After nearly 2 years of avoiding the dreaded coronavirus, it has hit me! I tested positive for covid on Tuesday evening after not feeling quite right from Saturday and progressively feeling worse over the next few days. It started with a chesty cough for me, which I assumed was nothing to worry about as the boys both have had a chesty cough for a few weeks now and have been testing negative. I tested anyway on Saturday morning as I was meeting family and when it came up as negative I thought nothing more of it.
I came home that evening not feeling very well having had a headache most of the day and horrible sinus pain that evening that saw me googling 'Face massage to relieve sinus headaches'. The next day the headache wasn't so bad but by the end of the day I felt so dizzy whilst brushing my teeth that I went and sat down on my bed to do it.
On Monday I wasn't too bad until the evening when I just felt unwell overall and then by Tuesday evening I started to feel 'fluey' with muscle aches, a sore throat, the start of a cold and more of a cough. We all decided to take a test and only my test came back positive. It's a strange thing to see those two lines coming up on the test result and to know that this virus that you've feared and have tried to avoid for the past two years is now in your home and in your body.
The initial worry is that I'm sitting there as the only person in the house with covid, I'd been all around Adam and the boys kissing and hugging them at the weekend before I had the positive result and now I needed to avoid them and try not to pass on the virus to them. I imagine that taking yourself off to isolation is a lot easier mentally when you don't have young children to look after, but that initial 'okay, so Mummy's not going to be around for a bit' feeling was weird and still is.
I've mostly been upstairs in bed, I haven't felt well enough to be up and about anyway, but it's also for reassurance purposes to know that I'm not around the house touching things and coughing and sneezing all over things. On the rare times that I have been downstairs over the past fews days, I've tried to keep a mask on and use antibacterial gel and wash my hands a lot whilst staying back from Adam and the boys. I'm a really touchy, cuddly person and so not cuddling Adam and the boys has been a bit strange.
I've no idea what 'day' of covid I'm on. Whether it starts from when I tested positive or from when I felt symptoms of feeling unwell on the Saturday. But I don't think it matters too much - all that matters is when it starts to pass and I'm hoping the more that I rest, the quicker that might be.
Symptoms wise, I've had a deep chesty cough and also a tickly cough. The chesty cough often hurts my chest when I cough. My throat has been very sore and my nose is completely blocked. My head feels bunged up and my brain feels foggy. I've got no energy and I keep having random spouts of dizziness, especially when I stand up. I had muscles aches yesterday but not so much today which I'm very relieved about. Yesterday I had one burning nostril which was weird but I haven't had that again. To be honest, as crap as I feel, it seems quite mild in comparison to some of the stories I've heard about people having this horrible virus. I really just hope this is as bad as it gets because if this is the worst of it, then it'll be okay. I'm just so relieved that I've had the vaccine and the boosters as well as the flu jab.
It's strange to think that tomorrow people won't be able to get free NHS tests to do at home like we've been able to up until now. I mean, personally, I think I would have highly suspected that it was covid by now without testing, but the tests confirm it and give you an indication as to when you're no longer infectious. It's a worry about how much it may spread without people being able to test as easily without paying a lot of money for a box of tests. But then I guess we just have to hope that most people will isolate as they do now with the flu anyway.
Thank you for reading. Alex xo