Table 3 Selected Quotations: Patients’ Descriptions of Common COVID-19 Symptoms

Cough

•  It was dry, it was never productive, and that was it. It wasn’t consistent, like there wasn’t a time during the day that I would start coughing and couldn't stop, it was never like that. It was just like random times during the day.

•   It was a continual cough. I felt like I had a tickle in my throat…and then it went to like a deep cough. It's almost like I couldn’t catch my breath because I just kept coughing all day and it was horrible because I was working.

Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing

•  I couldn’t catch my breath. I remember I was eating a sandwich and I kept trying to gulp for air whilst eating and I felt like I could just die. It was just, it was just terrible. It's like I wasn’t getting enough air in and I was gasping for air.

•  I can walk from my bedroom to the kitchen, and that's pretty much all that I could do, then I have to take a breath, then I can proceed, just like I can make 20 to 25 steps, I have to stop and breathe, then proceed, then stop and breathe, then proceed.

•  I wasn’t able to sleep laying down flat because I felt like I couldn't breathe, so I was having to lay on my side and on my stomach, and that lasted for about a week-and-a-half from that point.

•  I had a really hard time breathing, like I felt like sometimes I was often having a panic attack because I felt like I couldn't catch my breath.

Feeling feverish

•  I would just be cold and like I wouldn't even be hot to touch, like most of the time with a fever when somebody has a fever, you can touch them and you’re like “ooh, yes, you have a fever,” but when I was feeling feverish, I would be cold but you could touch me and I would not be hot.

•  You get cold, can’t get warm, and your body starts aching and your muscles start aching. You feel lethargic, irritated.

•  I felt warm and weak and tired.

Chills

•  I had chills several times, like you could actually see goosebumps and I would feel cold. I checked my temperature several times a day initially and I never recorded a temperature or fever….

•  I got very like cold when it was hot, maybe like what they say the chills, like I needed to cover myself because I was extremely cold.

Fatigue (low energy)

•  I pretty much was sleeping the majority of the day. The first two days that were the worst, I probably was only out of bed for maybe three hours out of those two days. Since then, things have gradually gotten a little bit better, but even a week ago I was having to take two or three naps a day.

•  If I do anything at all, it runs me down and then, you know, you just don't have energy or don't want to do anything at all. It just zaps your energy and you kind of, I don't know, you just feel like a zombie and you’re tired all the time, can’t think straight, like I said, no motivation at all or desire to do anything.

•  Yes, just fatigued and low energy, I couldn't hardly do anything.

Body pain or muscle pain or aches

•  The body aches, I just hurt all over, it’s like I had been in a car accident or something, like I was just sore all over.

•  It was really like it felt like my bones hurt, like every part from my head to my toes hurt constantly. It was almost like a flu ache, and when I would run a fever, it would get worse, and like the covers being pulled over me or something like that would make it worse it seemed like.

•  I ached everywhere, I just kind of felt numb. The only way I know how to describe it is my insides just hurt.

Diarrhea

•  I had to go to the bathroom, you know, in a hurry. And it's kind of liquid.

•  When I would go to the bathroom, it was like very loose, but it wasn’t like the entire time.

Nausea

•  Just the sensation of I’m about to throw up… I mean the room wasn’t spinning or anything, it was just a sensation of oh, I think I’m about to get sick….

•  It was just two or three days that I would cough so much or something to where it would just make me feel a little nauseous, and there was once that I recall thinking, oh my gosh, I’m going to throw up… I just had that cottony feeling in my mouth, but then once I lay down, kind of calmed down a little bit and tried to just get a cough drop to help my cough, then I felt better.

Vomiting

•  Like when I tried to do something, I felt dizzy and I got short of breath, and one time I think I overdo it and I vomited, I vomited my guts out, I vomited like ten times.

•  It was rough, like I said, every time I tried to eat, I would get sick, so it was like coming out both ends, and if I did eat, I would throw up, so that was really the worst part of it.

Headaches

•  I got that horrible headache. I never thought my head could hurt like that… I’ve never had a migraine, but it was so intense.

