My Covid Experience
I suppose it really only was a matter of time, but last week, following the onset of flu symptoms, and a trip to the drive-thru test centre, a positive Covid 19 test was confirmed for myself and my two young kids.
Whenever the pandemic first hit in early 2020, I was pretty terrified to be honest.
At that time we knew very little about the serious nature of the disease, and it was very much a wait and see over the coming months.
As someone living with a suppressed immune system, which has had it’s many moments over the years, I was very concerned as to how things might play out, should I contract the virus.
Interestingly on 19th December 2019, I recall the onset of a very nasty flu, and within 24 hours, I was very sick in bed. Within two days I was in the Eye department of the Royal Victoria Hospital, as the flu (apparently) which I was going through at the time, had triggered a neurological response, which knocked out my eyesight and left my face numb.
You can imagine, out of nowhere, this was a pretty difficult and awful experience.
I was diagnosed in the Royal with 4th and 6th nerve palsy on 21st December 2019, and advised that all being well, the sight should return, and things should go back to normal, but that it could take 9 months (FFS).
The good news being, my sight returned in nine days, the infection had left my body, and I was out running again within two weeks.
Back to last week.
The first 24 hours of covid was like any flu, difficult, uncomfortable, no energy, wiped out, and I was wondering if what happened in December 2019, would return this time around.
Sure enough, isn’t that what happened exactly.
Within 48 hours of being in bed, my face returned to the numb state it had been in before, and my left eye became paralysed again, just like the last time. If this has ever happened to you, you will know that it’s an incredibly worrying development.
Three days into my Covid experience, the fever was residing somewhat, but the energy levels were at zero, and I was undergoing intervals of general unwellness, to put it mildly.
This I could live with, but my main concern was my sight and the fact that my face and mouth were numb, preventing eating and making even drinking fluids most difficult.
Ever the trooper, I dug in, and did what I could to keep my spirits as high as possible, including recording my symptoms in my diary, and trying to figure out when I would be fully recovered.
It’s pretty incredible how much we all take for granted in life. The simple things, the things we don’t even acknowledge we are doing half the time. Like drinking a cup of coffee.
On Monday, now definitely feeling somewhat better (I think), and on day 5 of my Covid experience, I was sitting out in my back garden, drinking coffee, but still half blind and mouth still numb, a beautiful sight I have to tell you by the way.
Numb mouth - You know that feeling when you leave the dentist – yes that one, where it’s best not to smile or even talk to anyone!!!
Anyway, it was day 5 and I could feel my recovery from Covid moving to a new phase.
I was stronger, coffee was being drunk, and I was even able to get an entire bowl of soup into my system. Result!!!
Day 6 was better again, and I was starting to notice that my eyesight was returning, just like it did before in December 2019. Slowly but surely my face was healing, my eyes were healing, and my body was healing – hallelujah!!
For the first 4 days of Covid, I was taking paracetamol and ibuprofen every four hours to keep the fever at bay, however from day four onwards, there was no need for any kind of medication, just plenty of fluids, and plenty of sleep.
One week after testing positive and on day 7, there was another huge improvement in my eyesight and the numbness was now 80% away from my mouth and face. Such an incredible feeling, after what was turning out to be a roller coaster week.
On Thursday (day 8), things improved again, and I even had enough strength to cut the grass at home, which is one of my favourite forms of relaxation, believe it or not.
Today Friday, I carried out a lateral flow test, and I am delighted to report the virus has left my system. I am #Covidfree and very much looking forward to slipping back into society again, and coaching my son and his team-mates soccer tomorrow, followed by watching my daughter play Linfield on Sunday morning.
Vaccine
For any of you interested, I decided against taking the vaccine this time for Covid, for personal and health reasons. Let me give you a little context - whenever you have been living with an autoimmune condition for over 15 years, there is nobody else who has had to endure all of what my body has went through, only myself.
I used to get the flu jab, but had to stop taking that a few years ago, as it was compromising my immune system, and reaction to each jab was too severe and was becoming unnecessary in my opinion, so I stopped that.
My immune system is something I have spent an incredible amount of time building up over the last number of years, and I have to say that on this occasion, I am pleased to report it has done it’s job, despite the fact it sparked a neurological reaction to the fever, triggering a return of the nerve and face palsy.
7 Things I learned from Covid
1. You cannot prevent it
2. It can be a pretty nasty infection
3. My healthy lifestyle facilitated my recovery
4. Your health is your wealth
5. The kids were largely unaffected - no symptoms
6. We live in a very unhealthy world
7. Chronic illness doesn’t have to be inevitable
Observations
Over the last ten years or so, I have been trying to encourage people to take better care of themselves in relation to their own health. I have written extensively about this, contributed to documentaries, TV shows, radio programs, guested on podcasts, participated in my own podcast, created social media pages / content etc.
I have produced an extensive body of work to document my own recovery from MS, and also shared a huge amount of resources with you, as to how you also might be able to reboot your own health, your life and create an incredible amount of positive change.
All of this work has been a particular pleasure to me, as there is nothing I get more out of, than when someone contacts me to tell me they have started to make changes in their own life, as a result of seeing my own recovery from MS.
All of this is pretty positive, however, whenever I experience things in life, I like to try and learn from my experiences, and with Covid, there is no getting away from a very uncomfortable reality – let me explain.
The reality right now today is that we are living in a very sick world. This pandemic has shone a light on how sick so many people are across the world, both in the adult population’s and in our children’s population.
Heart disease, the world’s number one killer, kills 17 million people every single year. Millions of people with diabetes, cancer is rife, auto immune conditions growing extensively, mental health issues exploding, addiction out of control, need I go on.
When you drill into all of this, the elephant in the room remains the same – we are all literally eating and drinking ourselves to death. Eating crap food, all day, every day is leading to so much of this pain and unnecessary destruction.
Believe me, chronic Illness and sickness is to be avoided at all costs.
It’s a horrible place to be, but unfortunately unless people start to change, change their lifestyles, change what they are eating, change their environment, well then, it’s not Covid 19 you will have to worry about.
There will be many other much less forgiving diseases and chronic illness ready willing and waiting for you, it’s simply only a matter of time.
The really great news being, it simply does not have to be this way.
You can make small changes in your life today, tomorrow, and the next day.
If you commit to this, remain disciplined and committed to your new life, then you can experience health and prosperity in abundance.
I hope you got some value from my covid experience, and I hope that’s me and Covid finished for good.
I have the small matter of a 70.3 Ironman race next month in Spain, so I need to get my strength back pretty quickly (from somewhere), If I am to add to my Ironman collection of medals (7).
As ever, if you have any questions, please feel free to get in touch.
Take care,
CD
Best is to email conor@conordevine.com
Hoping to race again in September