Ask HN: Have you had Covid? How bad was it?

[throwaway2474]

I live in a part of the world where we haven’t had much Covid. At this point though Omicron seems to be evading vaccines and spreading rapidly.

I’m struggling to decide whether to treat it as something mild that I’m definitely going to get, or something really bad that I should be taking strong precautions against. Reading news isn’t overly helpful as it only shows extreme cases/views.

Have you had Covid, and what was your experience like? Do you have any lingering symptoms?

[mikewarot]

I had Covid last March, before testing was a thing, it wasn't much worse than any other flu. Several co-workers came down with it as well, one very bad, but recovered.

I on the other hand, haven't been so lucky. I've had shortness of breath ever since. I used to work on my feet 8+ hours/day... now if I go grocery shopping, I barely make it home and through putting the food away, and have to rest for a few hours.

I ran through a ton of test last year, for all sorts of issues, nothing out of the ordinary showed up, thus the conclusion that it's long Covid.

[ddingus]

I have greater fatigue to this day too. It's improving a little at a time, but not fast enough.

[vimy]

They can help: https://covidlonghaulers.com/

[fellowniusmonk]

I had a breakthrough case after being double vaxxed with moderna, I'm a programmer, I had the equivalent symptoms to a 3 day sinus infection and it was seemingly not a big deal....

BUT

It fucked up my cognition profoundly for a month, and it was 4 months before I was back to normal.

It was like nothing else I've ever experienced.

This is not something to get if you are a knowledge worker and want to keep your ability to work.

I'm in my mid 30s.

[p1esk]

It fucked up my cognition profoundly

What do you mean?

[TranquilMarmot]

I haven't gotten COVID-19 (to my knowledge) but a common symptom is "brain fog"- basically the inability to clearly form thoughts in your head. I know as a programmer, being able to keep huge systems in my head is profoundly important to the job so any effect on that would be detrimental. Coupled with the added stress of the pandemic (and everything else) in general and I could see it being really hard.

[fellowniusmonk]

Exactly that.

Unable to complete any appreciable work as a result. I also lost access to a lot of words, where I would pause mid-sentence because the word wouldn't come to mind.

It took my nearly 4 months before that tapered off to the point that it stopped happening, I'm still not sure if it was because the associative links came back or because my brain garbage collected the index.

[gabrielsroka]

I don't suppose any people who died from it are going to respond here. I know a few who died and some who recovered.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias ?

[e9]

First time I got Covid in January. It was bad. Not as bad as a bad case of strep though. Nothing helped headaches and body aches were painful.

I just got Covid again. Double vaxxed with Phizer. It’s pretty mild right now like a light case of cold. Nothing compared to January.

It seems like it’s going to keep evolving like any other virus of the family. Everyone is going to get it eventually. Hopefully it will evolve to be more and more mild(it’s goal is to survive the longest and not to eradicate us). What really surprised me with omicron is that stats show that natural immunity is not as good as the vaccines(Moderna and Phizer) so make sure you are vaccinated.

[greazy]

> it’s goal is to survive the longest and not to eradicate us

Unfortunately viruses evolving to be milder is a myth.

> The assertion that viruses evolve to become milder “is a bit of a myth”, says Rambaut. “The reality is far more complex.”

[GoldenMonkey]

46yo, Unvaccinated, lean, healthy, active lifestyle, diet and supplements. Had covid, was feverish and miserable for 5 days. Can no longer smell and taste is blunted.

Was not as bad as getting the flu, for me. Which was much more painful and miserable for 10 days.

[luckman212]

Wait, you're saying you still to this day have no sense of smell and a diminished ability to taste? And you feel that's not as bad as the typical flu?

[listless]

Had it in September. Double vaxxed Moderna with second dose early May. It was bad. Intense fever, headache and I could feel it setting up in my lungs. Complete loss of taste and smell. Took me a solid 3 days to be up moving around and 8 before I was back to to good.

But what was worse was the fear. I don’t buy in to a lot of the fear mongering that’s done around this thing. I know it’s done to get people to take it seriously because there is a non-zero chance you will die. But the anxiety almost killed me. It was far worse than the illness itself.

