I have been thinking about ways to share my Covid journey. I know that with this blog and by posting on social media I have chosen to share my experiences. I appreciate that not everyone feels the same way. It was evident when I posted about having Covid the messages I received about others having it. I had no idea. The most common question I received was, “you go nowhere and you see no one, how did you get it?”

That in and of itself is a hard question to answer. It would be easy if I contracted it from a family member or if I was in a work place that had an outbreak. But that was not the case. In fact, it was quite the opposite. Due to a close contact with someone back on December 23rd, I tested negative and spent 14 days in isolation, until January 6th. After that I went back to my once a week grocery shop, visit to get bagels and maybe one or two other places. That was it. Since the start of 2021 I have been out in a public place five times. That sounds crazy just writing that, but really, I went no where and saw no one.

Once I tested positive, the contact tracing tracing team calls and they want to know everything you did the 48 hours before your symptoms started. They want specific details to determine who you were in contact with and if they were in “close contact”. My contact tracing was very small since one of the two days I was at home in my condo.

It started off with nasal congestion. The last place I went was the grocery store to get the ingredients to make a chicken soup because I thought I was getting a cold. The same store that I have shopped at once a week for the last 12 months. I came home, put the soup on the stove and then came into my office to work on the computer. I heard something and looked into the kitchen to see the soup boiling over, I didn’t even smell it on the stove. By the time it was time to eat the soup, I couldn’t taste it. I remember saying to myself, “you have Covid”. By the end of night I had back pain, a headache like I never had before and many other symptoms.

They recommend you wait four days after symptoms start to get tested, which I waited and went for my test. I looked at the doctor after the test and asked him a couple of questions and I remember saying to him, “I know I have it, but of course I have to get tested”.

I came home from the test and was standing in my elevator lobby. The door opens, I was about to step in and there was a man inside. I looked up at him, pointed to the sign above his head and said, “You know masks are mandatory, right?” He looked at me, shrugged his shoulders, lifted his hands in the air, and the door closed. I waited for the next empty elevator and came upstairs and waited. Waited for the test results to report positive.

As I shared on Facebook I did have to spend two nights in the hospital. I am not going to talk about those experiences in this post and perhaps not for a while.

Something that is very confusing to those who have not experienced this personally and have heard things from others. If you have been tested, the paper you get at the testing centre states that if you test positive, you must isolate for 10 days. If you have no fever for more than 24 hours prior to the end of isolation, your symptoms have not gotten worse and no new symptoms start, you are considered clear. You even get a ‘report card’ from Public Health. You don’t get retested as you now have antibodies in your system and can test positive for a few months.

I was cleared of Covid as of February 11th, but the virus caused me to develop pneumonia as discovered when I had my CT Angiogram in the ER at the hospital. That is what I am recovering from now, alone with the lingering symptoms of Covid that have not yet returned. It is now week four of recovery and it is getting better. I went outside the building today for the first time since coming home from the hospital.

I know I have learned many things. Everyone experiences Covid differently. Everyone recovers differently. I am very grateful that even though a hospital visit was required, I got the meds I needed to be well enough to recover at home.

It has been a very long year. We are not there yet. I really appreciate you coming along this journey with me.

In continued good health,