If you’re tempted to do a big Thanksgiving gathering, please listen to my COVID-19 story.
For the past 20 years, I have hosted Thanksgiving dinner for over 30 members of my extended family. I enjoy preparing the meal, especially the aroma of turkey roasting in the oven. I always look forward to celebrating this holiday with my family.
Thanksgiving 2020 will be different. I will be following recommendations to limit family gatherings due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a COVID-19 survivor, I know first hand the devastating effects of the coronavirus. I was diagnosed with COVID-19 in early June. I had a full array of symptoms, including severe body aches, fever up to 104 degrees, head and facial pain, cough and night sweats. On the third day, I lost my sense of smell (anosmia) and taste. I kept thinking I would feel better soon. Then the full “Rona-coaster” of symptoms hit me hard. Imagine having strep throat, sinusitis and bronchitis while suffering from food poisoning and you will understand how sick I felt. I spent days barely able to get out of bed. My fatigue was overwhelming. Even taking a shower required too much energy. The nausea was unrelenting. I had constant pain in my cheekbone and my tongue and lips went numb. I had sores in my mouth. Many of my joints got swollen and painful. My heart rate was accelerated while my blood oxygen percentage fell to the low 90’s. Yet, I was not sick enough to be hospitalized. There was no medication to take other than over-the-counter fever reducers.
On top of the physical symptoms, I was anxious and scared that at any minute the virus would cause pneumonia and I would be hospitalized. I worried that my elderly parents would become ill with COVID-19 since I had been with them daily. Five of my family members did test positive the week after my first symptoms. Thankfully, they all recovered quickly.
After 20 days of being sick, I finally started feeling better. I thought I had beaten the coronavirus, but I was wrong.
Five months after testing positive for COVID-19, I am still having issues related to the virus. I am considered a coronavirus long-hauler. I have had an echocardiogram of my heart to see why I still have resting heart rate spikes. I had a nasal endoscopy to see why I still have sinus pain.
Before my diagnosis, I was a healthy, active person averaging over 14,000 steps daily and attending over 150 jazzercize classes a year. Now, I try to walk a mile daily. If I am feeling strong, I walk two miles. Far less than I used to do.
After four months of loss of smell and taste, I started to get little whiffs of smell. I was so excited! Then EVERYTHING started smelling like burnt coffee. This is called parosmia, which is the inability of the brain to properly identify an odor’s natural smell. Instead my brain translates every odor into an unpleasant aroma. Believe me, eating food that smells like burnt coffee is not pleasant!
As you can see, for months the coronavirus has affected many different parts of my body-respiratory, digestive, neurological, cardiac. COVID-19 is not just a bad cold or the flu. The virus is highly contagious and that is why we all need to be cautious. I know that people are tired of hearing about COVID-19. I know that we all want to get back to a normal life. I know that people may be tempted to celebrate Thanksgiving with large gatherings like in the past. I hope that by sharing my experience with COVID-19, that people will see the possible effects of getting the virus. I know that my Thanksgiving 2020 will be different.
I wish everyone a safe, healthy and happy Thanksgiving. I fervently hope that by then I will be able to actually smell the turkey roasting in the oven!
Becky Sagan is the former chairwoman of the Fayette County Board of Education.
This story was originally published November 11, 2020 at 10:40 AM.