I Got Covid

So as you can see from the title, I got COVID. Initially, I held back from talking about this since, one, I wanted to make sure I wasn't experiencing any long-lasting side effects before sharing my own experience, and two, I was nervous because I guess there's still the stigma out there that if you get it, you must have somehow been careless to have been exposed or the assumption that had you taken even more precautions, things would have turned out differently. But my case was quite unique. I've been fully vaccinated, I work from home, I rarely leave the house, I don't know anybody else who's been sick or shown any symptoms, and I always wear a mask when I'm out in public.

But despite all of those things, I still ended up getting it. So here's what happened, what it was like, and my overall experience as an otherwise healthy 31-year-old adult with a mild case of asthma from start to finish. At first, I just want to mention that I have no idea how I got it. I can't tell you how often I've spent mentally retracing my steps, thinking of anyone I could have possibly come into contact with and wondering if that was the moment I was exposed, but I just can't pinpoint it. Not only did no one that I was in contact with have any symptoms, both before or after, but in the two weeks leading up to a positive test, I pretty much did nothing but work from the house.

At this point, I've kind of accepted that I'm never going to figure out how I got it, and it's forever going to be a mystery. But it does make you realize that no one's invincible, and as careful as you could be, it's still possible to get it, and that's what brings me to my second point: symptoms. For the first two days, I just felt a little bit fatigued. Like, you know the feeling when you wake up after a bad night of sleep or maybe you were out late and had to wake up early in the morning? That's how I felt. I would wake up and feel like I was still a little bit tired and needed to sleep a little bit longer.

It really wasn't terrible, though. I felt like maybe I was just overworking myself or I was having an off day, so I had some coffee. I just focused on other projects from home that required a little bit less energy, and I didn't think much of it. The thought of COVID at this point didn't even cross my mind because I didn't have a fever, I could still taste and smell, I didn't have any other symptoms, and besides feeling a little bit unrested, I was fine. On the third day, however, my fatigue started feeling a little bit worse, and because I felt so tired, I had difficulty concentrating.

This was at the point where the night before, I remember just being really happy to go to bed, and when I woke up that next morning, I did the unthinkable: I hit the snooze button. I usually am completely up by the time the alarm goes off, and I'm really eager to start the day because I always have so much to do. But this time, I thought if I really feel this way, I must need the extra sleep, so I decided to sleep in. Then when I woke up again, I was still just as tired. Now, again, this didn't strike me as anything too unusual because almost every time I sleep in after 8 A.M, I tend to be a little bit less energetic throughout the day. So I thought I must have done this to myself since I didn't stick with my normal routine, and that was it.

Although throughout the rest of the day, I don't know how to explain it, but I found it very difficult to focus a hundred percent on any one topic. For some reason, it just seemed like my mind was slow. I had trouble reaching that creative state to plan a video; nothing seemed interesting, and it was almost as though everything was dull. Now, again, this didn't strike me as anything to be concerned about because throughout the last 10 years or so, this happens to me on a regular basis. It's as though, you know, every few weeks, you have a few days that are off, and then eventually it passes and you feel fine again.

Although day four is the point where I began to acknowledge that maybe something was wrong. I woke up and immediately just wanted to go back to bed, even though I fell asleep early the night before. So I knew it wasn't a sleep issue, and I felt like if this were a normal case of just being fatigued, it would have passed by now and I would have felt better, but I felt worse. I also noticed that for the first time, my sinuses just felt a little bit clogged up, like I had a very mild case of a cold.

So I knew at that point it was slightly different than what I expected. It was a really weird sensation because I didn't have a fever, I didn't have a cough, I didn't have a sore throat, I could taste and smell perfectly fine, I didn't have any body aches, and my symptoms did not match up to the typical cases you hear about when you think coronavirus. But just to be on the safe side for my own peace of mind, I ordered a COVID test just to be able to rule it out. When I saw that result, it came back positive. I almost couldn't believe it for a second because I had received the full two doses of the vaccine.

I absolutely hate crowded places, I often go days without ever leaving the house. It's a bit of a surreal experience because I think we all believe, "Oh, you know, it's never going to happen to me," but here I was as proof that anything could happen. Of course, immediately after finding out, my girlfriend Macy also took a test, even though she felt completely fine, and to my surprise, both of her tests came back negative. Again at that point, I was determined to see if I could find any linkage to the virus whatsoever, so I called up everybody who I was in close contact with throughout the prior two weeks, which thankfully was only a few people.

