COVID-19 Daily Diary of a Victim

The following is the daily diary of a very good friend of mine in London who was tested positive for COVID-19 just last week. She has moderate symptoms so I can't even imagine what someone with severe symptoms must be going through. Even if your government doesn't require self-quarantine or implements a lock-down, for your sake try to stay home as much as possible.... PLEASE SHARE so that others will take this seriously.

M - This is my daily diary. People are still being ignorant to this - even the Jubilee Line was packed today with people even after lock down (saw pics on Metro and on BBC news). If only they knew how serious this is .....

I was tested positive for COVID-19 on Day 4 (last wed 18th Mar) and was advised I have moderate symptoms (not mild). This may not be the exact same sequence of symptoms for everyone else, but this is what I have personally experienced.

DAY 1 (Sunday, 15th March - first symptoms )

* fever like I was burning up

* headache

* loss of appetite

DAY 2 (Monday)

(all my symptoms came together pretty much at the same time)

* headache

* fever

* in morning I felt like I wanted to vomit / this lasted only temporarily

* really fatigued like I wanted to sleep a lot (I literally could not move off the sofa due to my tiredness)

* constant dry coughing (if mild then coughing might not be constant but it still will be frequent)

* chest pain (this never let up not even for 1 minute, like I had constant heart burn or someone had a tight band around my lungs), it’s extremely uncomfortable like I’m about to have a heart attack. The pain was smack bang in the middle of my chest behind my sternum.

* loss of appetite (I only had 2 light meals that day)

DAY 3 (Tuesday)

* Exactly same symptoms continued but worse than Day 2

* coughing increased

* my chest pain increased - and my sternum hurt and was sore to touch in the middle (this is actually your muscles)

* sternum very hot to touch

* first time I experienced difficulty breathing / shortness of breath (reduced lung capacity)

- I did not have any symptoms such as mucus like you might with a cold. So no need for tissues

* loss of appetite (I forced myself to have 2 light meals that day)

DAY 4 (Wednesday)

* Exactly same symptoms continued but got much worse than previous day - In retrospect “this was my worst day”.

* notable difference was my shortness of breath got worse and chest pains increased.

* this was the day I got tested by ambulance. They said days 3-6 are your danger days and this is usually where people with severe cases may need hospitalisation.

* People with only mild symptoms may start feeling a lot better.

* my loss of appetite continued (my first and only meal on this day was at 18:00 which I forced myself to eat)

DAY 5 (Thursday)

* All my symptoms stayed exactly the same from Day 4 (not worse, not better)

DAY 6 (Friday)

* this was the first day I got reduced symptoms.

* I still had coughing (but reduced coughing)

* my chest pains were less severe but I still had constant tightening every second

* started getting appetite back - ate 2 meals and had an evening snack

DAY 7 (Saturday)

* felt significantly better than Friday

* nagging chest pain still continued but was less severe

* I almost felt better / started doing things around the house

* my appetite was back & I even managed a glass of wine at dinner

DAY 8 (Sunday) WORST EXPERIENCE OF MY LIFE

* this morning I feel like I’ve had a bit of a relapse

* my chest pain has increased quite a lot and I have a bit more coughing and I’m very tired - I think I might have tried to do too much yesterday.

* taking it easy and resting on couch as I’m exhausted

* from 4pm - chest pains getting worse & increasing shortness of breath but I’m hoping it goes away. It doesn’t it keeps getting worse and worse

* I stay up through the night / absolutely no sleep - chest pains feel like centre of my chest is being eaten from the inside out, with the most severe heart burn like symptoms and tightening of chest in middle of my sternum. I feel like at any point I will be asphyxiated (there is hardly any coughing anymore - only every so often)

* chest pain is the worst it has ever been (like it’s about to cave in).

* When I lay down I can only breathe half my lungs - propping myself up on pillows only marginally helps, so I stand - I sit, I stand, I sit, and after 5 hours of this I’m in so much pain.

* I Facetimed my parents and sister to say goodbye in case I’m rushed to hospital - my breathing and chest pain is so severe and anxiety is through the roof.

* I’ve not slept a wink and call the ambulance (999) at 5:30am /rolls-into next day

DAY 9 (Monday 23rd)

* Called ambulance at 5:30am. They arrived 2 hours later due to them being over stretched with Corona cases.

* my vitals were all ok but they couldn’t help me for my severe chest pains nor my shortness of breath because my oxygen levels were showing good and basically said I had to ride it out with taking paracetamol regularly. They said staying home is far better than the alternative of going to hospital. They said, currently there is a minimum wait of 12 hours in a room full of covid patients worse than me just waiting to see a doctor / and most of them are even waiting for an ICU bed (it’s horrific) ?? . They also said there is a potential to infect me worse by being in same room as them (given I’m on day 9 potentially getting better).

* they said my body is trying to fight off the infection hence the spasms in my chest and pain and said symptoms in UK are now moving out to a solid 10-14 days for patients to start getting better as they learn more about the virus. Ppl are now often showing signs of getting better just before they get worse.

* I was told whatever i do - NOT to take ibprofun (steroids aren’t good with the virus - only take paracetamol types),

* I’m now trying to ride this out but I’m not in a good place currently. Going to try and get some sleep if I can.

* I have some very strong codene combined paracetamol tablets left over from my staphylococcus infection last year still in-date (so I am taking one of those every 4 hours - 30mg codene/500mg paracetamol). I advised my friend who is a doctor that I was taking that ??.

* around 11am I was able to get some sleep.

* as soon as the medication wears off I can feel the chest pains come back very bad. Codine definitely marks that pain but still feel chest pains in middle of my chest.

* I have set alarm on my phone to wake me every 4 hours to take a tablet.

DAY 10 (Tuesday)

* Finished those 4 x strong codene tablets. Changed over to 8mg codene/500mg paracetamol (taking those now as I have 10 of those also left over from last year).

* feeling much better today but chest pains still there and my chest feels like it has something in it still. I'm still a bit short of breath.

* my body feels achy all over and I feel physically exhausted. Must be my body tired from fighting off this thing

* I have had 2 meals today so my appetite is back

DAY 11 (Wednesday)

* chest pains still there and feels like something big is inside my chest but my breathing is fine. If I laugh I gasp for air and show signs of lack of oxygen but otherwise I’m fine. I can still describe my chest feeling like a steam roller has squashed it and my chest muscles are very sore to touch.

* overall I’m not half as sick - I’m definitely getting better but incredibly tired and my body still feels physically exhausted.

* At least I could get off the sofa easily today and was able to cook myself a late breakfast/lunch meal / even put on a load of washing

* 17:35pm I’m definitely getting better feeling stronger even from this morning (despite continued chest pains)

DAY 12 (Thursday)

* TBA