take care to tell it just as it was, take care to tell on me for the cause
By this point, I'm pretty sure I have coronavirus.
Been basically self-isolating at home since March 1st. Very limited leaving the house initially because of the Buddhist retreat debacle which sent me into what I thought at the time was a fibromyalgia flare. Went to dinner for Trav's bday March 5th and after that, left the house twice for grocery stockpiling. Also went to physical therapy and the gym once during those first four days. (Feel terrible about those things because what if I got someone else sick, but I didn't know, nobody thought it was a problem, thought I was being a little overkill. Anyway.)
Took a 2-3 hour nap every day from March 7th thru March 13th. Called into work March 7th, still thought I was being overcautious. Bit of a runny nose at that point.
Found my shitty thermometer March 9th, but probably running a temperature before then. When I was taking it my temperature maxed out at 102, maybe, my thermometer is shit and I've pretty much given up on taking my temperature, but it would get worse the longer I hadn't slept. Chills and couldn't get warm, then breaking out in a sweat 3 hours later. Have to really push myself to drink water and eat.
Around 3/9, other symptoms started out slow like sinus pressure and throat tickle. Sore throat. Symptoms come in waves. Just been so tired. Incredibly tired, and I have fibromyalgia so I know tired. This is worse.
By March 12th, less sore throat and more lots of wanting to cough. Not hungry at all. Headache sometimes, which feels like the bastard child of a migraine and a tension headache so I suspect it's sinus, which I've never had before.
Pressure like my 20lb dog was sitting on my chest. That showed up Sunday night/Monday 3/16. Pretty short of breath by Tuesday. Tried to stay calm. Therapy appointment via phone on Wednesday, where I had to pause between every other sentence to breathe, deep slow breaths through the urge to cough like I did when I had whooping cough.
Reached out to Dr Sunday night 3/15, they sent me a message three days later and told me to go to urgent care if I had shortness of breath so I did.
Urgent care Wednesday 3/18. Nurse practitioner took my vitals outside in the parking lot, fully dressed in what seemed like a medical version of an astronaut suit, telling me I have mild pneumonia on one hand and "normally we'd do a lot more testing" but then also grilling me like she's frantic to find ANY other reason a otherwise mostly healthy 34 year old could have fluid in their lungs.
"You sure you don't have asthma? No allergies? Really, no allergies? Did you get a flu shot? You did? When? Do you mean October 2018 or October 2019? 2019, hm. But you haven't left the country? Oh, your partner travelled domestically, that's not an issue." ... COME ON, LADY. WE'RE IN A PANDEMIC.
So she basically told me to fuck off with my request to be tested: "we're only testing people we need to hospitalize" great! that's going to help the disease not spread! FUCKING PERFECT JOB, AMERICA. And I have Medicare because I'm disabled, so god only knows what people with HMOs or no insurance are going to be treated like.
Luckily since I'm near Silicon Valley, I can just trade my privacy for necessary medical care since google is doing testing for free in certain areas, so I got tested yesterday! Whee!
By the way the test SUCKED. Had to drive 45 minutes one way to have someone swab my sinus. Really felt like they were going for my brains. That swab just keeps coming IN. (assault reference follows) Brain raped with a fucking 6 inch Q-Tip. I was expecting it because I had whooping cough when I was 16 & that's the way they test you for it, but I still wanted to punch them in the face.
Today I'm tired enough that I wonder if I'm not making sense. I've edited this entry 9 times already. Feel short of breath walking to the bathroom, but I got shiny new drugs with Baby's First Inhaler and new cough suppressants, and my fiance is buzzing around guiltily since he's been perfectly healthy (with the exception of a 'cold' 7 days before I got sick) so he thinks he gave it to me. Poor dear also got laid off and is very worried about that too.
Anyway I told Trav to go clean everything and I think I'm going to take a nap after this entry's up to par. I expect test results earliest Monday, probably by Wednesday, latest Friday. Any questions?
