Hello all!

I haven't posted in awhile, at least it doesn't feel like I have anyway. But, I have come across another scary symptom that I was hoping someone could shed some light on. So, I will be getting a Covid test, and today is day 5 for me of symptoms. I started immediately with intense body aches, a 101.6 fever, major headache, the whole thing. As of right now, I don't have a fever, but I have a minor sore throat, and I feel like I might have some phlegm. But the muscle aches are gone. However, the symptom that is scaring me is a feeling of breathlesness - let me explain.

So, the first day it happened, I out of nowhere, I started having a feeling like I couldn't breathe, totally out of nowhere. Eventually, it sort of went away, and then the next day, I didn't have it - but I was also running a high fever and had bad muscle aches. So now yesterday, I got up normally, but eventually, once again out of nowhere, I started having that same feeling at like 6:30 in the morning and it kept going on. It felt like someone put a straitjacket on my chest, and I was almost crying and I almost went to the emergency room. I ended up getting out of the house, and I did go somewhere, (I wore a mask, I maintained social distancing, the whole 9 yards), and that was the only time yesterday where I felt kind of okay. Now today, I feel like I have that same problem.

The best way I can describe it, is like my brain is forgetting to breathe, like I don't have automatic breathing anymore and it panics me. Now I haven't had my Covid test yet, but if I have Covid, I am terrified I will develop acute respiratory distress syndrome because I have read that it's possible for Covid to infect the medulla, which regulates automatic breathing. Can anyone else either relate to this or know any more information about it? I would greatly appreciate it, thank you!