Although a lot of my blog posts are pre-written, this one is coming to you in real time on Monday March 1st. I debated whether or not to write it, but ultimately feel like I could've benefitted from something like this over the last week, so here we are.
About 10 days ago, my fiance tested positive for Covid-19. His symptoms started out like a cold, and his case seemed pretty mild at first. He quarantined himself in our guest bedroom in the hopes of not passing it to me, but ultimately I started showing symptoms a week ago today.
Things escalated pretty quickly for me from there. By late monday, I was running a fever of more than 101, and could barely move off of the couch. The exhaustion and malaise were all-consuming and the fever kicked my butt; I had to change clothes multiple times per day from the sweating, and yet every blanket in our house was dragged out of the linen closet in a futile attempt to get warm. Simply getting up to go to the bathroom felt like a major task, and keeping up with laundry and dishes was nearly impossible. I continued like this for almost seven days; each morning I'd wake up thinking I'd have to be feeling better, only to realize... it was worse. For seven days it was all I could do just keep up with emails, but virtually everything else in our lives came to a screeching halt.
I know for me, it is oftentimes hard to comprehend what others feel like when they're feeling sick. And, to top it all off, this virus is not exactly easy to decipher. We have known dozens of people our age who have had it, all of whom have had very mild cases or no symptoms at all. We had no reason to believe it would be any different for us, but that's just not how Covid works... it really is just the luck of the draw. Adding to this confusion is the fact that my fiance and I are both extremely health-conscious people. We both exercise everyday, eat incredibly healthy and generally have very healthy lifestyles. We've been supplementing with Vitamin D, Zinc, Quercetin, and other immune boosters for months now in hopes that it would make any eventual run-in with the virus easier to beat. While I would like to believe that these supplements had an impact on our health, they certainly weren't enough to keep us from having a very rough time. I can only speak for myself but, given how bad I felt, if it things had been any worse I would've ended up in the hospital without a doubt. There were multiple times throughout the last week where I broke down and cried; cried out of the fear of not knowing how much worse things could get.
Writing this today I am on day eight of symptoms and still only about 40%-50% back to "normal." Simply being able to string these words together is a huge improvement. It's hard to imagine not having the energy to type, but that's truly how debilitating this virus was for me. This is not a woe-is-me post, and hopefully it is not coming across that way. Ultimately, I felt like this post was necessary for a few reasons: 1) to explain where I've been the last week and 2) as a word of warning for anyone who may be getting pandemic fatigue. We had chosen to take certain risks during this pandemic (such as traveling) but I am seeing those decisions in a different light now. Although I ultimately picked up the virus at my dentists's office (yes, it was me who gave it to Tom!), it doesn't change the fact that I could've been doing more to protect myself. And so, this is my little word of warning: whatever you think you may know about this virus is probably wrong. And although you may have every reason to believe you're healthy enough, or young enough, or whatever-enough to easily beat it, you won't actually know if that's true until it's too late. If you happen to be fighting covid right now, hang in there. Take it easy, stay vigilant about your symptoms and don't worry about eating... just stay hydrated. Oh... and buy a pulse oximeter. My dad sent me one and it was a game changer, it will help with your mental health more than anything. We also couldn't have made it through the week without multiple grocery deliveries from both of our Moms and frequent texts and pick-me-ups from our friends and family. We are insanely grateful to everyone who helped us get through.
Now that I'm back to work this week, I'm so freaking excited to get inspired by other interiors designers again, to work on some design projects, and to bring back my most popular blog series, Anatomy of a Design. Oh! And the first thing I'm going to do when I test negative for Covid is... (drumroll please)... GO ANTIQUING! I simply can't wait. Have a good week everyone. :)
(P.S. If you have questions about this post or my experience, please don't hesitate to leave me a comment here or shoot me a DM on Instagram. I happy to chat more about the details and/or the supplements I took and food I ate to help get me through.)