My Corona Virus Story Part 3
As I have now celebrated 100 days since I got Corona virus I thought it was time for part three of my story. In this episode we will find out how recovery is going, where I think I got Covid 19 from and find out if I actually had the virus at all, plus there is a graph to enjoy.
When you left me at the end of part 2 it was day 61 and I was laid out on the sofa having just had my latest relapse. You may recall that on the 3 previous relapses I started to improve with in a day or so before then setting out on a new recovery plan. However this time was different as I didn't seem to be improving. Each day I would feel queasy and dizzy, sometimes I had to spend it lying down while on other days I was able to gently potter around. The feeling would best be described as how you feel after having a heavy drinking session the day before but without the headache or an enjoyable night. This was bad and the longer it went on the more anxious I became which was clearly making me feel worse.
The doctor suggested it was time for blood tests, which all came back fine, but after over a week of feeling ill I could think of nothing else to do then have a massive melt down featuring, shouting, tears and throwing things (safely in the garden of course). After 20 minutes of this I felt a bit better and much to the relief of the family I calmed down. I spoke to the doctor again who prescribed me some anti nausea pills which fortunately quickly start to work.
The next day I started to feel better plus I spoke to a physio who had been dealing with other patients like me and advised on what my new plan (which I decide to call plan D) would look like.
Plan D was a cracker. I would start with just resting (not my specialist subject) until I felt ok everyday for at least two weeks. Once I had cracked that I would introduce gentle cycling and, if after another 2 weeks that was ok then I would try golf before eventually introducing running after 6 weeks or so. It was the start of my couch to Iron man plan (can't remember if I had mentioned in the previous posts that I've done 4 Iron man triathlons, well I have) although so far the focus has been more on the couch end of the continuum.
Plan D started well with two weeks of no exercise meaning I felt good most days and got on with jobs round the garden and some particularly tricky jigsaw action which had rather too much black.
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| Jigsaw took for ever as all of space looks exactly the same |
To make sure I felt I was achieving something I asked family and friends to let me have any bikes they wanted servicing as I could do that at a gentle pace. I'm pleased to say I have now serviced over 20 bikes in my secret underground bicycle workshop and several of them still work.
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| Bicycle repair action in the secret underground workshop buried deep below Crusader Towers |
With plan D phase 1 complete it was on to phase 2. With confidence high I dusted down my bike and went on a gentle 8 miler. I then managed a couple of 15 milers with no after affects (except the odd post ride lie down of course). I was still getting dizzy head, ringing ears and sicky tum but there were now times when I actually felt normal again.
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| Back on the bike again at last |
As the end of the phase 2 period approached I decided to up things to an 18 mile ride and I invited Big George to come along for old times sake.
On the ride the subject got round to where I thought I had caught the dread thing from. I explained my theory. To start with it had been a mystery as I had hardly been out of the house in the fortnight before it arrived and last visited China in 1993. You may recall that all members of the Crusader Towers bubble ended up getting it and three of them lost their sense of taste and smell. When this first happened son George (who had come back from Sheffield University the week before lock-down) realised his housemate had also lost his taste and smell a couple of weeks earlier when this wasn't a known Corona virus symptom. Sheffield had been an early C19 hot spot so it now seems most likely it came back with him, although we will never know for sure. He has obviously been on the naughty step ever since.
As my ride was concluding I thought business as usual cycling was now back on the agenda but I should have known better as a couple miles from home I felt all funny again with the usual relapse symptoms so by the time I was home I felt proper ill. It was clear I was still not out of the clutches of the virus yet. That night was one of my worst with stomach cramps as a new bonus feature.
Fortunately this relapse was short lived and I was feeling ok again a couple of days later so I decided to stick to the plan D.
Big George had also told me that it was possible to have an anti body test at a private doctor for a reasonable price. I decide I needed to know if I had actually had the virus for certain so booked my appointment and had the requisite blood sample taken. I had two days to wait for the results and didn't know what I would do if I had gone through all this only to find I hadn't had it or built up any potential immunity.
So when the test results arrived I was very nervous as I opened the email attachment. And this is what it said
"Anti-SARS CoV 2 IgG Result POSITIVE
Clinical Comment SARS-CoV-2 IgG Positive. Consistent with
SARS-CoV-2 infection at some time. Immunity to
re-infection is unknown and must not be assumed.
Methodology: ABBOTT CMIA
"
It was a relief that I had definitely had it especially as it would have been rather embarrassing to have written 3 posts on my recovery from the wrong virus. Even more exciting was that I was now part of an official government statistic along with the other 300,000 ish confirmed cases. Well done me.
That pretty much brings us up to date as 10 days since my last dip I've played a few holes of golf and completed two more 15 mile rides (which seems to be my baseline distance for now). I don't know how long it will take but hopefully, given time, I will eventually get fully fit again and be back on the cafe cycle ride trail soon (and get to do another Iron man triathlon too, although I don't like to talk about them).
I did promise you a graph. As I mentioned in part two I have been tracking how I felt each day out of 10 and here it is as in graphical format. Although very slow recovery does seem to be going the right way.
So finally what have we learnt (especially if your are a fitness fanatic (or bore))
1. Make sure people have isolated properly before allowing them into your bubble
2. Even if you don't get the virus badly, you can't exercise your way out of it so rest is best (I can't believe I just wrote that)
3. Build up exercise really slowly until you are confident you are over it.
4. Don't do jigsaws with too much black in them.
5. Try not to get anxious about your recovery as it only makes things worse
6. Avoid looking at Strava and seeing what activities your friends are doing as it just adds to the frustration
7. Come to terms that recovery might take a very long time and try and find other things to do other than sport (apparently there are such things).
8. Never ever, ever, ever tell people you are on the mend as by the next day you wont be
9. Keep a record of how you feel each day to help convince yourself that you are getting better.
10. Eat cake
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