Day 65. My temperature has soared past 103 degrees, I’m still battling relentless coughing, and my blood pressure remains erratic due to vascular damage and artery inflammation. I sometimes experience hypertension in one arm and hypotension in the other, a result of the inflammation. I require constant oxygen, with my saturation levels barely reaching the upper 80s, and I’m too fatigued and breathless to do more than shuffle across the room. I still feel terrible.
Does anyone know when the “asymptomatic” or “just a flu” phase of COVID-19 begins? I’m eager to experience that.
I continue to witness so many individuals dismissing this virus as insignificant. Many refuse to wear masks to safeguard others, despite overwhelming scientific evidence supporting their effectiveness. Perhaps you need to understand what COVID-19 does to someone who isn’t asymptomatic but suffers a severe case without succumbing to it. I represent the high-risk population that many seem willing to isolate indefinitely, leaving us to fend for ourselves or face dire consequences for their convenience.
Many say, “It’s only the elderly or those with preexisting conditions who get really sick and die.” First, that’s not accurate; numerous young and seemingly healthy individuals have succumbed, and many more now endure severe illness with lasting consequences, no longer fitting the “healthy” label. Furthermore, even if that were true, why are you comfortable risking their lives simply to avoid wearing a mask? The elderly and those with underlying conditions are human beings—friends, family members, colleagues, teachers, neighbors, fellow congregants…
This is what COVID-19 looks like for someone with underlying conditions. Beyond the severe diarrhea accompanied by unimaginable cramping (which is saying something from someone with Crohn’s), I endure agonizing eye pain, debilitating headaches, and overwhelming shortness of breath. I dread sleep, fearing I may not wake due to oxygen deprivation. There’s also nausea, vomiting, loss of taste and smell, loss of appetite, relentless bone and muscle pain, broken ribs from incessant coughing, and debilitating fatigue that makes it challenging to even lift my phone.
Visibly, this illness manifests in alarming ways: my lips have turned purple from lack of oxygen, I have rashes from the virus attacking my organs, and I experience dangerously fluctuating blood pressure due to vascular damage. My fingers and toes often change color and feel numb, and I endure an irregular heartbeat that swings between tachycardia and bradycardia. My oxygen levels plummet with any exertion, and I face frequent bouts of high and low temperatures.
When you choose not to wear a mask in public, when you disregard social distancing, and when you minimize the virus’s significance, remember that I was once a full-time worker, an independent individual restoring a historic home. Now, I’ve spent 65 days in isolation, and I’m one of the fortunate ones who survived to share my story. Those with “underlying conditions” are individuals with lives as valuable as yours. The “elderly” are our parents, grandparents, friends, and family members.
Choosing not to wear a mask means you are comfortable doing this to everyone you come in contact with, potentially condemning them to suffer or even die alone.
65 days of illness and isolation. This is the harsh reality of COVID-19—not the mild cases or the asymptomatic individuals. It’s time to consider the lives of those many are willing to sacrifice for their own convenience. This is what could happen to them—or they could lose their lives, like the over 200,000 Americans who have already succumbed.