HACKER Q&A
📣 behnamoh

How did you recover from Covid-19 and how are you feeling now?


Given the large number of users on HN, it's statistically possible for some to have tested positive with COVID-19. My question is: how did it feel like and what steps did you take to recover? How are you feeling now?


  👤 coder4life Accepted Answer ✓
Sure, we would test positive if we went to the hospital and gave us tests! The prevailing view is "unless you're dying don't go to the hospital". With that said, I feel I had COVID-19 March 8th-12th, with some symptoms in the week prior, and feeling like someone beat me up for a week after that.

I feel fine now, except coop'd up from quarantine. How did it progress?

The week prior, I went home early from work one day after throwing up a little bit and feeling woozy. But that came and went. In subsequent days, I was late a couple times - felt pretty fatigued and was sleeping longer.

On the 8th, I thought it was because I drank too much the day before. I was extremely lethargic - only able to get out of bed to check messages on my laptop, then right back to bed. I think I slept the first day, but that was the last day in the next 5 I would get any.

Symptoms: Dry, hacky cough. Fever, chills/sweats. Diarrhea. Only drank water, no food for 4 days. Strange heart palpitations. Muscle twitches/spasms sometimes on my extremities (mostly by my ankles). Extreme fatigue. Unable to sleep. Dizziness/Vertigo - very unsteady on my feet!

By the 12th I was finally able to eat something. After the 12th, I went through another week of fatigue, but it felt like the virus was gone, and I was dealing with my body repairing/cleaning up after that disaster.


👤 Foober223
I very likely had it with mild symptoms. Testing is not available to people with mild symptoms in my area.

I could feel, and still do feel a mild Bronchitis-like feeling in my lungs. But have/had no difficulty breathing despite that. No shortness of breath.

Had a mild headache and mild sore throat at the height of it. Body was mildly achy in the evening near/at bed time. Occasional cough near the tail end of the recovery.

No medication used. Lifted weights throughout the entire process. Symptoms were very mild but last forever. It's been maybe over a month since I felt the tingle in the lungs, and it's still there.


👤 punchclockhero
Not tested too, but symptoms and duration were not like the usual cold for me.

No sense of smell for about 10 days which is the most unusual symptom. Taste was affected too, so I barely ate the first week or so. Brutal headache the first 2-3 days, got mistaken for caffeine withdrawal. Muscle aches and chills for the first 3-4 days. Fitness band reported a higher heart rate than usual. Cough was phlegmy and not too severe, could will myself not to cough. Lung feeling similar to bronchitis, went away after two weeks.

There were warnings about NSAIDs in the news at the time, so I took nothing.


👤 shakkhar
Wife tested positive and was in the hospital for 4 nights. My symptoms were mild so I was never tested. We presume that our baby had it too. His symptoms were the mildest but he also took the longest to recover. All of us recovered and feel fine now.

I had a fever for 3-4 days, body ache for about a week, and a cough for a couple of weeks. Didn't take any medication. For me, it was not even as bad as the flu.