Lingering COVID

Even after multiple negative home COVID tests, I am now absolutely certain that I am struggling with another bout of COVID.  This would make it the sixth time I've developed this insidious virus.  Since the first bout with this virus in early 2020, I've been struggling with long-COVID problems.

Each time I'm infected with the virus again, my long-COVID problems worsen significantly.  I have occasionally gotten colds, infections, etc, and yet these illnesses never worsen my long-COVID symptoms.  Each time I have developed COVID again, however, my long-COVID problems significantly worsen.  Keeping this in mind, I am certain that I have been struggling with another bout of COVID over the past two weeks regardless of what the crappy home COVID tests indicate.

So, my breathing has worsened significantly.  I am struggling with phlegm as thick as...  hmmm, thinker than sour cream...  thicker than butter...   I guess, as thick as kindergarten school paste is the best description.  Try blowing that out your nose.  My voice is hoarse and I often lose my voice in mid-sentence.  My joints are so inflamed that doing anything spikes the pain level to a solid eight on the ten point pain scale.  I have some inflamed lymph nodes.  I have a sore throat that comes and goes...  ear aches that come and go...  sometimes clogged ears...  and I generally feel quite lousy.  

My mood is not improving especially with skunks, bears and ignorant, selfish neighbors poking at my tolerance levels.  My list of things to do around the house continues to grow.  I won't be able to get to the rest of the summer things to do (ie, work on the house during the snowless months) because I have now fallen so far behind in all the typical daily maintenance like the lawn, landscaping, small outdoor repairs, and even indoor things like straightening up the house and fixing little things.  

Developing COVID twice every single year is brutal, debilitating, painful, time consuming...  ALL consuming.  It never has a chance to go away.  Each infection of this virus lingers into the next infection of this virus.  And, most importantly, we rarely wander from the house!  We don't socialize regularly.  We avoid people like the plague...  or, far too similarly, like COVID.  Yet, I am still getting infected with this virus twice each year.

I have no doubts that long term and/or permanent damage to my body will be found due to this virus.  My opinion is that the prognosis for myself has been rather bleak but also, on a much larger scale, my prognosis for the human race is looking rather bleak at the moment as well.