Question: How does it really feel having COVID-19 disease?
Answer: Let’s look at how four people who had COVID-19 disease felt? Four of them presented differently. Their illness did not last the same number of days or weeks.Different people feel different ways.
Patient 1 says he had dry cough and body aches. He didn’t even think about going to the hospital. He only got tested because his friend got admitted in hospital and tested positive to corona virus.
Patient 2 is a friend to Patient 1. At first he only had fever, his body got hot, and he felt cold. He called his doctor who asked him to take paracetamol every four hours. The paracetamol made him feel better but he was still sweating. Four days later he developed a cough, he lost his appetite and then he started feeling dizzy and very weak. He was also sneezing a lot. He also complained of back pain so his doctor called for him to get tested. He was admitted to the hospital and his result was positive. In the hospital, he started vomiting and passing watery stool. The worst happened when he got pneumonia. He was placed on the ventilator for four days and narrowly escaped death. He recovered and was discharged home after three weeks.
All his contacts were traced when he tested positive. That was when Patient 1 was called for the test and was positive. By the time Patient 1 got the test, he no longer had cough and the body ache that he had felt for two days had totally disappeared.
Patient 3 lived in the same house with Patient 2, she felt the loss of her sense of smell and had abdominal cramps. She did not have fever, she did not have cough and she totally recovered in one week.
Patient 4 was not as lucky as the other Patients 1 to 3. He was an older obese man. He had also been suffering from both diabetes and hypertension. When he tested positive, he only complained of not being able to take a full breath. It progressed to fever, very high fever, his body was raging hot, it seemed that paracetamol could not keep it down. He complained that he felt that he was burning alive. He was also gasping for air. He spent one week in the ICU (Intensive Care Unit) of the hospital where he eventually..
We will continue tomorrow as we look at more people who had COVID-19 disease and how they coped.
Stay safe everyone! If you must go out, wear a mask. Demand that others wear masks too, this will provide a little protection. Note it’s not total protection, it will only help to reduce spread. It does not have to be a surgical mask, it can be a scarf or cloth covering your nose and your mouth.
Live Right, Live Long!
Dr Uche.
