Hi everyone, I don't post much, but I thought I would jump on and give my up close and personal covid experience, maybe it will help someone else. I think I'm like most of you are, not really all that worried about it. I wear a mask where I have to and live life. I'm 46, great shape (I thought), wife and 6 kids, and I don't spend much time indoors.
Dec 7 I had a cold, that night was told by my day job a coworker was positive, I had to take off pending my test results. Tested positive on the 8th, pretty miserable headache and cold, but no big deal. They made me take off of work for 10 days. Cut firewood, weighed calves, finished up a fencing project, really productive couple of days. Felt fine by the 10th, thought it was over. Woke up early morning on the 13th with a new nasty cough, and a fever over 103. Doc said go to ER and get a chest xray. Said I had either bronchitis or Covid pneumonia. Sent me home with steroids and a z-pack and told me to buy a pulse ox meter. Said if I can't keep it at 90 get to er, below 85 call an ambulance. Kept working around the farm, prepping for the snow in the forecast. Felt worse every day, but still about 92-93 on the meter, so I kept moving. Snowed on Wednesday, so I stayed in. By Friday a walk to the bathroom had me out of breath. Meter had me about 88, and it wouldn't rise. Back to the ER. O was at 86, so they didn't fool around. Admitted me right away, started me on oxygen and Remdisivir that night. CT scan showed pneumonia in both lungs. They kept asking, "are you a smoker, asthma, do you have COPD?" None of the above. I asked why I'm in this position and they would just say "it's a weird virus." Got an iv of remdisivir each night (5 doses), an iv antibiotic each day to prevent "covid related bacterial infections in the lungs", a shot in the stomach to prevent "covid related pulmonary embolisms", and iv steroids each day. The cough was the worst, but it's improving. Got home last night, but I'm still on 3L of oxygen. They say everyone improves at their own pace, just move as much as I can, and work on weaning off the O.
Wish I had a great moral to the story. It seems to be a very random virus with way more questions than anwers. So far, my wife (has asthma), and my kids (some of them have asthma) have the sniffles, and nothing more. If you get it, maybe try to take it a little easier than I did for a few days, then again, maybe it wouldn't have mattered. Do buy a pulse ox meter, they are about $30, that little thing told me it was time to get help. Might post more the next few days, all I can do is look out the window and wish I were out there. Thinking of telling my son to move the replacemnt heifers closer to the house so I can check on them from the window!
