Being sick sucks. I think we can all agree on that.
It doesn’t matter what you’re sick with. That doesn’t make the experience any less debilitating. Even something as simple as a headache can hinder your ability to do anything, major or minor. But when you’re sick with something serious, that compounds every aspect of why being sick sucks.
I know this because over the holidays, I got very sick. In fact, I’ll go so far as to say the 2023 holiday season was the sickest I’ve been in over five years. Being someone who works out regularly and makes a concerted effort to stay healthy, it was more than a little jarring. To make everything so much worse, I found out early on that I was sick with COVID-19.
While many believe the COVID-19 pandemic to be over, there’s no question that the disease is still raging. Granted, the strains going around today aren’t nearly as severe as the ones we saw at the start of the pandemic in 2020. On top of that, we have better treatments and multiple vaccines with which to combat it. But it is still a serious disease and one you do not want to deal with.
I can say that definitively, having dealt with it. And I freely admit, I was among those who thought I no longer had to worry about COVID-19. Since it began in 2020, I felt very fortunate to have never contracted it. I did test myself regularly and even on days when I didn’t feel 100 percent, they came back negative.
At times, that was surprising because a lot of people within my family and friends did contract the disease at some point. My parents got it. My siblings dealt with it. I even had multiple cousins and their friends deal with it. By 2023, I worked under the assumption that I had probably been exposed, but didn’t show any symptoms. And since I had also been vaccinated, I thought I didn’t have anything to worry about.
I was wrong.
I was painfully, frustratingly wrong.
I actually started feeling sick shortly after Christmas dinner. At the time, I thought it was just me having eaten too much or a general product of a stressful holiday season. But then, the symptoms compounded. My throat got sore. I started coughing a lot. And my face became hot, even in the middle of winter. At times, my face felt like I had just stuck my head in the oven. That’s when I started to get worried, but I thought it was something I could sleep off.
Again, I was wrong.
The day after Christmas was the day I felt really sick. I had plans to visit my uncle and siblings. I even had plans to go out to breakfast that day. I thought I could push through it. Then, one of my siblings demanded I take a COVID test before I drove over. I ended up taking two. And when both came back positive, pretty much all my holiday plans from that point forward were cancelled.
It was very upsetting. I vividly remember cursing more in that morning than I had at any point in 2023. But it gave me painful confirmation that I was very sick and this was not something I could tough out. It was also not something I could risk spreading to family members. My relatives include young children and cancer survivors. And there was no way I was ever going to put them at risk.
So, from December 26th until several days after New Year, I isolated in my home. And no, it was not a relaxing staycation. I didn’t just missed out on multiple holiday activities with friends and loved ones. I ended up experiencing a wide range of horrible symptoms that felt like my body was torturing me from the inside.
My sinuses were stuffed and clogged in ways I had not experienced, despite a long history of allergies.
My throat was sore and my voice was weak in a way that exceeded the worst cases of strep throat I ever had.
My lung capacity was severely diminished, so much so that just talking on the phone or walking up a flight of stairs would leave me winded. As someone who regularly runs three miles a day, this genuinely scared me.
But the fever was still probably the worst symptom and not just because of my temperature. My head kept getting physically hot as my fever fluctuated constantly, despite the cold weather outside. At one point, I had to go out on my deck at 2:00 a.m. in 24-degree weather to cool down because my head was so hot.
But the weirdest and most disturbing symptom I experienced during my entire bout with COVID-19 was the insomnia. That was probably the most frustrating and the most disturbing. Usually, when you get sick, you just want to sleep it off or sleep until it runs its course. But with this strain of COVID-19, I physically could not get tired.
For three solid nights, I would just lay in bed trying to sleep. But no matter what I did, I remained painfully alert, even when the rest of my symptoms were tempered with medications. I tried cutting out coffee. I tried avoiding sugar. But nothing seemed to work. I couldn’t make myself tired. I couldn’t even make myself drowsy. And I almost always get drowsy in the afternoon, so that was a strange experience.
By the fourth day, I took some over-the-counter sleeping pills that finally allowed me to sleep through the night. I still felt like crap the next day, but just getting some sleep did help. And after that night, the worst of my symptoms started to lesson.
By New Years Eve, I was able to sleep on my own and manage most of the symptoms. I was still coughing a lot and my sinuses were still stuffed up. But my fever had gone down, my appetite was normal, and I didn’t feel quite as weak. I still kept losing my breath when I went up a flight of stairs and people could tell I was sick whenever I talked to them on the phone. But I was on the road to recovery.
As I write this, I feel fine. My lung capacity is almost back to what it once was, my sinuses are normal, and my sleep schedule is back to normal. But make no mistake, this disease left an impression on me and, having gone through it, I have a few important messages to those who think COVID-19 is over.
For one, get vaccinated! Seriously people, stop making excuses and stop giving any attention to anti-vaxxers.
In this regard, I failed to take my own advice. This past fall, I did get my usual flu shot. The flu had surged in my area and I thought that was more pressing. But I did not get a COVID-19 booster because I foolishly thought it was no longer an issue. I had opportunities. I could’ve gotten one at pharmacy that’s less than three blocks from my home.
But I didn’t and, as a result, my holiday was ruined and I experienced the worst sickness I’ve had in years.
Even so, I still consider myself lucky. As bad as I felt, I never felt sick enough to go to a hospital. I also didn’t go to an ER or visit my doctor, although I probably should have after the shortness of breath got very bad. But I did manage to heal. I did manage to get through without any noticeable damage. That might be more a product of me being relatively healthy and having a rigorous gym routine. I understand not everyone else can make that claim.
But even if you are as health conscious as me, I still highly recommend that you get a COVID-19 vaccine or a booster as soon as possible. Do not leave something like this to chance. Do not assume that the worst is behind you and if you get exposed, you’ll be able to manage it.
Trust me, you do not want to experience what I did over the holidays. You’ll be doing yourself and your loved ones a favor by being proactive. My 2023 holiday plans might have been ruined by COVID-19, but it could’ve been so much worse. And I hope everyone will take this experience I’ve shared to heart.
The pandemic might be over, but COVID-19 is still a concern. Take it seriously. Otherwise, it might cost you more than your holiday plans.
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