Scattered Thoughts . . .

E ven 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 s...

I 've been feeling very lousy since late last week and I can't help but wonder if it is yet another bout of COVID for the sixth time.  We saw all the grandkids earlier in the week last week and went on a cruise on Lake Champlain with our group so I was exposed to the general public and a lot of tourists during a period when COVID spread is "high".  I feel so consistently lousy that I really can't help but wonder if I have COVID again. Here is a quick list of my current problems: - consistent breathing problems most often when lying in bed - thick-as-paste mucus...  although, this is much less severe than in the past...  so far - I have a little bit of a dry cough...  sometimes producing this thick-as-paste mucus - sore throat - swollen glands - a relentless sinus headache - ear aches, coming and going - my joints ache more than usual - I'm exhausted - I haven't had a fever but I'm experiencing chills occasionally - I just generally feel like poop - the...

B etween typical lousy springtime weather and continued daily struggles with Long-COVID problems, I've been trying to find things to accomplish around the house.   I'm still having more difficulty than usual with breathing problems.  I'm always feeling like I'm trying to clear thick, nasty phlegm from my lungs.  Actually, I am still clearing this thick, nasty phlegm from my lungs (dark nasty stuff) but it is difficult to move this thick stuff and it seems to continue to replenish itself even after I clear some out.  So, this makes breathing difficult which also causes extra fatigue.   Another lingering problem is inflamed joints.  This isn't nearly as bad as it was from January through March but it is still worth mentioning.  As exhausted as I am, the pain continues to keep me up at night and keep me more uncomfortable than usual almost all the time.  I'm always dealing with pain due to my extensive spinal injuries as well as the bone an...

I had a relatively good day today for a change.  I slept about nine hours last night so I'm sure that helped considering I have not been sleeping well due to excruciating bone pain.  My bone pain has subsided to tolerable levels so that allowed me to get some much needed sleep.   Since I was feeling relatively well this morning, I managed to do some maintenance on a photography tripod head which is perhaps the most I've accomplished in any day since developing COVID in Manhattan before Christmas.  So, it was a pretty good day for a change. Tonight, however, I have a fever of 100.4° and that is not so good.   I've been see-sawing back and forth with fevers a few times a week for the past month.  In the previous month of COVID, I had a solid fever and I consistently tested positive for the virus.  I'm no longer testing positive but the fevers are still coming and going along with a few other problem symptoms.   My energy is still qui...

This week has been quite brutal.   My usual bone pain has recently moved to a level so painful that I, myself, am unable to touch my long bones especially my femurs and tibias.  At rest, the pain is in the seven out of ten range.  When I lightly touch my femur or tibia, the pain skyrockets off the charts.   I'm also overwhelmingly exhausted.  I slept half the morning today and most of the afternoon.  My excruciating level of pain isn't helping me get some useful rest at all, of course. My breathing hasn't been the best either which also adds to the fatigue problem.   My fevers continue to come and go too.   Needless to say, I'm not accomplishing much of anything over the past couple of months.  When things get this bad, I attempt to do a lot of research so that is what I have been doing most of my waking time.  Well...  most of my waking time (which isn't much time at all) is probably spent preparing and cooking ...

W e were supposed to attend Kenzie's annual figure skating show last night.  Normally, I would be the one shooting photos and video of the event. Unfortunately, I was feeling quite lousy all day long with a sore throat and generally feeling pretty weak and miserable.  By mid-afternoon, I had a fever (yet again) so I tested myself for COVID again since we were supposed to be meeting with a lot of people at the show.   I tested negative, which I suppose is a good thing, but these symptoms as well as the fever are the same as I have been fighting since testing positive just before Christmas.  Plus, I'm simply feeling pretty miserable most of the time.  I have occasional good moments but I'm feeling less-than-good far more often.  It has been a long couple of months.   Considering my sore throat and the fever, I knew I should stay home rather than risk passing whatever I have on to someone else.  Plus, I knew that wearing myself down more by...

Today was Valentine's Day so I stopped to pick up a dozen roses, some candy and a card for Sheila as I was driving back home from another medical appointment.  Sheila seemed to be pleasantly surprised by the gifts when I arrived home.   My health has been so lousy with COVID since before Christmas that we sort of skipped Christmas, our anniversary, New Year's, and even a long weekend out of town with friends.  It has been a period of nothingness, overwhelming fatigue, pain and lousy health.   I had a medical appointment this morning while Sheila worked from home which provided me with an ideal opportunity to get a few things to show my love and appreciation for Sheila.  As I said, I believe she was pleasantly surprised and thankful! My health...  uggg...  COVID is a miserable, debilitating and highly contagious virus and, at this point, I seriously wonder whether I will ever get in front of it.  It has been over a year now of being well ...

