So Nobody Told Me I Had Covid-19

So nobody told me I had Covid-19.

Here's how it all went down.

I think it was a Thursday, the 20th of February or some time during that week where I started to notice symptoms. I have this striking memory of feeling like an old Chinese man coughed in my face at some point during that week because I went to sleep one night and for some reason, I had this taste of nasty Asian sea food within my throat and I felt like a cold was coming on. But at first it felt like a made up dream. I took a zinc tablet and a vitamin c pill before I went to bed like I normally do when I feel a cold coming on. When I woke up the next morning, I couldn’t breathe through my nose. My throat was clogged up and there was heavy pressure in my chest. I went to the washroom and took some Claritin to clear my sinuses and Advil cold. But it didn’t work. 

I was in bed the next few days, unable to move, literally trying to gasp for air. Sleeping was a nightmare. The only way I could sleep was to have a towel by my face and a garbage pale beside my bed to save the drool that was pouring from my mouth. At this point, I didn’t have a cough and I don’t believe I had any sort of fever. I had to google my symptoms and from what I was reading, it began to scare me, all of which could result in surgery. Some of the things listed were like a swollen thyroid, dysphoria (which is trouble swallowing with heavy mucus), or even esophageal cancer. But I don’t think it would have been either of those because I could still pretty much breathe, it just took a very painful effort.

That weekend I went to a walk-in clinic and I could still very barely move and my voice was very horse and I was still trying to breathe through my nose which was unbearable. I found whenever I tried to breathe through my nose, there was a slight reaction from my chest that didn’t like that way of inhaling. I would get this small shock in my chest that would give me pins and needles and it felt like it was going through my heart. It was a very odd situation and I could never grasp my head around it. And after countless attempts to try and suppress it on my own, I felt like this was much bigger than just a cold, or the flu. I had tried cough syrup, mucus and phlegm relief and even pain medication but I ended up vomiting it all out. I was also having trouble swallowing whenever I took in a large amount of air into my lungs. It felt like my throat was swollen or even like there was something blocking the air from entering my lungs.

While at the walk in clinic upon seeing a doctor they asked me if I’ve travelled anywhere and I reply “no”. I grabbed a seat in the waiting room with my head hunched over because every time I lifted my head or looked up, I would breathe in through my nose but it was blocked and it felt like I was gonna choke and whenever I started choking, that’s when I started having a mini panic attack while I tried to gasp for air but not having it go down into my chest because of my throat feeling swollen.

Within an hour, I gave my symptoms to the doctor and he says it’s probably just a  build up of mucus and phlegm. So he prescribes an inhaler and 6 pills I take for the next few days. He also reminded me to “just rest” which was far more difficult than he made it seem but he insisted the inhaler would help manage that. But still to this day, I was questioning his diagnosis and at the time it seemed pretty reasonable. But I don’t think he took into account other possible scenarios. And it’s also one thing to give a diagnosis with very limited methods at his disposal to check the symptoms. (ie. x-rays, blood tests) But alas, I just needed answers and he needed to give a diagnosis. 

So I managed to get some much needed rest, and after a near panic attack of not being able to breathe at all one evening, it all seemed like I was going to get better after that. And not to mention all of this was going on when I had two scheduled shifts that weekend that I called in for not being well enough to work. I have to stay that the inhaler really helped when I needed it. I’m not to sure what the pills were for and if they had any effect but after a few days, I felt well enough to go to work that Tuesday night (the 25th of Feb.) and it was my final shift before everything just went haywire.

After my shift that night, the symptoms were very minor and I felt well enough to continue on to my vacation to Florida for a week. While down there I had very minimal symptoms but still felt like there was something stuck in my throat but maybe the warm weather helped.

I returned the following Saturday, March 7 and me and my family didn’t get screened, or even asked if we were experiencing corona virus symptoms. Mind you, this was still pretty early in the outbreak and at this point, hospitals wanted you to come to them with symptoms or a recent history of travel to get tested. But once again my throat felt like it was closing in and I was also having trouble breathing in through my nose. It’s like all of a sudden, whatever I was dealing with had made its sudden return. With continued help from my inhaler, I was able to get some much needed rest that night. But before I continue, I just want to reiterate that I still had no idea what I was dealing with. The doctor at the walk-in clinic said it could just probably be a build up of mucus and phlegm and that after a few days, things should be back to normal. And I started seeing posters for the symptoms of the corona virus and I wasn't showing any signs of a dry cough and I didn't have any fever so I believed the virus was out of the question. I was still under the assumption that what the walk-in Doctor told me was factual and that it was just taking a very long time to clear.

Within a few days, my symptoms worsen and unlike before, this was followed by a mild wet cough so I thought it could just be the mucus or phlegm passing through. But once again I was having trouble breathing. My throat felt sore and swollen and I was also having trouble swallowing. My digestion was okay and food and water were going and staying down with minimal forced effort, but there felt to be something unwanted in my throat like maybe a simple sinus infection that was spreading or something. But like before, every time I tried to take a deep inhale through my nose, my chest was filled with pins and needles, like an anxiety attack. 

I felt at this time that I should contact a more experienced doctor. I tried getting in contact to my personal doctor but never got a response. So I checked myself into St Michael's ER on Thursday, March 12 with these symptoms and as soon as I walked in, they quickly stop and ask if I’ve been travelling or if I’ve been in contact with a sick person. And I knew they were screening for the corona virus but I didn’t have a dry cough, nor was I experiencing a fever. So I didn’t believe it was necessary to say yeah, I’ve been to the States and back, but that’s obviously not where I got these symptoms from. I had these symptoms way before I travelled down to the States, so I responded with a “no”. I wanted to find out what I was suffering from, not get tested for something I knew where there was an highly unlikely chance that I could even have it. When I started experiencing the symptoms, I had no travel history and to my knowledge, I wasn’t in contract with a sick person. So how could I have gotten it?

So I didn't get a mask and they didn’t keep me isolated from the rest of the patients. I was there for 8 hours. They took blood tests, a CT scan and an x-Ray and at the end of the night, they couldn't find what the cause of the problem was. All they did was they handed me a sheet a paper with the contact of a Ear Mouth and Throat doctor on it for me to wait for a call from between 5-7 days.

And that's where I stand now. I believe I may have contracted this thing way before the media outcry and before everyone really knew what it was. Nobody believed this sort of thing was capable of travelling such distance from mainland China and all of a sudden showing up right on your doorstep unannounced. I went to doctors to ask what I was feeling, not to confirm that I had it.

Had I been more upfront about accepting I had the virus and taking the test, I would have stopped the infection from spreading any further. But that’s just it. You don’t know you have it until you’re tested and when the test comes back positive, you ask yourself, well how could I have gotten it with all these measures in place, and at the time I had no prior travel history and I was in no contact with anyone who was sick. That’s the only conclusion I had. So I didn’t believe it was reasonable to go through with a test.

I still have no idea what could be the cause of this sickness, and it's a sickness I have never in my life experienced before. But it's not a cold and it's not the flu because they would have been gone within a week, right?

First signs of virus: Feb 20

Days since: 24