[muzani]

Interestingly enough, the stats here are that the double vaxxed shrug it off, unless they have immunity problems. According to our healthcare folks, most of the dying ones are unvaxxed. We're assured that even if efficacy is low, you're about 99% less likely to be hospitalized.

But I personally know plenty of single vaxxed people who died. And my symptoms from the second vaccine (pfizer) were nasty enough for a fake virus, I can't really imagine it being light for the real thing. I feel like there's some missing context.

[listless]

A little context here: my wife is not vaccinated, and neither are my 3 children. My wife and my oldest child had it for 2 days before I got it. It's likely the viral load in my house was extremely high.

Just had my 3rd dose of Moderna, and the first day after was just as bad as full blown COVID. You'd be hard pressed to get me to do that again.

[FloNeu]

Single vaxxed isn't immunized... If you don't get the 2nd shot you could have pissed on the first too (at least for the mRNA vaccines)

[mastah88]

Almost died from it. Before world noticed the outbreak. Got to the point I felt while moving like i am walking while submerged in jelly - extreme resistance while moving. Almost couldn't move or breathe. Got to hospital, got antibiotic which made it even worse. Forming one sentence was taking me 2 minutes because I didn't remember words. My memory almost didn't work. I save myself by remembering that L-Lysine in some studies lowers the replication rate of viruses, so I started chugging in a lot of it and it started to get better.

Took me like 6 months to recover breathing capacity, probably same with ability to think. I still have troubles with memory after. Got many new Alergies and can eat only like 5 ingredients and drink only water (candida/mold grew when covid lowered my immune).

Peptide BPC157 helped me recover a lot (lower inflammation and heal some damage). Friend was recommending Cerebrolysin, semax, and selank for brain healing but didn't try it yet.

[cymian]

Sick for a week like flu. Still under the weather for second week. Lost taste/smell which both returned. Had 8 relatives with similar experiences and 1 was bedridden for 2 weeks. Ages: 20 to 45.

[malkocoglu]

I am in Mid 40s with high BMI. I got Covid while waiting for my vaccination appointment. I did not have fever, cough, ache or anything but my brain was effected in strange ways. It was like flashbacks all the time, as if I perceived the now as a series of flashbacks. 6 days after testing positive, I was taken to a hospital by an ambulance, intubation and all. Have you seen the movie Source Code (2011). I felt like that guy in the ICU. Maybe also because of all the drugs they gave me, I had lots of hallucinations, I thought I was being experimented on. I was somewhat paranoid schizophrenic (this is my idea not a diagnosis) for a brief time. Then after 2 weeks I got better but could not walk. 1 month later I was discharged, my wife & mom helped me with my physical therapy at home. On the 15th day, I was able to stand up. Then, I got better and better. Now 8 months later, I fell OK...

[andrei_says_]

If in the USA - what is the situation with hospital bills? Knowing that a day in the hospital can cost thousands, I wonder how people manage to pay for a month of intensive care.

[malkocoglu]

Not in the USA. I am Turkish. I did not have to pay anything. And the report they gave us after discharge included 3 full pages of (one may say truckload) the drugs they used on me.

[kkoncevicius]

I had it at the end of summer. I somehow sensed it was coming - felt weak 3 days before the official symptoms appeared.

1st day of officially having covid was pretty bad, weakness and temperature.

2nd day, surprisingly, I felt great as if it was over.

3rd day was the worst day of the whole ordeal. It was like flu - muscle weakness, aches over the body, and temperature. I felt so weak I stayed in bed the whole day.

4th-6th days were getting better slightly but also oscillating. Some days were better and others worse, with no linear trend.

7th day - lost my sense of smell and taste. Noticed it first by drinking water. The only thing I could notice is the texture. I was eating oat meal and remember thinking that it feels like eating saw dust.

8th-12th days - slowly getting better and recovery, still oscillating from day to day.

13-14th days - temperature was back to normal and I felt healthy, except for lingering brain fog.

15th day - started taking big doses of Vitamins B, C, and D, drinking magnesium supplements and zinc.

17th day - brain fog went away (which I attributed to supplements). The only lingering symptom now was loss of smell.

