Rob Streeper - a USA member here - got the C19 virus

[FenceFurniture]

Yesterday I sent Rob an email to see how the situation was affecting him. I was somewhat shocked at his reply of "My wife and I caught the virus in mid-January. She has pretty much recovered, but I'm still not well".

Rob lives in San Antonio TX, and went to a conference in CA for 3 days. To quote some of his email (with his permission, and bear in mind that this is 15-16 weeks after catching it):
"Unfortunately I've been unable to do anything related to tools or woodworking, too damn sick or busy. We went to San Francisco on the 13th of January and returned on the 15th. We attended a couple of receptions related to a healthcare conference. People were sneezing all around us.
We got home and both fell sick the next day. It came on like the flu. The first week was pretty much similar. Not too bad but not good.

The second week was Hell. Flu symptoms intensified and then came the coughing. I was awake three days straight coughing my lungs up. Lots of phlegm and some blood. Body pain was really bad. Intermittent fevers and chills. I had one episode of tachycardia. I remember being in a dream state half asleep and there was a sound like a lawn mower running. I thought 'who's the fool mowing?", then I realized I was hearing my heart beating, too fast to make out the individual beats.

Extreme weakness and unsteadiness set in. Brain fog too. Only a little nausea. Every joint hurt as if sprained. No appetite or sense of smell and my sense of taste was so distorted nothing tasted decent so I stopped eating for a week. After two and a half weeks I was finally able to leave the house. Lost 20 lbs.

The following week optic neuritis set in leaving me functionally blind in my right eye. Interestingly my night vision in both eyes improved so whatever was happening must have affected only the cone cells. Finally resolved this by taking our drug by mouthy and using steroid eye drops. Vision now is fine, in fact it may be a little better than it was.

For the past two months I've had GI/digestive issues. Currently struggling with pancreatitis/gastroenteritis and concomitant hyperglycemia. Using oral steroids and our drug for intestinal and systemic inflammation, hyperglycemia is getting better. Energy and motivation are starting to return but still nowhere near normal. Despite all this I am feeling better now than I have since catching it."



So pretty much your standard cold then? Definitely not! One round of debilitating symptoms after another for weeks and weeks on end. That is certainly the worst first-hand account I have read.

For those of us here in Oz that are feeling somewhat insulated from this virus, it gives pause for thought. The situation here could have been a helluva lot different. Just because it didn't happen that way doesn't mean it isn't real, and frightening. Perhaps we've been a little laissez faire?

Just a point of interest, for perspective:
Texas, the largest of the contiguous 48 states, is a little smaller than New South Wales, fits into Queensland nearly three times over, and not quite four times into Western Australia, and about 1.5 times into South Aust. It's 3x bigger than Victoria.
It has a population of 29mill, 3mill more than Australia's entire population.
TX has ~28,000 cases and 782 deaths. Australia has 6781 cases and 94 deaths. We definitely dodged a bullet.

Wishing you and your wife all the very best Rob.

[FenceFurniture]

That scary list of symptoms bears consolidating and repeating:
1-2 days after exposure: both fell sick the next day.
The first week was pretty much similar to the flu. Not too bad but not good.

The second week: Flu symptoms intensified, coughing for days straight , lots of phlegm and some blood.
Body pain was really bad. Every joint hurt as if sprained.
Intermittent fevers and chills.
One episode of tachycardia, too fast to make out the individual heartbeats.
Extreme weakness and unsteadiness.
Brain fog too.
Only a little nausea.
No appetite or sense of smell and sense of taste so distorted nothing tasted decent.
Lost 20 lbs.

The third week: optic neuritis set in, functionally blind in one eye. Vision now is fine.

For two months: GI/digestive issues. Pancreatitis/gastroenteritis and concomitant hyperglycemia.
Intestinal and systemic inflammation, hyperglycemia now getting better.
Energy and motivation are starting to return but still nowhere near normal.


That's a damn tough set of symptoms to go through for three months or more.

[Simplicity]

Thanks for sharing Brett

Rob all the best to you and your wife and I hope things return to a state of normality soon.

Take Care Matt.

[rob streeper]

Thanks Matt and Brett.

In describing my symptoms I forgot to add the difficulty taking breath. Even slight exertion left us gasping even after several weeks. My feeling of breathlessness is just now pretty much resolved.

Trust me, this disease is not a trifle, it's not the flu. If you get a good nose full of it as we did it will be something you'll remember for a long time.

[FenceFurniture]

If you get a good nose full of it as we did it will be something you'll remember for a long time.

