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I Thought COVID Was Behind Us. Then I Got Sick

My illness became a painful reminder that COVID can still hit older adults hard and that getting prompt treatment is key

5-minute read

Marcia Kester Doyle,

AARP

Published November 04, 2026

A person wrapped in a checkered blanket holding a mug, looking out a window at a stormy landscape.

Monica Garwood

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I’ve always been vigilant about keeping up with my vaccines — shingles, pneumococcal and an annual flu shot at the start of each flu season — but it had been years since my last COVID shot. Few people where I live in Florida, on the news or on social media seemed to talk about COVID anymore, and I thought that if I kept my flu vaccines up to date, I would stay relatively healthy during the winter.

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But then I woke one morning with a sore throat and shrugged it off, since sleeping under the ceiling fan often left my throat dry. Even after my husband complained of mysterious body aches that morning, we chalked it up to the previous day’s yard work.

However, as the day progressed, so did an uneasy feeling in my stomach. By dinnertime, my skin felt like it was on fire and every muscle in my body screamed in protest whenever I moved. My husband was no better; he was sprawled across the couch, moaning, a cold cloth draped across his forehead.

What was happening?

My symptoms quickly morphed into something much worse: nausea, joint pain and a debilitating headache that sent me to bed early. Within hours, I was freezing and shaking uncontrollably under four layers of blankets, too weak to search in the dark for something to alleviate the pain.

Fortunately, my husband was much better by morning, but my headache had intensified, accompanied by a fever, body tremors and exhaustion. Digging into the medicine cabinet, my husband retrieved an old COVID test (that miraculously hadn’t expired yet!) and handed it to me. I humored him and took the test.

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And there it was: two pink lines across the stick, proving that COVID was alive and well, wreaking havoc on my body despite my stubborn denial of it.

Remembering how my doctor had urged me to get the COVID vaccine weeks earlier, I felt ashamed for ignoring his advice. He warned that I was at a higher risk for getting severely sick from the virus since I was over 65. But none of my friends were still getting the vaccine. Most thought it wasn’t worth risking the possible side effects. So, like them, I chose to skip the annual shot.

I also believed that since I’d been proactive about my health — sticking to a healthy diet and exercise routine, taking daily vitamins, keeping up my quarterly visits with my physician — I was protected from illness. But taking my health for granted had been a mistake, and now I was paying the price as my body waged war against the unrelenting virus.

My doctor prescribed Paxlovid, as well as steroids to reduce inflammation in my chest for a cough that was so intense it triggered vomiting. The nights were the worst — I was forced to sleep upright in a chair, which only added to my daily exhaustion. But most distressing was the chest rattle. My lungs wheezed and gurgled whenever I breathed out.

Eating was also a chore; everything tasted metallic. What little I could get down I’d lose later in the bathroom.

During another trip to the doctor, I was prescribed an antibiotic for a secondary infection, an inhaler and breathing treatments. This gave me temporary relief from the constant coughing, but I was still battling nausea, body aches, heart palpitations, sinus congestion and nonstop fatigue.

One night in the solitary darkness of my room, I thought, This is it. I can’t fight it anymore after being sick for two weeks. COVID won, and now I’m dying. My bleak thoughts turned to all the poor souls who’d lost their lives to COVID during the pandemic, long before there was hope or vaccines. How foolish I’d been to believe I was immune.

My sister was foolish, too, when she developed severe pneumonia many years ago and refused medical treatment until it was too late. She died at the age of 57 from a condition that would have been treatable if she’d only asked for help. Her stubbornness and denial cost my sister her life, and that sudden, sobering realization motivated me to get out of my chair and go to the emergency room. Unlike her, I chose to advocate for myself to get the care I needed.

At the ER, I received a stronger breathing treatment and chest X-rays to rule out pneumonia, and I met with doctors who took the time to answer my questions and give me the confidence I needed to beat COVID.

As I’m writing this now, five weeks have passed since I got sick. I am much improved, but I still have a few lingering symptoms that are normal after recovering from COVID — a slight cough, mild headaches, brain fog and lower energy levels — but I’m grateful to breathe clearly again and sleep peacefully through the night.

I thought COVID was behind us, but it still exists and should not be ignored just because we don’t hear much about it anymore. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that more than 81 percent of COVID deaths happen among people who are older than 65.

However, recent CDC research shows that people who have received the updated COVID vaccine are 41 percent less likely to become critically ill. For this reason, I will never miss another shot again.

Although COVID may hit some people more mildly nowadays, according to NPR, it’s still considered endemic — meaning that, like the flu, it’s here to stay. But we’re safer now thanks to modern medicine and the fast-acting scientists who developed the original vaccine. They saved lives, and they saved mine.

AARP essays share a point of view in the author’s voice, drawn from expertise or experience, and do not necessarily reflect the views of AARP. 

Marcia Kester Doyle is a Yahoo Life Columnist and the author of Who Stole My Spandex? Life In The Hot Flash Lane. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Huffington Post, The Independent, U.S.A. Today/Reviewed, Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping, AARP, Woman's Day, Country Living, House Beautiful, and many others. You can find her at marciakesterdoyle.com.

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