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Every day new cases of infection with the dangerous type of coronavirus appear in the world. For most patients who contract Covid-19, fortunately it is not fatal and they manage to overcome it. What does infection with the new type of coronavirus actually look like?
What does the life of a person infected with the coronavirus look like? Here is her confession.
Visiting family in Italy
“We stay in Italy several months a year. My husband has family there. In summer we travel along the coast, in winter we enjoy groomed ski slopes. Not even last year did anything suggest we should spend the winter differently. We left to visit my husband’s family already in November and planned to return in mid-March.
The first official case of coronavirus in Italy appeared at the end of January. No one, including us, paid it much attention. My husband’s family lives far from Lombardy, which was considered the epicenter of the outbreak. Still, we began to think that we would return to the Czech Republic a little earlier. We flew back at the beginning of March. By then the first cases of infection had already been confirmed in the Czech Republic.”
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Voluntary quarantine and confirmed infection
Because we didn’t want to endanger those around us, we voluntarily decided on a fourteen-day home quarantine. I realized something was wrong with me about the tenth day after our return. Practically overnight I was struck by intense fevers, which I reduced with commonly available medicines. After two days I felt quite well. That evening the fever recurred. I decided to call the doctor.
The better we follow the restrictions, the sooner we can get rid of the infection.
The new type of coronavirus is scary. Therefore we should not underestimate the issued orders.
My attending doctor advised me not to go among people and to deal with the situation through the hygiene station. Based on the symptoms and especially the destination where I had stayed in the past few months, they informed me of a suspected case of covid-19 and sent a testing team to us. After swabs from the throat and nose, the infection was indeed confirmed in both me and my husband.
Symptoms like the flu
But we were lucky; our symptoms were not severe. We suffered from fevers and extreme fatigue. We slept most of the day. We had to force ourselves to eat and drink, reduced the fever with commonly available antipyretics and fought the pain with analgesics. My husband had digestive problems for a few days; fortunately I avoided them.
They did not have to hospitalize us, yet the hygienists and attending doctors kept calling and asking about our current condition. We are very grateful to them for that. Their conduct was immensely professional and at the same time humane throughout. They also contributed to the fact that we both managed the illness relatively well.
We are negative and officially recovered
Day by day we felt better. After sixteen days they tested us again. Both tests came back negative. The test was repeated again after 14 days, after which they could officially declare that we had overcome and managed the infection with the new type of coronavirus. At present we are among the officially cured.
Getting sick with the coronavirus is unpleasant, but on the other hand I dare say a healthy person can handle this disease.
But that doesn’t change the fact that we should limit contact with other people as much as possible, including shopping or trips into nature, or visiting family. Testing in the Czech Republic is not particularly extensive, and many of you may have the coronavirus without knowing it. Even without symptoms you are still potential carriers of a disease that can be deadly for a certain part of the population,” Dana concludes her account.
Do you have someone around you who has contracted the coronavirus? How are they coping with the situation? Let us know in the discussion under the article.
