Last Wed night, March 11th, I started to feel a little bit under the weather. On Thursday I had an unpleasant temperature, 37.6 C, spent some extra time sleeping, but it got better after that. My temperature never went up again as high, it actually fluctuated between 36.7 C and 37 C. I should also mention, by Friday night, but definitely by Saturday I lost my sense of smell completely. I could not smell the cup of coffee right in front of my nose. I could not taste what I was eating. That was a depressing symptom...happy to say that my sense of smell/taste is coming back to me now! On Sunday I felt well enough to take an hour walk on the boardwalk. But on Monday evening, I felt a shortness of breath, a symptom I've never experienced before. I just had to take deeper breaths to get the air in. It was definitely worrying, especially given I had absolutely no other symptoms like fever or coughing. On Tuesday morning, I had an internet lesson just like I'd had on Monday morning. That was when I knew it wasn't "anxiety" or me dreaming something up: I just couldn't talk without taking extra pauses to breathe. I went to CityMD right after my lesson. When they saw I had no temperature, that my chest X ray was clear and there were no signs of pneumonia, the doctor visibly relaxed (since it didn't look like I had coronavirus). She had no explanation for the shortness of breath, though, and suggested a CT scan at the ER to check for blood clots. So I went to the ER (not the most pleasant experience, there were people around with a cough so severe I was really concerned I could catch the virus there). Anyway, the CT scan showed "early coronavirus" and pneumonia in both lungs. I was also given the actual test, which only came back today (positive). I spent a couple days in the hospital, I guess mostly under observation as there wasn't much that needed to be done for me...they did test my blood for oxygenation and found it was fine. So now I am home...taking the hydroxychloroquine tablets. I still have no other symptoms other than the shortness of breath, which I guess I can describe as "moderate". Going up the stairs you do feel totally out of breath, but even sitting in place you can feel it. I am very happy I can breathe on my own. Anyway, I thought I'd share this as I know the trajectory of my illness was not completely typical, and it can help some of you get tested/treated/go into quarantine earlier. And it absolutely made me see the importance of staying home and doing your part to slow the spread of this. Wish you all to stay healthy!

Part 2.
Hello my dear chess friends...so one thing I have seen from this disease is that it doesn't follow a linear path. When I wrote my post last Friday, I felt pretty decent. Ironically, I started feeling worse after the post (more chest constriction, more labored breathing), bad enough that on Saturday night after midnight I decided to return to the hospital. The hospital is about the last place you want to be in these times...already on Saturday night it had so many more people than on Tuesday when I had first checked in. There seemed to be just one doctor working that night amidst dozens of patients. Understandably, it was hard to get any attention...they took a chest x ray (I'm not really sure what that showed, since my initial chest x ray on Tuesday had shown nothing amiss and only the ct-scan caught the problem), measured my vitals again..and that was it. At 7 AM, they told me I was discharged. Fortunately, I felt better enough (the grip this thing had over my chest eased up) and I could not be more happy to go home. The conditions at the hospital are difficult (at least the one in Brooklyn I went to), there are just too many people. It seemed like unless you're in total distress- you'll just have to sit and wait. But from the time I left on Sunday morning I started feeling better. The chest constriction let up, and my breathing became easier; I noticed I didn't need to take these deep breaths in order to get the air in. How do you know you're feeling better? When you're not thinking about how you're breathing and you have no thoughts of returning to the hospital. I definitely thought the worst was over, it had been 10 days since I'd first developed the shortness of breath and I could basically function normally; I'd felt well enough to teach an hour or two of online lessons over these last days. In terms of my medications, from Saturday night-Wed night I was taking hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin. But somehow today the necessity for deeper breaths returned, breathing became more "noticeable". The lessons had to be postponed for a future time :) Another symptom I've had for a while now has been soreness of the chest muscles, especially on the left side. Not sure if it's from inflammation or the constriction. The virus has not been an easy opponent, but I am hopeful that this wave will recede too. Thank you guys so much for your messages of support and wishes for my recovery! Please keep me in your thoughts!

