Hi everyone! I wanted to get on and write an update with our overall experience with COVID. It has been tough. If you follow my blog, you’ll know that someone in our household tested positive for Covid the first time we were quarantined. Once she was all better, my boyfriend tested positive for Covid, then once he was technically recovered I tested positive for it. Ugh. It has been somewhat of a nightmare. The only one who hasn’t had it in our household, has been my son. 

The Difference In Symptoms Across Our Household

As we all know, there is a very long list of symptoms associated with COVID-19. I have learned that it affects everyone differently. The first one in our household to get it was Cassidy. She had practically zero symptoms – other than some minor fatigue. When we were on the phone with the trace worker, it was almost as if she didn’t believe her when she told her she felt fine. We are told her lack of symptoms is associated with her age and that most teens don’t get any symptoms at all. I am happy she didn’t have any symptoms though! I really didn’t want to see her suffer, and I hate it when my kids are sick. 

My Boyfriends Symptoms

When my boyfriend tested positive for coronavirus, he had almost all of the symptoms. I felt so bad for him. He had troubles breathing, as if someone was stepping and holding their boot on his chest. The fatigue was unreal. There’s not much you can do when you feel a whole lot of pressure in your chest, without wearing yourself out. Not to mention, I read that a lot of the fatigue is because your body is busy spending all of its energy trying to fight the virus that it doesn’t leave much energy for anything else. 

Aside from that, he also had a lot of flu-like symptoms. A lot of congestion, and muscle and body aches. He did also lose his sense of taste and smell. That was really unfortunate, because even once he was technically considered recovered he didn’t have his senses back. In fact, he didn’t even have his senses back by Thanksgiving. Which meant he wasn’t able to smell the food cooking, or even taste it. (I don’t think he fully has his senses back yet) During quarantine time, he did get extremely bored and mustered up some energy to do some baking, though! Although he wasn’t able to taste any of it, the rest of us sure enjoyed it! 

My COVID-19 Symptoms

It wasn’t until he was considered to be recovered that I tested positive for COVID-19. In fact, when I tested it took almost a week for me to get my test results back! It was kind of crappy, but it is what it is. The day that I received my positive test result back there was a huge surge in positive test results in our county. That day there were 70 new cases in our county. Now to some of you that might not seem like so much. For our little town and small population, however that is a huge number! 

In regards to my symptoms, there were some consistent and some very different symptoms. The first big difference is that I had massive headaches – they felt more like migraines. I couldn’t get rid of them for the life of me, and nothing seemed to help. The second biggest difference is that I didn’t lose my sense of taste. My smell was a different story, and a weird one. I was able to smell some things, but not all. I couldn’t smell some everyday things like my morning coffee, and I couldn’t smell a lot of different foods, but was able to smell some. Oil and gas I could smell clear as day, though! And some things just smelt like pure oil or grease. I ate some potato chips, and all I smelt was the grease. It was kind of gross. I also had chest pressure, fatigue, and overall muscle and body aches. Those were extremely uncomfortable.

I couldn’t do much of anything either while I was in quarantine. I got sick of the floor needing to be vacuumed one day, and went to move the couch… That wasn’t a good idea at all! Once I pulled it out, I had to leave it for a while before I could put it back. Even when I tried to do a small task, I had to take a break before I could finish.

The Financial Impact of COVID-19

We have all officially been out of quarantine for two weeks, now in our third week. As you can imagine, missing all that work hit us hard. While I was quarantined, I worked a lot on trying to get new contracts with my small freelance business. I managed to finalize one, and I had a virtual meeting with several business owners last night. I am excited about the opportunities it may present, but there’s no guarantee that anything will come out of it. 

With a combined three weeks out of work, I am doing all I can to manage to pay rent and just get the basic necessities. The first time I was quarantined I put some of my body butters on ebay, and nothing came out of that. I also created a Facebook page for my all natural skin care, and I have made some sales but definitely nothing to call home about. I even attempted to sell a Louis Vuitton purse I have, no bites. (Yes it is real – it was a gift many many years ago and I don’t even use it.) We did manage to get a little bit of help from a few different organizations – and believe me every little bit helps! 

We Will All Get Through This

I haven’t been hit this hard with a struggle in a long long time, and it is taking a toll emotionally and mentally. Sure, I’m always crunching numbers, and that is one thing. Coming up extremely short is a whole other ball game. The sad part is that I know we are not the only ones. I want to wish everyone the very best from the bottom of my heart during these extremely stressful times – especially during the holiday season. Hang in there! We will make it through. This is not easy, and I can only hope for better times to come. For now I am thankful that we all came out of this healthy, and didn’t have to be hospitalized.

Feature Photo by Miguel Á. Padriñán from Pexels