If you missed it, I got COVID. It was a wild ride, and still is because I’m still on it. Symptoms are not gone, I do not feel 100% and we just recently got off quarantine as a family.
After everyone that I needed to contact was alerted to our diagnosis, we had a plan with our Case Manager from the County, City and State and I finally started to feel better, I shared on my Instagram. I went back and forth if this was something that I wanted to share. The luck that has been blessed on me and my family is not lost on me. I channeled God, and thought of all the people who haven’t been so lucky, as well as holding Amanda Kotts and her husband Nick Cadero, in my hearts at my high and low points. While I have, so far, had a majority of positivity with my sharing this, I’m sure that I will get some negative that I am using this experience to profit or promote my business.
That is 1,000,000% not true.
I have lost friends, been removed from friend groups, alienated family, etc. from how seriously we, as a family, took the severity of isolation and government regulations regarding the pandemic, since day one. We did what we thought was best for us as a family. We did not do this to make others feel badly about their life decisions. We have 3 people in our family with Cancer and therefore had to be extremely careful with our rule following. It was that or not be able to see them for however long this was supposed to last. {Never thought it would go on for 10 months+.}
Because I would identify as being more on the panicked side of getting sick, getting exposed or testing positive, I decided to share. If I had someone that I followed on IG or read their blog document their experience, timeline and symptoms, I truly think that I would have felt more calm. Whether you are here to troll or get your questions answered, I want this to be a COVID resource.
Yet, let me please say, even though I am a Registered Nurse, I am not your Registered Nurse or Doctor. Please consult your Doctor or state resources for any questions. In California, you can call 211 from any phone and be in touch with all sorts of resources, including a Nurse help line, testing and medical insurance questions and needs.
Here are the most common questions that I reicieved when I asked on Instgram.
Question: Did your family get it too?
Yes, I tested positive on a Saturday, my husband on Sunday and my daughter, the following Tuesday. My son has tested negative twice since we got our positive results.
We’ve been told that we will test positive for up to 4 months. We plan on testing as a family probably once a month to keep updated on this.
Q: What were your symptoms?
Everyone symptoms are different, and even between the three of us. I had flu like symptoms: fever, sweats, fatigue. Yet I also had stomach issues, severe nausea, extreme dizziness, like, couldn’t walk down the hall without falling into the wall dizziness, difficulty staying awake, headache and bone pain. After my initial negative test {please see the timeline question below}, I called my doctor because I was scared, and they were worried more about my headache and vertigo, and said there was no need for a test, since I wasn’t having breathing issue. The pain in my bones and headache were so strange, that I thought I had a brain tumor and it had mestatisized to my bones. Yes, I do always go to the worst possible scenario.
My husband symptoms were like he felt like he might be coming down with something, a night or two of fever sweats, fatigue. Yet, his symptoms were never bad enough that he missed work, whereas I physically couldn’t get out of bed for 2 days.
My daughter, Madrid had a fever one afternoon and that’s it! No need for even Tylenol.
Q: What was your timeline? When did you get sick?
We left for Utah to celebrate our birthdays and travel for the first time since February. We’ve had to cancel numerous trips including, Beverly Hills, London, the Carribbean, New Orleans and Vegas, to name a few. We were supposed to move to Utah for a month this summer and cancelled when numbers were climbing. We regretted doing this, thinking some time in a small town would have been great for our family. Yet, you have to live with the decisions that you make.
Therefore, we scheduled this trip back in August, thinking that the world would hopefully be a very different place by October. We planned to fly, just the two of us. The idea of flying with kids make me nervous because of their propensity to touch everything. We thought we would try this out the two of us and see how we felt about the entire idea of traveling….
So :
Thursday: Left for Park City, flying out of San Diego.
Park City Thursday- Monday.
Monday, back in San Diego, feeling tired. Thinking it was just travel and altitude adjustment.
Tuesday, start to feel like I’m coming down with something. We hold the kids out of school and get a Rapid COVID test. Results are negative for us both.
Tuesday-Thursday, I am among the sickest I’ve ever been. I worry that I have COVID, that I’m dying, how will Fernando work and be hands on dad to our kids, who don’t have a mom. I was so weak that I did go here mentally. Listen, this is scary. I constantly thought of Nick Cadero and him and his wife’s experience.
Friday, I begin to feel better. My doctor thinks I have vertigo, the clinic where I got the test thinks it might be the flu, despite being vaccinated. Therefore, after 3 days of my husband running his company, doing Zoom with the kids and pick up and drop off, I try to pick up the pieces. I begin to cook dinner and can’t smell or taste anything. I panic and run to the pantry to start to smell spices. Nothing.
Saturday, I make another appointment for a test and test positive. I proceed to cancel any plans for the next two weeks, including the 40th birthday boat trip I had planned for my husband.