Part 3.
Medical chronicles, part 3 :) The last few days have been kind of difficult. First, a new symptom appeared on Thurs: a small fever (37.2-37.3). I mentioned before that apart from the first few days before I developed shortness of breath/pneumonia, I never had fever. So it was definitely a surprise that 10 days after my shortness of breath began, I suddenly had this fever. On Friday my temperature read lower (37, 36.9), but I still felt my head burning up. At the same time, my chest inflammation and breathing were worse. So I started thinking about what to do...this has been one of the most difficult things about this experience: what steps to take? There is so little guidance or consensus on anything, from treatment to follow up care. I was really trying to hold out on going back to the hospital, both because I imagined it'd be stressful and miserable, and also figuring that as long as I could breathe I should not take away any resources from the medical system. I got in touch (by text) with the hospital doctor under whose supervision I had been when I spent a couple of days there last week. I explained my symptoms, and he said that if I had fever and shortness of breath, I should come back for a ct-scan. Well, that may sound simple, but..the hospital is not doing out-patient procedures anymore, so you can't just make an appt for a test and leave. The only way for a ct-scan is through the emergency room...I tried to see if it was possible to go to some radiology clinics, but one of them said they weren't doing chest ct-scans or chest x-rays (I could see where this was going) and the other, when I told them I was positive for corona, told me outright they weren't taking corona patients. But here's the thing: despite the difficulty in getting a follow up ct-scan, it wasn't even clear I needed one at this stage. Another doctor I had spoken to said it wouldn't be useful now. Looking for some direction, I got this idea to use CityMD telemedicine. I had really liked my two prior experiences at a CityMD clinic, so at 10 PM on Friday night, I decided to give it a try. For $79 (possibly less if your insurance covers the telemedicine; mine wasn't among the ones listed), I got to video-talk to a very nice doctor from Washington State. He thought that since I could string two sentences together without running out of breath, I was doing pretty well. He also recommended against getting a ct-scan at the moment and prescribed me an inhaler just in case. Honestly, I felt better after this call. Just talking to a medical professional and getting some kind of assurance that I wasn't doing so badly was a relief. Now, on to day three of this story...yeah, Saturday was not a high point. There was no more fever, but my chest felt like a wreck. Literally every single point on it up to the collarbone was sore and painful to the touch. It was even painful without any touch. I could breathe, but not without a constant reminder of what an effort it was. I tried going to sleep, but this physical state just wasn't very soothing....so I got up and drove to the ER. I did my best to hold out on my own, but sometimes you need help...I have learned how to pack for the hospital. The first time I was so unprepared, I didn't have my phone charger on me! I was really expecting a disaster area (it was one week after my last visit), but things were actually pretty calm. Yes, there were a lot of people, but it was not chaotic. The nurse took my vitals, my blood oxygen level was 97 (it had previously always been 98, but I read that 97 is still normal). Unlike my last visit, I actually got seen by a doctor pretty quickly (she listened to my breathing) and got to have a conversation with her. She was clear that a ct-scan would be unnecessary exposure to radiation for me (are you seeing how I'm getting two completely different suggestions from doctors at the same hospital!?), and said that my condition (chest pain, labored breathing) on day 12 since beginning these symptoms was normal for my diagnosis and that I didn't need to be admitted. So you see how wonderful it is...my condition is NORMAL :) She said that if I feel dizzy or have more difficulty breathing- I added "or if I'm unconscious"- I can come back to the hospital. On a practical note, perhaps it was not such a bad idea to go to the ER at the quieter time of 2:30 AM, as I was already home by 3:40. It's like the advice to go to the grocery store when no one is there. So about the psychological side....at first, I didn't really see the psychological element of this. You're kind of shell shocked by the unexpected diagnosis, and what kind of strength do you need when you're just doing what the doctors/nurses tell you...stay in the hospital...do a scan...give some blood...go home, take this medicine...but eventually I figured out why you guys were telling me to be strong. When I saw that this thing wouldn't let me go, and I'd have to go one day at a time, not necessarily finishing each day on a promising note, not knowing what the next day would bring, not having any clear direction on what to do to get better, and simply being alone (physically) for so long, yeah, that's where you need to keep yourself together. There are definitely moments when I was worried and panicked. Now I kind of get it...I'm in a game, yes the position is difficult and unpleasant and there are no more illusions that you can get through it without getting through these tough moments. Glad I am a chess player

Part 4.
