{"id":918,"date":"2021-10-28T18:04:20","date_gmt":"2021-10-28T18:04:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/humansofchronicillness.org\/?p=918"},"modified":"2021-10-28T18:04:25","modified_gmt":"2021-10-28T18:04:25","slug":"brian-m","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/humansofchronicillness.org\/2021\/10\/brian-m\/","title":{"rendered":"Brian M."},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

It has been just about 1 year and 3 months\u00a0(July 27, 2020) since I tested positive for Covid and I am at the point where I need to reach out for support and also have my story heard.\u00a0\u00a0Nobody understands or even believes what I am going through and how serious it is.\u00a0\u00a0I can’t go through this alone anymore.<\/p>\n

Pre-Covid, I was healthy, fit and active.\u00a0\u00a0Zero health issues, no medications. 42 years old, male, 5′ 10″ 165 lbs, work out 3 times a week, work 3-4 12 hour shifts a week.<\/p>\n

I am a Registered Nurse working in an emergency department, which is where I contracted Covid in July 2020.\u00a0\u00a0I was not hospitalized but experienced two weeks of acute illness (fever, body aches, loss of taste\/smell, cough, SOB, diarrhea, nausea, loss of appetite, chest pain, tachycardia, rash, sweating from soles of feet, hallucinations, one night of repeatedly waking up gasping for air, sensation of arm feeling on fire, anxiety, panic attacks).\u00a0\u00a0After the acute phase of the illness, I continued with left side chest pain, tachycardia with exertion, SOB.\u00a0\u00a0I had blood work, EKG, xray and CT all perfectly normal.\u00a0\u00a0About two weeks after the acute infection, I developed debilitating fatigue (unrelieved with sleep\/rest), all over body pain (muscles, joints, bones, headaches), and brain fog (difficulty concentrating, zoning out, short term memory loss). These main symptoms (there are more…dizziness, malaise, GI upset) as well as left side chest pain (can be dull\/achy, or sharp\/stabbing, always with a deep breath or after significant exertion, sometimes randomly at rest) have continued everyday since.\u00a0\u00a0The intensity varies and while never my pre-covid self, I do experience periods of feeling improved and able to function.\u00a0\u00a0I can work 1-2 shifts a week and be a more active father and husband.\u00a0\u00a0During my flare ups in the severity of my symptoms though (which can last from days to weeks), I am unable to work or even carry out basic daily activities.\u00a0\u00a0There has not been a single day since having Covid where I am not in pain, fatigued, etc., and just not myself.\u00a0\u00a0My mental health has taken a devastating hit as well…I am depressed, even having intrusive suicidal thoughts at times.\u00a0\u00a0Like my physical symptoms, these too vary in intensity and come in waves.\u00a0\u00a0I have had every blood test you can think of done, brain MRI, etc., and not a single thing is abnormal.\u00a0\u00a0I no longer know what to do.\u00a0\u00a0My doctors, PCP and Neuro, do not have answers either.\u00a0\u00a0Various meds have been tried with no relief.\u00a0\u00a0I feel helpless and alone, with no end or hope in sight.\u00a0\u00a0I need to live life, be a husband, father, and productive member of society, but I cannot.\u00a0\u00a0Several attempts for receiving disability have all been denied.\u00a0\u00a0I am triple vaccinated with Pfizer, which has not helped my symptoms at all like it has for some.\u00a0\u00a0I am in a flare up right now which is one of the worst yet.\u00a0\u00a0I am not getting better, maybe worse?\u00a0\u00a0With each passing day, I feel that this may be chronic and lifelong.\u00a0\u00a0I don’t know how to accept this fate…it has already been devastating to my family, career, finances, body, mind, and spirit.\u00a0\u00a0I also fear that this only the beginning and symptoms will expand and worsen as I age.\u00a0\u00a0It’s frightening to have something going on with my body and have no clue what it is or what the outcome will be.<\/p>\n

I pray for a cure or that I simply wake up one day feeling like my pre-Covid self.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It has been just about 1 year and 3 months\u00a0(July 27, 2020) since I tested positive for Covid and I am at the point where I need to reach out for support and also have my story heard.\u00a0\u00a0Nobody understands or even believes what I am going through and how serious it is.\u00a0\u00a0I can’t go through […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":883,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/humansofchronicillness.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/matteo-minelli-VgdFyOOu1PA-unsplash-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/humansofchronicillness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/918"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/humansofchronicillness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/humansofchronicillness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humansofchronicillness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humansofchronicillness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=918"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/humansofchronicillness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/918\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":924,"href":"https:\/\/humansofchronicillness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/918\/revisions\/924"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humansofchronicillness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/humansofchronicillness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humansofchronicillness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humansofchronicillness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}