I went to urgent care twice in February and once in March. My husband went three times in one week in March. Each time we went, we were tested for some common illnesses like flu or strep, and all the tests were negative. Our symptoms ranged from feeling so weak we couldn’t eat or even walk to our door, to coughing so hard at night we couldn’t catch our breath. The coughing fits could easily last for 15 minutes straight with no relief. Then came the stomach issues that were severe, and cold sweats.
All of this we were told was an upper respiratory infection. Finally, I passed out from trying to walk to the bathroom and had to be transported by ambulance to the emergency room. There I was diagnosed with pneumonia and told I “probably” had COVID, but I still was not tested. I was given a hospital grade (according to the doctor) antibiotic and sent home. They informed me to try to fair at home if I could, and if I didn’t improve in 48 hours I would be admitted. Fortunately, I started to make some progress on the antibiotics. This was the week of March 15th.
Fast forward to May, I begin to see clumps of my hair shed with each wash. To the point that I can visibly notice my hair is about fifty percent in its usual volume. I also begin to experience extreme muscular issues where the pain in my joints causes me to be in tears. By June, these symptoms are so alarming that I decide to see my doctor. My general practitioner who is extremely thorough explains that not only are COVID patients experience residual muscular issues but that they are losing hair!! YES!! Losing their hair!! She advises that we do the antibody test to determine what she already expected was the case–that I did indeed have COVID back in March. The test confirms that I did within 24 hours.
There is so much more to this story, like how a medical professional explained to me that the testing scarcity was not coincidental, but indeed intentional to suppress the early testing numbers data. I was not only shocked but infuriated. I personally know people that have lost loved ones to this beast of a virus. I personally have survived and am still surviving the after-effects of this virus. This pandemic has shown me a side of our society at large that I do not like. I fear that our children will look back and see us fighting over masks and virtual learning, when they should be seeing us pull together, because like it or not we are all in a crisis! If you take anything from my journey I hope you get the weight of how ugly this virus is. How real it is, how important it is we fight it together!
