Blogs or journals from people who have COVID-19?
March 18, 2020 11:12 AM   Subscribe

We all have some idea of the COVID-19 symptoms, and range of outcomes, but I'd like to read reports from fellow humans actually going through it. Can you recommend some links?
posted by mono blanco to Health & Fitness (39 answers total) 20 users marked this as a favorite
 
This Twitter thread from Dr Chris Gough in Oxford, England.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 11:28 AM on March 18, 2020


A note: the thread I linked to is an account of his experiences written after he recovered.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 11:29 AM on March 18, 2020


The Seattle Times has an article describing the experience, written by someone who has recovered.
posted by esoterrica at 12:57 PM on March 18, 2020 [1 favorite]


This article (in French, but you can translate it) has numerous first-person accounts by people who had COVID-19 or their close relatives.
posted by orchidee at 1:32 PM on March 18, 2020


David Lat is tweeting his own experience.

Current pinned tweet: "David Lat
@DavidLat

Mar 17
Folks, this #CoronavirusOutbreak is no joke. I’ll give you occasional updates, tweeting from “Above the Hospital Bed,” about how serious #COVID19 aka #coronavirus can be. Think of this as #LatsCovid19Journal, my thoughts on #LivingWithCovid. [Thread]"
posted by MonkeyToes at 1:38 PM on March 18, 2020 [2 favorites]


Clement Chow is tweeting from an ICU.
posted by xo at 2:44 PM on March 18, 2020


Mayor of Miami Francis Suarez
posted by xo at 2:58 PM on March 18, 2020


The Real Abel This is an account from an English couple. The man is over sixty-five, has diabetes, and contracted the virus on a cruise ship and was being treated in Japan. He's delightful.
posted by effluvia at 3:39 PM on March 18, 2020 [2 favorites]


I've been seeing Slate's Coronavirus Diaries from people who are in various ways adjacent to the epidemic, but so far none I can see from anyone who actually has symptoms. Keep an eye on it, though.
posted by matildaben at 4:40 PM on March 18, 2020 [1 favorite]


Best answer: There is a subreddit: COVID19positive
posted by Lazlo Hollyfeld at 8:21 AM on March 19, 2020 [2 favorites]


Just updated my journal with an entry talking about how I felt. Expect my test to come back next week sometime.
posted by saveyoursanity at 12:37 PM on March 21, 2020


Washington Post today.
posted by matildaben at 10:05 AM on March 22, 2020


Siderea appears to have contracted it and has posted occasional updates on her symptoms, but that is not the primary focus of her blogging right now.
posted by Cozybee at 12:39 AM on March 23, 2020


My Whole Household Has COVID-19 (Deborah Copaken, Atlantic)

I Am Hospitalized With the Coronavirus (Jeremy Egner, NYT Opinion)
posted by katra at 8:10 PM on March 27, 2020


















‘I Would Never Wish This On Anyone’; In Severe Cases, COVID-19 Can Leave Patients With Breathing Problems For Months (CBS News)

‘An Anvil Sitting on My Chest’: What It’s Like to Have Covid-19 (NYT) Interviews, which were edited and condensed for clarity, were conducted by Audra D.S. Burch, Clinton Cargill, Jake Frankenfield, Amy Harmon, Campbell Robertson, Shreeya Sinha and Farah Stockman.
posted by katra at 12:27 PM on May 6, 2020




‘I Wish I Could Do Something for You,’ My Doctor Said (Mara Gay, NYT Opinion)
Young, healthy people like me are getting very, very sick from the disease caused by the coronavirus.

Coronavirus May Pose a New Risk to Younger Patients: Strokes (Roni Caryn Rabin, NYT)
Doctors have reported a flurry of cases in Covid-19 patients — including a healthy 27-year-old emergency medical technician in Queens. After a month in the hospital, he is learning to walk again.

‘We Are Not Essential. We Are Sacrificial.’ (Sujatha Gidla, NYT Opinion)
I’m a New York City subway conductor who had Covid-19. Now I’m going back to work.

