 Anosmia stinks. You never realize how much you depend on your sense of smell until it's gone. But right then, when I realized that I couldn't taste or smell anything, I knew I had COVID. So I recently had a mild case of COVID-19 and I want to tell you what it was like. My symptoms, how long it lasted, and how I think I got it since I am relatively young, healthy, and fully vaccinated. When I got COVID, I had just finished PA school and I was staying with my parents for a few weeks. So I was terrified that I might get them sick because they're elderly and my dad has type 2 diabetes. I wasn't really worried about myself even though it was kind of annoying to get the symptoms, but I was much more scared to give it to my parents who might have a much worse outcome than I would. So I also want to tell you about the precautions that my family took to avoid transmission. But before I do, since I am a certified physician assistant, I have to say that nothing in this video is medical advice. This is for informational and entertainment purposes only. If you have any questions about your healthcare, I suggest that you speak with your primary care provider. And if you have questions about COVID-19, I'm going to refer you to the CDC, the Center for Disease Control website. And with that out of the way, let's start with day one, the day that I got infected. Now, of course, I can't know this for sure, but I suspect that I got COVID-19 from my friend that I went out to brunch with. He was completely asymptomatic, he didn't know he had it. And in fact, it wasn't until a couple days later that he even found out that before we hung out, he was around somebody who had tested positive. So he got a test and then the next day he told me that he actually was positive and that I should get tested. Now, that day, I was at the park. It was beautiful. It was sunny. I had already walked a few miles. So I was getting a little tired, but then I suddenly started getting really fatigued and even a little bit short of breath. Now, I figured I was tired from walking, but either way, I didn't go any further. I didn't want to take any chances. So I just went straight back to my car and drove home. And by the time I got home, the fatigue had worsened. I started getting a little nasal congestion, some sinus pressure, and I was also getting a headache. It just honestly felt like a really bad sinus infection that came on all of a sudden. I took my temperature, it was normal. And I'm going to be honest with you, if I was living on my own, I wasn't staying with my parents at the time. And if my friend hadn't just told me that he tested positive for COVID-19, I probably would have figured it's just some random viral infection. I would not have gone to get tested. But because I was staying with my elderly parents and my dad has diabetes, so he's a lot more likely to have poor outcomes from COVID-19. I really didn't want to take any chances with getting them sick. I went to CVS. I got a rapid test. And an hour later, I found out that I was positive. I know some of you might be thinking it could be a false positive. The rapid tests are not as good as the PCRs, but I wanted to know as soon as possible, given the fact that I was getting symptoms. And my friend had just told me that he tested positive. So as soon as I get home from CVS, I quarantine myself upstairs in my old childhood bedroom. My mom and dad put on masks and gloves and they clean everything that I could have touched, all the door knobs, all the surfaces, everything. And so my quarantine begins. Now the next day, this is day five. I wake up with a splitting headache and I never get headaches, so this is totally unusual. And I was still feeling really fatigued, just like really lethargic, don't feel like doing anything. I still have the sinus congestion and kind of a runny nose, except now I also had a 101 degree fever. But I felt better after taking some Tylenol. And I mostly just sat around in my room all day, reading books, listening to podcasts I enjoy, just having a chill day. The next day, I woke up so fatigued, I couldn't even get out of bed. I think I slept maybe 20 out of my 24 hours that day. And it must have helped because I felt a lot better the next day. On day seven, I woke up feeling almost completely better and no fever. There was still some sinus congestion, a little bit of a sore throat, but the fatigue was basically gone. I felt so good that I actually went outside and walked some labs around my parents backyard. It was sunny and warm and just beautiful out, and it felt so good to get out after being cooped up for two days. Of course, I took precautions, I wore a mask, and I actually held my breath the whole time that I was in the house. Like when I left my room that was upstairs and going downstairs walking through the house where my parents were, I actually held my breath and wore a mask. And also used a paper towel so I don't touch any surfaces. So I used a paper towel to like handle the doorknobs. So I did all of that until I actually got outside. Now my parents backyard isn't huge, but it's big enough to walk around a little bit and just enjoy being outside and get some vitamin D from the sun, which I know is great for immune function. And it's also big enough that I wasn't afraid of having any contact with neighbors or putting anybody at risk. I was far enough away from everyone, especially being outside. And the next day was almost the same. I felt almost 100% better. The fatigue was gone. The congestion was basically gone. Little tiny bit of sore throat, but nothing major. And I spent some more time outside. I actually went out into the backyard a few times and I honestly think that helped. It felt really good. And I started feeling better and better since I started going outside. But that night when I was eating dinner, I suddenly realized that I couldn't taste my food. It was the weirdest thing because I could still feel the temperature and the texture of the food and everything. It just had no taste. And I couldn't smell anything either. And I'm going to be honest with you until that day, I was pretty skeptical. I thought maybe I had influenza or some random viral sinus infection. And maybe the rabbit test was a false positive. I knew I was sick, but I didn't think I had COVID. But right then when I realized that I couldn't taste or smell anything, I knew I had COVID. Now, although it's possible that anosmia, the loss of smell in Angusia, the loss of taste can be caused by another viral infection that's not COVID-19, it's just not nearly as common. And I've personally never experienced it in my 32 awesome years on this planet. So at that point, I was quite sure I had COVID-19. In fact, this study found that 85% of COVID-19 patients experienced anosmia, the loss of smell. And this one found that anosmia is more common in younger patients and those with mild cases, such as my own. So what I'm saying is, at this point, with my symptoms and all the information that I had, I was basically certain that I had COVID-19 and was very, very glad that I quarantined. And by the way, my parents did not have any symptoms at this time. So I thought that the quarantine was working too. And so over the next few days, I'm basically 100% back to normal. I'm feeling great, except