*Note that NONE of this is medical advice. It is simply my own personal experience with having the Covid-19 Coronavirus. Always consult your physician for any medical advice.
My intention in sharing my experience with you is to uplift, to give hope, and to inform. I know that for me, it was helpful and soothing to communicate with other people who had it previously and to read about people’s experiences with having it online (keep in mind that I was very choosy about what I read…nothing super depressing or scary and that I didn’t read a whole whole lot!) . I will share a breathing technique I did for the first time on Wed, May 13 when I was experiencing my strongest symptoms and I experienced a surge of energy within two hours and felt a big shift in my body (**I’m not saying that it is the thing that shifted the illness for me…simply sharing my experience).
Here we go!
The first week of May I was movin and groovin and having fun with teaching yoga, playing in the beautiful spring grass and admiring our beauuuutiful peonies, chasing a mole that lives in our fairy circle up front, and creating more online offerings. But I started to notice that something with my body wasn’t operating the way it usually does. I didn’t think a whole lot of it because, well…we’re human. We inhabit these lovely bodies and experience peaks and valleys within them all the time.
By the following week, however, I knew this was different. Deep in my gut I knew I had the Covid (yes, I call it “The Covid” because it makes me giggle to call it that and it’s good to giggle about something that’s so charged). I was having trouble getting out of the bed in the morning (I usually love getting up at 4am!), sleeping 14 hours and still exhausted, experiencing some shortness of breath (though not too bad), dizzy and really foggy and felt like a zombie. It was all I could do to walk downstairs and collapse on the sofa each morning…late morning. Other symptoms as well that you can read more about in addition to the onset and recovery in more detail in the next blog entry of The Little Golden Thread if you’d like to know more (I go through them day by day).
Let’s take it back a bit…I promise we’ll get back to the Covid experience in a sec.
Some of you know that in my 20s I was housebound and bedbound for upwards of 8 years with “Chronic Fatigue Syndrome” (also known as ME) and “Fibromyalgia,” both of which are diagnosed simply by ruling out anything else. Medicine has not been able to identify what causes these conditions and there is no known “cure.” Those 8 years held a lot of not knowing. Not knowing from day to day how I was going to feel, whether I was going to be able to feed myself, make it up the stairs, or maybe have a good day and be able to take a 5 minute walk. Not knowing if I would ever get better. Not knowing what was causing all of the symptoms I was experiencing. Not knowing if I would ever be able to pursue my acting career again, my singing career again, to run my 3-5 miles several days a week ever again…
During that time of my life I HAD to cultivate an acceptance of not knowing. The alternative was to stay miserable and scared and constantly trying to figure it out, which is exhausting! I ain’t gonna lie…it was hard to let go of trying to figure it out! I did it though. I got better and better at letting it be okay that I didn’t know and was able to develop a loving relationship with my body that had been lacking in a big way before. The illness was also the advent of a deep spiritual connection and loving relationship with myself I’d been looking for my whole life.
Now…back to a few weeks ago. Because of the experience I had early on in my adult life with CFS, I didn't hold a lot of fear around having Covid. I’m no stranger to mysterious illnesses. In fact, I was *excited* that there was actually a test I could take that would verify my inner knowing (as excited as a zombie can be…)! So Tuesday my honey drove me to the testing site (I was not capable of driving because of the dizziness) and I got the swab test and two days later got the results and they were…NEGATIVE. Bah, so that was a little frustrating. Yes, we’ve been talking about all this wonderful acceptance of not knowing, but I wanted validation! Ha!
Upon further research I found out that over 30% of the negatives are FALSE negatives, so decided to wait and get the antibody test. Which ALSO has a high number of false negatives as I found out later (though I did test positive)…more on that in a bit.
In the meantime, I’m talking and writing with a few people I know who contracted Covid 19 early on in the pandemic. One person in March, another in April along with his whole family. Every person experienced different symptoms, though there seem to be similarities within families (clusters). The friend who got it with his whole family tested negative for the swab test while his whole family tested positive and he was obviously ill.
