COVID-19 and me

By Alexander Valdes | Published by December 12, 2020

It’s no surprise that a lot of kean students are experiencing hardship right now due to the current pandemic. Many students are struggling with feelings of isolation and perhaps some are just tired from living on a screen in online classes. I was one of those students — and then it got worse. On November 14, I was diagnosed positive with Covid-19. I am 22 years old — one of the young people who supposedly don’t get very ill yet I experienced many symptoms that made my normal day-to-day life extremely difficult. 

My father had come home one day after work not feeling well. He was tested later on and it was confirmed that he was indeed positive with Covid-19. I was instructed to stay away from my father by my mother and I complied, but alas it didn’t help much as I later on would contract the virus from my father. I then started to experience a number of symptoms.

The first I experienced that led to my conclusion I was infected before being tested was that I came down with a fever of 102.7. I was unable to move properly as a result and could barely keep my eyes open. After being tested at a local clinic near me I then started to experience more symptoms of Covid-19, these I considered to be the worst part of the virus. 

The next symptom that started to develop was my inability to smell or taste anything, This was one of the worst experiences of my life, regardless of what it was I was eating, everything managed to taste like cardboard. I was essentially eating by texture and not by taste.

Next I started to develop dry coughs and an uncomfortable amount of mucus in both my nose and throat, my voice had become hoarse and raspy. This then led to complications with my lungs — anytime I would breathe my chest would ache and I had to use a breathing apparatus by my bed in order to keep my lungs from getting worse.

One of the last symptoms that started to develop in me was extreme muscle pains that rendered me incapable of moving, I sometimes went days at a time without getting up from my bed from the amount of pain in my lower back. Whenever I needed to move, I had to essentially crawl on the ground in order to go anywhere.

All these symptoms didn’t stop my responsibilities as a student, even though I was largely incapable of moving or even rational thought, from extreme fever, I was still tasked with doing several assignments from my classes, ranging from simple discussion boards to writing four page papers and even several quizzes.

Around the end of November, I was tested once again after having recovered a bit, and it ended up negative. I was allowed to continue with my other responsibilities such as returning to my retail job which I did. However, there are still lasting effects that covid can leave on those that recover. People can develop permanent lung/heart/brain damage simply from having experienced the disease, and I am concerned about it. 

I urge all Kean students to do your best to avoid getting infected and if you ever feel any of the symptoms I’ve mentioned, immediately get tested. We should all work together to best avoid anyone from having to go through this awful illness.  

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