18th day - had a "covid tongue" https://covid.joinzoe.com/post/covid-tongue which freaked me out at first, but after discovering it was related to covid it eased my mind.

20th day - the "covid" tongue disappeared and only loss of smell remained. Over the months the sense of smell started to slowly return. The first to return was the smell of urine (for some reason).

Currently - All is back to normal maybe except for the smells. I feel that my sense of smell hasn't returned fully yet. Thou that might be a psychological thing. I can smell things, but they seem to be not as intense as before COVID. But I cannot compare.

Summary - I didn't have any respiratory issues (no runny nose, no shortness of breath, no sore throat). For me it was similar to flu +/- some extra symptoms. The worst thing is that it takes about two weeks to pass. 2 out of 14 days it felt worse than having a flu, and remaining 12 days felt milder than a flu.

[mwattsun]

My niece had it and reports things don't taste as well now. I've been extremely careful about Covid-19 from the start. I often wondered if I was over-reacting, then I watched "City of Gold" about Los Angeles food critic Johnathan Gold and realized why I was so paranoid: I heard reports early on that people lost their sense of taste and smell. Losing 2 of your 5 senses is a big deal, more so for me because I'm a foodie and my life would be worse if I couldn't enjoy a good meal.

[fknorangesite]

My parents got it. Unvaccinated. They're both dead now.

[kylehotchkiss]

Really sorry for your loss :(

[throwaway889112]

Had it March/April 2020 during NYC's first wave right after lockdown and literally just tested positive again this morning, assuming omicron. Early 30's, healthy.

So far, the first bout was more intense which I suppose makes sense. 102+ Fever which broke in ~36hrs and other symptoms which felt a bit "different" compared with those of a normal cold/flu. Loss of taste/smell occurred toward the end and was the most worrisome but has since fully recovered.

This round feels like a bad cold or slight flu. Tonsils a bit more bothersome, some fever but not notable enough to bother taking my temperature. More sore than what I remember. I'm a founder, just closed our A and worked all week as usual (quarantined from home). Took no OTC medication either time other than vitamins and zinc.

Likely an unpopular view, but getting sick early on the in pandemic was the best thing that happened to me. I remember the anxiety and stress I felt early 2020. As soon as I got sick, it completely went away and I haven't lived with it since. *For those of similar age and health*, I personally believe the emotional and behavioral toll I witnessed friends and family suffer on account of media sensationalism caused far greater harm than having Covid would have.

As someone who also unfortunately lost a family member (who was not similar age nor health) and supports getting vaccinated, I definitely believe the risk from Covid is real. I would suggest you take the time to actually look at data, understand context and draw your own conclusions. I wish there was a stronger narrative around improving overall health and preventable "underlying conditions" instead of the constant fear mongering, division and politics rampant today.

Protect yourself as best you can, don't put others at risk and take solace in knowing worry has diminishing returns.

[lern_too_spel]

The government has asked people to eat healthier and to exercise for years. What do you propose they do in addition that you think will have a large enough effect on obesity to affect COVID outcomes but be less divisive than current policies around getting vaccinated? At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if merely increasing public health messaging about obesity would cause many people to eat fried butter sticks out of spite.

[rurban]

Asking people is not enough. They need to forbid sugared food and drinks in schools for a start. Treat sugar addiction as an illness.

[lern_too_spel]

School lunch is divisive: https://thefern.org/ag_insider/as-schools-reopen-the-fight-o...

Schoolchildren are also not the people filling hospital beds, so that policy will not be able to match the effectiveness of other policies.

As a reminder, the claim was that reducing the prevalence of underlying conditions like obesity and diabetes could be more effective and less divisive than current policies. I'm looking for specific policy proposals to validate that claim.

[jryan49]

34 years old. Got it in Feb of 2020. No sense of taste or smell for a a few weeks came back fine. Needed to take naps for a month after getting better. Had hard time going up and down stairs and breathing at night while sleeping. I feel like I've completely recovered by now. I'd say it's on the top 5 worst list of illnesses I've endured. I must of had alpha or beta though.

What's hilarious is I thought I had caught some very strange flu that wasn't COVID cause no one thought it was in America yet. I did go to the doctor to get tested for flu all came back negative. Also my whole family seemed to get sick. It was wildly different for each person.