W e were supposed to head out of town this past weekend for one of the largest train shows in the US but I have still been struggling with this latest and very long bout of COVID as well as a secondary infection and other secondary health issues.  My health had been slowly improving over the past week (finally) but I was still not feeling well enough for a trip out of town.  Actually, it was not even a close call.  I definitely was still not feeling well enough to do anything other that a few minutes of household chores. Truthfully, due to contracting COVID yet again during our first trip out of town since the before the pandemic, I have no desire to risk going out of town for the foreseeable future.  This virus is far too contagious and far too debilitating especially when combined with my primary illness.  Besides, every time I get this insidious virus, I'm sick for months and things get dangerously bad every time.  It seems like whenever I let my guard d...

I 'm five weeks into this bout with COVID and I'm still experiencing fevers every day.  Every evening my temperature rises into the triple digits range.  I was feeling "fair" this morning when I got up so that was a nice change.  It was pretty short-lived though. I have been ignoring snow removal due to struggling with the virus and daily fevers so, since I was feeling pretty good this morning (relatively speaking), I headed outside to clear out snow from around the house and off the roof.  By the time I came back inside a couple of hours later, I was feeling pretty lousy again.   Every evening, my sinus headache returns along with the fever but the sinus headache this evening is quite painful.  This sinus headache came back with a vengeance after all the heavy work outside.  Of course, my spinal injuries were screaming at me too while I was moving snow and since then.  I took quite a few breaks while working outside in an attempt to get past...

I 'm going to keep this blog entry short since I'm writing on my Kindle in bed.   I had a fever again last night.  Although I felt mediocre this morning (eh...  well, I still felt rather lousy but better than I have been feeling for the past month), I slept most of the afternoon and then developed a fever again tonight.   I have inflamed lymph nodes in my neck, underarms and around my upper torso and swollen glands in my neck.  I've had this problem since developing COVID a month ago.  My sinuses are still hurting consistently.  I simply feel lousy.  The COVID virus seems to continue to incite mast cell issues with my primary illness too. Anyway, I wanted to document the continuing waves of fever.  The virus just doesn't seem to be loosening its grip on me.

A s if having the COVID virus for a month now isn't enough, I'm also developing various secondary health problems. First, I developed a sinus infection.  Since I was still struggling with active COVID including fever, I needed to stay in quarantine so that I wouldn't infect my whole primary care practice.  This meant that when I thought I was developing a sinus infection, I had to resort to a televisit meeting with my doctor.  Since I was just video chatting with my doctor this meant that she couldn't examine me for additional problems and only had my descriptive assessment of symptoms to form a diagnosis and prescribe a treatment plan.   There was no doubt that she was right in that I was suffering from a sinus infection.  That was obvious by the symptoms.  Unfortunately, we are now thinking there were more serious underlying problems as well that had yet to show any symptoms. I got up yesterday morning at around 5am.  I hardly slept through the ...

Although I've been feeling quite lousy since being home from Manhattan...  so for the past month...  due to having COVID and some secondary infections and now awaiting results of some more serious tests, I've been a little bit bored at times too.  Most of the time, I've been feeling too lousy too be bored but, sometimes, I feel just well enough to want to accomplish something. I don't have much energy and my health problems seem to continually get worse in waves, but I still hope to accomplish something small each day with a very short burst of energy.  "Burst of energy"...  that is a bad joke so let me rephrase that.  I push myself for a few minutes at a time when I'm feeling a little better than I have previously and then need to rest.  Sometimes I sit at the piano briefly, sometimes I read, sometimes I watch a movie (or listen to a movie with my eyes closed), sometimes I pick up a camera and shoot some still objects in the living room. I had a few v...

When I got up out of bed this morning, I only got as far as the kitchen (directly from the bedroom while on the way toward the bathroom) before I told Sheila I was already ready for a nap!  Since then, all I need to do is walk from one room to another before needing to sit down to take a break to restore some energy.  Then I walk another 10-20 feet and I need to sit down to take a rest again.  To say that I am "exhausted" is a gross understatement.  I am what I would consider to be dangerously low on energy. Since we arrived back home from Manhattan a few days before Christmas, I have spent most of my time either in bed or on the couch.  This has been my view from the couch...  and, for a change of pace, I sometimes sit in that armchair... Most of the time, I've had a camera or two at my side hence the snapshots here in this blog today.  Below is a photo of my favorite camera, my Sony a7 which is about nine years old at this point.  I shot this us...

M y morning started out better than I have experienced since we were in Manhattan last month which was quite a relief for a change.  I was feeling well and I was up an hour before Sheila so I managed to get a few little things accomplished around the house that I had been putting off for more than three weeks because I had been so sick.  I showered and then Sheila got up out of bed. After just an hour of little everyday things around the house that everyone takes for granted without a single thought of how they will accomplish it, that was about it for me. I started feeling exhausted.  I was starving.  Before long, I was dizzy, I was having more difficulty breathing, my vision was narrowing and my peripheral vision was filled with sparkly grayness.  I've experienced this many times, especially in the past year after my previous COVID infection, so I quickly identified it as the cascading symptoms of anaphylaxis.  I grabbed my epinephrine and some of my emer...

