Day 12 With The Virus - Almost Better, But Sick Of Healthy People Blogging About How Hard Quarantine Life Is

Too many people are trying to capitalize on earning rewards by putting a face mask on in their sheltered home for a selfie/quarantine life posts. Documenting this "Quarantine Day 1, 2, 3" , a trip to the grocery store, or pics of some semi-vacant streets is getting a bit ridiculous, but people keep voting for it, so it continues.

If this activity helps people cope, then that's one thing. I think a lot of the activity is a money grab.

I'm also ticked by those sheltered from the heart of the virus that are complaining about loss of this or that, or how it's blown up out of proportion. Bzzzz!! Your 5 Amazon Prime packages just arrived!! If you lost your job or are legitimately depressed from the situation, then it's pretty fair to need to vent.

For those in areas that are hit hard (because those places exist), the impact, fear, and loss of life are real. I'm biased because I'm precisely in heart of the heart of it, but hearing people complain or theorize their conspiracies when they're isolated in the middle of nowhere sets me off a bit. Sorry you can't get your nails done or pound pints at the bar for a while longer. If you're worried about showing some wild or grey hair in your selfies, just own it... or use your photoshop/filter skills you're not fooling anyone with.

---

For the few that may follow me, or tripped on either of my 2 posts about my experience, I actually got the virus (along with 3 of my immediate neighbors). One is 90 and they need a lot of help. The nurse living below me also works with COVID-19 patients and she fills me in on the reality of what they see, which I'll spare. She told me that she came home 3 times this week and cried because the situation is so sad... She's been reusing her N95 mask for long periods of time, but selflessly refused to take my new backup one when I offered it.

Because I felt like crap for a while, had a very hard time with my asthma, and prioritized my recovery, I haven't done much else for 12 days. With my breathing difficulty (restricted airways), every day I stayed the same or got a little better was a huge victory, when fear of getting worse was terrifying. I also slept a lot.

I had a few worrisome moments where I calmed myself down and made myself fall asleep -- as that always helped my airways reset. When you're by yourself in the middle of the night, breathing is difficult, and the unknown of "if this will get worse" lingers, you have just have to figure it out.

I certainly didn't make it a daily exercise to post about this to monetize my illness, because that'd be manipulative and greedy. I also wouldn't want to disappoint myself by writing more heartfelt posts about what having the virus is like (to help people understand and be warned), when people are taking a few lame glam mask selfies (which they call worthy content), that squash the support I'd receive. But, hey, use the right tags, sell the drama, and have your nice auto-votes as a backup. Who cares if people have the virus, even if they're going well out of their way when sick to help raise awareness of symptoms, their post title and picture wasn't as cool as others?? Or, the kicker, I didn't share my post on Twitter to qualify for contests. Screw that and anyone who wouldn't support good content because anyone didn't follow some bogus criteria. This is decentralized social media, not free gorilla marketing for stakeholders.

---

I've seen only one other blogger here actually HAVE the virus, @raj808, and thankfully his post was met with plenty of support to hopefully make him feel a bit better. From what I can see, most of the rest are blogging about how life is inside their safe walls, or how they've stood on a line for some extra supplies, etc.. Wonderful. On the other hand, to those blogging about making masks or PPE for others or to reduce their need to buy their own, you are role models. Thank you!

Anyway, if you're interested...

My first recovery post.

My second recovery post.

My UPDATE:

• My asthma has held calm since day 7. Waking up that AM to feel much less restriction and dry coughing was a huge relief. after the prior night was the worst night I had. I'll repeat that for emphasis... A HUGE RELIEF. It gave me hope.
• No return of the primary feverish symptoms, which dissipated between days 3-5.
• I'm taking a z-pack as insurance, on day 4 now.
• After feeling the same airway-wise since Sunday (Day 7), this Friday AM (Day 12) was the FIRST day I felt another level of improvement. I'm cautiously optimistic here, but encouraged. It was a bit plateaued this week until this AM.
• I'm still taking my Advair steroid inhaler, but not as much as before. I really need to be more diligent with it for a while longer to maintain or be preventative.
• I have script for prednisone I'm holding here as insurance. This is for inflammation from asthma.
• After getting this delayed symptom on day 6, I still haven't gotten my senses of taste or smell back yet. They may have returned about 5-10%, which is in the right direction. This is very frustrating on the food side. I don't care about smell as much. My very talented friend is holding some amazing cooking hostage until I can taste it since he doesn't want the effort to marinate/season to go to waste.
• My appetite has been weak, but I've eaten super-healthy when I do eat. I've lost over 10 pounds. I'm pissed about losing some muscle I worked very hard for, but I'll get it back.
• My energy levels and strength appear to approaching normal as of now, but this took a long time to reach. I'm at about 85-90% now, but am very hesitant to exert myself at all with my asthma still in play.
• My body clock doesn't exist anymore. I sleep and wake up whenever I want, often staying up very late. I'm just following my body now, and can correct this later.

Next Steps:

• The expectation is that once I'm better, I'm going to be the runner and helpline for my sick neighbors. I'm not sure I feel comfortable with that because I can't afford to get the 90 year old sick again, or give it to him if he had another illness. That'd be terrible. People were sitting in his apartment with him on 4-6 hours shifts. I also can't afford to relapse and experience that asthma again, when the second time could be worse.
• I'm excited to get back to making money from selling the valuable household items people leave out in the curb-side recycling. To adapt, I need to have a strict process to not handle what I find for a week. I'll be making a "quarantined item area" in a second room for this.
• I left my eBay, Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist accounts to dry, but will start actively posting lots of new listings in a few days to build a pipeline. I have a decent amount of unlisted inventory I've held back on processing to make sure I was resting/not generating sales while contagious.
• Once my airways feel 100%, I'll start exercising at home... a lot. It's unlike me to sit around and stagnate physically, but I've done so out of necessity. After dropping 10 pounds with my lack of exercise/activity/appetite (I always lose weight when I'm inactive), I'll have a fairly shredded baseline to build off of. I also found brand new 30 and 40 pound dumbbells outside just before I got sick, so I can use those after my neighbor returns them. I let him borrow them since he couldn't go to the gym, but he's sick now from watching the elderly man above.

---

No flashy picture, just a thumbs up I took on day 3 to remind me of where I've come from.

Thanks to those who commented on my other posts. I will try to get back to respond to all of you.

Matt

P.S. - Proof of 70 pounds mentioned above that I saved from being destroyed within the curbside recycling.