I have been taking the COVID-19 pandemic seriously since early February, and barely left the house until the middle of May. Despite my precautions, I did catch it in early June, ironically after resuming medical care that had been delayed due to the lockdown.
There is much to say and share, and I’ve broken it down week by week, with some intriguing scientific papers at the end.
How Was I Exposed To The Virus?
The story begins on Jan 31st, the day I had major surgery to remove uterine fibroids via robotic myomectomy (blog post pending about that experience).
It took 6 weeks for me to recover, which was right when WHO officially declared the pandemic.
I was supposed to begin pelvic physical therapy as part of routine post-op care the last week of March (8 weeks post-op), but that had to be postponed due to the lockdown.
I was finally able to start PT the 3rd week of May, and also saw my surgeon (who is also my gynecologist) for a combo follow-up and annual exam that week.
My surgeon wanted to run a series of blood tests to track my hormones across my cycle, which meant 3 blood draws a week, to see if things had improved as a result of my surgery.
Due to delaying PT for 2 months, I was in so much pain that I needed to come in 3 times a week: twice for pelvic PT and once for orthopedic. I had to enter a hospital for these PT appointments.
I also got a dental cleaning (which had been postponed from March) and acupuncture in the short window between when I started going to appointments and when I first came down with symptoms.
The dentist had VERY strict protocols in place: temp & symptom screen before entering the building, all staff in full PPE including N95, staggered appointments, heavy duty air purifiers to kill pathogens in the air, and fogging of the air with hypochlorous acid a few times a day to further sanitize the air.
The point is, all of a sudden I went from never leaving the house to having LOTS of appointments (and points of exposure to catch COVID-19).
This did absolutely make me nervous, and I thought long and hard about it and worried over it, but all of this was medical care that I truly needed and couldn’t justify putting off, especially since the offices I was visiting seemed to have good protocols in place to keep everyone safe, with masks being mandatory (or so I was told) and temperature/symptom screening at each appointment.
Where Did I Catch It?
I still don’t know where I picked it up, but my guess is either at physical therapy, my gyno’s office, or the Quest facility where one of my numerous blood draws took place.
Unfortunately, mask adherence wasn’t 100% at any of these places, including some of the staff. Given my background as a scientist working in biomedical research, and having worked jobs where I was fit tested for N95s, I am well-versed in proper mask usage, including how to don and doff.
Thankfully, this prevented me from spreading COVID when I was pre-symptomatic, but since those I was exposed to did not consistently mask or mask properly, that left me vulnerable, since I was not wearing an N95 respirator at any of these appointments.
symptom onset and getting tested
My first medical appointment was on May 19th, and I realized I was presenting with COVID-19 symptoms on June 11th. I went to a total of 19 different medical appointments in that time period (3x a week for both blood draws and PT adds up quickly!)
I was noticeably more fatigued than normal a few days before other symptoms began, which I chalked up to the number of appointments I was going to. It was exhausting to have to go to them all. But looking back, I think that was the virus making its presence known.
Day 1 Symptoms
On June 11th I woke up with the strangest sore feeling in my throat that I’ve ever had. It was much higher up in my throat than with any other illness, feeling like it began at the junction where my nasal passages meet my throat. The soreness and inflamed feeling stretched into the ends of my nasal passages, too, and all of this soreness had an odd metallic quality to it.
I also noticed new muscle aches in my upper back and neck, headache, a foggy mind, and more fatigue than usual. By late morning I could tell I had a fever, and when I checked it was 100F. I cancelled my physical therapy for the afternoon and, in a panic, scheduled a nasopharyngeal swab for the RT-PCR COVID-19 diagnostic test at one of the free local sites run by the University of Tennessee Health Science Center.
This was a big mistake, since I ended up being tested less than 24 hours after symptom onset, which is WAY too soon to get an accurate test.