Hopefully the new variant is as mild as they say. I'm still having Christmas with small amount of family. I'm triple vaxxed at this point.

[janpot]

There will be a lot of survivorship bias in this thread.

[StanislavPetrov]

There will be a lot of survivorship bias on any Covid thread since over 99% of people infected survive (much higher for those who are younger).

[odonnellryan]

And much much higher for those who are older. What's your point?

[ezekg]

Yes. I ran a high fever on and off for 2 days and then kicked it. I had fatigue for about a week. I also lost my taste and smell for a couple weeks, which was probably the worst and most annoying part. But I’d rather have had COVID than the flu. The flu sucks.

[bjourne]

I'm dumbfounded as to why you think it is wiser to listen to mostly anonymous Hacker News readers than to epidemiology experts.

[HackOfAllTrades]

Dec 2020: Two weeks of horrible flu symptoms for me & my wife (in our 60s). After that she needed oxygen, so 2 weeks in hospital and 2 more weeks in Rehab. I have Long Covid symptoms of fatige and lack of stamina still, 1 year later.

[samspenc]

Got it for 1-2 weeks January this year. At first I thought it was the seasonal flu and some coughing especially since it was in the middle of snow season. But then I had mild smell / taste loss symptoms and decided to test to make sure. And for 2-3 days, man I don't know how best to explain this, but my chest felt like it was stuck in an old moldy cardboard box, but after a few days I felt better. Smell & taste also came back fully in a few weeks and was back to normal but it was a very ... interesting experience.

Felt somewhat worse than a regular flu but in some ways I'm glad I got through it without getting too much worse for the wear.

[codingdave]

I have not, but know many people who have. Many of them had mild symptoms that barely impacted them. Others were wiped out for days, or sometimes weeks, and one notable friend who had long-haul symptoms for a year. And we know 4 people who died.

The odds are that you'll have a mild case and it won't be a big deal. But the other end of those odds is death. So personally, I don't worry much about whether I get it, but I do try to follow the guidance for masking and distancing to help prevent spreading it for the sake of those who end up on the bad end of statistics.

[kypro]

Had it early in the year and was unvaxxed when I had it. Was 30 at the time. For me it a little similar to the flu in that I felt very weak, but it wasn't as severe as the flu at its worse, instead symptoms lasted a little longer than the flu for me.

I knew I had it on a Thursday after my partner was diagnosed the day before and I started feeling a bit off. Friday I started feeling worse, but it wasn't until the evening that I really started feeling bad. Saturday was pretty bad... I had a mild fever for about an hour, my head was killing and I felt too weak to do anything. Sunday was bad too, but I was starting to feel better. Monday I was bad feeling crappy but I was able to work and by the evening I was feeling mostly okay. For the next few days I had a mild cough, but that cleared up by the end of the week.

I didn't have to take any time off of work, though I was quite fortunate with my worst days falling on the weekend. I also have a pretty good immune system so I'm not sure how representative my experience is. I'm very rarely ill. I was actually surprised I felt so bad for two days, normally even with the Flu I'll only feel very bad for 24 hours or so, where as this was more like 48 hours.

It wasn't the worst thing I had that's for sure. I had glandular fever as a teen and that was worse by an order of magnitude in terms of fever, weakness and time to recover.

I've done an IQ test since having COVID, but mentally I haven't noticed any long-term effects. I've also had no long-term physical effects.

[Drybones]

I had it in late March and I had absolutely no idea I had it. Coincidentally I needed to go to get tested for someone’s wedding who asked for a negative results and I came back positive. I just waited a few days, tested negative, and the. Got a vaccine to get a card for future trips. Omnicron variant so far has had a vastly lower effect on people than other variants. Everyone I know has had it at some point but I haven’t seen someone get it twice for some reason.

[squarefoot]

Male, 55 with some health related issues. Got it in late october 2020 when we still didn't have vaccines available for everyone. Spent over 3 weeks quarantined at home, 2 weeks with very bad cough and body aches everywhere. The sense of smell and taste took more to get back to normal. My doctor monitored me daily by phone, should things go south. I also had my partner who works in medical structures close to me, so luckily I wasn't alone. She was positive as well, although with much milder symptoms.

