We can’t say for certain if I’d had (got) Covid-19, because there’s no testing unless you’re hospitalised at present, however, I’m reasonably confident I’ve had it. I have my flu jab every year and this year’s jab is ‘reasonably effective’, so there’s a good chance I didn’t have flu, the symptoms I did have line up with Covid-19, and the timeline looks like it’s a match. Recording this here, like other posts, just so that I have it in one place.
Around the 17th or 18th March I was suffering from mild diarrhoea,this isn’t entirely unusual for me especially if my diet changes. However, on the 19th March I felt unwell, and on checking my temperature found it was over 37.6C, so just in to the mild fever range. I had no cough.
On the 20th March, I had two bouts of intense shivering (the first lasted over half an hour, the second was shorter) and several periods of mild shivering, along with severe muscle pain. The pain might have been as a result of the shivering. I won’t lie, I wept at one point during the first bout. The diarrhoea was also significantly worse and I had a headache in the morning. On the 21st I developed a cough (and retained the headache). I wouldn’t describe it as frequent, and it was generally more of a background irritation, but it was dry and unproductive. My temperature was still up and down throughout the day. I was also, as Greté would describe it, pretty foggy. On the 22nd and 23rd, the cough was still present, but very mild in nature. My temperature on the 23rd was pretty stable for the latter half of the day and well within normal levels. On the 24th (today), there’s been little to no cough at all and my temperature has been normal all day. Tomorrow is my official last day of forced isolation. Sadly, Greté then has another 7 days to see if she develops symptoms.
We’ve been trying to remain apart and keep surfaces clean while I’ve been showing symptoms, although it’s virtually impossible, and I’ve made multiple errors while not thinking (handed her the house phone at one point). It’s entirely possible Greté’s already had this anyway, she had a very slight cough, very slight temperature and headache for a day before I showed signs of anything, but it was so mild it barely registered until I was showing full on symptoms. The physical separation has been hard, but we’ll be able to hug by the end of tomorrow so we’re looking forward to that.
Then it’s back to the challenge of trying to shop.