I Caught the Coronavirus Twice and Felt Like I May Die. Do Not Be Complacent about It.

I'm always advising Azam Marketing's social media marketing clients to post on social media at least twice a week but don't practice what I preach: as some people have commented, I make one or two posts like a drive-by shooter and then disappear for several weeks or months at a time.

The reason for my absence from LinkedIn in the last couple of months has been as a result of two predominant factors.

Firstly, I've been busier than ever with my work, both with firefighting one calamitous quandary after another, mainly resulting from the impact of the pandemic on my businesses and investments as well as those of my clients.

Secondly, I've had the privilege of hosting a guest for the second time this year. He's called Corona. Yes, I'm one of those rare, lucky souls who has been blessed to get the Coronavirus twice.

I was first struck with it at the end of March and then I tested positive for it again on the 30th of October.

This is despite me taking more precautions than almost anyone I know, only leaving my home, in which I live by myself, on average once a week; when doing so, wearing a face shield, mask, latex gloves which I change regularly; and getting to the point where I detest buying groceries because I spend around half an hour diligently wiping all the items before putting them in my fridge or freezer.

The second bout of Coronavirus in late October involved the same incessant coughing and a sky-high temperature again, but, thank God, I didn't suffer what I did the first time round, when I felt like I couldn't breathe and was desperately gasping for air.

This time round, after testing negative in early November, I've been experiencing what may be 'long Covid', where my chest and kidneys feel like they've been punched by Tyson Fury for half an hour.

Therefore, for the first time in over twenty years, I've taken a day off work for being ill (I'm the kind of fella who has an operation in the morning under general anaesthetic and then in the afternoon I'm lying in my hospital bed tapping away on my laptop back to my work again, with the nurses yelling at me to rest) - well, actually, a few days.

I've been steadily recovering and am now a thousand times better than I was several weeks ago. I'm now exercising with gusto, and, while it's ultimately in the hands of the gods, I'm going to do everything possible to fight the residual impact on this loathsome guest... and be as strong as possible to take him on should he come for Round Three.

I've told hardly anybody about either of the incidences and wasn't intending to write this LinkedIn article, but over the last few days I've come across a bewilderingly large ratio of people dismiss the virus as a conspiracy, not take meaningful precautions, and/or express reluctance about taking a vaccine for it.

I have therefore decided to reveal my experiences in my first LinkedIn article in years as my little attempt to let those cynics know that, if it can take someone who hasn't once suffered the winter flu, a temperature etc. or taken a single day off work for sickness in over two decades to the point where he was struggling to breathe and seriously reflecting on his death, then, allied with millions of other people's experiences and what every sane expert on the planet is telling us, you have to be extraordinarily foolish and selfish to not treat COVID-19 extremely seriously and take every step you possibly can to reduce your risk of catching it and spreading it to others.