*MUST READ* Mass. Woman Conveys her Excruciating COVID19 Day-to-Day Symptoms

This is the most DETAILED account of what a victim of COVID19 has experienced that I've read so far.  She was one of the “LUCKY” ones who didn’t get pneumonia or suffer from collapsed lungs that ceased to function. This is her day to day experiences over 14 excruciating days (and she’s still got 2 weeks to go in recovery) This article appeared today in the Boston Globe/Boston.com, and shares one woman's breakdown of COVID-19 symptoms.

Mass. Woman Conveys her Excruciating COVID19 Day-to-Day Symptoms

Kat Powers wearing a mask she made . –Courtesy of Kat Powers

“I wanted to make it clear that even if you’re relatively young, or healthy, or like me and very lucky, you can still get very sick.”

By Dialynn Dwyer, Boston.com Staff

March 25, 2020

Wash your hands. Stay inside.

That’s the message a Watertown woman says she hopes people learn from her experience in a two-week quarantine with symptoms of COVID-19.

Kat Powers broke down in detail her experience with the symptoms of the novel coronavirus on Twitter, urging people to not dismiss the possibility of getting the illness even if they are healthy. “If you go out, if you don’t wash your hands, if you think you’ll just get sick and ride it out, this is what you’re in for,” she wrote.

DAY 1

I’m in quarantine for 2 weeks and I have some wisdom for you all. If you go out, if you don’t wash your hands, if you think you’ll just get sick and ride it out, this is what you’re in for: 1/14  

DAY 2

The sore throat is sort of like smoking a pack of menthol cigarettes when you’re already a little sick. And you’ll feel very tired. You’ll be surprised how much your eyeballs hurt, and ice packs on your eyes won’t help. 2/14

DAY 3

Here’s a weird side effect you may notice, between the headaches and the sore throat. Your pee will smell disgusting. Like you drank sewage or something. The rest of you might start to smell too, but soon enough you won’t care. Or you'll lose all smell. 3/14

DAY 4

Now the body aches kick in. I fell about 30 feet in the middle of a hike last year. The sore after that was minor compared to how #Coronavirus feels in the largest muscles in your body. Advil, hot baths won’t touch this kind of ache, and it lasts for days. 4/14

DAY 5

Then its high fever and chills. The chills are how I got sick — my kid crawled on top of me to stay warm. I’d say have tea and a few hot water bottles to help, but you’ll still shiver. If you don’t have a hot water bottle, try a liter soda bottle with hot water in it. 5/14

DAY 6

So you’re shivering with the body aches, and you’ll start to get thirsty. Really thirsty. Like the amount of water I was gulping down made my stomach feel bloated and I was still thirsty.

DAY 7

Then there’s chest pressure. Ever play with a kid and he stands on your chest? It feels like a 50-lb kid is standing on your chest. You’re wondering how you deal with the bloated stomach, the chest pressure, your legs and back hurts, with a stabbing headache. Light hurts. 7/14

DAY 8

About this time you’re wondering where you got #Coronavirus from. And curse him/her/they. You may be too bloated and sore to find your phone to track them down. If you can, try to warn them what’s coming. Do turn down the light on your phone. It will seem blinding. 8/14

DAY 9

At this point, no one may know how you got sick. It could have been the seat of a car, a handshake, or talking too close to someone that got you where you are. I’m so sorry this happened to you. I’d never wish #coronavirus on your worst enemy. 9/14

DAY 10

Did your fever break yet? Good. The cough comes now. It’s dry, nothing comes of it where you think you’ll cough up the chest pressure. Most doctors won’t prescribe anything for it because nothing works with this virus. I found cough drops and tea with honey helped. 10/14

DAY 11

I’ve been watching my super-healthy kids deal with this. All 5’11 of one of my kids curled up in a ball from the body aches and wracked with coughs. No one could watch that and think “meh, it’s like the flu.” 11/14

DAY 12

Oh, did I mention the diarrhea? Any time you feel well enough to eat, you’ll get the runs and even more thirsty. Stick to carbs if you can and don’t make spicy curry like I did. That was three days of regret right there. 12/14

DAY 13

By the way, this is what they call the mild version of this. We have no breathing problems, none of us had super-high fevers, no one has heart problems. But I really wouldn’t want to watch someone who was more frail than a house full of jocks deal with this. 13/14

DAY 14

So, still think you’re young and you can deal with getting sick when you get sick? I’m really sorry you feel that way. Because soon enough you’ll be feeling this way too. Be well, wash your hands. Stay inside so you don't spread it. 14/14

Powers, a 50 year old former journalist, told Boston.com that she is on a list to get tested for the virus. The doctors she has spoken to have told her there aren’t enough tests to determine exactly how many people have the virus. “They’re calling us ‘presumed cases,’” she wrote in an email. “I can tell you all those symptoms I ticked off on my thread match up with the COVID-19 list. From what I understand I hit all of them except for the fact that I don’t recall ever losing sense of smell.”

Powers said she knows people are afraid. “If she/he/they didn’t infect three people, it was worth it,” she wrote.

Full article: https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2020/03/25/kat-power-twitter-thread-covid-19-symptoms?s_campaign=Email:BComToday