Macanlalay, Ralph Elvin R.

BSN 2F

Senseless and Tired

Throughout my entire COVID-19 experience, the two primary factors that have greatly affected
me, even until now that required me to adjust certain specifics in my current life would be, my loss of
sense of smell and taste, and the unusual fatigue.

Losing my sense of smell and taste has placed me in a position where flavor and odor does not
affect me and only being dependent on texture while eating. This has somewhat put me off at the start,
temporarily making me lose my appetite; not to mention the incidents where I had difficulty telling apart
food that had gone bad and food that is still edible since I was not able to smell or taste it.

This one specific incident at the time, gave me unpleasant diarrhea, where the only fortunate
thing at the time was that I could not smell it. Rather, dehydration was my primary concern at the time,
where I thankfully still remember from a certain lecture regarding ORS, which came in handy since water
was not enough for me at the time, and I could already notice certain symptoms of dehydration such as
fatigue, reduced frequency of urination, and a certain degree of lightheadedness. I still went to my
physician that day to get a prescription, but that idea helped me ease up even by a little.

In regards to fatigue, this is the one that is most bothersome and has been the one that has
been an inconvenience to me especially during online classes. I am not typically easily fatigued, but a
few days before I had tested positive for COVID, I was already feeling tired from not doing anything, I
would end up feeling sleepy in the middle of the day, mid-lecture, and if I forced myself I would end up
having a migraine throughout the day. I had not consciously done it at the time, but I had changed my
diet to focus more on giving me energy to combat the fatigue, but in unconsciously doing so, I found
myself gaining weight, and feeling lethargic in some days. It wasn’t until the week before prelims exam
that I had remembered certain aspects of diet prescription that would help me plan out my proper
dietary need in regards to my TER and current AMR at the time. With the help of the internet, and a few
Google searches, I had somewhat eased my fatigue problem to a manageable extent, allowing me to go
as far as to survive until 4:30am with only minor inconvenience.

Truth be told, in my current situation, there wasn’t a lot of key points from the lessons I’ve
learned that have greatly affected my current situation, but there weren’t a lot of noteworthy
experiences aside from my current symptoms and the uncontrolled dry coughs that come and go every
now and then, so I guess that would explain the lack of application of concepts I could do.

Be that as it may, I am grateful enough to only experience these minor symptoms, and
continuously pray that neither me nor my family would end up experiencing the more severe symptoms
of COVID-19