Feeling Like A Lost Summer Again

My summers over the past few years have been mostly completely lost summers of poor health and it looks as though this summer will be the same.  

I had been sick all through the last three weeks of July with what was likely and presumably COVID, yet again, and now I have the terribly inflamed joint problem starting all over again just like after the first two times I had COVID.  As if that is not enough, either I am developing a mild case of shingles or those shingles-like symptoms are related to my inflamed joints.  If so, rather than having inflamed joints lingering for months, it is more like inflamed nerves.  

About five days ago, I started developing pain from my right brow up across my forehead and across my scalp to the back of my head.  It is definitely burning, overly-sensitive, and irritated skin as opposed to something under the bone like in the brain.  We initially figured that maybe the latest bout with COVID triggered shingles.  

I've had the better and newest shingles vaccine so, if I do develop shingles, I would expect it to be a relatively mild case.  It has been about six days now and my skin across the area of my face and head is still irritated and overly-sensitive.  That hasn't gone away.

In the meantime, I had great difficulty sleeping last night because I started having serious pain in my left wrist.  I spent more than a year (well...  more like almost two years, on and off) nursing joint pain and swelling of my joints in my lower extremities after my first bout with COVID.  It was so bad that I was on crutches and in braces for a very long while.  The doctors all agreed that this joint inflammation and swelling was most likely a lingering effect of COVID.  It hasn't been until the past few weeks that my knees and ankles have felt relatively normal.  Now, I have the same thing affecting my wrist.  

I tried to sit at the piano this morning...  I quickly realized that, nope, that is not going to happen.  I was hoping that maybe loosening it up a bit might relieve some of the pain.  Nope...  my wrist started throbbing.  And that was the very reason I had to get out of bed early this morning.  My wrist was throbbing so badly that I could not sleep.  Perhaps I slept on it in an odd position to aggravate it.  I don't know.  What I do know is that every time I get COVID, I experience serious joint pain for many months afterward.  This time it seems to be affecting my joints in the upper extremities as opposed to my lower extremities so that means I'll probably be taking a break from piano, unfortunately.  

If recent history and my experiences with lingering COVID effects are any indication, it looks like my summer is likely done.  I haven't done anything all through July because I was so sick and now it looks like I'll have the lingering nerve/joint issue again for a while.  This will definitely impact what I can and cannot accomplish each day. 

We'll see how it goes....

EDIT - 9 Aug 2022:  I thought I would add an update the following day.  My pain/sensitivity across my forehead and scalp is the same today.  I still have no rash though so I guess that is good.  It seems like shingles but, without a rash, I don't think there is any reason to see a doctor yet

My wrist pain was tolerable through the night last night.  I used Aspercreme with lidocaine on it, took some Aleve, and wore a brace.  That definitely helped.  When I got up in the morning, I used the piano as a test...  the throbbing started again within a few short minutes so I stopped playing the piano.  

Later in the day today, my wrist was just feeling "tender"...  it was no longer throbbing and the pain dropped to just a tenderness.  So, either that problem is resolving itself or the Aleve and Aspercreme are both minimizing the pain very well.  Maybe it is a combination of the problem resolving itself and the Aleve and Aspercreme helping.  

I noticed today that the joint pain is worse in my knees and ankles again.  It is not at a debilitating stage but it is noticeably worse.  

My cough from the almost month-long virus is still lingering.  I'm still coughing up thick, very thick mucus.  That is one of the significant differences I have noticed with COVID when compared to a cold or the flu...  the mucus is sickenly thick.  Of course, the other major telltale sign is the breathing problems experienced with COVID and I had that again this third time around.  Anyway, the cough is lingering but it is not as bad as it has been.  It seems to improve slightly with each passing day now.  And, my breathing is back up into the upper 90s so that is good too.  

The two big things to keep an eye on for now are the symptoms of shingles and my wrist/joint pain.