for the loss of smell and taste, which still hasn't come back. And now shooting this video actually weeks later, it still hasn't come back. I know it takes a long time for those cells to regenerate. People say it could take weeks. Some people, even like six months later, don't have a sense of smell yet. So I'm hoping mine comes back soon, but you know, fingers crossed. But anyway, I felt good. No fever, no fatigue, no headache, nothing, just no sense of smell or taste. Now my family followed the CDC guidelines, which say that you have to quarantine for 14 days after your known exposure, or 10 days after your symptoms start. So these few days, I'm still quarantined in my room, even though I feel perfect. But I am going into the backyard, I'm spending more time outside, and I'm even doing like push-ups and squats and stuff in my room, just to get some exercise, move my body around, just feel better and better. And this whole time, I'm not going downstairs at all, except to go outside. And I'm doing exactly what I just told you, you know, mask, holding my breath, using a paper towel to handle the doorknobs, not touching anything, just being very, very, very extra careful. And because I'm not touching anything in the kitchen, the dishes, the cabinets, the stove, none of that, my parents are actually making me food and bringing it upstairs to me. And I'm honestly starting to feel a little bit like a prisoner, where I can just stay in my room and do nothing. And then, you know, my meals are delivered to my room and I eat in my room, I felt like a prisoner. But I honestly think that they enjoyed it, you know, taking care of their son who's been outside of the house since he was 18. My dad especially was taking extra time to like prepare these amazing meals that I couldn't taste at all. Couldn't even smell them, couldn't taste them. I could just tell that he put a lot of effort and they were just like really nice meals that he prepared. I think he enjoyed taking care of me. But anyway, so day 13, post-exposure rolls around. And now it's been more than 10 days since my symptoms began. So I'm technically free to stop the quarantine. But like I said earlier, my parents are older, my dad's in poor health, and I wanted to be extra careful so I went to go get another test, this time a PCR, and continue to quarantine through the next day until the results came in. And on day 14, the test was negative. Now like I said, I'm filming this video a few weeks after all of this happened, and I'm very happy to report that my parents never got sick, didn't get any symptoms, didn't get COVID at all from this whole thing. So a few takeaways I have for you from this experience. One, I think that vaccines are probably effective. There's a lot of arguing about this, and the virus and the vaccines are all so new that the science just isn't settled yet. It's not perfect. But my personal experience with this, not even as a medical provider, just as a person who had COVID and who really didn't want to give it to his parents and took a lot of precautions and those precautions worked, my experience tells me that the vaccines do prevent infection and do prevent poor outcomes if you are infected. Everybody I mentioned in the video, myself, my parents, my friend that I got it from, the friend that he got it from, everybody's been vaccinated with the Moderna vaccine. We all had two vaccines. And yes, despite being fully vaccinated and being young and healthy, I still got it. But my case was very mild. My friend who I got it from is actually on immunosuppressive therapy for a chronic disease, and he was actually even less symptomatic than I was. He did lose his sense of smell, but essentially he had no other symptoms. My parents, who are in their 60s and 70s and my dad has type 2 diabetes, they didn't even get sick, even though they were sharing a pretty small house with somebody who was sick. So I suspect that our vaccinations did protect every one of us, at least to some extent. Takeaway number two. I think that using masks, cleaning surfaces, and using quarantine really are effective. I've heard some people say that the virus is so tiny that if somebody with COVID-19 breathes anywhere around you, even if they're wearing a mask, that you'll get the virus. And while I think that is partially true, that yes, the mask is not going to prevent every viral particle from getting out, and you are likely to breathe a little bit of that in if you're sharing their space. The fact is, you just won't breathe as much of it in if they're wearing a mask and if you're wearing a mask or either one or both especially. You also have to consider how long you're sharing that space. Like my friend and I were at brunch for two hours, sitting right across from each other, so sharing a really small space. My parents, on the other hand, didn't really share any close quarters with me. I was upstairs, they were downstairs. The only time I was anywhere near them was when I walked down, and like I said, I was holding my breath, wearing a mask. So yes, maybe they were exposed to a little bit of virus that came out of me, but not nearly as much as I was exposed to when I went to brunch with my friend and sat there for two hours with him talking right in my face. So viral load, the amount of virus that actually gets into you, gets in contact with your mucous membranes, I think really does make a difference in whether you're going to get sick at all and how sick you're going to get if you even get sick at all. And takeaway number three, anosmia stinks. You never realize how much you depend on your sense of smell until it's gone. So next time you're reaching your fridge and you take out those leftovers and you give them the smell test to see if it's something you should eat or maybe throw away, be grateful that you don't have anosmia like I do, because now I can't do that. And takeaway number four, and again, this is not medical advice, it's just something that I did and I suspect it helped. If you do get sick, if you can, if it's not going to be dangerous for you, try to move around and possibly try to get some sun. Of course, quarantine, social distancing, very important, you don't want to go out in public, don't go out to like a crowded park or anything like that or put anybody at risk. But if there's any way you can safely get some sun, get some vitamin D. Yeah, you can take vitamin D supplements, but I mean like the natural vitamin D that your body produces in response to being in contact with sunlight with your skin being in contact with sunlight. I think that and just moving my body doing, like I said, squats, push-ups, walking around a little bit, just not sitting around all day. I felt vastly better when I started doing that. And although it's not medicine, I really think that getting vitamin D and just moving your body is really helpful to get you feeling better fast when you're sick. Alright guys, that's the video. Let me know what you think in the comments. If you have any questions about my mild case of COVID-19 or any of the precautions that my family and I took to prevent my parents getting sick from my case of COVID-19, leave them in the comments. I'd be happy to answer. I hope everybody's staying safe out there. Have a good day and thank you for watching.