Age: 66.0
Sex: F
Vaccine: COVID19-2
Symptoms: Pharyngeal swelling, Respiratory tract congestion, SARS-CoV-2 test positive, Streptococcus test negative, Therapy change
Clinical narrative: It started on the 11/24/2022 at night. On the 11/25/2022, I was feeling bad so we went to the doctor. My husband came out positive for COVID-19 and I was negative. They also did a strep test on me as well as flu and they were all negative. This was on a Friday, and by the weekend, the pain was more painful. I was very congested and the headache was terrible. The medications such as Tylenol were not working. Sunday night on 11/27, I had a home COVID-19 test and it was positive. On 11/28, I called the doctor that saw me on 11/25 and he prescribed Paxlovid for my husband. I wanted to see if he would prescribe anything and he prescribed Paxlovid for me as well. My throat, headache, and congestion were my worse symptoms. On 11/29, all of a sudden I started feeling my feet up to my ankles being ice cold. I was feeling a bit off and feeling like I was going to pass out. I got scared and I called the clinic and was connected with the triage nurse. I had to sit down because I felt like I was going to fall and just felt really off. My jaw felt like it was locking, and the nurse said to go to the ER. I went to the emergency clinic and told them my throat was very swollen so they gave me a shot of steroids for the swelling. At this point, I just felt like I was going to throw up and I was given Zofran. I felt a little better but then an hour later, I was feeling these palpitations. They kept me there for a couple of hours and I told them I was feeling these palpitations. They noted the steroids can do that then they can go away. The palpitations kept going and the congestion was so bad. It was thick phlegm. I was doing salted water gargles for my throat and it was hurting really bad. My blood pressure was never an issue before, but then it started going up. It was at 160. At that point on, my blood pressure has been all over the place. My throat was still feeling really bad and went back to the clinic. We did another strep test and it was still negative. For congestion, they gave me Claritin D. I don't do well with antihistamines, but I only took 2 tablets. Then the palpitations got really bad. I wasn't sure if the Claritin did that, but the palpitations didn't go away. During this period of time, I did start to experience weakness. It would start in my hands then it would go through my whole body. I was so weak and I had to lay down and close my eyes and I wasn't sure what happened for a while. It would go away, but it lasted for half a day of weakness and the palpitations got worse. I spent all the days in bed because I didn't have the strength to get up. It wasn't tiredness. It was weakness, feeling lifeless. That went on for days. I wanted relief for my palpitations. My chest was hurting, my left arm was hurting and I could feel the palpitations. The pain in my left arm and calf would also come and go constantly.  I could feel the pumping in my ears. I went to a cardiologist and he did EKG, echocardiogram, and heart monitor for 24 hours. He noted that my heart was fine and he didn't know what was causing this. I came back home the same way. All those days just continued in bed. My husband even noted that I was walking very slow. I went back to see my PCP and noted I needed relief for the palpitations. I had an ablation years ago but I was fine. My PCP put me on Metoprolol 25mg and I was okay for a few weeks. The palpitations slowed down, but then all of a sudden they came back again. We increased the medication. I went back to the cardiologist and put me on a monitor for 30 days and the results came back normal. He said he doesn't know what's causing this. This lasted all December and January. The medication worked at 50mg of Metoprolol in the morning and night. I take my blood pressure regularly. The palpitations got better. They still ran all the tests and they came back normal. Little by little, I haven't had those palpitations maybe starting at the end of February, beginning of March. Sometimes they do come and go. Some days are better and some days are worse. The palpitations are better but the weakness has been on and off as well. The last 3 weeks has been much better. I've been able to do my normal routine now. I can walk outside now and do things around the house. I wasn't able to do that before because of the weakness. The palpitations are gone now, and we recently did tests. There's no blockage and other tests were done recently. It took months of suffering to finally get back to normal. I'm still taking the medication and I do want to get off of that in the future. I am hoping to decrease the medication to not taking the medication for the palpitations. I was fine before COVID-19, but the sickness may have triggered all of this.