18 People With Coronavirus Describe Their Symptoms + Experiences With The Virus

Emily Madriga
By Emily Madriga
Emily Madriga
By Emily Madriga

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“My uncle (70ish) got diagnosed with it a couple days ago in Washington state. He’s been quarantined but the nurses didnt know proper protocol at the time and allowed my Auntie to visit. Now she has self quarantined herself at her home.

My Uncle is stable. They took sputum cultures, meaning they check for bacterial infections. It takes 24 hours to get a result. If its viral pneumonia, this is a good sign apparently.

If your kidney function and cardiac function responds well, this is also a good sign that you are strong enough to fight off the infection. If you do not, you will experience a multi system failure following. He is was still hard of breathing so they intubated him.

Gotta give credit to the doctors, nurses, and med staff. They are certainly stepping up and doing the best they can in such a disorganized system. Good heroes!” — farmon7

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“I am a nurse at Level 1 trauma center hospital in Detroit. I swear COVID has been around for weeks. There are several members of my surgical team that have been hit hard with respiratory and fevers. We may have misidentified this as the flu. There has been a lack of communication, policy, and testing. My hospital doesn’t have a plan. My wife is an accountant and they have a plan to work from home. Again, my hospital does not. This means we are continuing to operate as usual until we physically cannot.

Edit: My hospital rolled out a policy. We are not to meet in groups over 20 people. Once our first confirmed case is in-house, all elective/non emergent surgeries are cancelled. We expect to have our first case by tonight. We expect to our ICUs to get hit hard sometime next week.” — BigODetroit

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“What’s weird about these symptoms, and seems to hold true for almost everybody, is I went days without knowing I have the virus…Then, all of a sudden, just clicking my fingers, I jump from normal temperature to 103.” — Carl Goldman

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“Im 28 and so I’m obviously not in the higher risk category but I can explain my symptoms I guess. I’ve been sick for fifteen days and only have stayed in my house for the last five due to not having lots available here in southern spain. It started as a cold with mucus and that was the main reason why I hadn’t taken it seriously but after a few days it got more severe. My symptoms by day four where a soar throat, wheezing, coughing, chills, no appetite, swollen lymph nodes, sour muscles (this was new to me) and in the last few days it’s turned into a painful dry cough.

Both my parents have the same symptoms.” — mermaidhairdontcare

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“My daughter lives in a nation (like a co-ed frat) at Lund University in Sweden. A close friend of hers that lives in her corridor is Sweden’s patient 0. He returned from Italy about a week ago. Since he entered the country via Copenhagen the health dept didn’t catch him until the next morning. He felt fine and had only encountered 2 people in the hall before going to his room. He tested positive and the other 2 are quarantined for 14 days.

They took him to the hospital. Two days later he spiked a 105° fever and he has a bad cough and chest tightness. He’s been achy, had chills, headaches, vomiting and diarrhea. He goes through day long stretches where he feels like he’s gotten better and then it comes back. He’s 21, was in great health and shape. They are doing breathing treatments on him. Statistically he should be fine. He’s said it’s like he’s going to die, then he’s fine and the circle begins again.” — tgibook

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“Step daughter bought it home from school, made us all sick.

3 days of fever chills, felt like blowing and coughing razor blades. Stayed hydrated. Probably a week and a half into it now with only a cough and blocked snotty nose.. the phlegm is a yummy thick sticky green.

Can definitely see how the elderly or infirm could be pushed over the edge with it tbh.” — SLR1337

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“My father’s colleague/friend has been diagnosed with the coronavirus. He was in northern Italy during the outbreak, then returned to his home country, where he was stopped at the airport. RN he is under house arrest with at least 6 policemen in front of his door. He’ s about to be transferred to the hospital.” — AlbanThePro

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“Friend of mine got it. She described it as a bad cold / mild flu. She only got tested after being contacted as someone that’d been in contact w another confirmed case.

In between contracting it and testing positive, she worked several shifts in a bank, went to the gym, went to the theatre…” — SomeHSomeE

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“Female, 20s

Tested and confirmed positive.

Main symptoms were a dry cough, chest pain, fever, extreme fatigue, and eventually congestion and shortness of breath.

It’s Day 10 since I first showed symptoms, and everything has improved except the cough. The cough has gotten worse, I can barely take a breath without immediately coughing. And it’s deep painful coughs. I feel so much better when it comes to every other symptom, so I’m hoping for this cough to clear up soon. I can’t do the test to see if I’m negative until all symptoms are gone, and I’m going a little stir crazy confined to my small bedroom (albeit worth it to keep others safe).” — replove

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“Being 24, it’s not that bad. I basically have a sore throat, swollen lymph nodes, a bit of a runny nose, a weird flu-like headache, nausea on and off, & not to mention I cannot trust my farts as of this morning if you catch my drift. I also sweat like a beast in my sleep right now & wake up drenched a few times throughout the night.” — rjszoke

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“My uncle contracted it. It’s much more serious then people believe. It made my otherwise healthy 48 year old uncle flat out unable to breathe. He’s been dependent on a ventilator for 4 days now. He’s not going to die and will recover… but it would be different if he didnt have access to a ventilator.

What scares me is what will happen when it spreads. I work in a hospital. The resources to put everyone on a ventilator just do not exist.” — Myhandsunclean

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“I’m reasonably confident I contracted it on my trip to Asia at the end of last year, when China had cases but wasn’t reporting or restricting travel.

Everyone in my travel group, starting with my mother in law, got extremely ill either during or after our trip. Standard CV symptoms, but no one had any idea what it actually was.

I never, ever get sick, but I came down with one of the worst dry coughs I’ve ever had, could barely move for about a week once we got back in the US. My wife had it worse than I did and was sick the entire flight home and the last day there.

I’m mid 30s, reasonably fit, and have an obscenely healthy diet overall. It was rough for me.

I didn’t leave the house and ate Postmates-delivered Popeye’s Chicken Sandwiches every day the whole time.” — UnknownQTY

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“The test is pretty elaborate. They stick a swab deep into each nostril and also deep down the throat. Five seconds each. Not a fun process.” — Carl Goldman

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“I’m a very healthy person, (normally), for me the worst parts are really bad flu mixed with a little shortness of breath and sore throat. I’ve quarantined myself, mostly to protect people in my city who can’t fight it off.” — _ExecutorTassadar_

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“My best friend is one of only 200 25 patients here in Germany so far to fully recover from the virus. He’s 19 though so he only experienced a day of mild symptoms, and after two weeks of quarantine everything’s back to normal.” — JEDiGamer007