My wife’s coworker’s wife works in a hospital, and that was enough for us to get it as soon as everything began shutting down here in mid-March. I’ve never really had eye issues so at the time I was convinced I had pink eye, and no one had ever suggested to me that eye infections could be symptoms, so I went to urgent care for antibiotic drops. (For what it’s worth, the doctors didn’t tell me it could be related on that visit either.) I was told it doesn’t quite look like pink eye, but I was prescribed drops anyway as a precaution, and they didn’t help.
A couple days later I lost my sense of smell, and my sense of taste became kind of funny - I was still able to taste, but it was like there was a second, foul taste in my mouth at all times. At this point I recognized it was likely covid, and was really worried because my wife is asthmatic. A couple days later I got one of the worst coughs I’ve had in my life, my throat got totally torn up, while she was totally fine. She ended up being totally asymptomatic. I got a little feverish at one point, but that wasn’t bad at all, and I never had any issue with shortness of breath.
I think March 28 or 29 was the last day my cough was really there, and the foul taste left my mouth and my tastebuds went fucking haywire oversensitive for a full day. Like, I was feeling nauseous because the inside of my own mouth was tasting too strong. Then when that died down I got a bitter metallic taste in my mouth for maybe a day, and then my sense of taste was normal again.
So at that point, my eyes are still kind of fucked and I still can’t smell anything, but whatever, covid beaten. That wasn’t too awful.
April 2, I started getting lightheaded, and over the next couple days that gradually gets stronger and I start feeling weak all over. I don’t really know a good way to describe it other than weakness, it’s like all my muscles are drained at once. Not really centralized anywhere, but a little more noticable in all four limbs and in my chest. When I realize this isn’t going away I get scared and go to a hospital for the first time in my life. After a couple hours I get discharged because they find nothing wrong.
The next day it’s still there and I call my gp. Can’t come in because I’ve just recovered. They prescribe stuff over the phone that doesn’t help. At this point, I still haven’t seen any news that covid can cause long-term symptoms and I feel terrified. Because I’m scared, I admittedly call my doctor more than I should about the medicine not working. When they finally let me back in, the very first thing they do is give me a psychiatric profile where they ask me questions like if I ever hear voices other people can’t hear. I totally feel like a lunatic, in addition to feeling awful physically.
Decide to switch doctors, do tons of tests. Everything turns up like I’m healthy and the new doctor slowly concludes it’s 100% an anxiety problem. My eyes still feel infected, diagnosed as allergies. Go through increasingly strong allergy drops which don’t help, eventually I stop pressing on this because it’s going nowhere.
The symptoms have changed to waxing and waning, where I go through good weeks where I feel amost normal and bad weeks where I feel awful. I also have weird issues with numbness - my limbs fall asleep really easily and sometimes take a while to recover. Smell is starting to come back, in that now I can tell when there is a strong smell, but not distinguish.
Switch doctors again and I am definitely a crazy person, and in my (physically) good moments I question whether I’ve imagined the entire experience.
So tonight I’m typing this up while lightheaded and feeling like I’ve been hit by a truck, and my eyes are visibly red. The past three weeks have been bad. I don’t feel confident I’m sane, and I don’t have much optimism for this getting resolved anytime soon.
This turned into an essay:
My wife’s coworker’s wife works in a hospital, and that was enough for us to get it as soon as everything began shutting down here in mid-March. I’ve never really had eye issues so at the time I was convinced I had pink eye, and no one had ever suggested to me that eye infections could be symptoms, so I went to urgent care for antibiotic drops. (For what it’s worth, the doctors didn’t tell me it could be related on that visit either.) I was told it doesn’t quite look like pink eye, but I was prescribed drops anyway as a precaution, and they didn’t help.
A couple days later I lost my sense of smell, and my sense of taste became kind of funny - I was still able to taste, but it was like there was a second, foul taste in my mouth at all times. At this point I recognized it was likely covid, and was really worried because my wife is asthmatic. A couple days later I got one of the worst coughs I’ve had in my life, my throat got totally torn up, while she was totally fine. She ended up being totally asymptomatic. I got a little feverish at one point, but that wasn’t bad at all, and I never had any issue with shortness of breath.
I think March 28 or 29 was the last day my cough was really there, and the foul taste left my mouth and my tastebuds went fucking haywire oversensitive for a full day. Like, I was feeling nauseous because the inside of my own mouth was tasting too strong. Then when that died down I got a bitter metallic taste in my mouth for maybe a day, and then my sense of taste was normal again.
So at that point, my eyes are still kind of fucked and I still can’t smell anything, but whatever, covid beaten. That wasn’t too awful.
April 2, I started getting lightheaded, and over the next couple days that gradually gets stronger and I start feeling weak all over. I don’t really know a good way to describe it other than weakness, it’s like all my muscles are drained at once. Not really centralized anywhere, but a little more noticable in all four limbs and in my chest. When I realize this isn’t going away I get scared and go to a hospital for the first time in my life. After a couple hours I get discharged because they find nothing wrong.
The next day it’s still there and I call my gp. Can’t come in because I’ve just recovered. They prescribe stuff over the phone that doesn’t help. At this point, I still haven’t seen any news that covid can cause long-term symptoms and I feel terrified. Because I’m scared, I admittedly call my doctor more than I should about the medicine not working. When they finally let me back in, the very first thing they do is give me a psychiatric profile where they ask me questions like if I ever hear voices other people can’t hear. I totally feel like a lunatic, in addition to feeling awful physically.
Decide to switch doctors, do tons of tests. Everything turns up like I’m healthy and the new doctor slowly concludes it’s 100% an anxiety problem. My eyes still feel infected, diagnosed as allergies. Go through increasingly strong allergy drops which don’t help, eventually I stop pressing on this because it’s going nowhere.
The symptoms have changed to waxing and waning, where I go through good weeks where I feel amost normal and bad weeks where I feel awful. I also have weird issues with numbness - my limbs fall asleep really easily and sometimes take a while to recover. Smell is starting to come back, in that now I can tell when there is a strong smell, but not distinguish.
Switch doctors again and I am definitely a crazy person, and in my (physically) good moments I question whether I’ve imagined the entire experience.
So tonight I’m typing this up while lightheaded and feeling like I’ve been hit by a truck, and my eyes are visibly red. The past three weeks have been bad. I don’t feel confident I’m sane, and I don’t have much optimism for this getting resolved anytime soon.
tl;dr I’ve had a bad time with it.