Have any of y'all suffered through it? How was it?
I think so, and great, respectively. So what does that mean? It gets a little involved so bear with me.
Back in the end of January I developed a slight cough, which was unusual to say the least because I have never been sick a day in my life. Literally. A runny nose now and then sure, but I've never had to take so much as an aspirin for anything. No prescription drugs. I don't even take vitamins. Nothing. I just don't get sick. I suppose it helps that I'm a compulsive hand-washer, and although I don't consider myself a fitness freak I have had a daily exercise regimen going on over twenty years now. At least one hour of vigorous exercise every day, winter or summer, rain or shine, no excuses. I don't really pay much attention to my diet. I eat whatever I want but I definitely don't overeat. I also get a thorough physical twice a year, which was coming up in a couple weeks anyway. The cough wasn't bad, didn't keep me up at night, didn't prevent me from doing anything including work. It was just annoying. I figured if the cough didn't go away by the time of my physical I'd ask about it.
Well, it didn't go away. No symptoms other than the annoying cough so my Dr. recommended a blood test, the full nine yard $2000 variety (I saw the bill) for which my insurance company paid $800 and for incomprehensible reasons stuck me with a $130 balance which I grudgingly paid in cash. Whatever. I'm used to that kind of insurance BS.
Blood tests come back 100% normal. No sign of infection. Nothing. Picture of health. So what about the cough? Dr. said the usual, drink plenty of fluids etc, the usual nonsense. Go about your business. Nothing to worry about.
Ok so the cough persists. By late February CV is all over the news, but everything I read is exactly what everyone else read: CV hits with a vengeance, symptoms include GI distress, fever, rash (sometimes), respiratory distress, you know the rest. I had exactly none of those symptoms. Just the cough, and reading WebMD and everything else that you already know about says a cough is the body's natural reaction to all sorts of irritants, don't worry about it, it might last for weeks, etc ad nauseam and as long as you don't have difficulty breathing just deal with it. Ok.
By now it's mid-March. I still go on my daily exercise regimen strong as an ox. Breaking my own personal best records. The cough persists but is just
barely starting to subside. Imperceptibly, just a tiny bit every day. About 1% per day, but it's trending in the right direction.
Then the CV panic finally hits the news and I suddenly find myself out of work. WTF. I want to work, but I can't. Ok, so what can I do? Keep up daily exercise, but 2x what I've been doing. Two, three hours a day every day. Cough gets better. House is cleaner than ever.
Then... it gets weird. I notice my resting pulse, normally about 80 or so, is down to the mid 60s. Must be the exercise, right? Who knows, I'm feeling great and I'm not about to argue with a lower resting pulse. Heart doing its heart thing better than ever.
But then guess what, out of the blue, I get palpitations. WTF! That's a new one. I'd like to go back to see my doc but forget that, she's swamped. Unless I'm unconscious or bleeding she doesn't want to know me. Back to WebMD to read about heart palpitations. Another prognosis of "who knows, it happens, don't worry about it" so I don't. Cough still getting better a little bit each day, about 1% per day.
Eventually the heart palpitations cease just as quickly as they began. The cough goes down to once or twice a day, usually in the late morning, whereas in the past it persisted pretty much all day.
That brings me to now. The cough isn't completely gone, but it's down to a couple coughs every other day or so. Heart doing its heart thing better than ever, but resting pulse is back to the mid-70s. I can deal with that.
Ok, so what does this all mean? Your guess is as good as mine but this is what I have come to realize over the abundance of free time I have had to read up on the CV panic:
- In retrospect I realize a lot of the people around me in December - January were coughing also. They kept working like I did and recovered the same way I did. When I asked (again this was late January) they said the cough cleared up on its own. Seasonal flu and its symptoms happen every winter, which brings us to...
- Those symptoms will vary greatly from one individual to the next. It's obvious from news reports that anyone who already had respiratory / circulatory conditions may have been severely affected.
- As usual, initial news reports were wrong.
- Even doctors were wrong, probably including your own personal physician, even after CV was all over the news.
- If you go to your doctor today with a stubbed toe, the diagnosis will probably be CV (well, I hope that's not true)
- There is a definite correlation between CV and heart conditions, particularly myocarditis in which the tissues surrounding the heart become virus-infected, causing arrhythmia and in some cases, pain. Those people may present with symptoms consistent with heart attack. It's probably a good thing I wasn't able to see my doctor about that; who knows what she might have prescribed. Maybe I'd be in a hospital with a ventilator.
- No one knows how this will play out, but in my clinical trial group of one and only one patient (me) I have come the conclusion that regardless of mitigation efforts it's unlikely there remains anyone on Earth not already infected. Most people will have no symptoms. Some people will have mild symptoms. Some people will have severe symptoms. Some people will die.
No one in my family has shown any symptoms. They probably had it too.