Yes, I survived it. Well, still trying to at least…
The coronavirus hit me hard. I mean to the point of waking up and that instant I KNEW I had COVID. I was terrified. Not only did I have COVID, but I had Type 1 Diabetes. My immune system was compromised, and the news had me out to think I’d die if I caught this virus. Well, I’m here to tell you I survived. I’m still on the mends but getting better each day. When I was first diagnosed I noticed there weren’t many articles or posts about Type 1 Diabetics and COVID… so here I go, trying to incapsulate the past few days for you, but before I get to that, I want to clear up one thing. COVID affects everyone COMPLETELY different. While I felt like I was dying, others might feel completely fine. So take what you read with a grain of salt, cause I’m definitely not a doctor, and this sh** hits everyone differently.
Sunday night October 25th I went to bed with horrible body aches. I’m talking the kind where you can’t even move your body- worse than the flu. I spent that weekend painting a room at my parent’s house, so I chalked up the body aches to spending a whole weekend on my feet and using my arms. Little did I know, that I’d wake up the next morning and feel like I was dying.
Monday morning, October 26th I woke up and, in that moment, I knew something was not right. My body hurt, my head was going to explode, my throat was on fire – like can’t swallow your own spit – and I had a low-grade fever of 99.4. I immediately went to get a free COVID test, but I know I could not risk waiting 3-4 days to get those results, so I left and paid (too much $$ if you ask me ) for a rapid COVID test. The rapid test came back in 15 mins and confirmed what I figured was already the case – I was POSITIVE. I left, called my parents, and went straight to my bedroom, where I would stay for the next 5 days.
Monday afternoon, October 26th my symptoms started to get worse. My fever shot up to 99.8 and remained there for about 5 hours, my head felt like it was going to explode, and my dad ended up testing POSTIVEalso (turns out one of his employees had COVID and still was coming to work; therefore, we both caught it). My blood sugar numbers were very low and my Dexcom kept giving me notification that I was trending down and would have a “55 bs in less that 20 mins”. I started searching for any resources regarding COVID and T1D, but all I could find were articles that looped us in with type 2 diabetes and said we’d end up in the hospital…. I went to bed that night nervous and afraid of what would be next. “Will I wake up the next morning?” “Will I not be able to breath?” “Will my blood sugar continue to drop?” “My dad is over 60 years old, what’s going to happen to him?”, “will my mom catch it to?”
Tuesday, October 27th my symptoms continued to get worse. I woke up to another low blood sugar, which I treated with OJ…. only to realize that another one of the symptoms was kicking in… NO taste or smell, yup couldn’t even taste my OJ. After my fight or flight weared off from treating my low, I noticed my throat was on fire. I could not talk, swallow my own spit, or even have a sip of water. I treated my sore throat with Ibprophen and my gracious mother made me some jello and hot tea. I called my endocrinologist and primary care doctors. Honestly, neither were that helpful because neither of them had experience with a Type 1 who has tested positive for COVID. The rest of Tuesday was kind of a blur, I spent it in bed and watching the Queens Gambit (highly recommend).
Myabetic case getting me through this week
Wednesday, October 28th I woke up to a blood sugar of over 300!! WTF??!! I started with going low all the time, and then started going extremely high. I put back on my Omnipod and got my numbers to a solid 175 for that day (spoil alert- haven’t gotten them down below that since Wednesday). Honestly felt like I was on my death bed on Wednesday, sore body, headache, fever, sore throat, no taste / smell, and was confused all day. I checked for ketones and rested the whole day.
Thursday, October 29th I woke up with a horrible sore throat again, but the headache and body aches were gone, and I was greeted with a runny nose and congestion. I took some Sudafed which made my numbers go back up to the 200s, and I stayed in bed all morning.
Friday morning, October 30th, I woke up surprisingly feeling much better than the days before. I didn’t have a bad sore throat, no headache, no fever, no body aches, but still my smell was gone, and I had bad congestion. I weighed my self this morning and noticed I have lost 5 pounds since Monday… probably associated with low appetite and higher blood sugar numbers. Luckily, my energy came back this morning, but cabin fever is totally setting in. According to our county public health center, I’m set to re-enter the world on November 4th. So until then, I’ll stay inside… and maybe try to read some 😉
I’ll continue to update this blog post as I continue to recover. But wanted to share before the ~spooky~ weekend.
*Updated 11/15/20*
I wanted to update the blog with my final reflections and symptoms during my time with COVID.
October 31st, I continued to feel much better, but still no taste or smell. I had a runny nose that seemed to linger around. I strangely had dreams that I could smell and would dream I smelled cinnamon and coffee ( I don’t even drink coffee, so that was strange?). The following days were more in the same. I was on the final stretch of the virus and was feeling much better.
November 1st- November 9th I felt 95% better. My nose was still runny (felt like allergies) and no taste or smell. On November 10th, I woke up and remember feeling like I could breathe perfectly- almost like my nose was the clearest it has ever been in my whole entire life. Even to this day, my nose remains extremely clear…
While my major symptoms are gone, my “no smell and / or taste” still lingers. Food just doesn’t seem to have the same appeal to me anymore since I can’t really taste much. I’ve actually lost almost 10+ pounds since testing positive. This has been something that not many people discuss- that food losses it’s appeal with COVID. I’ve done my best to manage Type 1 and eat despite the food tasting the same, but I will say, it’s been rough.
Final Reflections:
One thing no one talks about much is how LONELY it is once you test positive for COVID. You have to quarantine alone for 10+ days and it’s very depressing. Not being able to even sit outside was the hardest part for me. I was “lucky” enough to have tested positive with my dad, so we we’re able to hang out together. Despite having another human being with me, we were both still lonely and feared my mom would catch the virus, so we confined our selfs to our separate rooms and road out the quarantine. My mom was a saint and would deliver food and water to us and place it outside our doors. One night I had a horrible low, and my mother ran upstairs and delivered me some OJ from the kitchen.
Type 1 certainly made COVID even more difficult to deal with, but I’m thankful that my father and I never had to go to the hospital.
I’m heading to the doctors this week to get tested for the antibodies and will conclude the post with more details.
Test negative, stay positive peeps!!
A Minor Inconvenience 