So now let’s go to Wed, May 13, about four days into the thick of it. I’ve had to give my yoga classes to one of our other sweet sweet teachers, though I do manage to still meet with my coaching clients online. I have a friend on the west coast that I talk to every day and I told her what was going on and she suggested a breathing technique to me…the Wim Hof Method. I was a little resistant at first…bah, another technique, another modality, etc. I’ve been doing Pranayama (yogic breathing) for years! But something kinda pulled me along, so I did a small amount of research and decided to give it a shot. The method is basically 3-4 rounds of very vigorous breathing followed by a long suspension of the breath after an exhale and then a short suspension of the breath after an inhale. I did the breathing for about 10 minutes.
I mentioned I was like a zombie, right? Within two hours of doing that breathing technique, I was talking my honey’s head off, whereas before I hadn’t wanted to utter a word, and even went into the kitchen to help him fix dinner, albeit a good bit of that time was spent sitting on the floor instructing him. There was a very specific moment when it felt like my body and energetic system did an about-face. The shift was almost palpable. What just happened???
The next morning I woke up after 8 hours of sleep (as opposed to 12) and though I still felt that hung over feeling and pretty awful, it was about 60% better than previous mornings. I did the breathing again that morning. By the afternoon/evening, most of my major symptoms (nausea, dizziness, fogginess, sore throat, headache, chills) were either gone or had decreased significantly. I was (and am) sold. Incidentally, the friend who told me about the breathing technique had only just run across it herself AND is the person who got me and the love of my life/honey together (in spite of much protestation from us both before we met in person).
By the following week I was feeling much better, though still very low energy and pretty shaky. My measure of my shakiness was how much of the dropper full of Wellness Formula tincture I could get in my mouth versus dribbling it down my chin. By the next Wed (May 20), my hands were again steady and sure.
This whole thing has gotten me very curious about this illness. In some ways the after effects feel very much like CFS symptoms. Makes me wonder if perhaps they’re related. I’ve spoken to another friend who had it early on and only she and one of their two children got it. Her husband and other child were asymptomatic. It presented for her with a lot of gastrointestinal symptoms and wheezing. And she’s had some residual fatigue and other symptoms that lasted for several months, as did one of my other friends I mentioned and the wife of the other friend I mentioned. My female friend got two swab tests and both came back negative, as did her antibody test.
I had a low grade fever for about an hour one day. Otherwise my temperature was below normal. I didn’t have lots of the symptoms you see listed as Coronavirus symptoms. My honey had a few days of low energy but was asymptomatic (yay!). And we still have no idea where I could have picked it up. We have been very careful with masks and gloves, etc.
It’s now been three weeks and my energy levels continue to get better, though I still don’t feel 100%. I know that this may take some time and that’s okay (most of the time…I do have my little fits and allow myself to have a tantrum because I want to be at 100% again NOW;). I am blessed that it was a mild case and that I was already in such good health. I’m slowly adding more physical activities back in (I get to teach one of my yoga classes tomorrow, yay!). I’m still doing the breathing technique and am excited to continue to learn more about it and to deepen that practice.
All this to say…
- If you think you may have Covid, treat yourself as if you do, even if you get a test and it comes back negative. Take good care of yourself (which you’re already doing, hopefully!), consult with your physician, and rest. Do all the things you know to do to take care of yourself like drinking lots of water and watching things that make you happy. Isolate yourself as much as possible and know that it will pass. If you do have significant trouble breathing or other heightened symptoms, get yourself to the hospital.
- Talk to a few other people you know who have experienced it and come out the other side.
- See if you can allow this time to be a sacred space. Whether you have had Covid or not, what have you gained from this shared world-wide experience? If you have had it or currently have it or are dealing with any kind of physical ailment…illness and recovery are ripe for big internal shifts. Allow yourself the space to let them happen.
I was inspired by the experience I had with Covid to share some of the things I do every day to keep myself connected and healthy in a 5 DAY WELLNESS CHALLENGE. We’d love for you to join us, you can sign up at www.livingfrominspiration.com (the sign up window will come up once you’ve been on the site for a few seconds or you can go to the FREEBIES section). It’s free and starts on June 22, but you can sign up anytime and start anytime after the start date. Hope to see you there or at an upcoming event!
Be happy. Be healthy. Be in love with yourself and your life.
Big love,
Lorrie