No insurance, no savings, no support: what happens when LA's least privileged get Covid (Sam Levin, Guardian)

Why women dying in prisons are among the less visible victims of Covid-19 (Cary Aspinwall, Keri Blakinger and Joseph Neff, Guardian)
posted by katra at 2:26 PM on May 14, 2020


'Weird as hell’: the Covid-19 patients who have symptoms for months (Luke Harding, Guardian)

The girl who died twice (Ariana Eunjung Cha, Chelsea Janes, WaPo) Juliet Daly was a healthy 12-year-old in Covington, La., until the coronavirus infected her heart, making its electrical signals go haywire and stop working

A 'small-town' pharmacist in Manhattan, a couple married for 44 years: the US health workers who died from Covid-19 (Guardian)
We are documenting the lives of every US medical worker who dies helping patients during the pandemic. These are some of the first tragic cases
posted by katra at 2:53 PM on May 17, 2020


My Son Survived Terrifying Covid-19 Complications (Dr. Cynthia Wachtell, NYT Opinion)

Coronavirus patients turn to social media group for answers, support (Robin Shulman, WaPo) Online, people are combing through collective experiences to address questions science cannot yet fully answer.

Unbearable pain and loss: One Alabama family, 3 dead, 9 positive tests of coronavirus (Donna Thornton, Montgomery Advertiser / MSN)

‘He gave his life for that hospital’: A doctor put off retirement to fight covid-19, only to die of the virus (Meagan Flynn, WaPo)
posted by katra at 2:15 PM on May 24, 2020


COVID-19 Can Last for Several Months (Ed Yong, Atlantic)
The disease’s “long-haulers” have endured relentless waves of debilitating symptoms—and disbelief from doctors and friends.
posted by katra at 2:00 PM on June 6, 2020




‘I Woke Up Gasping For Air’: 28 Family Members Contract COVID-19, Father Dies From Illness (KCAL 9)

The coronavirus 'long-haulers' show how little we still know (Debbie Bogaert, Guardian Opinion) My Covid-19 symptoms lasted for months. As an infectious disease specialist, I know the importance of widespread testing

‘It’s frightening’: Doctors say half of ‘cured’ COVID patients still suffer (Times of Israel) Bnei Brak woman tells The Times of Israel that a month after testing negative she has severe fatigue and anxiety – and her husband is worse than he was when hospitalized
posted by katra at 3:31 PM on June 29, 2020


Nick Cordero, Broadway actor, dies at 41 after coronavirus complications (Chicago Tribune)

Man given 'almost zero chance' of Covid-19 survival due to return home (Guardian) Mal Martin, 58, from Cardiff, spent 11 weeks in intensive care and could still lose fingers due to disease

Three Months In, These Patients Are Still Ravaged by Covid’s Fallout (WSJ)

The 17-member family that lived together, ate together and got coronavirus together (WaPo / MSN reprint) Mukul wrote in a blog post detailing his family’s experience that has been viewed more than 400,000 times.

Quadriplegic man’s death from covid-19 spotlights questions of disability, race and family (WaPo / SFGate reprint) A Texas hospital deemed further treatments for Michael Hickson to be futile— a decision his wife opposed but others signed off on
posted by katra at 7:25 PM on July 5, 2020


‘Are you ready to go back?’ After covid-19, a poultry worker fears a return to work. (WaPo / LMT reprint)

Some covid-19 patients taken off ventilators are taking days or even weeks to wake up (WaPo / MSN reprint) ‘It’s a big deal,’ says a Weill Cornell neurologist. The consequences range from mental fog, and mild memory lapses, to severe neurological problems.

Think a 'mild' case of Covid-19 doesn’t sound so bad? Think again (Adrienne Matei, Guardian Opinion)
posted by katra at 9:42 AM on July 6, 2020


Lives Lost - "An ongoing Associated Press series remembering people around the world who have died during the new coronavirus pandemic, the lives they lived and the impact they had on those they left behind."

‘A Terrifying Virus To Have’: Marion Woman Still Battling Coronavirus 100 Days After Diagnosis (CBS Boston)

Warning of serious brain disorders in people with mild coronavirus symptoms (Guardian)

Here’s What Recovery From Covid-19 Looks Like for Many Survivors (NYT / MSN reprint / Herald reprint) Continuing shortness of breath, muscle weakness, flashbacks, mental fogginess and other symptoms may plague patients for a long time.
posted by katra at 2:50 PM on July 14, 2020


katra, thank you for these links, and especially for the reprint links. I appreciate your work here.
posted by MonkeyToes at 5:34 AM on July 17, 2020 [2 favorites]


Doctor who survived COVID-19 bewildered by public disregard (AP) “When I talk to a patient and I say, ‘Hey, I’ve had it too,’ it’s like we’re connected in a way that I really, honestly haven’t felt with patients ever before — and I’ve been doing this 40 years,” Saag said.

