This was a funny experience, it almost perfectly matches what happened this time last year. It started last Tuesday really, when I started feeling a little worse than just seasonal allergies would usually cause. I really didn’t think much of it though, and I certainly didn’t think about COVID at that time, despite having seen an article about the summer surge just a day or so prior. By Tuesday night, I was feeling bad enough, that I knew something more than just allergies was going on, but I was suspecting a cold.

Wednesday morning, I woke up at about 5, being unable to sleep, and truly feeling bad. I had a headache, I was congested, and I had the first body aches, that were foreshadowing what was going to be terrible in a few hours. This was the first time I considered COVID, but in a way that I should just take a test to rule it out. I actually felt silly wasting a test. I went ahead and did the test, and while I was swabbing my nose, I sneezed, which caused some of the most intense muscle pain I’ve ever felt, all the way through my upper body, lasting about thirty seconds. It almost caused me to fall down when it happened. I went ahead and finished the test, and initially it didn’t show positive. I was somewhat confused, because the muscle pain had caused me to change my thinking, and I had begun to believe I was positive. I let it go the full fifteen minutes, and just before that time hit, I looked at the test kit, and there was the bright pink line, indicating a positive.