I know better, but I was really freaked out and wasn’t thinking clearly, and at no point in the application process to get a test did it advise to wait until 3-5 days into symptoms for best accuracy, a serious oversight in the process if you ask me.
According to this paper out of Johns Hopkins, the false negative rate for this test ranges from 20% at its most accurate, about 3 days after symptom onset (an average of 8 days after exposure) going up to 38% on the day of symptom onset, and going up to 100% when tested sooner than that.
This summary of that study on the American College of Cardiology website states: “Based on this analysis, the false-negative rate for SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR is shockingly high, even at its lowest on day 8 post-exposure, or 3 days after symptoms. At its best, one out of five people suspected of COVID-19 will test negative.”
So it is no surprise that my test came back negative, however my symptoms match up exactly with those of COVID and multiple healthcare providers agreed that I had it and that my test was a false negative because I was tested way too early.
Symptom Progression in Week 1
So, day 1 I had the weird metallic sore throat/nasal passages, fatigue, low grade fever, headache and body aches. That night I shot awake at 2am covered in a hot sweat and never went back to sleep.
The next morning, day 2, my senses of smell and taste were about 95% gone, and my ability to taste both sweet and salt were completely gone.
This coincided with the strange metallic soreness and raw feeling extending into my mouth, especially the back part of my tongue and roof of my mouth.
Keep reading to the end for some fascinating scientific information about anosmia, ageusia, and COVID-19.
I could put straight sugar or salt on my tongue and detect NOTHING. Stick my face in my basil or mint plants and smell nothing. Drink mint tea and not taste anything whatsoever. It was the strangest thing!
I could still somewhat taste sour and bitter, but ever so faintly. My sensitivity to the heat of capsaicin was significantly reduced, too.
Everything I ate tasted like a faint memory of that food, or an essence of it, or sometimes nothing at all. I could pick up maybe one or two faint flavor notes, and my gosh, that was truly depressing.
It feels silly to complain about, but for someone whose life and livelihood literally revolve around food and who experiences such joy from eating, it was horrible. The first few days I would cry every time I took my first bite of food and realized I couldn’t taste anything.
Part of this was because I had so much fear around when or if my senses would ever come back, after having read so many stories of people losing their senses for months with COVID-19.
Thankfully they did come back, but not until June 28th, or 17 days later.
Also on day 2 my sinuses got HOT and felt painfully dry. It was bizarre to have no congestion and yet still lose my senses.
The only other times a respiratory illness has made me lose my sense of smell/taste was when my sinuses were full of mucus, blocking physical access to the olfactory neurons responsible for our sense of smell.
I also noticed many lymph nodes in my neck were swollen (some hard like rocks) and I developed an infrequent dry cough and intense fatigue that was in some ways worse than what I felt after surgery! I was also thirsty and found myself constantly grabbing for and craving coconut water, which I rarely drink, and couldn’t taste at all.
For the first week I would wake up, get out of bed, and immediately be hit with a crushing wave of exhaustion and sleepiness, with an urge to immediately get right back in bed and go to sleep. I spent some days so exhausted I just laid in bed all day. Not sleeping, just resting, and unable to even watch TV, look at my phone, or read a book.
Lastly, day 2 is when I experienced onset of shortness of breath and tachycardia (rapid heart rate) with minimal effort. Things like a 5 min shower, or getting up to eat a meal, or simply talking for more than a minute would leave me breathless, lightheaded, and with a pounding, rapid heart rate.
My heart rate would regularly spike to 115-130 bpm (up from my typical resting rate of between 70-80 bpm), but thankfully my blood oxygenation as measured with the pulse oximeter I got on Amazon rarely dipped below 95%.
