What It Was Like Having The Virus/Transcript

"Well am I blue You'd be too If each plan that you had, done and fell through"
 * Rebecca Parham: Hello, my geeks and peeps, this is the sultry sound of Rebecca Parham, and welcome to another episode of Firebug Chats. I hope you are all doing well and that you're healthy because as most of you already know, I haven't been a hundred percent as of late mid-April, just after Easter. I started experiencing early signs of the dreaded you-know-what, and sure enough, it hit me hard and I was in the thick of sickness, a thick sickness, sickness with a thickness. I called up my doctor we had a tell in an appointment. He went down the list of symptoms and I just kept saying: "Yep, yep, yep", so my doctor officially diagnosed me with COVID-19. I thought I might go into the experience of it just because it might be helpful or informative for some of you out there because for me, just before my symptoms started showing, I had watched Anthony Padilla's interview with coronavirus survivors and that was very helpful because I got to hear from real people about the span of the symptoms, how they all had very different experiences and different degrees of sickness, and it made it that much easier for me to recognize it in myself, and immediately seek help. As a disclaimer, I have to say that this is just me recounting my personal experience of the virus this does not represent others' experiences and does not stand as a means for you to self-diagnose. If you start to feel sick always, call your doctor, take their professional word over mine any day and every day. So the first thing that I noticed was the tightness of the chest and a cough coming on and the tightness started off high in my chest up near my collarbone into the throat, but there was no runny nose, no clogged sinuses, it was very much a dry cough, that's the big symptom that everyone talks about. I had a little bit of a sore throat and some aches kicked in the first day and when I started to feel really weighed down and drowsy while sitting at my desk working like I just wanted to lay my head on my keyboard, that's when I knew I had to stop hanging back and see what was gonna happen. Sure enough, the next day I got hit with the fever doing the whole hot one minute and freezing the next thing, though, the fever only lasted about a day, The cough and the chest tightness really overtook me and the fatigue was bad I couldn't walk from one end of my house to the other without needing to sit down I've heard so many people say that they were in bed for the first few days and while I did sleep a lot at night and I slept in in the morning I couldn't sleep during the day. I was this weird space of being very fatigued and not being able to sleep, so I spent most of my time on the couch watching TV, movies, and YouTube. So about two days into these symptoms I called my doctor he diagnosed me prescribed me an inhaler and I just had to wait it out, and for the first week, it was just a consistent state of sick. Every hour of the day, I felt bad and tired and out of breath all the time, but the first day of the second week, I woke up and said: "Wow, I feel great! I'm gonna set up my small computer in the dining room table and get some work done!". I even messaged all my artists and said: "Hey, I have Corona, but I feel great this morning, so I'm gonna get some stuff out to you all soon!" and it's like the virus was just waiting for me to hit "Send" on that message, because the moment I did, it was like: "No, no, no, attack! because instantaneously, I was overcome with all of the symptoms all at once, it felt like an asthma attack, I couldn't breathe, I was exhausted, just coughing up a storm and that attack put me out for the rest of the day. That happened everyday during the second week, I called them my "midday attacks" because, like clockwork, I'd feel great in the morning and around 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., I would just be obliterated by an attack and be down for the count. It was so frustrating and I texted a few people I knew who had asthma and other immuno-compromising conditions and I pointed my finger at them, then said: "You would be in the hospital if you got this, so you'll be careful, and don't you dare get it, if you die from this, I'll kill you slowly, but surely!"I started to feel better for real, it finally felt like it was on its way out and I could get back to work, so the first two days of this week, the week that I'm recording this, I foolishly went all out and put myself back into my normal life schedule a hundred and ten percent! I got a lot done in those two days, not gonna lie, and while there was still a whisper of a cough, I felt energetic enough to keep going silly me, because, on Wednesday of this week, I had another midday attack, I called my doctor he gave me some new meds, and I am currently trying to get over this final hump, you can probably hear it in my voice. I can work but not like I normally do and a firebug chat felt easy within my capabilities at the moment and I'm just trying to do what I can for all of you in the meantime on the subject of you my explainers and entertainers. When I posted about being sick online, the outpouring of love and support from all of you and my friends in the community was like nothing I have ever experienced before. This may sound weird, but it's kind of the typical workaholic mindset. I felt less guilty for getting sick because of you guys, everyone telling me: "Don't you even dare think about the next video, you need to get your rest, we love you and we can absolutely wait for the next video!". All of that was like a relief the YouTuber drive of "got to keep working, got to put out more, got to do better, bigger, got to please the audience!" when you were in the thick of that, it's hard to take it easy and take a break without feeling guilty for doing so, but I guess no better excuse to stop working than having the pandemic virus, right? And it wasn't all bad when I started to feel better, it was like I was having a staycation, and right now, I feel very motivated and inspired, even while trying to get rid of this final cough, so when I am officially okay, I'm gonna take on the world at breakneck speed, just you wait in the meantime. if you want to see something else I was involved in, I got to surprise two of my fans, Aidan and Violet, on a video call for their birthdays, because they both had to cancel their parties, and some of you in the comments on that video thought I was sick when I did that, so don't worry, that was all pre-recorded way before, but it was a real joy to surprise them and they were both so sweet. If you want to watch it, I hope it brightens up your day because it certainly made me happy to do it, otherwise, explainers that's pretty much the long and short of it, I encourage you to stay safe and be wise, if you have to go out, I had a mild case but you or someone you love may not be as fortunate. wash your hands, wear your mask, and all that jazz! Thank you so much for tuning in but now, I gotta tune out. Bye!

- Extarct of "Am I Blue?" by Ricky Nelson


 * Rebecca Parham: Is it any better for a while?