•  It started out with a headache, a pretty bad headache, I don't usually get headaches bad, and then I just sort of felt icky but it was mostly the headache.

•  I still have been having headaches on and off but they’re not like daily headaches but they’re still in the spot that I had a headache before. It’s didn't feel like a normal sinus headache or like a normal migraine, it was like a weird headache.

Sore throat

•  It was just like a scratchy throat.

•  It’s kind of achy and it’s kind of scratchy. It’s hard to swallow, especially in the morning, it hurts terribly in the morning.

•  It was really itchy and felt like it burned a bit because I kept coughing and it made my throat raw.

Nasal obstruction or congestion (stuffy nose)

•  I was completely stuffed up.

• Your head is congested and the drainage that goes into your, you know, it drains down. That has been one of the worst things for me is the congestion… Because every day constantly your head is congested and the drainage is constantly there.

•  I did have some congestion, like I could feel that my nose was congested, but I didn't have anything coming out, like when I would blow my nose, it wasn’t anything, it just felt congested.

Nasal discharge (runny nose)

•  I had a runny nose.

•  I had more congestion but a lot of discharge four or five days.

Loss of taste (dysgeusia)

•  My food started tasting weird, and then I woke up the next morning and I couldn't smell or taste anything, and so I knew that that was like a big indicator.

•  I would take a drink of something that I knew what it was supposed to taste like and I couldn't taste it, or I would eat something that I knew should have a taste and I couldn't taste it. There was nothing there….

•  That was really weird. I told the doctor it tasted like I had… Metallic. That's the word. Yes. It tasted—things tasted metallic…And I couldn’t really taste anything and I couldn’t smell anything. It was really weird. And food was just not enjoyable.

Loss of smell (anosmia)

•  I can’t taste or smell.

•  I noticed that once I was spraying Lysol, you know, you could smell Lysol, I couldn't smell it, so I actually opened up a bottle of bleach and I tried to sniff that and I couldn't smell it.

•  The first thing was the smell and it became distorted, so it really wasn’t like completely gone… I could smell, like it smelt like I had my nose in a bucket of rusty water or something, it just had this [metallic] smell to it, kind of a burning smell I guess you could say, but that's what everything smelt like to me. I couldn't smell flowers and I couldn't even smell like rubbing alcohol or bleach, there was no smell like that, it was just all that metallic smell that I smelt.

Fever

•  I had a fever, a low-grade fever from the very beginning, and it only went away like two weeks ago.

•  I had low grade fever for about three or four days, never getting over 100, and usually if I get a high fever.

Confusion/Brain fog

•  I also had a real – and I feel like I’m finally coming out of that – a brain fog that was just unreal, I mean I could not think clearly, I could not remember anything…it was real intense I’d say for the first two full months. It was like you could not think clearly…I mean it’s like I could not remember things, I could not focus, I could not concentrate well, and I felt like my head like I literally was in a fog, it was the weirdest feeling ever.

•  I feel like my processing speed like cognitively were really impaired, and I think that is still a lingering symptom… I would say just overall cognition but like memory, processing speed, things like that are just at times they’re very delayed and it’s like you’re kind of cloudy.

Dizziness

•  I also have like dizziness sometimes, like yesterday I felt dizzy, the day before yesterday I felt dizzy…it’s like the balance thing. It’s like just then I was standing, I’m sitting now, but a moment ago when I was talking to you, all of a sudden I felt unsteady like I needed to lean on the counter.

•  It’s almost like a dizziness or a lightheadedness but I wouldn't say that I feel that I’m spinning, like vertigo, but I will have spells that have gotten much less in severity and frequency now, but like two weeks ago there were some multiple spells of almost feeling like you’re going to faint, never that I would actually blacken out or I never felt like I couldn't walk or anything, it was almost like a lightheaded sensation.

Weakness

•  I was so weak, like I couldn't hardly even go to the bathroom without feeling like I was going to pass out…I’m still kind of weak, I’m still not myself completely, I’m still a little weak.

•  I felt weak…The only places I could go was my bed and the bathroom without getting too weak.