Other strange symptoms I experienced in the first week:
buzzing/tingling/electrical feeling in various places on my body
painful pinching feeling in my lower ribs with every full breath
occasional ‘pins and needles’ feeling in my limbs, like your arm is about to fall asleep from laying on it wrong, but I wasn’t putting pressure to cut off blood flow
feeling disconnected from my body, like I was floating just outside it (mild disassociation, perhaps?)
poor appetite
insomnia - I was exhausted, but unable to sleep, laying in bet til 4am some days
heart palpitations - a feeling like my heart got ‘stuck’, with a pause before the next beat which felt quite strong, and gave a fluttering feeling in my chest
These symptoms all remained pretty constant for the first week.
tl;dr week 1 summary: strange metallic sore throat/nasal passages/tongue/mouth, headache, crushing fatigue, brain fog, tachycardia, shortness of breath, swollen lymph nodes, hot and dry sinuses, complete loss of sense of sweet and salty taste, 95% loss of smell and taste overall with complete loss of sweet and salty taste, plus other weird symptoms (listed just above) that you wouldn’t associate with a respiratory illness
This was pretty much how the first week looked…laying in bed with at least one cat nurse pinning me down
Week 2
I did start to feel somewhat better this week, but nowhere near recovered, and nowhere near enough to be able to resume work as normal.
I did however have to push through and do testing (with significant assistance from my husband, Andy) for my Dairy-Free Cheese Mix (available for pre-order now, shipping early next week), and that exertion did cause me to backslide. The work was unavoidable, otherwise there would have been a month+ delay in getting the mix launched, after already being in process for several months.
In week 1, I typically woke up with a normal temp that would become a fever once I got up and moved around. But in week 2, after over exerting myself, I was waking up with a low grade fever, ranging from 99.5-100.1F.
Around mid-week I experienced a marble-sized hidradenitis suppurativa flare in my groin. It was very deep under the skin, so my normal topical treatment wasn’t an option.
HS is an autoinflammatory or autoimmune disease (it depends on which scientist or doctor you ask), so it doesn’t surprise me that I got a flare while my dysfunctional immune system was responding to a novel pathogen. My HS has been in remission for years, you can read my detailed story here.
Otherwise, everything held fairly steady, except for a slight reduction in pain level for the weird sore throat and the pinching feeling in my ribs when I took a full breath thankfully went away. Shortness of breath with exertion also improved, but tachycardia persisted.
I started to get worried about my lost senses, and learned about smell physiotherapy, or “smell training” on the Abscent website. It can help people who have lost their sense of smell after infection to regain it. I didn’t have the original four essential oils on hand, but used orange, lemon, clove, eucalyptus, and a blend called OnGuard.
It was pretty fascinating to either not be able to smell anything from the EOs, or to just pick up what felt like a faint memory of the scent. But it definitely was a helpful routine. I kept them by my bed and did smell training before sleeping and as soon as I woke up.
tl;dr week 2 summary: symptoms mostly held steady, overexertion caused me to backslide and be more feverish, experienced a moderate hidradenitis suppurativa flare, shortness of breath improved
Week 2 still required much rest and cat snuggles. Dexter can be daft and a jerk sometimes, but he’s a good recovery buddy when I need him to be.
Week 3
In week 3 I started to experience some minor GI symptoms, mainly borborygmus (rumbling/gurgling noises in my belly) fairly often, plus loose stools, and occasional nausea.
I was no longer coughing and stopped experiencing any shortness of breath, but tachycardia persisted in the same situations as the previous two weeks.
Insomnia got a bit worse. So did the headaches and brain fog.
One day I woke up with vertigo. As soon as I sat up, the room began to spin violently. I have experienced bouts of BPPV (benign paroxysmal positional vertigo) before so I did the Epley maneuver and it helped.
After that, I got a migraine, which for me manifests with my field of vision being disrupted with vibrating black and white zig-zagging lines, intense fatigue, loss of appetite, and sensitivity to light and sound.
The good news is that my senses of smell and taste came back! I was so freaking excited that morning when I did my smell training and could actually smell the essential oils. I ran to the kitchen to do my sugar/salt test on my tongue, and was thrilled when I could taste both.
