In 32 years of radiologic technologist practice, I've never seen anything like COVID-- how destructive to lung tissue, how quickly it can completely infect a patient's entire lungs.
January 2020, I caught what I figured was just a bad flu, edging into pneumonia, despite flu inoculation. Only in retrospect did I discover what I'd suffered through. My old labrador had just had a tumor removed, we were laid up together. I absolutely could not move air unless propped up all night, 2 nights, completely exhausted 2 albuterol inhalers, keeping the phone charged and ready to call the ambulance. I was lucky, although my entire chest burned and I was so fearful of another heart attack. Here was the discovery in retrospect: I couldn't keep anything down and poor appetite was made worse because everything tasted like aluminum foil.
Despite a mild case, stage 1 edging into 2, it did plenty of damage. I felt like crap for over a year, 61 years old but very mild arthritis became visibly apparent and severely limited my ADL's. Mild, mostly seasonal and dust exposure asthma became daily medicated, completely inhaler dependent every day. The smoke from Napa valley fire exacerbated that.
Here it is, one year and nine months later. I'm only now, aside from asthma inhaler frequency, returning to something resembling my baseline. I'm on a final recovery attempt "sabbatical". Arguing with anti-maskers in the hospital 🤬 drove my blood pressure through the roof. In a bit over a month, I'm back to the front lines.
I think we all have lost count of the ways 2020 sucked.