Lena Dunham on Friday revealed that she battled the coronavirus in mid-March — and that she’s still experiencing crushing after-effects of the disease.
The 34-year-old creator and star of HBO’s “Girls” gave a detailed account of her illness in an Instagram post titled, “My Covid Story.”
“It started with achy joints,” Dunham wrote, “then the pain was joined by a crushing fatigue. Then a fever of 102.”
“Suddenly my body simply revolted.”
The New York native, who suffers from a host of chronic illnesses, said she experienced serious symptoms for about three weeks, which she spent in isolation. She didn’t say where she contracted COVID-19 or where she self-quarantined.
During her illness, she wrote that, “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.”
“It felt like I was a complex machine that had been unplugged and then had my wires rerouted into the wrong inputs.”
Dunham said that she did not have to be hospitalized, as a doctor treated her at home, noting that “this kind of hands-on attention is a privilege that is far too unusual in our broken healthcare system.”
For three weeks, she said her days “blended into each other like a rave gone wrong.”
After a month, she tested negative for the virus — but is still experiencing health issues that she “did NOT have” before catching COVID-19.
Those included having swollen hands and feet, a constant migraine and debilitating fatigue.
“Even as a chronically ill person, I had never felt this way,” she wrote.
She said she was compelled to tell her story after seeing the “carelessness” of people when it comes to wearing masks, social distancing or taking other precautions to ward off the illness.
“When you take the appropriate measures to protect yourself and your neighbors,” she wrote, “you save them a world of pain.”