After recovering and testing negative, I suffered a bad road accident and at the ER they had to test me again for Covid although I provided the documentation about being fully recovered (and, I thought, immune) but I tested positive. They swabbed me every damn day for over a week and all times I ended up positive, although 100% asymptomatic. This unfortunately delayed the back surgery I needed asap and is likely the cause of other problems. Back to the Covid, as soon as I could I got the 1st then the 2nd vaccine shot (Pfizer) and probably will get the 3rd soon as they're shortening the intervals due to the Omicron variant which seems to be resistant to low antibodies values, hence the need to be freshly vaccinated.

[no-dr-onboard]

Unvaccinated, early 30s with no comorbidities other than having a slightly high BMI.

Had it right after thanksgiving of this year. Two week deal. First week was the typical fever/flu symptoms, second week was brain fog and nausea coupled with a loss of taste and smell for about 2 or so weeks from start. Brain fog took 3 weeks to clear from the start.

I had shortness of breath but employed breathing exercises and later did some heavy lifting around the house and ended up doing some unexpected cardio. A more structured and disciplined approach would likely yield more measurable, positive results. No shortness of breath after three weeks from start.

Not a ride I’d want to go on again, but as other have reported, certainly didn’t live up to the media fear/hype.

Worth noting that I did employ a pascalian therapy in my approach (1). I was prescribed ivermectin, took large amounts of quercetin, vitamin c, d, zinc and so on. I think this probably led to me recovering so quickly and not experiencing any lasting side effects. This is totally anecdotal though.

1. https://astralcodexten.substack.com/

[EvanAnderson]

Father and mother-in-law infected in Jan 2021 after exposure on Jan 1st. Both 70 y/o and both had some co-morbidities (immunosuppressed for FiL, diabetes and high BMI for MiL). Father-in-law died on Jan 18th after refusing to go on a vent. Mother-in-law on supplemental O2 until early Feb, hospitalized with low SpO2 three times in the time since. Has cognitive issues, too, but that may be unrelated.

[mynegation]

I do not know if that was COVID - never tested positive, but the symptoms were like nothing before and the timing was suspicious - May 2020.

It started with nasty tickling in the throat and couple of days later my voice become extremely hoarse and soft. No sore throat, no other symptoms at this point. Did not take a test because it was not typical for COVID. Managed to get ENT appointment only 3 weeks later. By that time I did the test and it came back negative. ENT diagnosed paralysis of the right vocal cord due to the loss of function of the nerve (no visible damage on the vocal fold itself). 3 typical reasons for this are nerve damage during surgery- did not have it, malignant or benign mass pressing against the nerve - excluded by CT, and nerve damage as result of the inflammation from the viral infection, which was given to me as a diagnosis by exclusion.

The mobility of the vocal cord and voice returned after 2.5 months over a course of a week. Roughly in the middle of it I lost the sense of smell and taste completely- just for a single day.

[jmopp]

The problem with covid is that it's very much a crapshoot. You could be fine, you could have debilitating symptoms that last for months. Since that tail risk is very much a risk of ruin, I would be careful with it. I'm personally waiting until more therapeutics are approved and we know more about how long covid works. That is my risk calculus though.

[ifyoubuildit]

Had it shortly before vaccines were available in my country. I had body aches and fatigue, runny nose and mild sore throat. No loss of taste or smell, no fever even.

The worst part was the waiting. Was this the day that the numbers on the pulse ox would start dropping? Would I get some kind of blood clot? But it ended up being fine, as far as I know anyway.

I do worry that there could have been long term damage that has yet to manifest itself. A few others that we believe were all in the same transmission chain had similar experiences, though one of us had quite a bit heavier fatigue and shortness of breath that has since resolved.

After I recovered, I started looking into reinfection rates and ever since I've been surprised to see the intense push for people like me to get vaccinated. Even from early 2021, there was published evidence that reinfections were rare. Of course, with omicron who knows now.

