My Story: Prettylady261
Oct 2021: I started to feel really sick, I could feel the heat in my eyes. Then it followed with cold, I was cold all over. I remember thinking like the rest of the world, “naaahhh it can’t be!” So, I sucked it up for the night. The next morning after tossing and turning, I realized that the heat was all over my face now. I knew it was more than feeling under the weather. I was SICK. I couldn’t get warm. I couldn’t get up for work. I was exhausted. I could feel my head wanted to explode so I laid down and tried not to move, thinking if I didn’t know I was sick, it would just go away! I didn’t bother to call in sick, I just didn’t go. I was that sick!
I tried to rest but the heat in my body was awful. I felt like my ears were clogged. You ask how do I remember all this? It was one of the worst sicknesses I have ever gone through and still, 05/01/2023, dealing with the effects.
I remember my face was grey, my color was way off, and I was not hungry. My whole body ached like I was hit by a train. By the 3rd day I noticed my breathing changed (ended up in the ER). I couldn’t get enough air and still today the same. I still cannot get a full night of sleep because I cannot breathe or get enough air. I was even accused just recently by a doctor of not fully participating in an oxygen text ha! As if I was making it up. I also noticed that I couldn’t smell and that water had become one of the nastiest things I have ever tasted. Nothing tasted or smelt like I thought it was supposed to. Instead, I smelt chemicals.
Fast forward this is a review that I remember leaving on our local HEB:
Hello any1 else had a bad experience with the vegetables being sold at HEB as far as taste and smell? I shop the same HEB at least 2wice a week and the cilantro and green bell peppers taste and smell horrible just awful not to mention the green onions don’t taste like green onions anymore….what gives? Anyone?
I was sick then and still sick today. It is awful, but at the same time, I am learning to adjust. I really think the rasping in my lungs is an infection left behind from Covid and an antibiotic may help clear some of that up but my Dr. says it is restrictive lung disease and “She’s the boss”.
In my mind, the after affects are far worse consequence than the 1st time I got Covid or the 2nd. Today 2023, I still deal with headaches and shortness of breath. I deal with the stench of taking a shower and the water is poisonous; it smells like chemicals. I have learned to just get this shower done and over with! It is gross: the shampoo, the soap, the toothpaste! My brain says, “Why do we use this stuff? I can smell the poison on it, in it! It is dangerous for us I just know it is.” The just out of the dryer towels, the clothes I have to put on stink. I question every day the smells on me and around me. Why some people walk around like that are the most beautiful thing in the world and yet I smell what they are made of! I smell them, I smell when they haven’t cleaned up or when they smell like they need someone to be with, and my GOD I know it sounds crazy, and maybe I am. The house smells like a chemical plant. I have thrown away most all cleaning products or have forced myself to just suck it up and learn to live with it. The house smells like it is on fire. I have burnt food over and over while cooking because I cannot smell it and yet I make in my mind’s eye the most famous seafood gumbo in the world!! Beat Bobby Flay style HA!
It was not like this before 2021 and don’t even get me started on FOOD are you kidding me! Onion, garlic, red meat, chicken, crackers, chips, coke, anything mostly red in color. The list goes on and my question is “WHY!!!! “WHY ARE WE EATTING THIS STUFF!!!!” I can feel it in my hands and ears if I can’t eat it what the heck!!!! Can’t y’all smell that? Peanut butter, jelly, some breads, some beans, peanuts, oranges, cucumbers, I mean this stuff is gross!
Coffee, I am or was a huge coffee fan! LOVE me some coffee but I have been pushed to the corner of the world and I have found just 1 coffee! Just one coffee that is palatable and I will not tell the name till I get a contract! But trust me fellow Covid long haulers I spent big $$$ trying and tasting and throwing $ away to find the only coffee that I can have!!
I’m tired. I am sick. I am sad. I am exhausted. I am dizzy. I suffer from headaches. I want to breathe. I want to walk in the store and not want to puke or stay from a particular aisle because the crazy looks on my face. I have been forced to adjust and try to keep a straight face for the public eye because I might get stares or even worry I may get punched in the face cause, “yes sir I smell that you need someone! So, I worry that I may offend someone on accident, and I don’t mean too. I just, I am hungry for what I want. I have this sound in my head that won’t and hasn’t gone away since I first got sick. I want my energy back. I want to lay down go to sleep like before, without 7 pillows to sit up and sleep because of shortness of breath. And yes, lots more I just don’t have the time to tell you all about it.
Yes, I am a Covid long hauler and hope for the best for all of us. I wish I could help us all mentally, physically, and financially, which has taken its toll as well if you are tired, sick, unwell, no energy, you have no choice but to force yourself to go to work or not even show up.
This is me after Covid and still not all of it has been told, just a bit! Thanks for reading my ramblings.
Best of luck and blessings,
Prettylady261
Edited for clarity
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