Quick Background to my COVID-19 Story and a Caveat
For the past week or so I’ve debated back and forth as to the value of sharing my own experience with COVID-19, mainly due to the fact that I’m personally (as a retired physician and current health educator) quite concerned that anecdotal reports of individual cases have the potential to (perhaps significantly) skew perceptions about the evolving COVID-19 story we’re all impacted by.
My hope is that my personal experience might be useful in some way, and the caveat of course is that any viral process can and likely will manifest uniquely in a given individual. As with most things YMMV, but clearly by the current data most of us will have a mild clinical syndrome when eventually encountering COVID-19.
Finally, for years now I’ve tracked my daily general health in my main workout record, usually summarized in a word or two if needed, as well as my workouts for the day, steps recorded by my fitness tracker, as well as heart rate responses in workouts (most often max, range, and average) just for the hell of it, and as a longer term record of my fitness changes. That tracking, in hindsight, has proved useful in piecing together my story.
My Personal COVID-19 Timeline
Looking back at my records, I noted on 2 March that I’d manifested symptoms of an upper respiratory infection (URI), though felt well enough to complete two aggressive workout days, though with a slight elevation in my HR responses to workouts. By the third day I felt much more fatigued than usual and took a rest day (unusual for me midweek), though for the next several days (March 6-9) noted improving URI symptoms, and I continued my walk/resistance training workouts on schedule, albeit with slightly elevated HR responses compared to my longer term average, and a bit more effort required to grind it out (particularly in strength training).
Interestingly on the 10th I experienced a bought of fairly impressive cramps and diarrhea, and the next day (11 March) developed a constellation of symptoms that became a bit concerning – a moderately severe diffuse headache, symptoms of conjunctivitis (burning, itchy eyes, redness, conjunctival swelling w/o drainage), anosmia (marked decrease in sense of smell), marked decrease in ability to taste (likely largely due to anosmia), impressive fatigue, and myalgias (diffuse body aches), along with a slight increase in URI symptoms (typical stuff).
The headache and conjunctival symptoms lasted for 9 days (through the 20th), with the muscle pains lasting a bit longer, finally resolving by the 24th.
The sense of overall fatigue was damned impressive, and looking back my sleep requirements increased from a typical 7.5-8 hours / night to 9 hours plus.
Of note, personally over the past several years I’ve found it damned useful to walk and workout per my routine, and felt well enough during this time frame to continue 80-90% of my workout routine, again with slightly elevated heart rate responses to exercise as compared to my normal. Now over a week out, energy and endurance have return to normal, and all of the symptoms noted above have resolved.
And yes, my lovely wife experienced a very similar course within a few days of my symptom onset, though her symptoms resolved within 7-8 days.
Interaction with the Health Care System
Of course during this SARS-CoV-2 / COVID-19 outbreak I’ve been researching and reading daily a fairly large and diverse bundle of information. My symptom constellation met many of the clinical criteria documented by the CDC and other professional associations, yet I did not meet criteria for actual testing.
I have a number of friends still in medicine, and ended up tracking down a friend who’s an infectious disease specialist in SLC; after conversations with he and his delightful PA, they agreed that in all probability given my symptom complex I indeed had COVID-19, albeit a mild case, and indeed was not eligible for testing at that time. My own internist agrees, and interestingly asked that I not present in the office for evaluation given case loads that week, though his team was reasonably diligent in following up to asses my status.
I’m damned curious to know if I’ve indeed seroconverted (developed measurable antibodies) and with the testing currently unavailable, I’m on a research protocol list to have blood drawn at some point down the line.
I have a few thoughts to offer at a later date on the COVID-19 “bigger picture”, though at this point suffice it say that my experience will likely be representative of what most of us will see when confronting this syndrome head on.
Hang in there, be vigilant and practice common sense precautions (wash those hands and don’t touch your face!), and fine tune your nutrition and fitness routines while you’ve got a little extra time on your hands.
