Neil Wilson

It is currently Monday August 16th as I type this story. On Wednesday of last week I became a statistic. I was officially diagnosed with Covid19. Well, to be 100 percent exact, I was diagnosed with Covid AND strep. So I wanted to share my symptoms and ultimately why I ended up at the doctor.

On the first weekend of August, I took my family to Disney. This was the exact same time when Disney made the decision to reinstate their mask policy on rides and attractions. It was only the first day we’d gotten there and we were nun-to-pleased to have to wear masks in the heat. But we had no plans of letting that stop the fun of our vacation. I somehow knew I was bound to get covid while we were at Disney. No social distancing, people half assing their mask wearing and the spike in cases in Florida all played into these thoughts. Not to mention the THOUSANDS of people packed in front of the Magic Castle each night watching the fireworks. It was a magical recipe for getting sick.

After our trip concluded and we were back home I started to develop a cough. Nothing severe at all. Probably most noticeable overnight while I was sleeping. Again nothing you’d run to the doctor for. So we carried over on the following weekend by going to our friends beach house.

The full effect of the covid was likely the Saturday following our trip to Disney. While at our friends beach house I just couldn’t find the motivation or strength to get out of bed on Saturday. Here is the odd part… while I was extremely tired… I had no fever, no trouble breathing… zero other symptoms. I spent most of the day in bed. And about 4pm I decided that I might just be a little dehydrated and went to the store to get some gatorade. Which perked me and got me back on the water jet skiing and tubing. I felt fine.

It was not until Wednesday the 11th that I decided it was time to see the doctor. By this point I had loss in my sense of smell, diminished sense of taste, and just a gnarly head cold. I knew I had it but just didn’t want to “know I had it”. I needed some relief for the pressure in my sinus cavity. The NP examined me and said my throat looked really red. She proceeded with a strep test and sent me off for covid testing as well. Both positive.

Here is where it gets interesting…

Once the antibiotics for the strep kicked in I felt fine. Outside of loss of smell and small cough… totally fine. On Saturday, I turned on football outside and spent the day power washing my patio. I slept like a baby Saturday night into Sunday. I even had my wife go get me rapid tests at CVS so I could confirm I was negative. However, I continued to test positive the whole time.

So a slight cough, loss of smell, and diminished sense of taste. No fever, no drop in oxygen, none of the other issues we’ve read about with the virus.

I did another rapid test on Sunday afternoon and it was very debatable if it was positive or negative. And technically having to squint to see the faint line means it’s positive but I was convinced I was negative simply based on how I was feeling.

Tough to tell right? Technically that’s a positive test. Well I was not sold. So I went to urgent care and insisted they test me. It came back negative.

At the risk of sounding preachy here… I know the vaccine helped me. And I think this virus isn’t going away ever. So we are stuck with it. But the vaccine 100% helped me. It was 11 days by my symptoms to negative test. And I don’t have a sense of smell yet and the cough lingers. But I’m sure both will resolve in the near future.