I'm about 99% certain that I had the COVID-99 virus, but I'll never know for sure, as testing was not available for someone like me when I started feeling ill (March 2nd). In fact, I doubt that I could get tested in most places in the country if I came down with COVID-19 symptoms today, because I probably still would not meet the criteria for testing. I had not traveled internationally, and I had no known contact with anyone that tested positive for COVID-19 (but of course, that doesn't mean much, because almost no COVID-19 testing had been done in the USA at that point).
Anyway, I started feeling ill on March 2nd - fever, chills, bodyache, severe fatigue. No cough, though. All 4 of these things got worse over the next few days. Fever was so bad I couldn't do much of anything.......couldn't read, couldn't sleep. I resisted taking ibuprofen for a couple days, thinking that it would be best to let the fever run its course. But after 2 1/2 days of fever and chills (and basically no sleep), I finally relented and started taking ibuprofen every 5 hours or so. That took the edge off of the fever for a while, and allowed me to get a little sleep, but the fever never really went away. Bodyache and fatigue were bad.........so bad it was a struggle just to get off the couch and go to the bathroom and back. After 5 days of this, I woke up in the morning of Day #6 with just a very low fever. Thought the worst was over, and I felt okay for a few hours that morning. Then the fever and chills returned, for another day and night. Finally, on day #7, I woke up and felt a little better - fever seemed to be basically gone. Had a bad headache, but no fever, no chills, and the fatigue and bodyaches seemed to be gradually easing. Got a few small things done that day, and finally started to get my appetite back, and ate a couple of small meals. On day #8, I woke up and felt somewhat better, and started to gradually improve after that.
I've had the flu in the past, but it was nothing like this. I've never experienced 6 days of high fever and chills with any flu bug or other virus. And with the flu, I remember having a nasty sore throat for several days, which I did not get with this virus.
Fortunately, whatever virus I had never made it to my lungs. I never had a cough, or other respiratory issues.
So, that is my experience, with whatever bug I had. I'm pretty confident it was COVID-19, but I'll probably never know for sure. Maybe they will eventually offer the test that shows whether you have the antibodies for COVID-19, and if they do, maybe I'll get it, just to see if that is what I had.