I would say I regained most of it in one day, probably 75% was back. Then, over the next two days it seemed to come back to nearly 100%.
The other good news is that I stopped experiencing any low-grade fevers this week.
tl;dr week 3 summary: minor GI symptoms (loose stools, borborygmus, nausea), insomnia, vertigo, migraine with aura, tachycardia still but no shortness of breath, worse headaches and brain fog, but I got my sense of smell and taste back!
Week 4
At the time of original publication, I just made it through week 4, and it was only on day 27 that I finally felt good enough to start resuming work part-time. I am so very happy to finally have both the energy and the mental capacity and clarity to write.
I also had the urge to go for a short walk in my neighborhood mid-week, and was so happy that the excursion didn’t leave me fatigued, breathless, or with a rapid heart rate.
I feel like I am somewhere around 85-90% recovered, but I do have some lingering symptoms: headache, brain fog, fatigue, insomnia, rock hard swollen lymph nodes, and dang it, I still have a sore throat and raw metallic feeling in my mouth, but it is quite mild. I do occasionally experience episodes of tachycardia, sometimes for no apparent reason.
The only thing that has gotten worse this week are the heart palpitations, which occur throughout the day, and happen almost every time I eat, which isn’t something I’ve ever dealt with. Feels like a physical reaction, I think due to vagal nerve stimulation, which occurs with swallowing.
I also experienced a relapse in partial loss of taste on days 23-24. The interesting part about this is that it did NOT occur alongside loss of smell. It did, however, coincide with the raw metallic feeling in my mouth hurting more, and even having a buzzing or tingling quality.
This new loss of taste was somewhere around 50-60% of my ability to taste gone, with my ability to taste sweet being 100% gone, verified by my sugar-directly-on-the-tongue test.
I’m going to continue to rest, rest, rest, and will update this post as time goes on.
Also noteworthy: my husband Andy never got sick, but then again, he never does catch anything. He’s been sick maybe twice since we got together in 2007.
tl;dr week 4 summary: 85-90% recovered, and the only lingering symptoms are mild sore throat, headaches, fatigue, insomnia, swollen lymph nodes. Heart palpitations are the only thing that is worse
WEEK 5
Edited on July 11th: Today I am 2 days into the 5th week, and yesterday I experienced another relapse of loss of taste. It’s exactly the same as what happened one week ago, about a 50-60% reduction overall in ability to taste with sweet taste being 100% gone (can’t taste sugar on my tongue).
I am growing very frustrated with this particular recurrent symptom, as it impacts my ability to resume recipe development here on the website.
July 20th edit: the rest of week 5 felt like a continuation of week 4, feeling much better but with the same lingering symptoms as last week.
WEEK 6
Finally, in week 6, I experienced 3 days in a row where I felt normal! The raw, sore, metallic feeling in my mouth nearly went away completely, I’d say it’s about 90% gone. I have not experienced another relapse of losing my sense of taste, either.
On the days I felt normal, I had NO symptoms. No sore throat, no swollen lymph nodes, no fatigue, no headache. It was glorious!
However, it did not last, and I experienced new GI symptoms, including pretty intense stomach cramps, loose stools, and poor appetite. I was eating plain chicken and rice cooked in the chicken broth for the rest of week 6 into week 7.
At the very end of week 6, I also lost my sense of taste for the fourth time. A notable difference compared to the previous two relapses after the initial loss is that I lost my sense of smell this time, too. The first two relapses were mild, as previously described, and the only total loss was sweet taste. This time, I also completely lost the ability to taste salty, and the overall severity of the loss of taste felt the same as the initial loss, where food tasted like a ghost or echo of what it should.
This near total loss of taste was accompanied by the original strong and very strange metallic, burning, raw feeling on my tongue and into my throat, along with swollen lymph nodes in my neck (hard like rocks!)
