March Covid 2026
Sketch I did back in March 2020 after Apple Employees were sent home. Rolls upon rolls of toilet paper…
It’s never my intention to let weeks go by without posting a blog but the past three weeks, I had been ravaged by Covid and at last I’m finally recovered.
I started initially feeling incredibly fatigued. I could barely keep my eyes open during Spanish class but wasn’t feeling the usual cold symptoms. When I went home afterwards, I could still barely sit upright even to just watch a show—let alone write or do homework. The next day, I could barely function. I was winded just walking 5 minutes to the beach. I tried toasting a sandwich in the oven (I don’t own a toaster or microwave) and for the first time in my entire life, I started a kitchen fire. Fires are bizarre. For me, they take a moment to register. Almost an awe of their beauty before freaking out momentarily and then remembered fires in ovens starve themselves out if you don’t open the door.
The brain fog set in and I could barely keep myself awake for an hour or two at a time before falling back asleep. I’d wake up drenched in sweat with chills, gasping, coughing and wheezing with a sore throat that felt like knives. My chest rattled and a week and a half in, the sleeping subsided into insomnia of coughing fits. Sometimes coughing up thick, pink mucus. I’d look at a text and barely comprehend it but Taskmaster ran in the background as comforting noise to sometimes take my attention away from my coughing.
Fortunately, I’m not alone here in Estepona. It has a wonderful, tight community and two older friends in their 60’s came by every few days with groceries. At first, I didn’t want to bother them especially since I live out of the way and Almudena has severe knee problems but they insisted. I’d open the door to find a bag full of a long baguette, ham, cheese, milk, orange juice, a bit of dog food, and—a donut! With them standing waving about 7 feet away and Robert, Almudena’s husband, winking with a smile, “I added a little treat!”
About five days ago, I regained my voice. I was able to start going to Spanish classes again and Friday morning found my way back to yoga class. My friends, surprised covid was still a thing expressed it still took such a long time to recover from. The average length of time to recover from both a flu and covid is around 15 days. While some people bounce back quicker, others like me, who appear physically fit and active have hidden chronic illnesses. These dampen our immune systems, make it far more likely to become ill, and take longer to recover from. There still remains the uncertainty of the long term effects of long covid as well.
So while the brain fog is starting to subside and I’m finding myself antsy—wanting to get out of the house, out of Estepona, after being cooped up for so long—I’m trying to remind myself to continue breath work exercises and not over stress my recovering immune system. I say this even after returning from my third consecutive day at the gym haha.
Anyways, today marks the first day of Holy Week, Semana Santa, Palm Sunday. More to come about the traditions here in Spain. Feliz Semana Santa!