This Coronavirus situation has lasted longer than any of us common folk could have expected. It has affected business, travel and day to day life for over a year now. I know I’m not the only one who is sick of all of it. Sick of the death. Sick of the tragedy. Sick of the restrictions. Sick of the continuous changes it has forced upon us.

At the end of July and the beginning of August, I wasn’t just sick of it, I was sick with it. I didn’t go to get tested. In fact, I refused to leave my living space for weeks. It was frightening to think I could give something so horrible to someone around me, especially someone I love. I may have taken quarantine a little too far. But, as my great-grandmother always told us, “it’s better to be safe, than to be sorry.”

It started with chills. Then the chills turned to sweats. Then it kept going back and forth. Chills to sweats to chills to sweats. I couldn’t regulate my body temperature. I took acetaminophen for three days trying to keep the feverish feelings at bay. It was like nothing I’d ever experienced.

I drank down cloves of garlic with water and orange juice. I juiced limes into water and added honey and ginger. I did this everyday for almost two weeks.

Once my body temperature started to be stable, massive pressure started to build in my head. I was congested like a pipe filled with my hair, it was even hard for the air to get through. I had a headache that made me feel like my eyes would burst from the sockets at any moment. My teeth hurt. My gums hurt. My ears hurt. It was awful and all consuming. I added cold and sinus medicine and dropped the acetaminophen. I started using a neti pot twice a day.

Some days later, when the sinus pressure finally started to subside, I realized I couldn’t taste anything. I hadn’t noticed before because I wasn’t eating much. Then I noticed I couldn’t smell anything, not even the strongest scent you can think of, not even tea tree oil or citronella oil. I was pushing the bottles to my noistrals trying to get a whiff and nothing. It took weeks for my senses to come back to me. I’m convinced the sinus pressure is what threw them off.

The longest lasting symptoms were the fatigue and the weakened immune function. I slept and slept and still felt exhausted. A few weeks later I got a stomach bug that knocked me down again. I wasn’t ready to get in the ring again after fighting the first virus. I needed more time time to get my strength up. As I write this, I am urging myself to be cautious and get back into immune boosting to keep my strength up.

This isn’t over. In many places in the world it is still a major issue. The mask debates. The vaccine debates. I refuse to get into them. I don’t have it in me to get in those fights. I do what I can to stay protected based on when I believe and have experienced, you should too.

I long for the day when we can see the other side of this. I long for the time when we can look back on it and say, “remember when”. I want to be past it.

In the meantime, my experience fighting it off sent me into a massive state of gratitude. I am so thankful to have survived it. I am more grateful for my life than ever. I am pushing myself to make the most of my life time. If we didn’t know it before we should be able to see now that tomorrow truly is not promised. I am happy to be alive.

Too many people have passed on in the path of this pandemic. God rest their souls. And comfort their kin.