But hey, at least I have super smart and witty friends who can help me laugh to keep from crying. My dear friend and functional medicine pharmacist Linsday of Rogue Pharmacist totally cheered me up with this one:
Cookbook #3 concept? LOL
I also have some really unusual and upsetting news about how COVID has impacted my hormones and menstrual cycles. I am in the middle of having more testing done to figure out what is going on. But in short, there is a possibility that COVID is causing me to experience premature ovarian failure, per my gynecologist. Fertility and hormone experts have been predicting this for many months, and here is a quote from a review article:
“2019-nCoV may infect the ovary, uterus, vagina and placenta through the ubiquitous expression of ACE2. Moreover, 2019-nCoV/ACE2 may disturb the female reproductive functions, resulting in infertility, menstrual disorder and fetal distress.”
From: Potential influence of COVID-19/ACE2 on the female reproductive system (full text available when you click on the PDF button)
My two COVID cycles have been VERY abnormal. I had no fertile mucus, when I normally have plenty and for more than one day, ovulation occurred on day 21 and 22 respectively, and total cycle lengths were 36 and 37 days respectively. Menses were scanty, barely enough to qualify as light flow. My average cycle length is 26 days and I typically have a short follicular phase, with ovulation sometimes occurring as early as day 10. My FSH and LH are elevated to levels normally seen in a woman about to go into menopause, with low estrogen too.
WEEK 7
This week I became aware that people like me, dubbed COVID “long haulers” or those dealing with “long COVID” have been getting a LOT of recent press as well as validation in the scientific literature. There is so much new evidence that I feel this topic deserves its own article. But I’d like to share a few links, with news articles first:
Long-lasting COVID symptoms from lungs to limbs linger in coronavirus ‘long haulers’
Coronavirus doctor's diary: why are patients remaining ill for so long?
Even People With Mild COVID-19 Symptoms Are Experiencing Long-Term Fatigue
And then there is the UK-based group called Long COVID, advocating for research, rehab, and recognition. They have an SOS page as well with an open letter. It’s been really validating to know that I am not alone in dealing with these long-term symptoms and relapses, but it is also quite frightening to know that there are many people who first got sick in March with a mild case like mine, and they are still not fully recovered.
Here are a couple of recent scientific publications:
Persistent Symptoms in Patients After Acute COVID-19 - JAMA, July 9th - “This study found that in patients who had recovered from COVID-19, 87.4% reported persistence of at least 1 symptom, particularly fatigue and dyspnea.”
Outcomes of Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Patients Recently Recovered From Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) - JAMA Cardiology, July 27th - “In this cohort study including 100 patients recently recovered from COVID-19 identified from a COVID-19 test center, cardiac magnetic resonance imaging revealed cardiac involvement in 78 patients (78%) and ongoing myocardial inflammation in 60 patients (60%), which was independent of preexisting conditions, severity and overall course of the acute illness, and the time from the original diagnosis.”
In some ways, week 7 felt very much like week 2. I experienced some pretty intense fatigue, where all I could do was be horizontal and close my eyes. While the GI symptoms cleared, and around mid-week I did regain my senses of smell and taste nearly completely, I traded those for persistent headaches, brain fog, and frequent tinnitus.
This week I think I finally accepted that this is going to be a long-term rollercoaster ride. I also learned of some local studies being done at the University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center that I am working on becoming a part of.
I also learned of the COVID Symptom Study and began reporting my symptoms. I wish I had known about it on day 1! If you or someone you know has had COVID, consider contributing for the sake of advancing the scientific knowledge of this disease.
WEEK 8
Today, July 30th, is the first day of week 8. I will update later in the week. The good news is I have an appointment to see a cardiologist for the persistent heart-related symptoms of random bouts of tachycardia, palpitations, and strange sensations in my chest.
Anosmia, ageusia, and COVID-19
One theory about why COVID-19 causes loss of smell (anosmia) which leads to loss of taste (ageusia) is because the virus triggers a defense mechanism in the body to protect the brain from infection.