[anothernerd2]

Had covid late 2020. Fever, difficulty breathing, general cold symptoms for like 3-4 days. Wasn’t too bad, the vaccine symptoms were worse

The terrible part was losing my sense of smell and taste. I had my wedding a few weeks after. Couldn’t taste the wedding food. Went on my honeymoon to a 5 star resort in the Maldives with supposedly amazing food. Was barely able to taste anything.

Life was just grey without taste and smell.

It partially came back 6 months later. A little over a year later I 99% recovered.

This may sound silly but my wife’s farts are terrible smelling, but I couldn’t smell them until yesterday, even then they’re more acidic vs the standard putrid rotten egg smell.

I had a hard time with smoked whiskey until recently.

Training my nose by smelling vanilla extract seemed to help a little. Food is a huge part of my happiness and to lose that for a year was very depressing, the farts less so :)

Im in my late twenties

[tluyben2]

The vaccine symptoms you had were worse than difficulty breathing, losing your smell and taste and fever?! I had a sore arm for a day; what did you have?

[anothernerd2]

The 3-4 days of symptoms were better than the body aches from the vaccine. Those sucked, a lot. I was bedridden for 24 hours straight after both doses of the vaccine.

I would gladly go through shitty body aches for 24 hours to never lose my sense of smell again. That was depressing and a-whole-nother level of shit.

Not quite sure why your response has the tone it does, unless I’m misunderstanding it (as is common for non verbal communication)

[throwaway55421]

Triple vaccinated, got probable Omicron recently.

Asymptomatic. Not truly - in hindsight I had a bit of a cough and felt slightly off for a day or two - but nothing above baseline (I get coughs every couple of weeks)

Could have been a secondary or tertiary exposure though, I don't usually bother testing.

[jrm4]

Fully vaxxed (but not booster); got a breakthrough case. Literally no symptoms except pretty severe fatigue for about 4-5 days. I was able to work normally (online higher ed teacher) but not do much else.

[EliasY]

I had it in August, just two days after getting vaccinated. Headaches, fever and body aches continued for three days after which I had complete loss of taste and smell for about a month. I don't know about you guys, but not being able to taste the food you eat was a big fucking deal for me. Lost a lot of weight that month. I wouldn't recommend getting any variant of this virus, especially if you live with a compromised loved one. However, compared to something like bacterial pneumonia, which I've also had in the past, COVID was very very mild.

[lolaair]

Early 30s, female, unvaccinated, no health issues. Self-isolated for 14 days. Symptoms came in waves. Mild sore throat, mild headache, extreme dizziness, cough, mild nausea, fatigue. Symptoms peaked after three days. Was not bedridden. Started getting better slowly after the fourth day. Cough took about 1.5 months to go away. Felt dizzy and headache when exerting self in cardiovascular exercise for about 2.5 months. Felt chest discomfort after insomnia and exercise for about 3 months.

No shortness of breath (this was monitored daily) or loss of smell/taste.

[naikrovek]

got it early in 2020, march, and it waylaid me for about six weeks.

got vaccinated a year later once vaccines were available.

now have it again, but it's omicron and it's different. much more mild for me, but so far appears like it's going to last just as long. breathing after even a small bit of laughter has been hard since I caught it the first time.

each time I cought it from a housemate who wasn't careful when they left the house, and came back sick, coughing a lot. in a house, if you're sharing the same air as a covid sufferer you're kinda screwed.

mid-40s male

[rojeee]

I had COVID a couple of weeks ago. I’m in London. Was like a mild cold for me. I track my resting HR, HRV, body temp and whatnot via Oura ring and the ring didn’t even register any meaningful increase in resting HR or decrease in HRV. I like to think I’m pretty fit (run 40km per week) and healthy (no mineral or vitamin deficiencies). One strange symptom still remains where I feel slightly hungover when I wake up (I never drink enough to get hungover these days) but it clears soon after waking. Could be unrelated.

[kypro]

Were you vaccinated?

[rojeee]

I’m not vaccinated. 37 years old.

[CodeGlitch]

Both my wife and I are really careful about covid, as she had asthma. I'm double vaxed and she is triple. Came down with COVID 11 days ago with symptoms similar to what everyone is reporting here.

What's really annoying is that my anti-vax relative and his family, who we have been in close contact with, have had no symptoms yet. Not wishing they get the virus, but I imagine it will only entrench their anti-vax views.

