On February 20, 2020, I returned from a business trip to Italy. This was before there was a lockdown of the country and everything there was normal. I was in Rome, which was not the epicenter of the outbreak there (that was in Milan about 250 miles north). The weather was beautiful, blue skies, warm temperatures, and the city was as magical as ever.
My flight back landed in Los Angeles at about 3pm, and by the time I was going to bed that evening, at about 10pm, I felt unwell. My first symptom was fever, not particularly high, but nevertheless sufficient to make me feel weak, particularly in the legs. As is my usual when I am feverish, I put several extra blankets over me and attempted to sweat it out. I had a full night sleep and woke up in a puddle of sweat. My fever had gone (temporarily) because by the evening it was back, again not particularly high, but similar to the night before, so I repeated the same routine.
But the worse was yet to come, on the day after I came back, I began experiencing virulent dry coughing fits. These were the most violent coughs I’ve ever had. They lasted 15-20 seconds each (which is an eternity) and after 10 seconds of each cough, I found myself gasping for air. So violent were these coughs that I pulled an abdominal muscle in one of the first fits so that every time I coughed after that, my whole abdomen was in pain. I experienced no sneezing and no sore throat (other than during the coughs).
Fortunately, the coughs were not that frequent, about one every 30-45 minutes, but that was not much of a consolation because each cough was extremely violent—there were no weak coughs. And no “wet” coughs either which generate phlegm, just dry coughs. What was unusual is that the coughs did not prevent me from having a full night sleep. Once I managed to doze off, I was never woken up by a cough. However, once I woke up, this all started all over again. My partner says, even though I do not remember this, that by day 4 of this, I was saying things like “I can’t go on living like this,” or “I want to die.” Throughout this ordeal I did not lose my appetite or have trouble swallowing.
The fever broke definitely by day 3, but the cough went on for about a week. It subsided on one day, and by the next I was not coughing any more and you would not have known that I had just been very sick. According to CDC guidelines, and those of the European Health Agency (I’m afraid I just can’t trust the CDC with this administration in charge), I was supposed to self-isolate for 14 days which I did. I am still in self-imposed isolation even though it is almost impossible that I am a carrier of the live virus at this point.
I did not got tested because there were no tests available. How do I know that this was COVID-19? Because I’ve had colds and influenza, and this was nothing like it. The absence of sneezing and sore throat are the giveaways, combined with the violence of the coughing. Also, it started upon my return from Italy. Is it possible that this was not COVID-19? Yes, but after talking on the phone to my doctor (who told me during the illness that I should not go to the hospital unless I was having trouble breathing outside of the coughing), he diagnosed me as having COVID-19. I asked him if he was sure without seeing me, and he said with almost 100% certainty (I love it when doctors become lawyers and give themselves wiggle room, hence the word “almost”). I should mention I am a 50-year-old man, generally healthy with no underlying health conditions.
The upshot of all of this—I was lucky. I was not one of the 80% who will experience mild or no symptoms, but after a week of hell, I got better immediately.
TAKE THIS SERIOUSLY! Ignore the spin—go onto foreign websites and get the truth about this pandemic.
Stay well everyone.
Tuesday, Mar 17, 2020 · 6:42:56 PM +00:00
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Tarpalantir
Some people commenting have pointed out that I would be classified in the 80% group of people who have had mild or no symptoms because I did not require hospitalization. I stand corrected and amend what I wrote above accordingly. It goes to show how serious this disease is considering I would have been classified as a mild sufferer notwithstanding the awful symptoms I had.