If you can avoid getting COVID, do. Here's a bit about what happened when I got COVID.

Because of my lung disease I can't breathe through a N95 or KN5 mask. But, while wearing a cloth and surgical mask, I caught COVID from my sister-in-law.

I'd just had treatment (Rituxan/chemo) about 10 days prior so my immune system was fully suppressed to keep me from fighting myself.

We'd been having fires in the area so I thought perhaps my scratchy throat was due to the poor air quality. Then I got more tired. A negative COVID test made me feel hopeful that I wasn't sick but I coughed all night long. When I tested positive the following day, I knew I'd exposed her.

For the first 24 hours, COVID felt like the worst flu I've ever had -- high fever, chills, extreme body aches, nausea/vomiting, terrible headache. The headache (in combination with my migraines) was extraordinary. Sleeping in 60-90 minute chunks because of coughing, congestion, mouth-breathing, and crippling fatigue. After sweating through the sheets on one side of the bed, I grew bone weary moving to the other side of our queen-sized bed.

I'll continue to discuss how COVID played out in the coming days and weeks. Let me know if you have questions or tell me how you've been impacted by COVID with co-existing conditions.

I'm Annette Leonard, speaker, coach, and sick person who believes that my illnesses do not define me. If health is the absence of disease and wellness is the presence of wholeness, then no matter what your disease status, we can work toward your wellness, your wholeness.

Whether or not you are ever "healthy" on paper, you can be well. Join me and others on the path back to wholeness at AnnetteLeonard.com. Whether you are a person experiencing chronic illness or are someone who loves or serves people with chronic illness I have great resources here on this channel or on my website for you.