Rob Streeper - a USA member here - got the C19 virus
Yesterday I sent Rob an email to see how the situation was affecting him. I was somewhat shocked at his reply of "My wife and I caught the virus in mid-January. She has pretty much recovered, but I'm still not well".
Rob lives in San Antonio TX, and went to a conference in CA for 3 days. To quote some of his email (with his permission, and bear in mind that this is 15-16 weeks after catching it):
"Unfortunately I've been unable to do anything related to tools or woodworking, too damn sick or busy. We went to San Francisco on the 13th of January and returned on the 15th. We attended a couple of receptions related to a healthcare conference. People were sneezing all around us.
We got home and both fell sick the next day. It came on like the flu. The first week was pretty much similar. Not too bad but not good.
The second week was Hell. Flu symptoms intensified and then came the coughing. I was awake three days straight coughing my lungs up. Lots of phlegm and some blood. Body pain was really bad. Intermittent fevers and chills. I had one episode of tachycardia. I remember being in a dream state half asleep and there was a sound like a lawn mower running. I thought 'who's the fool mowing?", then I realized I was hearing my heart beating, too fast to make out the individual beats.
Extreme weakness and unsteadiness set in. Brain fog too. Only a little nausea. Every joint hurt as if sprained. No appetite or sense of smell and my sense of taste was so distorted nothing tasted decent so I stopped eating for a week. After two and a half weeks I was finally able to leave the house. Lost 20 lbs.
The following week optic neuritis set in leaving me functionally blind in my right eye. Interestingly my night vision in both eyes improved so whatever was happening must have affected only the cone cells. Finally resolved this by taking our drug by mouthy and using steroid eye drops. Vision now is fine, in fact it may be a little better than it was.
For the past two months I've had GI/digestive issues. Currently struggling with pancreatitis/gastroenteritis and concomitant hyperglycemia. Using oral steroids and our drug for intestinal and systemic inflammation, hyperglycemia is getting better. Energy and motivation are starting to return but still nowhere near normal. Despite all this I am feeling better now than I have since catching it."
So pretty much your standard cold then? Definitely not! One round of debilitating symptoms after another for weeks and weeks on end. That is certainly the worst first-hand account I have read.
For those of us here in Oz that are feeling somewhat insulated from this virus, it gives pause for thought. The situation here could have been a helluva lot different. Just because it didn't happen that way doesn't mean it isn't real, and frightening. Perhaps we've been a little laissez faire?
Just a point of interest, for perspective:
Texas, the largest of the contiguous 48 states, is a little smaller than New South Wales, fits into Queensland nearly three times over, and not quite four times into Western Australia, and about 1.5 times into South Aust. It's 3x bigger than Victoria.
It has a population of 29mill, 3mill more than Australia's entire population.
TX has ~28,000 cases and 782 deaths. Australia has 6781 cases and 94 deaths. We definitely dodged a bullet.
Wishing you and your wife all the very best Rob.
