache, and nausea. When my temperature rose above 101, and I started experiencing slight shortness of breath, I called the weekend on-call nurse. She told me I could go to urgent care for further evaluation, but would not have access to a COVID test unless I needed to be admitted to the hospital. I decided to take Tylenol for my fever and wait it out. I was terrified, but I didn’t want to risk infecting others, or in the case that it was not COVID, risking infection. The Tylenol helped lower my fever, and I started to feel better. On Monday, I spoke to my doc again, and she told me I was at the point where most patients continue to get better, or it could get much worse. For the next week, I was about the same: weak, tired with an intermittent low fever, and I lost my sense of smell/taste. Eventually, the temperature wore off, and I was just exhausted, and out of it, my breathing returned to normal with the help of my rescue inhaler. Slowly my energy, focus, strength, and senses have started to return. I’m now three weeks out and feeling almost back to normal, and giving myself lots of extra rest.