Basically, the body decides to metaphorically ‘burn the bridge’ (the olfactory nerves) to protect the brain from becoming infected, since these nerves can serve as an entry point into the brain. Rather than the virus itself somehow destroying the nerves, the body does it first to stop the progression.
From the paper “Is anosmia the price to pay in an immune-induced scorched-earth policy against COVID-19?”, otorhinolaryngology researchers in Belgium bring forth this intriguing hypothesis:
“We posit that COVID-19-related anosmia may be the consequence of a programmed immune-mediated self-defense mechanism by olfactory nerve deaffarentation, as it is a known royal path to the brain. Besides, such a drastic protective strategy is all the more worth the risk since the olfactory nerve has the rare ability to regenerate. Consistent with this hypothesis and as anosmia also seems to be part of the mild-to-moderate clinical presentation of COVID-19, we suspect it to be a positive prognostic factor.”
Another hypothesis is that loss of smell comes from support cells around the olfactory nerves becoming infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus, specifically a type called sustentacular cells, which have the necessary ACE2 protein that the virus needs to infect cells. The theory is that these cells become infected and inflamed, swelling enough to block the nerve endings and thus block sense of smell.
Read more about this theory in the paper: “Non-neuronal expression of SARS-CoV-2 entry genes in the olfactory system suggests mechanisms underlying COVID-19-associated anosmia”
Loss of Sweet And Salty Taste As A Very Accurate Diagnostic Tool For COVID-19
Lastly, it is notable that I very distinctly and completely lost my ability to taste sweet and salty. Some scientists and doctors suggest these symptoms presenting along with fever are an accurate way to diagnose COVID-19.
In a pre-print released just days before my symptoms began, Polish researchers studied how COVID affects taste perception of sweet (using sucrose), salty (using NaCl), sour (using ascorbic acid), and bitter (using grapefruit extract) flavors, using flavor tablets at varying concentrations.
They found “the only taste that was impaired significantly more frequently in COVID-19 patients was the sweet taste at the lowest flavour concentration”. However, they conclude that a combination of impairment to both sweet and salty flavors with fever can potentially be used to diagnose COVID-19 with high sensitivity (94%) and specificity (100%).
Read the paper here: “Sensitivity and specificity of prediction models based on gustatory disorders in diagnosing COVID-19 patients: a case-control study.”
My Supplement Stack and recovery strategies
I really hesitated to include this in this post, because I am in no way claiming to offer any kind of medical advice, and if you suspect you have COVID-19 I urge you to contact your healthcare provider for advice.
But, my inboxes/DMs are flooded currently with questions about what I took and things I have done during recovery, so to save myself a lot of time I will give a very short recap here. Do not start taking new supplements without consulting your healthcare provider.
Vitamins A, C, and D
N-Acetyl cysteine
Reduced glutathione
Ubiquinol
Zinc acetate lozenges
Quercetin
MTHFR-friendly B complex
Aspirin
Ren Shen Bai Du San (for about the first 10 days)- this is a Chinese medicine herbal formula my acupuncturist chose for me and my specific symptoms based on training received by a dual MD/TCM doctor who works for WHO. Further reading on PubMed and WHO: “Combating COVID-19 with integrated traditional Chinese and Western medicine in China”, “Network pharmacology for treatment of COVID-19 with Renshen Baidu Powder based on cytokines”, “Chinese herbal medicine for coronavirus disease 2019: a systematic review and meta-analysis”
The TCM herbal powder my acupuncturist prescribed
Additionally I did the following :
focused on eating nutrient dense, anti-inflammatory foods, including a wide range of fresh vegetables and fruits from the Cooper Young Community Farmers Market (shout out to my dear friend Corrie and her husband for shopping for us there while quarantined! And also to my acupuncturist, who is also a dear friend, who did additional shopping for us.) My husband did tons of cooking out of my newest cookbook, Fast & Flavorful Paleo Cooking, since it has such a robust array of vegetable dishes that are quick and easy to cook, plus plenty of healthy main dishes
I rested like I’ve never rested before. And then rested some more!
