Age: 51.0
Sex: M
Vaccine: COVID19
Symptoms: Memory impairment, Mental impairment, Oropharyngeal pain, Pain, Post-acute COVID-19 syndrome
Clinical narrative: I received my Pfizer COVID-19 booster on 12/6/2021. On the evening of 1/15/2022, I began feeling a little warm, even though it was winter. When I went to sleep, I then started feeling hot. I also developed light body aches, mild chill, and a cough. On 1/16/2022, I progressively began to feel worse. I felt hot, had strong chills and body aches, and the cough became stronger and more persistent. I thought I had the flu. I took TYLENOL and ROBITUSSIN to treat my symptoms, though they didn't help that much. On 1/17/2022, I felt even worse. I thought I had the flu. I had the chills, body aches, fever, and runny nose. I also had a persistent cough. I continued to take TYLENOL and ROBITUSSIN, even though they didn't help much. The omicron variant was in the news, so my wife made sure to isolate me. While I was isolated, I slept for maybe 4-6 hours at a time. I would then awaken briefly, then go back to sleep, and then sleep for another 4-6 hours. On 1/18/2022, I was tested for COVID-19 at a testing center, and the result was positive. I self-isolated at home after getting the positive result and made sure to mask on the rare occasions I was around other people. I continued to sleep a lot, and I ate separately from my family and used a separate bathroom. On 1/19/2022, I called my NP's office. The staff I spoke to advised me that it was already too late to treat myself with an antiviral, so they recommended that I just treat the symptoms. They recommended that I continue taking the TYLENOL and ROBITUSSIN DM. They also suggested that I could gargle with salt water to treat a sore throat. Sometime between 1/25/2022 and 1/27/2022, I was tested again, and the result was negative. By this point, I was feeling better. However, sometime at around the end of January or the beginning of February, I began to get chills, cough, and flu-like symptoms again, only this time it was worse than it was when I began having symptoms the first time on 1/15/2022. I didn't think that I had COVID-19, though, because I understood that usually you have a certain degree of immunity against it for a while after you catch it. I was retested, though, and my result was positive! I had a rebound. Again, I had cough, fever, body aches, chills, and extreme fatigue. The fatigue was so intense that I slept for 12 hours one day. Not only was I harder hit this time around, but I also felt like something was different inside. At one point, I saw my cat, and I couldn't even remember his name! I had constant brain fog, and even after I recovered from the second bout of COVID-19, the brain fog persisted. At the time of this writing, the brain fog has improved. However, I still sometimes have trouble thinking of the proper words for certain items. I saw my NP and told her about the brain fog and the incident in which I couldn't remember my cat's name, and she told me that it sounded like I had long COVID-19. With regard to my brain fog, I am able to remember details from before the second bout of COVID-19 with much more precision. However, even now, my memory of details from the period after the second bout is much fuzzier. I have tried to treat my situation by reading and engaging in other intellectually challenging activities in the hope of opening new neural pathways. My memory and mental acumen are now a bit better, but they still aren't what they were before I caught COVID-19. I still have some issues with short-term memory. Before I had COVID-19, I could easily make a mental note just once and remember it. Nowadays, though, I often have to repeat the mental notes to myself and actually write them down in order to remind myself of things. Also, ever since my second bout of COVID-19, my lung capacity hasn't been what it was during my pre-COVID days. I don't exactly have trouble breathing, per se. However, when I try to take deep breaths, I feel that the air doesn't reach the bottoms of my lungs. While I was visiting a festival on one occasion, I noticed that I ran out of breath more easily, and I never had this problem until the second time I caught COVID-19. Nowadays, I often do deep breathing exercises in an effort to increase my lung capacity. I also have tried becoming more physically active in my efforts to increase my lung capacity. Ever since I began doing these things, I have noticed that my lung capacity seems to have increased somewhat. Whenever I take deep breaths, the bottoms of my lungs no longer feel empty, so I almost feel like I'm back to normal in that regard. However, I still have yet to do anything strenuous such as running, so I don't know what my true lung capacity is at this point. With that being said, though, it's definitely better than it was when I got my second bout of COVID-19.