My 31 days with Covid: (don’t know how many more to go)

Today marks 31 days of my journey with Covid. I call it a journey as it is has given me multitude of experiences till now and the journey continues. I am not sure how long it will take to recover Drs say 45-90 days is common. 

16 years ago today, I lost my mom to SARS. Covid is also a variant of SARS. I am lucky I have a mild case. My mom was not as lucky. She had an acute case and needed ventilator support and then caught Sepsis a common complication of Pneumonia. Her journey with SARS lasted mere 24 days and ended in death. It is just a coincidence I probably caught a different variant of same disease around same date 16 years later. 

I started having Fever and cold 31 days ago... initially it felt like normal flu / allergy as its pollen season here... however, the symptoms started worsening very quickly; High Fever, Body Aches, Chills, Bad Stomach, Nausea, Sneezing, running nose, watery eyes, Cough and throat pain, breathing difficulty, extreme tiredness

On the 7th day, Dr suggested i should get Covid test... it took 2 days to get the appointment for the 15 minute rapid test (take a sample from the nose).... The test came negative... Dr said 30% of the cases test *FALSE NEGATIVE*

Anyway... my breathing was getting difficult.... so reached out to a lung specialist... he asked to check blood oxygen level. It was dropping: from 98% to 96% to 95 to 94 to 93.. this was now point of concern. We made a visit to Emergency room, the Dr tested and said that I had no Covid Pneumonia yet (which is when they consider it an acute case). I was sent home as being at home would be safer than being in the hospital amid other patients....

Last 15 days have been painful. The oxygen levels are low and lot of trouble in breathing. Normal day to day activities seem to be a big effort. Even speaking causes breathlessness. Fever is still around 101 and oxygen level around 95%. Dr says it could be a long haul to recovery. (People take about 45-90 days to recover) There is no medication accept paracetamol for fever, steaming, gargle, cough syrup, etc. basically body has to recover by itself. Emotions play an important role. One has to be positive and strong, which I am and confident that I will be able to get back to normal activities like talking and walking very soon. 

While I am unable to pursue my biggest passion of training, mentoring and coaching at this time, I am putting my focus on learning. I have been able to gain knowledge and certification in Human Centric Design, Design Thinking, Mind Body Energy, SAFe 5 upgrade, and  Disciplined Agile. I am continuing to expand my knowledge base by pursuing a course from Harvard - Learning Leaders and DA FLEX (Agile Scaling framework by PMI). 

My advise to all, take all precautions as being advised by Drs. It’s not brave to be walking out without a mask. It is not good for you and those who come in contact with you. For those who think wearing a mask is painful, trust me, mild Covid is way more painful and in case of acute infection, ventilator is definitely going to be far more painful. 

My prayer to God, may all Stay healthy and safe !!!