Yeah, I got COVID-19 again. Maybe. Thankfully, whether I have COVID or not, this time it's mild.
And by mild, I mean mild enough that I probably wouldn't have even found out if it wasn't for the flu at work. On Friday the 16th I went home with a few patients being sick with the flu. Sunday I felt under the weather. I won't even honor it by calling it 'feeling sick'. Just a sore throat, a little chest/sinus congestion, and a bit of nausea. The sore throat along with the chest congestion made me want to cough but I couldn't sustain a good cough, let alone make it productive. Anyway, I just dealt with it and didn't even bother taking any medicine. Monday I felt about the same but added a tad of nausea and some body aches. I didn't think much of it (more on that later) but when I got to work I found out the hospital had blown up with not only flu but COVID-19. We had 4 cases of flu on Friday. Monday it was 19 cases along with 15 cases of COVID. When Tuesday rolled around and I didn't feel any better, although I didn't feel any worse, I called in sick and went to the doctor.
Here's where I'll pause and explain a couple things. First, my nurse antennae absolutely should have been up on Monday morning. Body aches is a huge sign of flu. I wasn't at all concerned with COVID as I'd already had it in the last 60 days and should be protected, although the unit I work on had seven cases. So yeah, that's on me as I should have probably gone home 'sick' and got into the doctor earlier. But point two, I would never go to the doctor with these symptoms. I wasn't nearly as sick as I felt when I actually had COVID (as I was thinking about it at the time). That time it was kind of hard to get through a day of work. This was just an annoyance. BUT, we'd been saying at work since our last outbreak "if you feel sick, stay home".
Back to the narrative. My thought going to the doctor was a quick visit, explain my symptoms, get a influenza test, confirm that I didn't have the flu, then return to work with a mild upper respiratory infection. I mean, the doctor wouldn't even order any medication and instead just suggest rest and hydration.
By the way, I couldn't get in to see MY doctor and instead saw a doctor I hadn't heard of before. It's no surprise that I hadn't heard of her as she looked like she was all of 14 years old. Not really, but she was really young. I looked her up online (I'm glad I did, otherwise I would have assumed from the way she looked that she was a new nurse!) and found out that she had finished her residency earlier this year. In other words she'd finished her residency since I last saw a doctor. But whatever, she's a doctor and I trust not only in her education but the practice that she's a part of. And it's not like I really had a problem, I just needed her to order the influenza test.
The doctor was nice and did her due diligence, asking me all the right questions. She agreed that these symptoms could be a regular upper respiratory infection, influenza, or yes even COVID. She diagnosed me with an upper respiratory infection and ordered me to get rest and hydration. She also ordered influenza and COVID tests to rule them out. The medical system I'm part of has online electronic patient charting, meaning that I can log in and read up on all of my information. I also get tests as soon as they post and will often have results before the doctor's office calls with the information. Well, Wednesday morning comes and the first thing I see in my email is that I have a new test result. I was afraid the result wouldn't come in until the afternoon, meaning I wouldn't be able to go to work. It turns out I couldn't go to work because it showed a positive result for COVID.
I still didn't believe I had COVID. Understand, at work we don't test for COVID for 90 days after an infection. You can test positive on these tests for that long without it being an active infection. Add in the fact that this was far too mild, in my opinion, to be COVID and I was certain that I only had a mild upper respiratory infection and was just having a false positive COVID result from my previous infection. But a positive test puts me in a pickle at work as it might make me go into the COVID protocol (stay away from work for about a week, blah blah blah...). So I emailed the COVID group at work and informed them of the result, along with my opinion that this wasn't COVID. The hospital director promptly punted the decision to one of our doctors. And not just any of our doctors, this was one of the head COVID doctors for the department (remember, I don't work for the department of corrections any longer, I work for the department of health and human services. That makes this doctor one of the ones that makes official COVID policy for the entire state).
The doctor agreed with me and was a little upset that my doctor's office would even order the test. She asked what type of test it was and wanted their opinion on whether they thought it was a false positive or a re-infection. So, I called my doctor's office back (I should be clear, when I say my doctor's office I mean the practice that includes my doctor, the doctor that I saw, and about ten other medical practitioners). They seemed very adamant that they were going to treat this as a reinfection since it was accompanied by symptoms. They told me to self isolate until Saturday and reported the finding to the county health department. I also got the assurance from my personal doctor, who saw the results, when his nurse called and asked how I was doing. They also offered, and suggested, Paxlovid. That's the antiviral that's supposed to help with COVID symptoms. That alone told me they were taking this seriously as Paxlovid isn't just any medication. It has a LOT of interactions with other medications meaning my doctor would have to go over my entire prescription list medication by medication to see if I needed to change anything (remember, I'm currently on fourteen medications!). He wouldn't do this on a whim.
So, I emailed the COVID group back at work and gave them the news. My doctor was treating this as a re-infection, prescribing me Paxlovid, and telling me to isolate until Saturday. The doctor in the COVID group said we'd have to go with our own COVID protocol which is to isolate for seven days from the beginning of symptoms. Test on day five and seven and if negative with improved symptoms then I can return on day eight. If positive or not improved symptoms, then I can return on day ten with improved symptoms or whenever symptoms improve. She counted from the beginning of my symptoms on Saturday and said I could test that day (Thursday) and two days later, and return to work the next day.
Normally I'd just follow along with what they say. I don't need to rock the boat and point out to the director of the hospital and a big shot doctor that my symptoms started on Sunday as opposed to Saturday. That information was right there in the email chain for them to see. Plus if I tested negative I could get back to work a day earlier. You see, I've been avoiding putting these dates into more recognizable days... Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I'm scheduled to work both which are Saturday and Sunday. If the doc says my symptoms started on last Saturday as opposed to Sunday I can at least work on Christmas Day. I've already planned on working the holiday for the past few months so it's no big deal to work them, but if I'm not there someone else will have to sacrifice their holiday to work in my place. NOT Cool.
But I shouldn't have worried about it. The at home test came back positive. I relayed that information to the doc group but took one last stab, pointing out that my symptoms started on Sunday and asked if I could test on Friday as day five. I might not be working either Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, but I can at least still work the next week. The doc was appreciative of me pointing that out and said I could test on Friday (today) and Sunday and still possibly return to to work on Monday. If I test positive on either of those days I have to wait the full ten days which means I'd return to work on Thursday due to my normally scheduled days off.
If I'm honest, I bet I'll still test positive. Whether or not I have an actual re-infection of COVID, I might test positive from the infection in October. I've tested positive twice in the past three days and am now hoping to test negative twice in the next three days. I don't think a gambling addict would even put money on that outcome.
As for the infection.... yeah, this is a mild cold at worst. Before getting on Singulair I got 'colds' all the time and they were just like this. Since being on Singulair, I get the occasional cold and again, it's just like this. It's mild. In fact the worst of this so far is the sleeping disturbances and the side effects of the Paxlovid. The sleeping disturbances aren't as sever as they were with COVID and might just be more of me not having a schedule to keep. I get tired earlier than normal and go to bed. Tuesday night that meant sleeping for eleven and a half hours. Last night I went to be earlier than normal, around 2245, but slept a normal six and a half hours. Yeah, I got up early this morning.
The side effects of Paxlovid are hilarious. They basically read like COVID symptoms. They include:
- altered sense of taste
- diarrhea
- high blood pressure
- muscle aches
- abdominal pain
- nausea
- feeling generally unwell
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