My COVID-19 Chronicle

One-sentence summary: Discomfort, extreme discomfort.

Medication record: 4 tablets of ibuprofen.

Specific physical sensations: Phlegm in throat, high fever up to 39 degrees Celsius, muscle pain, heavy-headedness.

Since Beijing implemented strict lockdown measures and zero tolerance for COVID-19 cases, it took only one weekend to lift all restrictions.

I returned to the office on December 7th, which was a Wednesday. Many colleagues also resumed work that day.

I worked until Friday and discovered that there were positive cases in the company, but I didn’t pay much attention to it. On Monday, December 12th, I went to the office as usual and learned that many colleagues who had come to work last week had already been infected and started to have a fever. I felt like I might not be able to escape it, so I decided to work from home starting from the next day.

I started working from home on Tuesday, but had no symptoms throughout the day. On Wednesday afternoon, I had a slight cough, and I was discussing with friends in a group chat why I still didn’t have any symptoms.

Then, for some reason, I couldn’t sleep the whole night until three or four in the morning on Thursday.

When I woke up on Thursday morning, I felt uncomfortable all over my body. Although I originally planned to sleep until after 9 am, my on-call phone started ringing one after another before 8 am. There was a problem with a service online, so I had to endure the throbbing in my head and quickly troubleshoot and resolve the issue. After solving the problem, I was exhausted, so I took a sick leave.

At noon, I measured my body temperature and it was 38.5 degrees Celsius. I ate something casually and took ibuprofen (the first tablet). I started sleeping from 2 pm in the afternoon, but I didn’t sleep very soundly because there were many things to handle in the work group chat. I slept until after 6 pm and felt much better, with no abnormal body temperature.

I took ibuprofen again at 10 pm (the second tablet). I woke up again at 00:59 am, awakened by a fever¹. I measured my body temperature and it was 39.3 degrees Celsius. I dragged my discomforted body to the bathroom, wet a towel to physically cool down, boiled water, and drank a lot of water. It lasted until after 2 am, and I found that my body temperature was around 38.5 degrees Celsius, so I went back to sleep.

When I woke up in the morning, it was already after 9 am. I took another day off and continued to sleep. When I woke up at noon, my body temperature was 39.8 degrees Celsius, and the fever became more severe. I started taking ibuprofen again (the third tablet) and increased physical cooling. I bought some ice popsicles and ate them vigorously.

I felt somewhat better around 4 pm in the afternoon, and at this time, there was an alarm in the work group chat, so I went to handle it.

I had hot pot for dinner. Before going to sleep, I measured my body temperature and it was 38.5 degrees Celsius. I thought the problem should be manageable, but I was worried that I might have a high fever again at night, so I took another tablet of ibuprofen (the fourth tablet). I woke up once at night, and this time I boiled a large pot of hot water and drank some preserved plums (they tasted very bitter, drinking plain water didn’t work at all).

I woke up on Saturday feeling somewhat better. My temperature didn’t rise too high throughout the day, ranging from 37 to 38 degrees Celsius. I didn’t take any more medication, only used physical cooling.

When I ate something cold for dinner on Saturday, my stomach felt uncomfortable. I went to the restroom a few times and even had nausea and vomiting, but it didn’t affect my sleep. I didn’t wake up again after 4 am.

On Sunday², my body had already started to recover to its pre-illness state, but I still slept for a long time. I woke up in the afternoon and went to buy pork ribs. I stewed them, which made me feel much better. Then, in the evening, I wrote this COVID-19 chronicle.