(I published this post originally on June 29. Little did I know at that time that my coronavirus story was not over, in fact it lasted 28 days. I am healthy now.
People thought I was nuts when I first wrote this and was saying that coronavirus is a mental health issue. And I was nuts. Coronavirus causes mental health issues, see this one, this one, or any number of other articles.)
You should get tested if you have been exposed to someone with coronavirus, feel symptoms yourself, or want to know if you were sick previously. The free facilities are jammed right now, and they don’t tell you about your IgG antibodies (described below). I had a nasal swab at a free place 6 days ago and still don’t have the results back from that. The healthcare system is getting slammed.
For $100 and with a finger prick to get a little blood, you can get tested in Atlanta by my wonderful and competent friends Dr. Rick and Brett at Regencare. You get your results in 20 min. Details at the end below.
Phone number and make an appointment do not just walk-in: 678-568-2309 (supplies of tests are now limited; don’t just show up you might not get one).
I still have coronavirus!
This thing affects everyone differently. Hence the uncertainty I described in my previous post. Use my words merely as an experiential share as friends. Take from it your own truths. Just trying to help.
There are 3 antibodies related to having corona. I have the IgM antibodies which tell you that you might still be sick and that you were once sick. It’s been 3 weeks since I felt the first symptoms and had a positive nasal swab test at a free clinic in Alpharetta.
I am feeling fine. I also have the IgG antibodies which tell you that you are getting better and provide short-term immunity.
I was not tested for IgA antibodies, and I still don’t know much about what those are, but they are related to long-term immunity.
At Regencare, you can get tested for IgM and IgG. Not for IgA. They also have terrific immunity boosting supplemental pills that are helping me. I like their immunity boosting IVs, and I got an IV on Friday that helped a lot.
I am nearly symptom free, I just don’t have my voice back. I am taking it easy and resting until I don’t have any symptoms and until I get tested and am told I don’t have IgM antibodies. Don’t worry about me. It is just taking forever for my IgM to disappear, pray for a full recovery for me please.
I have been learning a lot about coronavirus since I am isolated. Here are some tidbits of knowledge I have gained, both experientially from my own journey and from the wisdom of other healthcare professionals:
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The knowledge I had 3 weeks ago was knowledge I learned back in March when I first went into quarantine and didn’t know why I had to lock down and stay home. Most of us have been in that same boat. Corona has spread so quickly that doctors and scientists have learned a lot more since March and have vastly updated their recommendations. Pay attention to those things. You likely don’t know the latest and greatest advice. Information from March is largely nonsense now.
That’s how quickly this thing is spreading. We are struggling to keep up with even the knowledge of what it actually does. My friends and family teach me a lot see the screenshot I post of texts with Allen for some more info and for an example of the blessing my friends have been.
Another friend that has been a blessing now and in the past is Pavel. He has taught me to breathe and his whole life has been mission driven around health and wellness. He’s terrific and has been changing the world for good, through health and music. NOA|AON is a beautiful concept.
For instance, the world is learning right now that many people are having mental health issues related to corona, potentially kicking into high gear by taking drugs like cocaine and trippy drugs: here’s what the CDC has to say. Read, for instance, the section on healthy ways to cope with stress and things to do to take care of your body.
Corona itself might be related to floaters or pink eye. When I started to have weird thoughts, I could blink my eyes (perhaps 182 times) and change my frame of reference somehow. It was really cool and helpful. Try it! Let’s be weird together.
I realized the lack of music the first two weeks was bad for my mind. I listened to Coldplay, Pearl Jam, and other good, lovely, of good report, and praiseworthy things (I fumbled that citation) this week to edify my mind. It was much better than the first two weeks.
A friend sent me this song that seems like a good corona theme song to me. He said it helped him recover from corona and it motivated me to exercise a little even though it is hard.
The corona theme artist could be Greg Mike of Atlanta. Yesterday I received a piece of his that I purchased back in April 12th. It has a lot of trippy meaning to me, you can see some symptoms in it with all the mouths, noses, tongues, and eyes. He did a whole series of art on coronavirus and made it freely downloadable and here is his direct site.
The asymptomatic may be having lungs that fill up with gunk just like the symptomatic. They just don’t even know it. I still need to research this one.
We didn’t know that in March, or at least I didn’t know that. The information and 2020 is like drinking from a fire hose. It is hard to keep up. We are still learning lots of things about all the various symptoms and timings of how this thing works.
I was thinking more about my experience and have a few things to say about that too. I think you can sorta measure how sick you are, at least with respect to breathing issues. Take a breath right now. How many seconds can you breathe into your lung? Then keep taking breaths and measuring each day. If it goes down, you are getting worse. If it goes up, you are getting better. When you get down to 0.0 seconds, you’re dead. It’s a proxy measure that I think people can use at home to assess themselves. Do not rely on me to know when to go to the hospital. Call 911 if you feel you are having any emergency with your body or mind. I am not a healthcare professional.
Another thing I have thought about is when I lost my sense of taste and smell, but for me mostly taste. I had sense of the taste the first week and third week; I only lost it the second week. And I didn’t have an appetite those first two weeks, I have had a voracious appetite this week. But I finally had some abs and was slightly skinner than normal after the first two weeks. But that is vain. A man needs to eat! A man has other appetites too that I had lost the first two weeks, which came back the third week. Quarantine sucks. The loss of taste coupled with loss of appetite made it extra hard to eat that second week, it was sad.
I saw a post by Paul Graham today and it dawned on me that you can also measure the mental health of people you love a little, especially kids and I have 6 kids, by this. I miss my kids. I bought $700 of star wars legos to build with them when I get to be with them again. Not kidding. It was a tad nuts to do that.
Mistakes:
1) Because it is so hard to get tested right now, I didn’t think I was still sick most of the third week. I only found out I was still sick because I wanted to go to two of my friends’ venue’s grand openings. But I wasn’t going to go without making sure I was negative. That’s when I went to Regencare. This led to me not resting as much as I should have this week because I was excited I was seemingly symptom free. I thought my hoarse voice was not a symptom, since I could finally breathe and that was glorious to me after those first two weeks. I felt like I was on a victory lap. It was a cytokine storm, and I don’t even know what that is yet.
2) I should have done more light exercise during all of this but I didn’t think about it this week as I should have. I am on a walk right now actually.
3) I didn’t take this as seriously as I should there is good info on the CDC website. Go read it. I had sorta lost faith in the CDC because of all the negative social media / regular media comments about its behavior. Go to the source of experts not the pundits.
4) I had string-“cheesy” snot from time to time that was different than normal for me. Like more putty than just a liquid. It wasn’t really ongoing I could get the whole wad of it out of each side with one big blow blow blow into a tissue. I didn’t consider that a symptom.
5) I didn’t wash cloth masks before wearing them. The brand new cloth mask particles make you cough. Don’t wear masks all the time. Read up about masks. Lots to know about them. Wear them when you need to!
6) While I didn’t go to the venues Friday night that I mentioned, I did hang out at home with a few friends on Tue/Wed that I had seen throughout quarantine. I thought I was healthy. I should have been more careful and I am paying for any of them that want to get the $100 Regencare test to go asap.
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My advice is to stay home, avoid tobacco/drugs/alcohol/anything unsafe, be safe in every way including your mental health, keep resting up until all symptoms are gone AND you get an official negative, be good to your immune system now and forevermore, and keep learning along with the rest (and please do rest and know “you’re doing great”) of the world how to beat this terrible plague.
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Title for this post comes from Twitter.
My previous post describing my first 2 weeks is here. My June 29th follow-on post is on Facebook and will be reposted on this blog tomorrow.
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