I’ve done pretty well not having Covid before now and I thought I’d document the experience.

But before I get started, I want to prefix all of this with the fact that I’m very grateful that I’m of a health level and hitting a Covid variant that means that my symptoms are far worse than many, many have had. This isn’t an ask for sympathy, as I know so many people have had this first worse.

Day One

It was part way through the day when I started feeling cold symptoms – mainly congestion and a mild headache.

I wouldn’t have thought anything further about it but my wife, who’d had a cold during the previous week, was getting messages from her choir saying that many of them had tested positive for Covid.

That evening we both tested and both came up positive – my wife’s was a feint line, mine very solid.

Day Two

I slept badly overnight – mainly, I just couldn’t sleep rather than any particular complaints. Jen had to get up for a while as she was having a coughing attack but this was the only night this happened.

My symptoms seem different to Jen’s – she had a sore throat, sneezing, etc, whilst I had bouts, both on Saturday and Sunday, of switching from feeling freezing cold to roasting hot. No sore throat either.

I spent the day feeling rough on and off – usually cold symptoms, though, albeit a lot harder than usual.

Day Three

Okay, sleep was pretty bad last night. I was hungry at one point (2am cornflakes!), congested another, and I ended up sleeping in the living room for a few hours at one point too (when the cats weren’t bothering me) after a coughing fit.

During the day, the cold was in full flow – I feel I’ve hit peak (I HOPE I’ve hit peak). One thing I have noticed is that a lot of my usual methods of reducing the impact of a cold simply don’t work. Beecham’s Hot Lemon has been the only redeeming item in the medicine cabinet, thanks to a combination of paracetamol and decongestant (although I’m suspicious how much the latter is working, as my nose is often still streaming even some time after taking it). Maybe I just need paracetamol.

I spotted a weird side-effect today – my taste and smell is fine, except, I can no longer taste artificial sweetener. It’s in my tea, coffee and even the Beechams Hot Lemon that I keep taking, but it may as well not be in it.

Day Four

I was right about yesterday being the peak. After a just-before-midnight coughing fit, I slept solidly through the rest of the night and felt a lot better the next day. Sleep-wise anyway.

Otherwise, although my primary “cold” symptoms are better, I was feeling quite achey and physically exhausted. In the evening I had a long, hot, bath which felt a lot better.

I got through the entire day without taking anything, until the evening, when I succumbed, due to congestion. This turned out to be the last time too that I did take anything.

Later Days

After yesterday the days were pretty much the same – no medicine taken, a small amount of congestion and, on and off, I’d be woken in the night by a coughing fit.

It took a few days for all of this to subside. That small amount of congestion was the clue as to whether Covid was still with me – once that congestion went, so did the Covid.

As I write this, over 2 weeks later, I still have a bit of a cough, but that’s down to the impact of the cold symptoms. I’ve now had 2 days without being awoken by it, but that’s still a bit hit and miss as to when it happens. But, it’s getting less regular.