I completely halted posting on my business social media and drastically minimized chatting/messaging/texting (man, does that stuff take SO MUCH energy).
I switched from spending time on Instagram and Facebook, which are both sadly full of so much toxicity and unchecked anti-science, pro-conspiracy theory, COVID-denier content lately (and seem to be where people go just to be hateful towards other humans), to Reddit, which I have found actually enjoyable to browse, and which is full of humor. Laughter is medicine!
I got outside in my large backyard each day mid-day to get sunshine and fresh air, weather permitting
I consumed only light entertainment, watching lots of comedies and racking up many hours on Animal Crossing: New Horizons when energy permitted playtime
I stayed hydrated, with a plenty of coconut water and plain water with added electrolytes
A Few Closing Thoughts
While it has been a miserable almost 5 weeks of being sick (so far), I am grateful that my experience has been mild and did not require any medical care.
I’m currently feeling conflicted about resuming physical therapy, even though my body desperately needs the care, and the hospital said I am allowed to come back since it has been so long since the onset of symptoms and I haven’t had a fever for more than 10 days.
We still don’t know yet if reinfection is a possibility, and my city is currently in the middle of an alarming surge of cases. So much so, that it was identified as one of the top 10 locations in the entire country experiencing a dramatic increase in cases, and as such a team of Feds, including Dr. Mermin from the CDC, was in town last week evaluating and offering assistance to local officials.
I’d like to get the antibody test, but unfortunately all it will really do is satisfy my curiosities, since we don’t know yet if antibodies provide protection against reinfection, and if they do, how long that protection lasts. Insurance won’t cover the cost of the test unless you are hospitalized and it is necessary for your treatment plan. The out of pocket cost is $119-$129 at places like Quest and LabCorp, or free if you successfully donate blood at places like the Red Cross and Vitalant (this may change, please confirm before donating).
One of my large supply of cat-themed masks, which go perfectly with my Daft Cat t-shirt by Mobius Theory.
I will continue to diligently wear a mask when in any building other than my home and practice hand hygiene (article coming soon with my favorite safer hand care products for sanitizing, washing, and moisturizing).
If you have questions about the safety and efficacy of masking, I encourage you to browse through this list of seventy scientific papers, which includes reviews and meta-analyses, presented in reverse chronological order so you can see the most recent evidence first.
Also, I found it helpful to read real-life stories of infection and recovery on the r/COVID-19 Positive and r/Corona Recovered subreddits. I also love to check in once a day with the strictly enforced science subreddit r/COVID19.
Trust me: YOU DO NOT WANT TO CATCH THIS VIRUS. It has been both a physical and emotional rollercoaster. Nobody can know for certain when they catch it that they will have a mild case, that they won’t need hospitalization, or even that they will survive. This is still such a new pathogen that we know very little about. We have no data on long-term health effects like permanent organ impairment or post-viral syndrome. In the face of a novel pathogen like this, I think we all should be humble, and do what we can to care for each other.
It’s been heartening to see just how many caring people I have in my life. Friends have come out of the woodwork to offer to do whatever they can to help, including buying our necessities, sending gifts, and simply holding space, praying, or meditating, or putting whatever type of positive energy they choose into the universe on my behalf.
I do think (and hope) that this is a wake-up call for people to take better care of their precious health. I am incredibly grateful that I had that wake-up call a decade ago. If I were as unhealthy as I was back then, I probably would not have fared as well as I have. 10 years ago I was obese, was diagnosed pre-diabetic with metabolic syndrome, hypertension, and dyslipidemia.
Stay tuned for more updates as I move through recovery, and I hope you stay healthy.
