On December 7, 2022, China began to loosen epidemic control, and on December 9, it basically announced a comprehensive relaxation. Then Omikjon began to sweep across the country, especially Beijing in the early days. I am not immune. COVID-19, which has occupied everyone's life in the world for three years, but is still unfamiliar to most Chinese people, has finally become very real. I hereby recorded my own COVID-19 (Omicron) experience. It is perhaps an individual's "small history" amid the country or world's "big history".
On Tuesday, December 13, my two kids went to the community square to play normally at noon. At three o'clock in the afternoon, my son, the younger child, started to have a fever. My wife immediately sensed something bad. Our son was probably COVID-19 positive. So she quickly isolated our son and herself in our big bedroom. My son experienced a fever all night. In the evening, I took the older child, my daughter, to sleep. I heard my son crying several times. He felt his legs are painful. No matter how he changed his posture, it always hurt. The whole body has joint pain, which is a typical symptom of COVID-19. I had a deep experience the next day.
On Wednesday, December 14, when I went out for a walk in the morning, I felt a bit sore all over my body. I thought I might get a hit, but I was "not reconciled", because I am supposed to be the most physically strong in my family, and I should have some resistance to the virus and not get infected so easily. At the minimum, I am hoping I would be "symptom-free". So I persisted with the walk.
At lunchtime, I felt my face getting hot, which was obviously a fever. My daughter asked me if I was feeling hot. Maybe she felt it. After a quick meal, I hurried to the small bedroom to lie down. According to my previous experience in dealing with fever, I drank a lot of water, wrapped myself in the quilt tightly, and hoped to sweat to reduce the fever. After more than an hour, I felt that my palms and forehead were somewhat moist, and sweating, and my fever had subsided a bit. At least, I didn't feel it was a high fever.
However, what is more painful is waiting, i.e. the obvious aches and pains in the whole body, joints, and especially legs. No matter what posture I adopted, my legs are always sore. Even if I want to sleep, I can't have a comfortable and fixed position. The whole body aches and pains, which drive the headache. This made it worse for me. When I was young, I often had headaches. I was afraid of it. At that time, I felt that I was really struggling to find a posture, and I was uncomfortable no matter sitting on the bed, lying down, lying flat, or lying upright. The whole afternoon should be the hardest time for my COVID-19 experience.
I was supposed to have a routine meeting with the headquarters in the evening. In the afternoon, I felt that I could not even get out of bed, and I didn't have the strength or energy to turn on the computer, and draft emails in English to explain that I would not attend the meeting. So I sent a WeChat voice message to my Chinese colleague, asked her to convey my apologies on my behalf, and explained some important matters to handle this Thursday and Friday. Then I said I will be offline.
At dinner, my wife took the food to the small bedroom where I rested. There was a chicken leg in the dish, but I couldn't eat it after I took a bite, nor could I eat any of the cooked vegetables. But I know that the more sick and bad appetite you have, the more you should insist on eating. I thought of what I had heard before. At the beginning of the epidemic in Wuhan, a person who was recovering shared his experience. He said that no matter how uncomfortable he was in the hospital, and how he did not feel like eating, he persisted in eating all the food he was given in the hospital so that he could have the strength to survive. I persisted in eating the steamed bun one mouthful at a time, with just some pickles as dishes. Finally, I ate a whole steamed bun.
My wife saw that I had joint pain all over the body as well as a headache, so she went to the pharmacy and queued up to buy compound acetaminophen tablets. After there was food in my stomach, I quickly took two tablets. I ate two more tablets in the morning. This is the only medicine that I took during my Covid-19 journey.
After dinner, I felt better and could walk slowly in the small bedroom. I'm still afraid of the cold and can only stay in the warm small bedroom. At 7 o'clock in the evening, I lay down again. In the first half of the night, I basically tried every posture with three pillows. I lay flat on one pillow. If I felt too sore to lie down further, I would put up two pillows and lie down for a while. If I can't lie down again, I would put up three pillows and lie down for a while. If I can't lie down any longer, I would get up and sit for a while. In the second half of the night, I slept for a while until dawn.
Later, my wife said that I appeared a little "lax" or "out" that afternoon. This half-day is really the worst during my illness with Covid-19.
On Thursday, December 15, I still felt a little uncomfortable in the morning, but I felt much more refreshed after breakfast. At that point, I basically passed the peak of COVID-19's discomfort. I was lucky. During the COVID-19 period, I really felt bad for most of one day, and then I started to recover. At noon that day, we let our parents rest in two small bedrooms because they also had COVID-19 symptoms and were getting worse. At night, my wife also felt uncomfortable. I was able to sleep in the living room alone with my two children. At this time, the whole family is basically all infected, so it is not useful to isolate anymore. The living room is a little cold, I feel a little heavy overnight. Otherwise, I may recover faster.
My overall feeling is that COVID-19 (Omicron) is definitely heavier than the flu. Thinking of the pain on Wednesday afternoon, I definitely don't want to live it again. It is important to pay attention to physical exercise and improve your resistance. It is also important for those infected with COVID-19 to adjust their emotions. Instead of complaining, lamenting, or rebounding, try to fully accept the pain and say to yourself, "Yes, OK", or even "Thank you! ". Be grateful for your body to help you handle this pain. Be grateful for the Greater Life, which may plant deep meanings by giving you the Covid experience. Finally, family ties are the most important. No matter what ailments or disasters are, it is your family that can really help you. Now, there is a lack of medical care and medicine all over China, it is still up to family members to help each other. Therefore, please treat your family members and friends gently. These closest relationships are your greatest backers.
- 27 December 2022 by Jian Xu
You can view a complete list of my articles here: