Covid - Anyone with personal experience?

Covid - Anyone with personal experience?

DrKrall • Aug 19, 2020

Did you or somebody close to you catch the virus, and if so what can you tell me about it?
I'm not interested in official information on the virus, it's spread or anything like that. I'm looking for first hand personal experience.

My reason for asking is a person I've talked to online was supposed to visit me but had to postpone due to her vacation being cut and being called back to work. 8 out of 12 was home sick with Covid and 1 of those actually died from it. Next week she got sick too. She wasn't very sick, but had a slight fever, problems with her balance and was extremely tired. Her fiancée who is working away from home and usually only comes home for the weekends didn't want to risk getting infected and choose to stay at work until her test results came. She and I kept in touch every day on the phone and by texting on Skype, but eventually she went offline and didn't answer her phone.
I couldn't reach her for 12 days but eventually she got back to me. Corona was confirmed and she has basicly been sleeping for almost 2 weeks. She claims she's feeling better but she still is very weak.

So basicly I wonder if any one has been there and could tell me about it. How long would we expect for her to fully recover for instance?
Authoritys here say it would be safe to meet a person who has not had any symptoms for 48 hours as long as it's been at least 7 days since they got sick. In her case it's been 15 days since she got sick and she still have symptoms. What should we expect?

tallslenderguy​(other male) • Aug 19, 2020

The problem with "authorities" is they often speculate based on their experience and knowledge vs evidence. We are still establishing evidence from studies about Covid, so it's a good idea to check source of info and determine if it's evidence based (which still isn't perfect, but i think science is still the best info we have, especially compared with anectdotal speculation).

i'm a critical care nurse and have worked on the Covid unit every other rotation since the second week of March 2020. It's possible i had Covid the week prior to my first week working on the unit, i.e., the first week of March. i don't know because testing wasn't very available at that time. i am still waiting to get an antibody test. The current tests are not fully reliable as they are not Covid specific and can result positive for several Corona viruses. Duke University is working on a Covid specific antibody test. Antibodies in our blood tell us whether we have had the disease, but it is still not known how long one might have antibodies or what level/duration (if any) of immunity antibodies may confer.

Again, speculatively, i suspect i may have had Covid based on the symptoms i had and my knowledge and experience with the disease, but do not "know." Several of the nurses i work with have similar suspicions. Several of us further suspect that we may have sense fought the disease off again. i cannot emphasize enough that this is just conjecture, not study based. We are all working in an environment where Covid is confirmed present and many of us have felt like our bodies were fighting something off, though not succumbing, since having had what we suspected might be Covid. my hope and feel (total speculation) is that having the virus does confer some degree of resistance/immunity, i hope that pans out with study evidence.

Symptoms from Covid can last several months, but it is a very complex disease and if effects different people differently. One of the more deadly responses to Covid is cytokine response syndrome (aka "cytokine storm" or just "CRS"). Essentially it's a hyper immune response that damages and shuts down the lungs. Many who recover from Covid have damaged lungs with a cough that can persist for several months. Coughing produces "droplets" and droplet is the primary source of Covid spread. Check the latest evidence cited below, we know the Covid virus can "continue to shed in the upper respiratory tract for up to 3 months after illness onset, albeit at concentrations considerably lower than during illness...."

Cough+virus= possible infection.

Evidence so far shows the most likely way to catch Covid is person to person in close proximity. Droplet is the most likely way to catch it, aerosol or from a surface is also possible but less likely. The latest update from the CDC (August 15, 2020) summarizes:
"Available data indicate that persons with mild to moderate COVID-19 remain infectious no longer than 10 days after symptom onset. Persons with more severe to critical illness or severe immunocompromise likely remain infectious no longer than 20 days after symptom onset. Recovered persons can continue to shed detectable SARS-CoV-2 RNA in upper respiratory specimens for up to 3 months after illness onset, albeit at concentrations considerably lower than during illness, in ranges where replication-competent virus has not been reliably recovered and infectiousness is unlikely."
The whole article with study citations can be found here: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/duration-isolation.html

DrKrall • Aug 19, 2020

@tallslenderguy
Thank You for answering. I've worked in health care/mental care most of my life and caring for virus infected patients (Hep etc) so I sort of know how it works. I also know the authorities in my country has chosen a somehow different approach to Covid than many others and has been much critizised for this. I don't think we will know who was right and who was wrong until this thing has blown over and I don't want to turn this into politics, but some of the nations that has critisized Sweden most now have a worse situation than we do.

