Thread by @DrAPearson

What a lot of you don't know is that me, my wife, and our two kids had COVID earlier this year. It was the most terrifying thing I've ever been through, and my hopes is that our story can inspire at least one person to wear a mask and distance yourselves. *Thread*

Me and @CEDme are both essential staff. She's in healthcare, and I'm homeless services. We could spend some but not all of our days working from home, which meant that we still needed to send our kids to daycare/camp. One of our kids was exposed at the daycare/camp; day one. 1/?

2/ After they were exposed, and after the facility found out that there was exposure, they quickly sent out notices and shut down the facility. We were on high alert, monitoring symptoms, when low and behold, a couple days later, symptoms! This was day 3.

3/ It began with cold symptoms and a fever that lasted very briefly. When the fever started to break, my wife and I started experiencing symptoms. At first, it was a very brief fever and mild cold symptoms. We all got tested, and it turned out we were all positive. Day 7-ish

4/ the great news was that both kids started to rebound after about 5 days. Typical cold symptoms for both the 1 and 5yo. But when they started to rebound, my wife and I went downhill, and downhill fast. Day 9ish is when the big symptoms started. Strange at first, then scary.

5/ this is when I lost the concept of time. I lost taste briefly. Then came the headaches. Then the eye pain, where every single eye movement made my head throb. Then the FATIGUE. I could barely carry a load of laundry without napping. 5 mins of activity required a 30 min break.

6/ the breathing issues started the end of the second week, where taking shallow breaths was painful and difficult. No cough for me. The combination of fatigue, soreness, and difficulty breathing was terrifying, as we still had two kids under 6 to catch up with.

7/ dizziness was an issue, and then the night sweats started. Soaked sheets every night. Didn't matter if I titrated my water intake. Only happened when I was sleep. Non-stop laundry, but I could barely manage the laundry cause of the fatigue.

8/ through it all, my O2 remained within normal limits, so I never needed hospitalization. My wife wasn't as fortunate. Her breathing got more labored, & O2 less stable, so she needed emergency help. This was terrifying for the both of us, because COVID is so damn unpredictable.

9/ after she was discharged, we slowly began to heal, but not without issue. That's when the cognitive effects started. Loss of short term memory, word finding deficits, inattention. I have a job that requires complex decisions, and I couldn't even manage my email.

10/ it took us 1.5 months to emerge from the physical toll on our bodies. But we're half a year out and we're still dealing with some of the cognition issues, and now she has long term breathing difficulty from time to time. And we're more fortunate than others.

11/ lastly: this is not the flu. It's not a cold. Many of us with MILD symptoms emerge with PERMANENT heart damage. A mask that costs $2 can save you and others from this, and save our healthcare staff. You don't want this, and I don't wish this upon anyone. Be safe, be smart.