Well, I got it again. Covid. That horrible virus that has changed my health for the worse once already. It came back.
I originally got Covid in mid-March of 2020. I had emergency bowel resection surgery with a temporary Ileostomy creation on March 7, 2020. When I got home from that and my ICU nurse hubby went back to work, they didn’t realize Covid was in the hospital yet. And since it was before the days where all health care workers wore masks all the time, a patient coughed in my husband’s face and, as it turn out, the patient had Covid. My hubby then brought it home to us.
Covid with a brand new Ileostomy was hell! I couldn’t cough with a pillow over my abs too easily, or I would have burst my poop bag! I just had to let myself cough.
And cough I did!
I wound up, after 6 weeks of almost non-stop coughing, a Parastomal Hernia the size of a soccer ball sticking out of the right side of my abdomen, behind the Ileostomy.
As soon as they could, May 29th in Michigan, they made the reversal surgery appointment. But the 6 weeks with the hernia before the surgery, and then for about 6 weeks after the reversal, I was basically on bed and recliner rest. Not good for moving around to hinder the development of clots.
So clots developed. I was in the hospital twice with multiple bilateral pulmonary embolisms. The first time was in October of 2020. The ER doc said it was so bad that I was a day or two away from permanent heart damage because of not knowing I had them.
The second time was on February of 2021. I got out of the hospital that time on Valentines Day. So I am now on blood thinners for the rest of my life.
After getting out of the hospital the second time, I started seeing a pulmonologist for my never-before-had asthma. Rather severe asthma. Another Long Covid gift, along with my clotting issues, and a host of other smaller issues.
Now, Covid: Part II just being over with, I am back at the doctors office again, unable to breathe. I am short of breath, even with having taken all my asthma inhalers, it is painful, dizzying and scary as hell!
Turns out it is an acute asthma exacerbation and now it is steroid pills and albuterol in the nebulizer. But I have to be super careful while on steroids, as it can mess with my diverticulitis. It’s all a balancing act, and a precarious one, at that.
So, once again, into the breach of Long Covid!
The Painful Pagan 