Sunday, my husband tests positive.
Tuesday, my daughter tests positive, my son negative.
Q: Where do you think you got it?
I have been very impressed with how the California and San Diego Health Departments are handling this. I have been in contact with three different people from the departments that check on us, our resources and symptoms. From what they said, with the onset of my symptoms and duration, they narrowed down the day that they think I was exposed.
This would align with a restaurant we ate at in Park City. There was one night that I thought, “Hmmm…that didn’t feel very safe.”
Yet I could have gotten it from the gym, the hotel, the rental car that we valeted, the elevator, the people in the gym who weren’t wearing a mask…the truth it, I could have gotten it from anywhere. But I am very confident that I got it in Park City versus on the airplane or at the airport.
I was beyond careful. Anytime anyone would come to our table to take our order or deliver food, I would put my mask on. Coming across people hiking, I would put my mask on and give them lots of space. I was probably one of 5 people I saw hiking wearing a mask, and we hiked everyday. We wouldn’t get in an elevator with other people and I would personally give us an A+ on our efforts and success in social distancing.
Q: Do you have any regrets/ Would you travel again?
Yes and No.
While I have been living in fear for the last 10 months, it is kind of a relief to have had it. While there seems to be conflicting information on how long we are protected, it does seem that we have some sort of protection for a couple of months. Talking with a friend, I joked {not funny.} that they could just come over and get it and then be safe. They brought up the great point that if it was as easy as having a fever for a couple of days and moving on with your life, fine. But some people are lucky, like us, and some not so much. We have a connection to a male about the same age as my husband who died from COVID the same week we had it. We’ve been very lucky.
I think that I have to be honest and say I would travel again. Traveling is something that makes me me. There is no doubt that my life experiences and seeing so much of the world make me who I am. I can’t help with think my open mindedness and wanting to constantly fight and argue for equal human rights and climate change is because I have been all over the world. Taveling is a passion and something I’m constantly thinking about.
Maybe we shouldn’t have eaten in restaurants that weren’t outside, yet so few were. Maybe we shouldn’t have traveled to a location that had more relaxed rules that our home town. Utah and Park City have been a COVID destination due to limited lockdown rules. Therefore, there are people from all over the country there. Sadly, you can see where people are from walking down, or up rather, Main Street, by how much distance they give you and how/ if they are wearing a mask.
I also truly believe that there is a path in life for everyone. While we are still dealing with repercussions from this, and might be for the rest of our lives, this experience now also makes me me, just like traveling. There is a reason that I got this. Maybe it is to share my story with you. Maybe it is to make my parents be more safe. Maybe it is so I can volunteer or go back to work as a Nurse when the numbers get bad again. Maybe its my blood sample with will provide answers on this virus. I really don’t know the answer. But I do know that, while I really want to tell you to stay home and don’t see anyone and to wear your mask, {please do the last one}, if given what I now know, would I travel again? Probably, yes.
Q: Long term COVID symptoms/ medical follow up?
Again, please follow up with your own medical team and primary care Doctor, but from what I have read, researched and been told, is it all depends. If you had more pulmonary {breathing} issues, there will be long term breathing issues. Mine symptoms were more circulatory and fatigue and I still feel them. In the beginning, it was maybe a good couple of hours, followed by a couple of days of bad. Then the ratio started to shift. I would have one good day, then 1-2 where I was tired, so dizzy. One time, I feel asleep sitting upright next to my daughter on her Zoom where I was sitting helping her with the assignment. Now, I will had one bad day or afternoon followed by 2-3 good strong days in a row.
I’m still have stomach issues and fatigue. My joints hurt after cardio, this is a new thing, and I stumble for words and have a cloudy mind after going for the two runs I’ve tried to do. I’ve also experience some nerve pain, but I would say that is my husband’s number one complaint. I never had any lung problems, but would get extremely out of breath when trying to walk the first week. When I do cough, which happens 3 times a day, it is very very phlegm-y, even though I have no cough or phlegm issues otherwise.
This virus is so strange and attacks everyone differently, making it so difficult to track and treat.
Overall, we have been extremely lucky. I don’t know if it is lucky or the viral load we were exposed to. Or maybe the fact that we both do a bunch of cardio and live a plant based lifestyle. {I haven’t eaten red meat since I was 8 and stopped eating chicken at 22.} Before getting sick, I think I was in among the best cardio shape of my entire life. While going for my long runs, I would talk on the phone or sing along in hopes to keep my lungs strong in case I did get it. Little did I know…
Long and short of it. Take care of yourself. Wear a mask. Workout. Eat healthy. Get enough sleep and drink more water.
Thank you, thank you, thank YOU for all your support and kind words during this crazy experience. I wouldn’t wish this on anyone and our luck and blessings are not lost on our little family.
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