Day 1

Another post nobody asked for or needed, I know. Very, very late to the game. But I tend to write here for myself rather than others these days.

My best guess is that I contracted the virus last Monday, as it was the only day of the week I went outside, travelled in the metro, spent the day at work and so on.

By Friday, I was certain it was upon me.

Generally people thought this was quite an accurate reference to the experience I was about to have:

But it didn't quite match. Though not too far off. I started with aching legs and an hour or so later, arms. It made me want to go boxing or something. I felt a little elated, perhaps a mix of excitement and relief.

As mentioned before, we had been planning a LOT into the only and final time I'll ever be able to get up north China during winter for a ski holiday. Somewhere I have been wanted to go ever since I got here so many years ago.

Getting it the week before is perfect! So I was happy.

Night time was a bit tough. Fever came in, but other than having difficulty sleeping, that was pretty much it. Easy peasy.

Day 2

Fatigue was starting to get involved, and I indeed tested positive at this point. However, I was feeling practically fully recovered, enough to be out of bed by 9 30 with no fever on a Saturday to go for a wintery walk with my girlfriend and brunch (nobody cares, bizarrely, anymore about entering buildings if you are positive or not).

As the morning passed, I started to notice a slight cough developing, and by evening, the fever was back with a vengeance, now with added cough. Damn, Was it going to continue down this road getting worse each evening?

Now I was seriously fatigued but, being the luckiest person alive, my girlfriend was treating me like an emperor and taking care of me in ways I never thought I could possibly deserve. So even in the worst times, my mood was pretty good on this day.

I got my first big headache. In fact, I could physically feel it, almost like a juice, squeezing round the edge of my skull from somewhere near my neck up to the top. It was quite bizarre. I took 3 Ibuprofen which sorted it right out in no time.

So far I was not impressed by this strain of Covid.

Day 3

Nothing too eventful, but peak fever happened and, once again, sleep was pretty brutal. I wouldn't say any particular symptom felt particularly worse than before - fever is fever, just felt a bit hot and/or cold. But I was starting to grow weary of it all.

I was keeping the girlfriend awake by my constant, non-stop jiggling around as I tried to sleep. My heartbeat was up to 120bmp and I was breathing heavily and rapidly by choice because it felt like the best way to hold off the vomiting that I was feeling. It was strange. It's not like I couldn't have eaten, I just hadn't really thought about it much. I still ate, just significantly less. By this point, I got so hungry I felt I'd puke if I ate. But if I didn't, I would also puke. So it was a struggle most the night. Also, it's really hard to sleep when you have a 120bmp war drum beating inside your face all night.

It also made my tinnitus a lot worse than usual. The quieter the room got, the louder and encompassing it became. Started to worry it would become a permanent feature but so far it's back to its normal, high pitch but fairly easily ignored bzzzzzzzzz.

I also noted that I hadn't pooped since Thursday. This was great because outside of my bed I was far too cold.

Anyway, I made it through another night.

Day 4

Now we're at today. I woke up feeling... fine, I guess, still fatigued. Still fever, but everything just a bit toned down. More like a background annoyance sapping any energy out of me. At this point I'm getting pretty uncomfortable being in bed for so long. Back hurts.

I can't stress enough how amazing the girlfriend has been. Having put her makeup on and all the other preparations to work, she saw my sad loser face and decided instead to take the day off to keep an eye on me. Gee, the rest of the world must be pretty envious, eh?

Is my immune system strong or something? My experience so far seemed to be far smoother than everyone else contracting the same virus, same time, same age. And I'm the only completely unvaccinated among the people I know (just seemed pointless because the China vaccine is essentially salt water compared to the west lol. And everyone gets treated with the same lockdown measures regardless so...)

I mean, I didn't even lose any sense of taste or smell. Basically just felt hot, which was making my sleep frustrating as hell, but no breathing problems, no sore throat or loss of speech or constant throbbing head.

If it really is a good immune system, I am not the champion here, as the girlfriend is somehow still showing up negative after being surrounded daily by positive colleagues, friends, and living with me for weeks now. Asymptomatic, or very slow incubation period?

I hope the former, because if it's the latter, we're gonna have a rough ski trip, to say the least...

TBC?

I assume there will be another rough night ahead of me as the fever seems to come out at night for some reason. But other than having no energy, today was basically just another day.

Overall, I rate this virus strain a 4/10. Pretty rough at times, but barely a fraction of the flu I got back in Uni.

So, next step is to get ready to ski!

... maybe after 20 more hours of sleep XD