Lena Dunham Shares Her COVID Story On Instagram: Actress Still Struggling With After-Effects

KEY POINTS

Lena Dunham's initial symptoms included achy joints, fatigue and high fever
She wasn’t hospitalized and a doctor treated her at home
She had constant migraine and her arthritis flared after she tested negative

Actress Lena Dunham shared her COVID-19 story on Instagram and also revealed that she is still reeling under the after-effects.

In the Instagram post, Dunham revealed that she tested positive for the deadly virus in mid-March. Her initial symptoms included achy joints, fatigue and high fever.

"The nerves in my feet burned and muscles wouldn’t seem to do their job. My hands were numb. I couldn’t tolerate loud noises. I couldn’t sleep but I couldn’t wake up. I lost my sense of taste and smell. A hacking cough, like a metronome keeping time. Inability to breathe after simple tasks like getting a glass of water. Random red rashes. A pounding headache right between my eyes. It felt like I was a complex machine that had been unplugged and then had my wires rerouted into the wrong inputs. This went on for 21 days … that blended together like a rave gone wrong," she wrote in the post.

A post shared by instagram

She also revealed that she wasn’t hospitalized and a doctor treated her at home.

"This kind of hands-on attention is a privilege that is far too unusual in our broken healthcare system," she wrote.

After a month, the 34-year-old creator and star of HBO’s "Girls" tested negative, however, the symptoms lingered. She had constant migraine, her arthritis flared and she had swollen feet and hands.

"Even as a chronically ill person, I had never felt this way. To be clear, I did not have these particular issues before I got sick with this virus and doctors don’t yet know enough to tell me why exactly my body responded this way or what my recovery will look like. I know I am lucky; I have amazing friends and family, exceptional healthcare and a flexible job where I can ask for the support I need to perform. … BUT not everybody has such luck, and I am posting this because of those people. I wish I could hug them all," she wrote

Dunham wrote that she was forced to share her story after "seeing the carelessness with which so many in the United States are treating social distancing."