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.
I had anxiety as well, and I’ve suffered from anxiety-related illness in the past so it may be something I’m prone to, but I read about research done with COVID-19 and it appears to have a strong link to anxiety, and it’s thought that the infection and the body’s response actually physically causes anxiety. And that’s in addition to the lifestyle issues like being afraid of the disease, being in lockdown all year, and afraid that you’re going to die or be crippled. There’s really nothing for it
It seems totally realistic that anxiety could exacerbate things, especially when the whole ordeal is making me question my sanity. I just struggle to believe that without anything else going on it could manifest in this way, with this severity, starting up when my mood was jubilant for feeling like we both had just gotten past the virus without much damage. I’m having trouble believing that it’s 100% anxiety because the severity of the symptoms gives me so much cognitive dissonance that I find it emotionally painful.
Maybe that reaction that it doesn’t feel possible is just from my own inexperience with anxiety issues. Honestly, even saying that out loud is hard for me though. Again, the cognitive dissonance is emotionally painful.
Definitely not 100% anxiety, it’s just a factor that complicates things. I my self wonder how much simpler and easier the disease would have been for me if I had no anxiety and just didn’t worry about it, but the way it affects you mentally is very real.
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.
deleted by creator
I had anxiety as well, and I’ve suffered from anxiety-related illness in the past so it may be something I’m prone to, but I read about research done with COVID-19 and it appears to have a strong link to anxiety, and it’s thought that the infection and the body’s response actually physically causes anxiety. And that’s in addition to the lifestyle issues like being afraid of the disease, being in lockdown all year, and afraid that you’re going to die or be crippled. There’s really nothing for it
It seems totally realistic that anxiety could exacerbate things, especially when the whole ordeal is making me question my sanity. I just struggle to believe that without anything else going on it could manifest in this way, with this severity, starting up when my mood was jubilant for feeling like we both had just gotten past the virus without much damage. I’m having trouble believing that it’s 100% anxiety because the severity of the symptoms gives me so much cognitive dissonance that I find it emotionally painful.
Maybe that reaction that it doesn’t feel possible is just from my own inexperience with anxiety issues. Honestly, even saying that out loud is hard for me though. Again, the cognitive dissonance is emotionally painful.
Definitely not 100% anxiety, it’s just a factor that complicates things. I my self wonder how much simpler and easier the disease would have been for me if I had no anxiety and just didn’t worry about it, but the way it affects you mentally is very real.