In fact it's made me question the effectiveness of the vaccines. I'll still get boosted.

[Gud]

Male 34 years old. Decently fit but on and off smoking. I tested positive for Covid-19 in April 2021. I never had any symptoms. Stayed in home quarantine for 7 days after which I tested myself every two days. In total I tested positive 6 times.

The only reason I know I had Covid-19 is because of a client requirement to be either vaccinated (which was not available for me, I was working in the UAE and only residents could get it) or be tested every seven days.

[chippytea]

I had it October 2020 and November 2021 again after 2x AZ vax.

First time was a few days of high temperature, shortness of breath and dizziness. Dizziness continued for a month before fading.

Second time was the same except no shortness of breath.

For me the dizziness was the worst I couldn't do anything standing up for a month. When I tried to push it I took quite a large fall.

Male, 27

[ddingus]

I got it right out of the gate! 50yr male

Was Feb 2020, later in the month. I was doing a fair amount of domestic, and a little bit of International travel for business prior. As things began to heat up, it was obvious Covid was going global. Italy... I have friends there. It was horrible.

Got mails from them early on, "It's just a strong flu, no worries, ONWARD!"

Then... "Stay home, we are losing our elders."

:(

With all that happening, I wrapped it up and prepared to transition things to a remote service model. Was doing travel to setup industrial equipment personally and basically nail each one. Was a get what you pay for model, and we were offering a lot. Needed to be more of a get enough, and make the price right climate rapidly upon us!

Had a partner in trouble, begging, so I took one last trip mid Feb. Got them sorted, was safe. In fact, that whole trip was nothing but masks, guards at the hotel checking for room credentials to keep the numbers down, and massive distance from everyone! I remember feeling it all so surreal. Being a people oriented technical person, this hurt! I like others. My more introvert friends were in heaven, and we had some good fun with that:

DAY OF THE INTROVERT! (truth for a lot of people, I am sure)

But, I digress:

Fact is, coming back was when I got exposed. Airline snafu saw my flight changed, and I ended up in the same terminal with arrivals from Asia. And was stuck there for a long time. Enough to reconsider flying that day, but maybe I was doomed anyway. Who knows?

What I do know is 5 days later, it hit. I felt rough one morning, and called in sick, our nice and shiny new Covid protocol in place meant a no worries, work from home scenario anyway. I called in to basically say I just need the rest.

By that afternoon, I was hammered! It came on FAST.

I won't detail the whole course, but will say I had two solid weeks of hell. In the middle of that, at peak shitty, I had to sit up in our nice recliner chair doing deep, deliberate breathing for a couple nights! If you have ever run low, your body tingles, and for me it's lips start first, and you can just tell your body isn't getting what it needs. Had an oximeter on my phone and used it.

I saw 89 once, and it was low 90's for a few hours, but climbing every little bit. Coughing, hacking up gak, just staying awake, making sure I engaged the process fully. This scared me.

I've never been that sick. Have wanted to die type sick, but never, "shit, I could really die" type sick. Do not recommend.

Some have asked why I did not get checked in, and the simple answer was fear. We did not know how to treat this, and people were getting isolated, slapped into ventlators and all manner of stuff as the medical people proceed to learn how to handle this the hard way, one sick person at a time. Made a call, and basically learned if I was staying lucid, and was in the 90's, I was likely going to make it, so that's what I did with people watching me, but trying to stay away.

Whole family got it anyway. My wife lost taste and smell, but that did return completely. Younger ones basically were tired for a couple weeks and everyone had massive body aches!

And that's the rough part. As I was improving, I had to nurse them through, and they didn't have quite the rough time I did, thankfully.

All told, we lost a month together, just in the worst of shape.

There have been some symptoms that persisted for a long time, and the biggest one is general fatigue and some inability to focus when I might normally expect to power through. These are improving slowly, but I am still just a bit impacted to this day.

Now, you are going to read us telling our stories. I've got friends who had a runny nose basically. I've lost a couple friends to this too, one after 40 some days on a ventilator.

When I got my case, the death rates were about 12 percent!! Talk about a fucking dice roll!