Dad hospitalized with coronavirus after son, 21, apparently infected entire family, mom says (NBC News) Michelle Zymet said she had pleaded with her son not to go out. "The younger generation, they just don't get it," she said. "We are trying to open everyone’s eyes."

I can't shake Covid-19: Warnings from young survivors still suffering (CNN)

Long Island man leaves hospital after 106-day fight with COVID-19 (Fox5NY)
posted by katra at 12:46 PM on July 18, 2020


‘I feel helpless’: three people on their grueling Covid-19 recoveries (Pam Moore, Guardian) For ‘long-haulers’, a negative coronavirus test doesn’t signal the start of normal life, but an uncharted road to recovery with lingering symptoms

Why are doctors not listening to Covid-19 patients like me? (Fiona Lowenstein, Guardian Opinion) The narrative is that Covid-19 patients are either hospitalized near death, or ride out a ‘mild’ Covid flu at home. The reality is more complex

Israeli doctor reinfected with coronavirus 3 months after recovering (Jerusalem Post) This is the second case at Sheba Medical Center in which a patient recovered from the virus and was subsequently reinfected.

The horror of living with coronavirus asymptomatically (Rucha Mehta Shah, WaPo Opinion) Rucha Mehta Shah is a physician who recently graduated from fellowship in gastroenterology in Dallas and will be starting practice in Arizona.
posted by katra at 6:58 PM on July 21, 2020


In the Covid-19 death of a hospital food worker, a microcosm of the pandemic (Eric Boodman, STAT News, Jun. 30, 2020) This is one in a series of reports from hospitals responding to the Covid-19 pandemic.

These women's coronavirus symptoms never went away. Their doctors' willingness to help did. (Elizabeth Chuck, NBC News, Jul. 28, 2020) “‘Gaslighting’ is the word I’ve been using repeatedly,” one COVID-19 survivor said. “I’m so ill and some people are telling me this is a figment of my imagination."

A Covid Patient Goes Home After a Rare Double Lung Transplant (Denise Grady, NYT, Jul. 30, 2020) Mayra Ramirez was the first of a small but growing number of people whose only hope of surviving the coronavirus was to replace their lungs.

As COVID-19 hammers Texas, Hispanic residents are dying at the highest rate (Mike Hixenbaugh and Perla Trevizo, ProPublica/NBC News, Jul. 30, 2020, Updated Jul. 31, 2020) In Texas' largest county, a disproportionate share of new COVID-19 hospital patients — as high as 65 percent some weeks — have been Hispanic.
posted by katra at 5:35 PM on August 3, 2020


Brain fog, phantom smells and tinnitus: my experience as a Covid 'long hauler' (Hannah Davis, Guardian Opinion) I fell sick on 25 March. Four months later, I’m still dealing with fever, cognitive dysfunction, memory issues and much more

‘Death by structural poverty’: US south struggles against Covid-19 (Oliver Laughland in Alabama and Mississippi, Guardian) Poor access to healthcare, failed political leadership and the endurance of segregation and racism have contributed to a surge in deaths

'We are no less American': Deaths pile up on Texas border (Paul J. Weber, AP)

‘If I Hadn’t Been Transferred, I Would Have Died’ (Dr. Daniela J. Lamas, NYT Opinion) Conversations about death from Covid-19 revolve around patient characteristics. But hospitals matter, too.

A pregnant woman with Covid-19 was dying. With one decision, her doctors saved three lives. (Caitlin Gibson, WaPo / Boston reprint) The following excerpts from interviews with Ebony, her family and members of the medical team that cared for her at Saint Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston, N.J., have been edited for length and clarity.
posted by katra at 11:42 AM on August 7, 2020


How Did I Catch the Coronavirus? (Carolyn Kormann, New Yorker) For the majority of the nearly five million COVID-19 cases across the United States, the point of infection is unknown.

They thought COVID-19 was a hoax, until they fell ill (Caroline Modarressy-Tehrani and Louise McLoughlin, NBC News) “The mindset that people have is that it’s not real until it gets close to home."

A corrections officer and his wife were inseparable. They died of covid-19 an hour apart. (Meryl Kornfield, WaPo) “I just wish people would understand this virus is real and it affects real people,” [their daughter Tiffany Davis] said.
posted by katra at 2:43 PM on August 8, 2020


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