Age: 61.0
Sex: F
Vaccine: COVID19-2, FLUX
Symptoms: Malaise, Musculoskeletal chest pain, Myalgia, Nasopharyngitis, Oropharyngeal pain
Clinical narrative: On the afternoon of 11/11/2022, I began to have the symptoms of what I thought was a bad cold. I had a very sore throat and a chest cough. On 11/12/2022, the symptoms continued. I took Mucinex DM, which helped. I took the daytime capsules during the day and the nighttime capsules at night. On 11/13/2022, I got up and had to go to work. I used cough drops, Tylenol, and a mask that day. When I got home at about 6 PM, I took the Mucinex DM for nighttime and Extra Strength Tylenol. On that night, my coughing became really bad, and my sore throat worsened. I also had extreme fatigue. On 11/14/2022, I felt awful. I stayed home from work. I had a cough, sore throat, headache, extreme fatigue, and sporadic fever. I took Mucinex DM daytime formula and Extra Strength Tylenol. On 11/15/2022, I woke up with all of the same symptoms. I then took my dogs out for a walk and experienced extreme gastrointestinal distress. I had terrible diarrhea, and I ended up soiling myself before I was able to make it home. When I got home, I took a home antigen test and got a positive result. I immediately called my doctor and spoke to one of the nurses to ask about Paxlovid. Unfortunately, though, it was too late for me to start taking it. The nurse advised me to continue the medicine regimen that I was already on, because I had just had my vaccine recently. We were hoping that the booster would help speed the healing process. I stayed at home and followed the regimen, but the symptoms continued day after day. On 11/21/2022, I saw my doctor. I underwent bloodwork and told my doctor that there had been no improvement in my condition. After doing the blood test, she prescribed doxycycline hyclate (100mg, twice a day), prednisone (20 mg). If I remember correctly, they were both supposed to be taken for ten days, but I'm not sure. She also gave me an albuterol sulfate inhaler and told me that if it didn't get better by 11/23/2022 or 11/24/2022, I was to start taking the meds she had prescribed. She had prescribed them in advance, because it was a holiday week, and the clinic and local hospital would both be closed at that time. I felt so bad that I started taking them on 11/22/2022; my coughing was so bad that my ribcage muscles hurt! I was still sick, but when I tested myself on 11/25/2022, I got a negative result. Despite the negative result, though, I still felt terrible for another week. I had extreme fatigue, body aches, sporadic fever, and coughing. After a period of further recuperation, I was finally able to return to work on 12/2/2022. I have been ill ever since. I still have uncontrollable coughing, fatigue, sinus drainage, and I have gone through five rounds of meds! I have also had a sinus infection ever since I had COVID-19. I have been given three rounds of doxycycline plus prednisone to treat it. On 3/28/2023, I saw an ENT I had been referred to. He prescribed 40mg of prednisone a day for five days and 20 mg of prednisone for an additional five days. He also gave me Levaquin, which I was to take for eight days. While I was on those meds, the symptoms cleared. Every time I finished taking them, though, the symptoms returned between four and ten days afterwards. I saw my ENT earlier this morning, 5/4/2023. I underwent a CT scan of my head. The ENT has said that I need sinus surgery. I have pockets of infection in my frontal sinuses on either side of my nose and under my eyes. The surgery has not yet been scheduled, but it's supposed to be sometime in the next couple of weeks.