Here’s what it feels like. My cough and fever disappeared after two weeks. But I was left unable to participate in my normal life. I woke up most days with severe pain in my limbs, like broken bones. I was so short of breath I could not make it up the two flights of stairs in the house without gasping. Severe headaches would come and go. Complex mental tasks were impossible. I’d find myself reading and re-reading the same email, unable to make sense of it.
Worst was the crushing fatigue. Every afternoon I would stagger to my couch and collapse asleep for hours in the middle of the day, regardless of what impact it had on my work or my family. I might feel better for a day or two, but I would inevitably crash again. I’d send hastily scribbled emails to cancel meetings before I passed out. The food I’d bought to cook my family for dinner rotted in the fridge.