I finally tested negative for COVID and we needed a few things from the market so we headed out of the house tonight.   This was my first time out of the house since we were in Manhattan the week before Christmas so I've been stuck in the house for quite some time.  Tonight, I quickly learned that I'm still not ready to be out and about. I'm definitely exhausted and that was the first thing I noticed while walking down our first aisle at the market.  My breathing isn't great but it has been far worse in the past.  I was breathing more heavily than I should have been simply by casually strolling down a couple of aisles in the market.   I just generally feel lousy and that was very noticeable tonight before we finished our first aisle.  My nose is still running a bit but that is so minor that I typically would not even mention it.  I mention it only to make note, for future reference, that my nose is still running. Overall, I'm feeling lousy a...

While I am still recovering from COVID and a secondary infection, I pulled out one of my film cameras.  This is my Mint TL70 TLR Instax camera. I have sort of lost all track of time but I think I've been in quarantine for three weeks now.  I should be at the end of my quarantine period though as long as I test negative for COVID this evening.  I already went through the Paxlovid treatment and I am just finishing up my antibiotic for my secondary infection.   I'm feeling a bit better than I have been feeling, finally, but I am still quite fatigued.  Actually, I'm quite exhausted by mid-morning.  I'm still seeing signs in my nasal mucus showing that my body is in overdrive fighting this infection but the mucus volume is significantly smaller now which is good.  I've been fever-free for a few days now which is good because I had a fever coming and going for a long, long time.  My joints are pretty painful.  My spinal injuries are quite lous...

For the most part, today was yet another rather miserable day. I thought I might get to writing more about our trip to Manhattan a few weeks ago but I'm feeling so lousy today that I opted to avoid writing about the trip.  At the moment, due to getting this horrendous, lingering, debilitating virus during this trip, I have absolutely nothing good to write about this trip nor do I want to travel ever again so it is best that I do not put any of my current feelings into writing.  This sentiment about travel will likely change...  in time...  perhaps a very long time...  but, at the moment, this is how I feel.   I slept most of the day, again, and I generally feel quite miserable.  I had a little bit of energy after sleeping most of the morning but that only lasted about a half hour before I was feeling quite miserable again.  In that half hour, I managed to fix my telephone line in the house and I wrote about that in a previous blog entry....

I 'm feeling slightly better than yesterday but I still feel quite lousy.  I'm feeling lousy enough that I am dreading going outside to remove snow from the roof and driveway.  I'm still exhausted and my joints ache.  My breathing isn't bad but my head is all congested and I'm coughing up phlegm so I'm still expecting to have some breathing problems when I'm doing something physical like working outside.  We'll see how my breathing really is later today when I do head outside to move snow.  I'm definitely not looking forward to it though.  Just the thought of heading out there is making me more exhausted. I had a fever last night before we headed to bed.  I was fever-free all day and was hoping that the fevers were finally behind me but apparently not.  So far, today, I'm fever-free so that is good. What isn't helping any is the fact that I am still vividly remembering trying to move snow while sick with COVID in past winters.  Saying it was ...

I t is really frustrating dealing with my primary care doctor's office lately.   First, if you don't call between 8am and maybe around 8:10am, you have no chance of seeing your doctor that day because their schedule will be filled up already.   Next, they won't schedule you to come in on any other days, only the current day.  Of course, annual physicals and follow-ups are scheduled in advance but not initial visits for a new condition.  This nonsense is extremely frustrating. I was already in contact with a nurse yesterday afternoon and I was actually advised to call first thing this morning to make an appointment to see my doctor or, I should go to Urgent Care as soon as possible.  I had already stated this fact to the scheduler when I called this morning. So, when I called this morning and quickly explained my situation and concern (possible sinus infection), the scheduler asked for the reason and I told her that I am COVID positive because I wanted ...

I noticed today that my runny nose has now changed from being a clear, slightly viscous liquid to an opaque yellow mucus which is a sign of my body fighting off an infection so I contacted my doctor's office to ask what I should do.   I was told that since I'm past the 10 day quarantine period then they want to see me tomorrow or I need to head to urgent care if I can't get an appointment tomorrow.  My doctor's office is overcrowded so, lately, it has been difficult to get a same day appointment so I wouldn't be surprised if I need to head to urgent care instead. So, in anticipation of my doctor's scheduler asking if I am displaying any symptoms of COVID and/or have tested positive, I decided to test again this evening...  It is two weeks into this horrendous virus and I am still testing positive! My fever still comes and goes in waves.  I have a cough and I'm coughing up phlegm.  As I already mentioned, my runny nose has changed from clear fluid to opaque...