Today, it's much lower, 0.5 percent'ish or about 1:200 or so. Still no joke, but not the fear session I had to struggle through for sure.

And it's gonna get lower as our understanding and medicine improve, and frankly as the virus continues to mutate and we all figure out how to live in a world plus Covid.

My advice?

Treat this with respect.

If you get sick, test! What I've decided to do is keep a couple of the better home tests that act on the core protein handy. If someone is sick, test once, then test again.

If positive, then isolate hard. What I did after the mess we struggled through was setup the camp trailer. If someone needs a place to get through it, they can crash in there, and it's fueled up, ready for someone to just use for a while. Figure out whatever that plan is now. That way, if someone needs to do it, things are ready and you will get the max benefit from having figure out what will be done and why and when.

I think almost everyone, if not everyone, will get Covid. Plan for when you get it, and that's gonna help with fear and all the anxiety. A good plan, healthy body, and trust in the medicine are the best tools you've got.

[jacquesc]

Thanks much for sharing your experience in detail

[ddingus]

You are welcome. I feel people just should. We can normalize it, break inhibitions, anxieties and sort it all out for the longer haul; earth + Covid. Cheers and happy holidays!

[captainbland]

I've got it now, two vaccination doses with no booster yet. So far symptoms have been: headache, runny nose, a cough, fatigue and one day of bad aches, fever, chills, affected taste/smell and low level nausea/reduced appetite although the more severe symptoms have now more or less dissipated, at least so far.

[CodeGlitch]

You're exactly like me. I'm in day 11. Sense of taste and smell have returned a little...

Reduced appetite is definitely what I'm experiencing now.

I didn't have to take any time off work.

Felt well enough to go out today.

[captainbland]

Glad to hear you sound like you're recovering nicely.

For me I did take a day off when the fever peaked because in that sort of state I could sit in my chair and join calls but nothing useful would have come out of it.

[wooque]

I had Covid in September, it was like common cold, I would not even doubt that it was Covid haven't I lost sense of smell and taste.

I had fever and runny nose for 2 days, and felt fatigue/lack of energy for 3 more days, I was like new afterwards.

But it took weeks to regain smell and taste like it was before, that was the shittiest part of Covid.

[garbagecoder]

About a year ago. Had diarrhea for 5 days and sever fatigue. No respiratory symptoms, which is weird since I have asthma.

[FloNeu]

Well not me - but a friend was on intensive care for about 3 weeks... Said he can't say much as everything was a blur and that he was in constant pain and wished he would just die - has recovered fortunately without any long covid...

[07121941]

unvaccinated, 20s. high fever, loss of taste for a couple days. took a bunch of vitamin c, vitamin d and zinc. went away in a week.

purely anecdotal but this was a far cry from the winter of death I was promised.

[1121redblackgo]

Reminder for anyone reading these threads that the people most likely to comment are those with a remarkable experience with Covid, and that for every person in this thread with a bad, or remarkable experience, there are tens of thousands with very mild or no symptoms who had unremarkable experiences, most of who would not comment on threads like this.

[aappleby]

And a not-inconsiderable number of people who will not be commenting here because they're dead.

[1121redblackgo]

Both what I said and what you said can be true at the same time

[guythedudebro]

That's what "and" means

[1121redblackgo]

The intent of the comment was not to add an addendum to what I posted but to detract from it.

[yesenadam]

A "reminder" of something you are just guessing?

[1121redblackgo]

I am not guessing at all. Those are the numbers.

[yesenadam]

I think that could be the wackiest comment I've ever read on HN.

[263748930423]

I haven't had covid but if you are not going to be taking the vaccine, or even if you do, I'd recommend getting a half/fullface 3M respirator with p100 filter(2297 for example) for protection.

[chasil]

Had we followed the Edward Jenner model, and sold the common cold (including NL63, with the other 3), this would now be over.

Edward Jenner used one disease to defeat another, with vaccina (cowpox) destroying smallpox (variola).

This reaction is possible.

[chasil]

Not just possible.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8430483/

"...it also proposes the individual association for each of the HCoVs, pointing to the previous infection by HCoV-229E as a possible protective effect against severe clinical manifestations of COVID-19. This protective effect could be higher if the person is a female."