Believe it or not, to this day, not a single person I spoke with showed any symptoms or tested positive at any point, making it even more of a mystery how I was exposed in the first place. Unfortunately, since all of us work from home and everyone else is able to operate remotely, isolating for the full 10 days wasn't as difficult as expected. Since I film my content sometimes up to four weeks in advance, we had plenty to pull from to be able to post during a time when I wasn't able to make videos at full capacity. So from that perspective, work-wise, nothing changed; everything operated as normal without missing an upload.

But behind the scenes, five days in, it was uncomfortable to say the least. Even though I was well enough to be able to plan, script, film, and edit videos, deep down I was struggling to keep my eyes open, and at times I had slight discomfort when one ear was a little bit more clogged than the other. At this point, I fully embraced that this was something to take very seriously, so I did my best to drink as much water as I could, eat healthy, get enough rest, and occasionally take some Tylenol.

My head just felt a little bit congested; I was constantly taking my temperature just to make sure I didn't have a fever, and I was keeping a close eye on how I felt just in case things got worse. I hate to say it, but usually when it comes to health-related concerns, I'm a bit of a hypochondriac. So I'll sit there reading every study, piece of research, and symptom known to mankind just in case it happens to me. From everything that I read, it seems as though day 5 through 10 is the point where either things start to improve or they get a lot worse.

In my case, however, thankfully things did start improving, except on day six where I had a sip of coffee and it just tasted like dirt. So I threw away the Starbucks and I placed an order on bankrollcoffee.com, and again, the coffee just still tasted like dirt. Of course, we've all heard stories about people's tastes being distorted or muted or being unable to pinpoint certain smells, but up until that point for me, I hadn't lost a single scent or taste. So it was quite a shock that I was suddenly unable to taste coffee and I fully prepared myself that this could last quite a long time. In addition to that, I also had a very difficult time tasting mint for some reason; it just felt a little bit dull and bitter, almost like you were brushing your teeth and then had chocolate right afterward.

Although besides that, throughout the rest of the day, I started to notice I was a bit more energetic. I had more focus and I just didn't feel as tired. Now by the time I hit day seven and eight, thankfully my taste for coffee and mint began to come back. It was also around this time that I was feeling back to myself again. My energy had returned, and I was getting back to normal. It felt as though just how gradually it had come on, it started to disappear, and my energy was coming back to where it was before.

This is also the point where my girlfriend took another test because throughout this entire time she's been absolutely fine, and again the test came back negative. I thought for sure she would somehow wind up getting it, but to my surprise, she never got it. I also kept in touch with everybody who I had come in contact with in the past two weeks, and still, not a single person showed any symptoms or positive test, including both my colleagues Jack and Alex, and every day at this point began getting easier than the last.

Now, I'd say by day nine, physically I felt completely fine, and throughout that following week, I was pretty much back to normal with the exception that I had a bit of a difficult time concentrating. It wasn't enough to impact my work, but it was frustrating that I felt like I had a difficult time focusing at the same pace as before. Now, this could very well have been from taking a bit more time off or scaling back on my workload throughout the previous week, but I've also read enough about long-haul COVID symptoms involving memory loss to convince myself that either I'm a hypochondriac or I am working at a slower rate than I was before.

By the time I hit day 30, though, I would say for all intents and purposes, I had no more remaining symptoms and I was completely back to normal. My only hesitation, though, is that sometimes I could be a bit more forgetful, and sometimes I'll be thinking about a topic and completely forget what it was as soon as I think about something else. But I'll also admit that I have no idea if I was always like this or if I'm only paying attention and noticing it now after reading about this being a potentially persistent issue.

So uh, take that with a grain of salt; I'm not sure. Now I also feel like because I had the vaccine, things could have been a lot worse had my body not had the time to build up some immunity to it ahead of time. Even though breakthrough infections like mine do exist and no vaccine is 100% perfect, I'd much rather be homesick with mild symptoms than deal with anything else that's potentially more severe if I had a chance to prevent it.

Another thing to consider is that reportedly the effectiveness of vaccines begins to wear down after about six months, so if you're concerned about getting it, at least do your own research to confirm if a third booster shot is right for you. Just don't think that because you've had the first two shots eight months ago, you're in the clear. Because at this point, I'm a very obvious case that you can have a breakthrough infection. At the very least, I hope this gives you a little bit more insight and perspective into my own experience coming from someone who's been vaccinated and taken the precautions, as many of you watching. Just be careful and don't think it can't happen to you because you never know what might happen even if everyone else around you seems totally fine.

So with that said, you guys, thank you so much for watching. Also, feel free, if you haven't done it already, to subscribe; it's totally free to do, and I post three videos a week. So if you want to be a part of it, that subscribe button is right there. This is my Instagram, and I have a second channel called The Graham Stephan Show, where I'm posting every single day that I'm not posting here. So if you want to be a part of it, I’ll link to that down below in the description. Thank you so much for watching, and until next time.