Originally posted at Dreamwidth. Comment there (
), or feel free to comment here.
Been basically self-isolating at home since March 1st. Very limited leaving the house initially because of the Buddhist retreat debacle which sent me into what I thought at the time was a fibromyalgia flare. Went to dinner for Trav's bday March 5th and after that, left the house twice for grocery stockpiling. Also went to physical therapy and the gym once during those first four days. (Feel terrible about those things because what if I got someone else sick, but I didn't know, nobody thought it was a problem, thought I was being a little overkill. Anyway.)
Took a 2-3 hour nap every day from March 7th thru March 13th. Called into work March 7th, still thought I was being overcautious. Bit of a runny nose at that point.
Found my shitty thermometer March 9th, but probably running a temperature before then. When I was taking it my temperature maxed out at 102, maybe, my thermometer is shit and I've pretty much given up on taking my temperature, but it would get worse the longer I hadn't slept. Chills and couldn't get warm, then breaking out in a sweat 3 hours later. Have to really push myself to drink water and eat.
Around 3/9, other symptoms started out slow like sinus pressure and throat tickle. Sore throat. Symptoms come in waves. Just been so tired. Incredibly tired, and I have fibromyalgia so I know tired. This is worse.
By March 12th, less sore throat and more lots of wanting to cough. Not hungry at all. Headache sometimes, which feels like the bastard child of a migraine and a tension headache so I suspect it's sinus, which I've never had before.
Pressure like my 20lb dog was sitting on my chest. That showed up Sunday night/Monday 3/16. Pretty short of breath by Tuesday. Tried to stay calm. Therapy appointment via phone on Wednesday, where I had to pause between every other sentence to breathe, deep slow breaths through the urge to cough like I did when I had whooping cough.
Reached out to Dr Sunday night 3/15, they sent me a message three days later and told me to go to urgent care if I had shortness of breath so I did.
Urgent care Wednesday 3/18. Nurse practitioner took my vitals outside in the parking lot, fully dressed in what seemed like a medical version of an astronaut suit, telling me I have mild pneumonia on one hand and "normally we'd do a lot more testing" but then also grilling me like she's frantic to find ANY other reason a otherwise mostly healthy 34 year old could have fluid in their lungs.
"You sure you don't have asthma? No allergies? Really, no allergies? Did you get a flu shot? You did? When? Do you mean October 2018 or October 2019? 2019, hm. But you haven't left the country? Oh, your partner travelled domestically, that's not an issue." ... COME ON, LADY. WE'RE IN A PANDEMIC.
So she basically told me to fuck off with my request to be tested: "we're only testing people we need to hospitalize" great! that's going to help the disease not spread! FUCKING PERFECT JOB, AMERICA. And I have Medicare because I'm disabled, so god only knows what people with HMOs or no insurance are going to be treated like.
Luckily since I'm near Silicon Valley, I can just trade my privacy for necessary medical care since google is doing testing for free in certain areas, so I got tested yesterday! Whee!
By the way the test SUCKED. Had to drive 45 minutes one way to have someone swab my sinus. Really felt like they were going for my brains. That swab just keeps coming IN. (assault reference follows) Brain raped with a fucking 6 inch Q-Tip. I was expecting it because I had whooping cough when I was 16 & that's the way they test you for it, but I still wanted to punch them in the face.
Today I'm tired enough that I wonder if I'm not making sense. I've edited this entry 9 times already. Feel short of breath walking to the bathroom, but I got shiny new drugs with Baby's First Inhaler and new cough suppressants, and my fiance is buzzing around guiltily since he's been perfectly healthy (with the exception of a 'cold' 7 days before I got sick) so he thinks he gave it to me. Poor dear also got laid off and is very worried about that too.
Anyway I told Trav to go clean everything and I think I'm going to take a nap after this entry's up to par. I expect test results earliest Monday, probably by Wednesday, latest Friday. Any questions?
Originally posted at Dreamwidth. Comment there (
), or feel free to comment here.