By Mark Revord
Minneapolis, MN
I am age 59, in good physical condition, and a married father of two. My wife Kathy’s mother is JoAnn Miller, who lives in Preston, Minn.
My COVID symptoms started late on Saturday night, March 28, with a fever that caused uncontrollable shivering, that was less than fun. I immediately quarantined in our basement for nine days. I had body aches, fevers, and a cough that was pretty constant and got worse if I talked for more than a few seconds. I also would fatigue very easily and slept or rested on the basement sofa for most of the day.
I didn’t recognize it at the time, but I was definitely short of breath. I kept thinking that I’d get over COVID in a day or two, but my condition was deteriorating, not getting better. I’ve never been in the hospital and I have not missed a day of work due to sickness in years. Unfortunately for me, that thinking was actually hurting me as I didn’t recognize how bad off I was. I could sit on the sofa for three hours and it felt like 15 minutes, which was how the lack of oxygen was impacting me.
Over the nine days of quarantining my temperature would go from 99º to 101º and occasionally spike to 102º. On April 6, I had a temperature of 102º and then 102º again on April 7. My energy level was slipping, I was very fatigued and still fighting a nasty cough. My wife Kathy has a friend who is a nurse and she said that a 102º temperature in an adult is serious and we should call a doctor. The doctor spoke with us over the phone and recognized that I needed to be seen in person – get a stethoscope on me and in-person assessment.
I did get a chest x-ray that showed “ground glass,” which is a sign of COVID impacting the lungs. When my oxygen dipped below 90% as I walked around my bed in the ER bay, they admitted me. I’m sure they were worried that I might rapidly deteriorate to the point that I would need a ventilator to breathe. In many cases, people waited too long to come in and then had to be put on ventilators. Fortunately, I was put on supplemental oxygen and did not have to go on a ventilator.
I was in the hospital for five days, on oxygen and resting. I had lost my sense of taste and lost 10 pounds, which was not a good thing. My ability to fight the infection was decreasing before I got to the hospital.
After two days in the hospital, I was invited to be part of a clinical trial and that may have helped me recover. My fever subsided and my oxygen rate stabilized around 93-95%, so at that point it was felt I was good enough to go home!
Curiously enough, my wife Kathy only lost her sense of taste and smell. She never had any other symptoms. And we still don’t know how I got it; we were being very careful. We have both tested positive for the COVID antibodies.
At this point I’m much, much better. I’m doing everything I should be on a day to day basis. That said, I was still fighting this thing 8-12 weeks later. I’m back riding my road bike with my friends and have put in more than 1,000 miles, but sometimes I fatigue pretty quickly. Some of that is deconditioning, but I can tell there is more to it than that. There is a funny story about me changing out our toilet seat, which took longer than it should have, but after 30 minutes of wrestling with that I had to take a nap, I was tired! That is not normal for me, I was still fighting the after effects of COVID.
I have been concerned about the long term impact of the virus, especially to my cardio-vascular system. Initially after being released from the hospital and for weeks after it was clear my heart rate was not back to normal and my respiratory rate would go higher than normal when even going up stairs. Fortunately, I’m now back to normal.
I have donated plasma twice through the Red Cross. I’m hoping that my antibodies can help others who are fighting this.
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August 10, 2020 at 10:29PM
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My story of COVID-19 - Fillmore County Journal
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