Age: 39.0
Sex: F
Vaccine: COVID19-2
Symptoms: Arthralgia, COVID-19, Cough, Diarrhoea, Ear discomfort
Clinical narrative: This is my first known positive test for COVID-19. That Tuesday evening the 12/27, I was feeling tired and was having a little bit of a sore throat. It felt like I had been talking all day and night, so I didn't think much of it. Wednesday morning, I had a little bit of congestion and the sore throat was there and it was a little bit worse. I took an at home COVID-19 test and it was negative. Throughout the day, my symptoms started to increase with the amount of congestion and fatigue. I started to have a headache and started to feel sore. Thursday, all of those symptoms were more intense and I stayed in my room in bed the whole day. I started to have a low grade fever so I decided to take another test on Friday. That test Friday morning was positive. I was isolated at that point and had already been. I had continued joint pain, body aches, muscle pains, nausea and diarrhea. I had a headache, fever, sore throat, extreme congestion and sinus pressure. My ears were clogged and felt a lot of pressure internally. I was very tired. That was the peak by Friday. Saturday was similar. I had also noticed that my sense of taste and smell were altered. I did not lose these senses, however some things were tasting like bleach. Saturday evening, I started to feel a bit better. I didn't have any fever anymore and I started to have a little bit of a cough. The congestion was still really bad along with my sinuses. By Sunday, a lot of those symptoms started to feel a lot better. They continued to feel better by that Monday on 01/02/2023. I stayed remote for work that week and I was still masking at this point. Tuesday 01/03/2023, I started to feel worse again. My throat felt worse and started coughing a lot more. It felt like it was moving down to my chest and I started to feel more tired. However, my taste and smell did begin to improve at this point. I had more muscle aches again, and that's when I contacted the doctor. They agreed after the exam and listening to my symptom progression, to give me a z-pack antibiotic. I took that for 5 days and I had improvement for all my symptoms during that time. I still had some sinus congestion and a cough but it was improving. I finished the z-pack, and a few days after, the cough came back and the sinus pressure came back worse again. I was getting more fatigued again. Since I improved on the z-pack, the doctor decided to start another round of antibiotics. They gave me Doxycycline and I took that for 7 days and was on Prednisone for 5 days. I improved significantly on those medications. My last day of antibiotics was 01/17/2023. I was greatly improved after that and the last day of the prednisone was 01/15/2023. Since then, I did have one flare up since I've been off the prednisone after 24-48 hours. It felt like my body and all my lymph nodes swelled up. That cleared after 24 hours and I'm not sure what that was in relation to. I've been doing better. The cough and congestion did take a while to improve, but I'd say they're basically cleared. I did take Mucinex DM, Ibuprofen, and Sudafed to manage symptoms up until I was put on antibiotics to manage my symptoms.