And yes! I know I made a typo in the title, and it is on purpose 😛
Why on earth would I want to write an article about me having had COVID-19? There is a very simple reason. One of the many YouTube channels I follow is “Physics Girl”. She just posted this update about her COVID-19 infection and the complications.Long COVID is real. ME/CFS is very real. A friend of mine from work is currently raising money for more research into long COVID and related complications.
And there are still loads of people who call COVID the flu or a cold. I can tell from experience: that comparison is like comparing a baseball bat to a microwave oven.
Beginning
Back to the end of 2019 and the beginning of 2020 — the start of the pandemic. I still remember it vividly: being at work, discussing the new disease in the coffee corner. And yes, I was also one of those people: “Ah, this will blow over… Ah, this is nothing… Oh, elderly people have a higher risk of death? I’m not in that category, so I’m not worried.”
Then the first images from China were shown on television, and I realized this was more serious than I had originally anticipated. While commuting to work by train, I also saw the first people wearing protective masks. And then things escalated quickly. On Thursday, we got the news at the office that we had to take all our gear with us so we could work from home. That same day was also the first press conference in the Netherlands.
On Friday, things escalated even further — and by Monday, we were in a full lockdown.
And with the infection rate of COVID, it felt like a matter of time before we’d be infected as well. Back then, I assumed we’d probably all contract the virus within months.
Sick
And this is the weird part — I still don’t get it. All three of us dodged the bullet for more than two years! All three of us got ill several times. Each time, we tested ourselves. We used home test kits, and on several occasions we even went to the larger test facilities. All those tests… negative.
We even had close contact with someone who had COVID — but didn’t know it at the time. One of us developed symptoms after that encounter.
Again…Negative. Negative. Negative.
Our son officially contracted COVID at the beginning of 2023. He had a few symptoms. Naturally, we tested ourselves again — and while our son tested positive, we kept testing negative. Again: home test kits, and visits to the larger test facility.
Again… negative³.
And that brings us to the end of 2024. Our son had contracted COVID at least twice. My wife and I had still never tested positive. Then our son stayed home from school because he felt under the weather. And that Sunday, I also started to feel my nose clog up.
Great… a cold!
Just a cold, right?
“Wrong.”
It started as a cold. That Monday morning, I went to my own office — paracetamol at hand for the fucked-up feeling, nasal spray to open my clogged nostrils.
Paracetamol? I might as well have taken M&M’s. Didn’t do anything. But I powered through the day and actually got some work done. That evening, I found some leftover COVID quick tests and decided to drop one into my laptop bag. I also told my co-workers that I wasn’t feeling great and wouldn’t come into the office on Tuesday, but would work from the private office I rent.
Slept like crap that night. Tuesday morning, my tastebud department decided they were ill too — and called in sick. My breakfast? Tasted like nothing. In the office, my first coffee tasted like — you guessed it — nothing.
Around 10:30, the first batch of paracetamol was wearing off. I still felt like crap and decided to take a short break to do that COVID quick test.
The verdict?
Yeah. COVID-19. Whoopie!
After lunch, I tried working again — but I started shivering, got a headache, and decided: enough is enough. I called in sick.
ACT 1
After getting home, I got into bed, fell asleep, and didn’t wake up until early evening. I ate a bit — tasted nothing — and went back to bed. The following morning, I actually felt pretty good again.
And honestly? I was thinking: COVID ain’t that bad!
By Wednesday evening, I actually felt good enough to think I could go back to work on Thursday.
ACT 2, revenge of the COVID!
Holy hell. I woke up early Thursday morning — voice almost gone, short of breath, coughing my lungs inside out. It felt like all the energy had been sucked right out of me.
COVID came back for Act 2: Revenge of the COVID!
It took over 10 days to recover to the point where I could start working again — still coughing, still short of breath, and with my endurance completely out the window. And it took over two months to fully recover, judging by my progress in the gym.
Vaccine
One thing is still on my mind: what would’ve happened to me if I hadn’t taken the vaccinations and the booster shots that followed?
Did my immune system get a head start when I got infected? Did the vaccinations prevent a more severe course of COVID?
Or… did it not matter at all?
And I know… I’ll never know the answer.
But one thing is for sure:
COVID != Flu
I’d rather have the flu — even the worst flu infection I’ve ever had wasn’t as severe as my first encounter with COVID.
So please, everyone: stop comparing COVID as if it’s the flu.