Covid Restrospective
Part I: Fever, loss of strength, light cough, etc.
This was the only part that I thought I would have to deal with. I was mostly confined to the bed for like 1-2 days. At times I felt pretty uncomfortable, but nothing too terrible
Part 2: Strep Throat
Some time during the 1-2 days of covid symptoms, I started having pain swallowing. I remember thinking this is clearly not as bad as the fever part since it's just pain in one specific area. But then it got much worse. Every time I had to drink it was intensely painful. Eventually I just stopped swallowing entirely and instead spat out saliva about once per minute. The problem is that this actually reduces your water levels and probably dries your throat. So I tried compensating by gurgling water constantly. It's a very sad state to be in though. And it makes it hard to sleep. And all the painkillers I had access to are way too weak to do much, if anything.
I went to a doctor one day later than I think I should have. Turns out it's a bacterial infection on top of covid, presumably because the immune system was so weakened. So antibiotics. And they helped pretty quickly, the pain went from super bad to bad in less than a day. Then it took its sweet time to go down from bad to medium bad to slightly bad, and it's still not entirely past slightly bad.
Anyway, the strep throat was altogether probably 3-4 times as bad as the regular Covid.
Part 3: Insomnia
Some time throughout this, I stopped sleeping. The details are hazy now, but it must have been 3 days with almost no sleep. The throat pain kicked this off, but it was still there when the pain was sorta manageable.
As far as I can tell so far, no one seems to have a clue why this happens or what do about it. All the advise you see is about generic sleep hygiene, but I don't think that had anything to do with it. This stuff makes you more tired. But I was already tired. There was one time when I took two sleeping pills, adding to my already massive pressure and need for sleep, before I went to bed at midnight, my regular time. It's hard to say for sure, but I think the pills knocked me out -- for about half an hour. I don't understand how any of this works, buy based on introspection, there was just a separate problem where my body didn't "want" to sleep, and getting the need so ridiculously high that it overwhelmed it for a short time was a crappy solution.
Whatever the case, this condition was absolutely horrible. It's basically impossible to feel joy under this level of sleep deprivation, and of course your brain is also incredibly slow. I've read that some people slip into depression as a result, and this doesn't surprise me. The integral over your past state does sculp your mood, and if you're sleep deprived you're constantly miserable almost by necessity.
It then just kind of went away. Much later on the same night, I slept for about two hours, which was an incredible improvement over nothing. Then two more hours at noon of the next day, and then a solid 8 hours last night. I don't feel like I was super tired except for second one. There's just something different going on that now passed.
Anyway, I waited to write this until after a very pleasant meditation to anneal myself out of the depression bc I consider that part of getting better. Even if the physical side of a disease goes away, if you're still constantly sad and hopeless, you're clearly still affected. And it wouldn't be hard to imagine that someone just never gets out of it.