Amanda Hodgson was drained of energy and could not get herself out of bed, but knows that she "dodged a bullet" by being able to recover from coronavirus.
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The former Albury resident is a fit and active wife, mother and performance coach, but last month she was one of thousands diagnosed with COVID-19.
Her husband Rob got the virus when he was in the United States for work and by the time he was hit with the symptoms and got tested, he had already passed it onto her - fortunately they both only got mild symptoms.
She shared her story via Business Women Albury Wodonga on Friday, speaking live on Facebook to offer advice on her scary experience.
The couple spent 12 years living in Albury before moving to Sydney 18 months ago and Mrs Hodgson said although they have new friends, it was difficult not seeing loved ones on the Border during this difficult time.
Mr Hodgson, a former North Albury footballer in the Ovens and Murray, had no signs of coronavirus when he landed back in Australia and health authorities refused to test him because he had no symptoms, so the couple even went out for dinner - something they would have not done in hindsight.
It started when he developed a cough and two days later he was unwell in bed.
When the coronavirus diagnosis was finally confirmed, he rushed to his wife and said "I've got it".
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"Things progressed very quickly," Mrs Hodgson said.
Soon afterwards her body started to ache, she lost her sense of smell and she had such little energy that she felt she would pass out when getting out of bed.
"For me, it literally ended up being get up, wash my face, have a shower, go back to bed," she said.
"I couldn't hug the kids, I didn't want to let them in the bedroom ... That was really challenging."
Mrs Hodgson and her husband had a few days where they were both very sick, before he regained his energy.
"I was pretty unwell, but kind of functioning," she said.
"I don't know how the kids even looked after themselves in that couple of days.
"I think we just put food out and let them feed themselves while one of us sat with them - it was quite painful.
"I remember at one point just leaning on the bench and making the food, then going to sit on the couch."
As a performance coach, Mrs Hodgson sets goals to get her mind through problems, and although this was tough, she did not panic because she knew it could have been much worse.
She was grateful they never needed to go to hospital.
Her advice for anyone else who gets coronavirus was to get small goals to accomplish, only listen to facts rather than speculation, and have a schedule that you can manage.
"I would be super confident that the reason Rob and I only got a mild case of coronavirus was because we're so fit and healthy ... we're so conscious about what we eat and put into our bodies," Mrs Hodgson said.
"Compared to what's going on in the world, and people who have lost their lives and are on ventilators, we had it good."
