I never thought a headache would lead to a positive Covid-19 test. Everyone has a different experience when they have Covid-19, but mine was far from easy.
My headache first started at lunch on Thursday, November 5th. I had run the mile the period before and quickly assumed that was the cause. I thought it would go away quickly, so that night I went to dinner with friends, before attending the cross country end of season celebration. I assumed it was just a headache and that I would sleep it off. 

Friday morning, I woke up and knew this wasn’t just a headache. I felt worse than I did on Thursday, so I stayed home from school and slept almost all day. A headache is a common symptom for the coronavirus, especially in teenagers. Ultimately, my family and I decided I should get tested.

On Saturday, I ended up going to Pella Regional Hospital’s walk-in clinic. I explained to the nurse my symptoms, which had become worse. I now had an extremely painful headache, body aches, and felt extremely fatigued. The nurse quickly explained that these are all coronavirus symptoms and recommended I have rapid test done. They tested me and told me they would come back into the room with results in 15 minutes. 

My dad and I sat and waited for the doctor to come in with my results before she came to tell us that my results were positive. It was quite shocking at the time, but eventually led to my entire family getting tested. They were all negative, which meant I was on a strict bedroom quarantine. 

The next couple of days my symptoms were quite mild. Other than feeling very tired and having my constant headache, I had no other symptoms. This didn’t last long, and by Tuesday, November 10, my symptoms had gotten more severe. I lost my sense of smell and could barely leave my bed. 

I felt this way for a couple days.  By Thursday, a week after my headache had started, it still hadn’t gone away. Finally, on Friday I started to feel better. I started to regain energy and had fewer body aches. By the middle of the day Saturday, 9 days after my headache started, it was finally gone. On Sunday, I felt fully recovered. 

After finally feeling better, I returned to school on November 16. Adjusting back was difficult because by the end of the day I was tired and ready for a break. I still have yet to regain my sense of smell; although, it is slowly starting to come back. Overall, Covid-19 was a difficult experience. Many often compare it to the flu, but for me, it was much worse.