It's confirmed the person I'm talking about do have Covid but for as long as we were talking on the phone several times a day she did not cough.
I know this is one of the symptoms to look for but she did not show this. Since then we have only texted and I didn't actually think of asking her about coughing, but she didn't mention it. I also know some people have tested positive for antibodies without having shown any of the symptoms, and that's why I posted my question here instead of reading up on official sources. At this point most official sources are speculations based on what we have seen so far and how viruses usually behave. I was more interested in hearing how those infected felt during their illness, especially if they had the same or similar symptoms as her.

"Available data indicate that persons with mild to moderate COVID-19 remain infectious no longer than 10 days after symptom onset."
This is more or less what authoroties here are saying: 2 days without symptoms and at least 7 days since onset would indicate a minimum of 7 days (if the patient showed no symptoms from day 5) but as far as I've heard no confirmed cases in my country has lasted shorter than 7 days which would
give 7+2=9 or more. But as I said what I really wanted to know was personal experiences and not official statistics, treatments or how it's spread.

If you were infected without symptoms I guess you were lucky.

shortylotus​(dom female) • Aug 19, 2020

I lost my father a few weeks ago from covid. Its can be serious and rapid
We got a positive test result on Thursday and he died Friday morning. I would suggest just take your time until you feel very comfortable

DrKrall • Aug 19, 2020

@shortylotus
I'm very sorry for your loss.

I'm not really worried about myself but my parents are very old and I would not want to catch this and pass it on to them. Otherwise I would probably have taken care of her until recovered.

tallslenderguy​(other male) • Aug 19, 2020

i did have symptoms. A cough was the first symptom, it presented while i was at work and my charge nurse commented that it didn't sound good. Covid had just come on our radar within the last few days at that point. The next day, i had a temp, and i continued to have a waxing and waning temp for the next 9 days, fatigue, aches and pains that are typical of flu. The thing that stood out to me was the cough. It developed into a deep, tenacious cough (very thick mucous) that i could not move. It was like cement. i've had pertussis, and lots of bronchial infections in my life, but this was like no other. Honestly, while i felt lousy, i have had flu that knocked me down harder. But the cough had me worried. i think i lucked out because the mucous didn't spread in my lungs, if it had, i think i'd have been in serious trouble because it was so immovable. That's the one symptom that makes me think it may have been Covid, that and it took about 2 months for the cough to resolve, though the thickness resolved in about 2 weeks.

The hospital where i work was all over the map when it comes to response. i was a (possible) early case. i called into employee health 2x while i was sick and they totally down played it. At first, we were told if we didn't have a fever for 2 days, we were released to come back to work. Now our hospital policy is if you have just been exposed, you cannot come to work for 2 weeks. Our PPE policy seems to change daily.

i had been temp free for 48 hours and was told i could come back to work. i was placed on the Covid unit and had our hospitals first Covid patient. She was comparatively young (4 and generally in good health. She had symptoms similar to mine, the waxing and waning temp, but she had a lot more shortness of breath than i did. Her temp ranges were similar. The highest mine got was 102.4, the highest hers got was 102.8. She was in hospital for 11 days, but never needed intubation and eventually discharged.

twycebitten • Aug 19, 2020

Hi DrK.
Norway has a 10-14 day quarantine (stay home) if we have visited a risk area. So our government believes its at least 10 days... not sure that helps. Glad she is ok, though.

DrKrall • Aug 19, 2020

@tallslenderguy
This was more like the replies I was interested in. Thank you and I'm glad you are OK.

@twycebitten
I live by the border so I know about the quarantine rules. The border was open for a week or something and then shut again. I was actually planning on visiting a norwegian friend when it opened but I wasn't quick enough. I don't know for sure if she is ok but I hope so. She seems to get better.

Sasa​(dom female) • Aug 19, 2020

A friend of mine got it. Now 4 month after she's still recovering. It's hard, she's now loosing her hair. A common reaction. She couldn't smell for about 3 month, it's slowly coming back. My friend is 38 her husband 48 and for him it was mild. You never know what these little fuckers do.

Bunnie • Aug 19, 2020

Weigh up which would leave you with greater regrets... because ultimately it is you that has to live with your decisions... not us.