That seems to be the thing with this virus: the more exposure, and therefore more virus particles entering the system, the worse the case. I'm not sure if that's the case with regular colds and flu, but it doesn't seem that way. Maybe as a result of not many people with a cold of flu in one place to load up some other poor bugger? Presumably in January, when it was virtually unknown, all those people at the conference just thought they had a cold, but wouldn't you think it would strike them as odd that SO many people were sneezing (especially as they were medical and allied professionals)?

[BobL]

That seems to be the thing with this virus: the more exposure, and therefore more virus particles entering the system, the worse the case. I'm not sure if that's the case with regular colds and flu, but it doesn't seem that way.

Total Exposure/dose is a critical factor (even for regular flu) only one of several factors, the others appears to be "general state of your health", and the way your immune system reacts (to either the flu or COVID19).

SO, you may be very healthy and have a good immune response but have such a big dose - BANG. This is why healthy health professionals can get it
OR
You have may be very healthy and have a low dose but your immune response is poor or over active - BANG.
ETC
.
.
.
you may be in poor health, have a poor immune response, and have a very low dose - BANG.

[FenceFurniture]

BANG
BANG
BANG.

Rob's in Texas, not Michigan.

[BobL]

Thanks Matt and Brett.

In describing my symptoms I forgot to add the difficulty taking breath. Even slight exertion left us gasping even after several weeks. My feeling of breathlessness is just now pretty much resolved.

Trust me, this disease is not a trifle, it's not the flu. If you get a good nose full of it as we did it will be something you'll remember for a long time.

Very sorry to hear this. I hope you can make a full recovery soon.
Best regards

[Bushmiller]

Hey Rob

So sorry to hear this news. I had meant to contact you several times and somehow I didn't (I had put your low profile down to being busy with business ), although by the sounds of it you were hardly in a fit state to reply: Too sick in fact to contribute to GraemeCook's Coronavirus thread, which now is also in lockdown.

CoronaVirus ==> Empty Shelves

It became a little controversial, but it might have been good to have heard from an actual sufferer as many comments were made that nobody knew of a person who had contacted the disease. First hand input would have been excellent: For us more than you!!

Your description that Brett has conveyed to us emphasises, for me, the insidious nature of this particular Covid-19 strain, how little anybody really knows about it and now following your comments, the far reaching repercussions that few of us even imagined.

Brett's comment that we have dodged a bullet here in Australia is most appropriate. We need to make sure we don't mess up this advantage.

I'm glad to hear you are well on the way to mending (and that your wfe was less traumatised by the illness) and look forward to some of your excellent Forum posts in the future.

Get well.

Regards
Paul

[woodPixel]

January 13th.

Thats very... very interesting.

CA you say?

I'll find a post I saved in my archive. This whole affair is beginning to look... suspicious.

Rob, get better mate. There is nothing more important.


EDIT 1 - I've been following this from the very start. Here is some official data, it can be seen that the first cases didn't officially start in the USA until later.... Corona Virus is spreading: Excel sheet : Coronavirus

I'll find some more. The early reporting is incredibly illuminating as to just how much Psy-Ops is being employed on us now.

[Lappa]

Rob,
Not good news. Hope things improve.
On reading your email you don’t mention getting tested for C19. Did you actually get tested and what test did they do?
I got tested last Saturday and had to totally isolate until I got the results back 5 days after the test.

[FenceFurniture]

January 13th. Thats very... very interesting.

I'll find a post I saved in my archive. This whole affair is beginning to look... suspicious.

Yes, I was surprised at how early Rob's infection was in the whole affair. I'm losing track of all the time lines now.

[Pagie]

I'm glad you are getting better.

[rob streeper]

On reading your email you don’t mention getting tested for C19. Did you actually get tested and what test did they do?

We were never tested. At the time of our illness there were no tests available locally. Our diagnosis is based on symptoms. The symptoms fit to a T. We both watch the medical literature closely and have found that as time passes and the physician community catches up the fit to our symptoms becomes even more perfect.
Back in January we speculated that we were suffering from the virus but mostly dismissed the possibility as unrealistic because at the time it was present only in China. Now we're all but certain that we had it. As serological tests become more widely available we plan to get checked. I did have the foresight during the worst of our disease to take a nasal mucous sample which I have stored frozen for PCR. The United States was caught completely flat-footed in this instance, a totally unprepared clown show.

[rob streeper]

Roche test sounds good, let's see how expensive and available it is. Pharma giant Roche gets US go-ahead for Covid-19 antibody test | World news | The Guardian