I managed to avoid catching covid for a couple of years but it finally caught up with me last month. Omicron has been labelled everywhere as a much milder varient of covid compared to Delta, but that wasn't my experience of it at all.
I woke up on the Wednesday feeling awful, completely out of the blue. I had been swimming the night before and felt absolutely fine, but that night I was up coughing and when I did an LFT that morning it was positive. I also did a PCR test just to be sure, and that came back positive too. I reckon I caught it on a night out the Saturday before. Despite four members of my house coming out too, I was the only one to catch it!
These were the symptoms I had:
- aching everywhere
- full of cold
- sore throat
- breathless
- exhausted
For context, I live in a house share so it was a case of messaging ahead to use the kitchen, having my own bathroom, and staying in my room all the time. You could say timing was great because I had the weekend shifts so I could work through it and avoid getting bored in my room, but it
really pushed me to be able to work through that. Storm Eunice arrived that Friday too so to say it was a busy few days of work would be an understatement.
On the other hand it was terrible timing because I needed to work the weekend in order to be able to go up north to see my family the following weekend using my days in lieu. I'd made plans for my visit to Yorkshire and I really needed to see my family either it would have been another couple of months before I could see them.
It was a close call, but I finally started to test negative on Tuesday night, ready to go home on the Thursday as planned. Even though that Thursday rules changed so technically I could have gone north even if I was still positive, I wouldn't have been confrotable with that. It would have been selfish of me to pretend everything was okay and walk around with covid, potentially giving it to my loved ones.
The exhaustion was the real thing that hit me. I was working my shift but then sleeping all hours around that. I'd finish an early shift at 3.30pm, sleep until 5.30pm, and then be knackered again by 8.30pm. I was also finding that walking up the stairs and even just standing for longer than 10 minutes I was out of breath. As a young person that regularly exercises, this was a realy shock to the system. One night I was chatting to my housemates through the door when I was cooking but had to head back upstairs because I was just so out of breath. I dread to think what it would have been like if I hadn't been vaccinated.
In terms of the loneliness, I thought I was going to struggle more than I did and was prepared for the isolation to really drag. However, I think it was because of how tired I was and that I was working that it meant I didn't have time to feel lonely because by the time I finished work I would eat and sleep.
I did eventually give in on the Tuesday and have a day off because that weekend had really taken its toll and I just needed a day to rest.
It took me another good week or so to feel 100% again even after testing negative. I was still coughing quite a bit, and the cold clung on. People did tell me it doesn't just go though, so that's not surprising. After two weeks away from exercise I finaly headed back to the gym earlier this week and although I'm taking it steady, it's good to be (nearly) back to normal.