If I don't post, you guys may think I am in bad shape :) So how did the third week of battle go? Well, at the beginning the virus definitely had the advantage. In my last post exactly a week ago it was probably clear I was suffering, but the virus saved its biggest punch for the 24 hrs after that. So what did that consist of exactly? Well, it was basically the continuation of the inflammatory process in my chest. The chest was just in continuous pain, and taking a deep breath was so exhausting there'd be a feeling that upon expanding, it would just want to collapse in on itself. The breathing was hard, but it was definitely linked to the situation in the chest as a whole. On Sunday night I decided to take two Aleve tablets to relieve the pain, but...they didn't work. So after that I knew things were bad, and I went to the hospital again (around midnight on Sunday). Just like the night before, I got to see a doctor pretty quickly. Almost immediately she told me they weren't going to admit me to the hospital: my blood oxygen was 97% and I could talk. In my life up to this point, I'd never encountered the concept of blood oxygen before, but it's become clear from my visits to the hospital that it's like the first and most important number. One of the nurses told me that anything above 90 was fine. Anyway, I didn't want to be admitted to the hospital, but I did want a little more clarity on what was happening to me, since it felt very far from "recovery". She had a nurse give me some muscle relaxant tablets and a painkiller shot in the shoulder...that helped...and I waited to get an X-ray done. I was sure that given how I was feeling, even a crude tool like an X-ray would show what was wrong with me. But lo and behold, the doctor told me the x-ray was "very clear". Well, that was kind of comforting, at least no deterioration there. So I went home...and within an hour of getting home, the painkiller wore off. That was really a low point, it was the kind of pain where your consciousness is just constricted to the pain, you can't think about anything else, all you can do is cry "Lord, help me". I know, this doesn't sound encouraging, but it'll get better. First, I realized I was starving, I mean famished. This feeling was so strong it actually pushed out the pain. I devoured an avocado and proceeded to fry some potatoes. It was really very encouraging, I thought someone who has such an appetite should not die :) Once I was done eating the pain returned, but I managed to go to sleep...I slept for a long time...and at a few points when I'd drift into consciousness I could tell that the pain wasn't there and I'd keep sleeping. And when I woke up, the chest...it was freed. It no longer felt like it was collapsing under the burden of breathing. The inflammation had run its course. I have to say, the inflammation that appeared 11-14 days after the breathing difficulty first reared its head was a surprise to me. In most illnesses, once you get better, you keep getting better...but this thing happened after I'd had a number of calm days. So how do I feel now? Well, I think I am moving in the right direction...I mean, every single day farther away from day 1 of symptoms is the right direction :) But even after all this, there are good days and worse days...l know I need to take it easy, but if I feel fine, I do an hour or two of lessons a day...so I did that from Tues-Thurs this week. And then on Friday I started a lesson and within like 20 min ended it, because the breathing was just too difficult. While the inflammation has subsided, the chest has lots of painful spots...like at the very top of the rib cage, where the chest area begins...there are some spots on there that are so sore, it feels like I've been beaten there sometime in the recent past. Today I didn't teach any lessons, but I did manage to do laundry and take a walk. Really big achievements :) The big milestone coming up is an appointment with a pulmonologist (a lung doctor, this word also entered my vocabulary recently) on Monday. Just like before, as soon as I mentioned coronavirus, the reaction was "i'm sorry, we don't take coronavirus patients" but I was persistent in explaining that it has been 3 weeks since I tested positive...so they agreed to let me come in. At this point, it seems my opponent may have retired from the game, and is watching me deal with the after-effects of his little rampage from the side. Hopefully he won't get too much pleasure.