Just When I Thought I Was Healing and Recovering...

Difficulty Breathing

Shortness of Breath

A Trip to Urgent Care

Not too long ago, I wrote THIS POST about us healing and thriving. Don't get me wrong, we're very blessed to not have had COVID worse than we did, but the healing process brings with it many challenges, almost daily. This virus is interesting to say the least!

I tried the remedy of burning an orange and mixing the contents with brown sugar to get my smell back; that lasted about 36 hours. For 36 hours I could smell again but that quickly faded. I still have no smell; I    do not even want to discuss the challenges with not being able to smell. We take the simple things we do, and have the ability to do daily, for granted. I miss being able to smell as I am fond of sniffing things for more reasons than one!

Thursday night, (Feb 11) I had the most difficult time sleeping. I could not breathe. It was weird. It was as if I did not have enough air to breathe; it felt shallow and slow and kept me up for a while. I tried taking a melatonin and even that was slow to work as I attempted to get enough oxygen and relax. My face is also still swollen on the left side. I reached out to have a video call with my physician. After speaking with me, he suggested I hang up and get to Urgent Care immediately.

The doctor's concern was this: a post symptom of COVID (yes, there are post symptoms too!) is blood clots on the lungs, and he wanted to be sure that that's not what was going on with me.

Let's backtrack for a moment: Friday morning, I decided to get up and leave the house. Valentine's Day was coming up and I wanted to shop for items I needed; it's one of my favorite times of the year! I    headed to Dollar Tree and Costco. I got in and out of both rather quickly, and uneventful (those are major during trips these days). However, while at Costco, I noticed I was winded just walking around the store with Prettie, which is not normal for me; I already had an appointment scheduled for 1:30 PM that afternoon but this still concerned me.

Flash forward, I'm at Urgent Care and discussing my symptoms with the doctor. She proceeds to listen to my lungs and my back. At one point, she stays in one spot a bit longer, my heart is racing at this point. She then asks me to get undressed for a better listen; I obliged. She listens more carefully and backs away from me and says, "Your lungs sound excellent! There's a bit of bronchial rattle, but that's to be expected." I'm listening and nodding and out of nowhere, tears begin to flow from my eyes down to my mask. The doctor can see my eyes and ask if I'm okay. I nod yes, but keep crying. She then asks, "Are those tears of relief?" I  respond, while sobbing, "YES! I've done everything right and stayed home and sanitized... why am I  here today dealing with this?!!"

I felt so overwhelmed. The drive there alone, because all that bringing someone with you to the doctor is not cool these days, was very "thoughtful". There was fear, anger, pissed off-ness, frustration, and concern running through my mind. The doctor shared her experience with me. She said, "I did everything right too but I caught COVID and was on oxygen for two days and sent home with oxygen." She continued, "COVID has several post-symptoms that will be with you for some time, unfortunately. I'm going to order a chest X-Ray just to be sure everything is all good and we don't miss anything."

Chest X-Ray revealed what she heard in my lungs: signs of bronchitis. She sent me home with an inhaler (Albuterol) and suggested LOTS of rest. She said the walks I've been taking are good, if I have the energy, continue to take those walks. If I'm being honest, I have not been resting as much as I should. I work two jobs and both are online. I love what I do and it makes working a pleasure. It's challenging work, but I thrive off of challenges. I have continued to push myself and try to keep my mind occupied with work because I refuse to give in to COVID. In my mind, I had to fight to stay out of the hospital because folks did not come home from the hospital. Every time I looked up, someone (younger than me) was in the hospital and not coming home.

I spent all day Saturday resting and eventually I got up and worked on my classes because classes went live today (for me) for the Spring semester. I like to give my students a jumpstart on the semester so I    make my courses available the Sunday before the official start date. This is the first semester that my courses are not 100% ready, but I'm okay with that because my health is important. I keep telling myself that I need to give up one of my jobs but I can't bring myself to do it. The work I do in the area of eduction is groundbreaking and so necessary. I'll keep it up until I can't anymore; that's what passion is.

Needless to say, I was up early this morning getting things ready for my family for LOVE DAY because I    love them to pieces. There's a lot of bad things I can say about COVID, but the benefit has been me spending more time with my family; that's always positive. 

I will continue to remind myself to take more naps, be patient with this healing process, and understand that I may be sick for another couple months. I just wish folks would keep their germs to themselves.

As always, thank you for you virtual traffic to my blog. Thank you for stopping by. Come back anytime and take a read.

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