No issues…but I wasn’t running hard. I was more like fast shuffling…
and enjoying doing it on a packed, fine gravel course through the woods. The past month while I was having issues I had stopped running and just went to doing fast walking while at my kids soccer practices. I would do about five miles per night…four nights a week. Once I started getting the chest rattle though…I stopped doing that about two weeks ago for fear I was still preventing healing. So now I’ve been pretty sedentary for two weeks and it is driving me crazy. I keep looking at my bikes.
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Well I got it the first time in March so I had a good six months before the second time.
For me, the distinctive symptoms were a headache in my front sinuses and super duper malaise…not sleepy, but just staring off into the distance and deciding that even watching Bugs Bunny was too much of a mental investment.
Since I was about to go sit in a metal tube with other people, I got a rapid test done and was found positive.
The second time was shorter and milder than the first.
Hope you get better soon, old man!
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Moderna #1 done.
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I was disappointed this morning to feel that familiar rasp in my right lung and a light, but persistent dull pain near my right kidney. I called the nurse at my doctor’s office and she said it wasn’t unusual for pain to come back because the decreasing dosage of the six day course of steroids (starts at 24mg and decreases by 4mg each day) means that whatever inflammation you have or still have will come back. So I’m worried that whatever is the root cause is still there…but hopefully better and healing. CT scan tomorrow - hopefully that will shed some light on what is going on. Still rooting for a continuation of pneumonia because that is the least worst of the outcomes.
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Fingers crossed for you Beach 
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Haha…right on…! I’ll take the cheerleading!
I’ve never been a hypochondriac type…never had any serious medical issues…and usually don’t let anything get into my head. So it is unusual that I feel this way about this run in with something. But…I guess it is a reflection on my group of associates and friends moving slowly into that age 50 area where I’ve seen some of them check out early, some get issues, and others are just trucking along fine. I’m convinced that COVID had everything to do with what I’m going through now. I have some anger about being told late last year that we were going to start transporting COVID+ patients but I won’t get into that now. Right now I’m focused on the steps toward getting better.
It is good for people to realize that even a mild brush with COVID might have effects down the road a bit that we don’t fully appreciate yet.
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I am with you on both counts. First, I am 52 and FEEL like I am in the best shape of my life. (I’m not saying it’s particularly GOOD, just BETTER than ever before). But I’ve had a few acquaintances pop off over the last few years, some through aviation and some through cancer.
But COVID. I’ve been so lucky that you, Beach, are the only person I kinda know who’s been laid low in a significant way by this disease. It is the most diabolical affliction I’ve never imagined. The Hot Zone scared us with hemorrhagic diseases that killed people painfully and quickly as they bled out in a few hours. It was the most terrifying thing I had ever read. But this! It’s playing different games with every patient. Some are having psychotic events months after brushing off a mild case of the virus. It has this way of programming our bodies to destroy us through some form of inflammation. Here we are a year later. (A year and four months if you’re China). And doctors are still struggling to understand the myriad of ways COVID makes us suffer.
And in all that ignorance we’ve asked a certain segment of society to suck it up because we need them in order for civilization to function. Doctors, meat-packers, nurses, grocery workers, medivac pilots and others have been exposed by the millions. When the history of this is written there will be a reckoning of how a whole swath of humanity was thrown away so that the economic wheel didn’t stop completely. This feels almost like Chernobyl but on a far vaster scale.
So that’s my Debbie Downer speech. I know that you will recover to full form because I refuse to imagine any alternative outcome. And anyway, so much stress could have been avoided had they just scheduled your CT scan immediately. This wait is cruel. Especially given the sacrifices you have made to serve your hospital.
Some may accuse me of being off my Paracetamoxyfrusebendroneomycin!
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The Hot Zone was a great read. I actually read it twice. I read another book about BSE (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy) (or Mad Cows disease) as well a few years ago. Prions are an interesting and terrifying little creation that nature devised.
It does seem that COVID has a good ability to find a weak point and press. I’m still very grateful that I didn’t get the chest variety right off the bat that would have had me in the hospital being intubated. I feel very fortunate about that. I think I’ll be fine…mostly I just hope for a 100% recovery because I’m selfish and want all of my lung capacity because of the activities I enjoy.
The wait was due to waiting for evaluation and approval by my insurance company. I received the letter from Blue Cross/Blue Shield two days ago that I was OK to proceed. I guess I can consider myself lucky…I could have Great Benefit insurance…
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Great book, great movie!
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We make Great Benefit and Office Space quotes daily at work…
My left lung, and I have had it since 2021. The damage is visible on xray and if I breathe tobacco smoke, solvents or diesel fumes it feels like the inside of the lung being sanded. If I persist in ignoring symptoms, a paroxmal cough develops (coughing like a machine gun) until no air is left inside. You can’t breathe in while you are coughing. Then I am physically sick and collapse. Being sick is the bodies auto response to constant and prolonged coughing enabling breathing to resume.
What I and the doctors learnt.
- Had I been kept on steroids for longer the damage would not have been as severe.
- Minimise activities that generate symptoms. DCS is good
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That’s a raw deal. Do the symptoms recede over time or is it chronic?
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Praying for a swift and full recovery Beach, sorry to read about your experience with COVID.
I had it at the end of February and was in bed sick for 5 days but had a light case (and thankfully got on meds immediately on the first day of fever) and was back at work by March 1st, albeit a little more tired and fatigued than usual. That seemed to get better after about 2-3 weeks and now I’m more or less my same old self, albeit perhaps a little more out of shape since I took two weeks off from any type of exercise… Thankfully my wife (preggo with #2) and my son didn’t get it.
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It’s unlikely to improve. But I have lasted a lot longer than they first said.
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Its little more than 100 years that we know something about viruses. We know that we dont know … but we are learning … hopefully our learning process will be faster than the other processes …
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just had the first shot of the Astra zeneca vaccine … time to see if any side effects kick in. 
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I’ve heard of severe cases of videogameitis! Nothing you can do if the side effect of a vaccination hit you - and everybody understands.
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So the CT scan shows I’m the winner of bilateral pulmonary embolisms. Why go for one when you can have both for the same price!
The CT scanner tech said she didn’t know whether to send me to my doctor or the ER.
Doctor said…well…I dodged a bullet. There is a 10% chance of death right off the bat…but the clots made it through my heart and into my lungs. The danger is not over…but within hours (he says) of taking a blood thinner (Xaralto) my odds of having a problem go down exponentially. So I’m happy to be here…
I’m grounded though. For at least six weeks, but by the time I get through the FAA bureaucracy it may be over three months before I can get back in the air. Pretty depressing…but taken against the backdrop of the alternative consequences…I’ll take this outcome.
If you aren’t feeling right…go see the doctor. I’m happy that I have a problem that can be fixed… Thanks for all the well wishes. I look forward to my full recovery and getting back to work as soon as I can.
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