Do you think you had COVID?

[Layla55]

I was just thinking, it’s been just about a year since the beginning with lockdowns , closings etc. I stood in the long Costco lines, went in all groceries , retail places. As usual but wearing the cotton mask . My zip code had the highest infection rates in Ohio for months. It is a miracle I didn’t catch it right? Or those sniffles and feeling tired and crappy on occasion like we all have could have been IT? I have trouble believing I escaped this highly contagious virus .

[justbroke]

Yes, I do. It was confirmed to be in the house just a few weeks ago, but I had 0 symptoms. However, last year in about May (2020) I had some minor symptoms (fatigue, headache and muscle ache) and lost 8 pounds. So I think I had it last year at some point. I have never been tested but I want to do the antibody test at some point.

[shipo]

Yup, I had it early last year, early as in being infected during the third week of January while visiting my elderly mother in Hackensack Hospital (which was full of "unexplainiumitis") and then getting sick ten days later while on a business trip. Of course this all happened just before the first confirmed case here in the U.S., so getting sick at that time of year just meant yet another sinus infection...; or did it? My sinus problems and loss of sense of smell and taste lasted into early May, and then there were the breathing and systemic swelling issues. My wife was fortunate enough to catch it from me when I got back from my business trip and she lingered with annoying, but not hospital worthy, symptoms for months as well.

Back in September we gave blood to the American Red Cross and they contacted us a couple of weeks later and said, "Come on down! You've got COVID antibodies and we want your plasma!"

Epilogue:

We kinda-sorta suspected the whole COVID-19 thing given the loss of smell and taste (my wife's senses are just now returning after a year), so it was good to have it confirmed. For me as an "elderly" runner trying to recover from a broken leg in February 2019, the timing of my COVID was pretty bad, especially because my breathing was heavily impacted, like, 1,000 small razor blades cutting into my lungs while climbing a hill, and the painful swelling in my knees.

By December I finally started shaking off the lung and knee issues by changing my workout regimen to trail only running on an every second or third day schedule. I managed to slow jog a whopping 23 miles in December, 70 miles in January, and I'm on track to log just over 100 miles for February. Am I fully recovered yet? Not a chance; I still have way more leg than lung, but with any luck, I can put COVID in my rear-view mirror this year.

[lookingforward]

I had it for three weeks at the end of June/beginning of July. No coughing, just pain sometimes when breathing like running hard in the cold. Also stomach virus type symptoms, along with crushing fatigue. My goal for each day was to get a shower. That's all I could manage, then was wiped out for the rest of the day. The odd and blessed thing was that my husband never caught it. We have one bed and one bathroom. I quarantined in the bedroom and he slept in his recliner the whole time and he didn't get it. He's got a whole bunch of serious medical conditions so we were pretty worried about it. I donated plasma (covid plasma worth 100.00 a visit) a few times and made enough money to buy my granddaughter a fancy battery powered side by side for Christmas.

[shipo]

lookingforward, thankfully you got through it, this COVID stuff is no joke. My wife and I live on a 70-acre farm with three other families scattered about their property (we're the only two not part of the family), and of the fifteen people living here, all four senior citizens have had it, two requiring lengthy hospitalizations, one of the four middle aged adults had it, she also spent a fair amount of time in the hospital, and three of the seven pre-teen and teenaged kids have had it, one of which has been in and out of the hospital. My wife and I, part of the "senior citizen" group, were fortunate as while we felt pretty crummy, we never missed a day of work or a day down in the barn.

[Carmella]

I was just thinking, it’s been just about a year since the beginning with lockdowns , closings etc. I stood in the long Costco lines, went in all groceries , retail places. As usual but wearing the cotton mask . My zip code had the highest infection rates in Ohio for months. It is a miracle I didn’t catch it right? Or those sniffles and feeling tired and crappy on occasion like we all have could have been IT? I have trouble believing I escaped this highly contagious virus .

The only way to know is to get tested for antibodies I did that as I work in a nursing home and was sick way back, actually just before we learned about Covid. I did not have it. The antibody test was free, well I had to pay a small doctor fee maybe $10 at Labcorp. Or if you donate blood they will test for antibodies.

I also live in Ohio.

You may have had it. One of my coworker's husband had it, totally asymptomatic. They didn't believe he had it when he was diagnosed with the rapid test (we have routine 2x a week testing at the nursing homes). He had the PCR test and confirmed he was positive. It's a very strange virus.

We have seen varying degrees or illness or lack of it in both employees and our nursing home residents. We have some residents with a lot of co-morbidities have no symptoms and we have others who have died. And it really bugs me now when people joke about dying with covid. I know there were crazy things in the beginning, but some of these residents get deathly ill after the symptoms start to go away about 2 weeks after they are out of isolation. You think they are getting well and bam it's all down hill. I consider those folks covid deaths even though they were in that contagious isolation several weeks before. I wash and sanitize my hands more than anyone. And I stopped touching anything I don't have to, I never realized how much I touched like the rail in the elevator or just touching stuff. And I sanitize immediately after touching any frequently touched surface like any keypad at the store, ATM, the time clock at work, any door handles, etc. I even sanitize or wash hands after using the microwave at work and I stopped using the shared refrigerator to store our lunches. At the height of it I sanitized the desk chair I sit in, including the armrest and if anyone else sat in my spot I sanitized it again.

I have not caught Covid, had "careful" coworkers who did, but per my observations I could see weak spots in their infection control techniques or not being as careful as they should outside of work. Or my one coworker that has a very reckless (when it comes to measures to prevent Covid) husband who had "bronchitis" that turned out to be Covid and infected everyone in their household who all had fairly mild, but varying degrees of illness, the 80 something year other parent had it worst.

I am fully vaccinated and my husband who works in the grocery business was also able to get vaccinated and his second shot is next week.

Edit: I think if you socially distanced and kept your hands clean that would make a huge difference in not catching Covid. The masks help no matter what anyone says. No one ever claimed they were 100% effective, they are not, but if someone sneezes or coughs most of the germs are caught in the mask and if you are also masked it makes it harder for any germs that escape to make it through your mask. There was a lot of misinformation in the beginning. I saw ridiculous info based on the years of infection control training I have had to endure. I know what droplets are and how they are spread so I put that knowledge to work. When I have had contagious patients with droplets (not covid) I would try to stay at least 3 feet away when I could. Obviously I could not keep that distance all the time, but I only got closer when necessary. That is similar to what they call social distancing and my unofficial opinion is that 3-4 feet is adequate, but they told us 6 feet to make sure we stayed 3-4 feet away. So many years of infection control inservicing teaching me that droplets only go 3-4 feet then drop to the floor and DIE. Now if there's a fan in the room they might go further than 3-4 feet. And droplets do live on some surfaces longer than other, but it's not likely for days.

[shipo]

Thanks for the dissertation Carmella, good information and good insights!

[Layla55]

Thanks Carmella. I’d like to add that I have read some research as to the effectiveness of simple cloth masks. Studies did show while they won’t prevent a COVID infection they can reduce the viral load you are hit with , and that helps determine how sick you get, other words you have a better chance of milder case .