Surviving Covid the Second Time

This post was published in my main blog, and I have copied it over to this blog and backdated it to December 25, 2024.

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Hello, world!  How are you?  I just recovered from covid, and it was awful!  Yesterday was the first day that I entirely felt like myself again in both mind and body.

Let's recap.  I posted about my blog plans on December 8.  On December 9, I had an unpleasant run-in with a custodian.  I noticed a very large, sticky spill in my classroom.  I am someone who has always cleaned up minor spills and only calls for help if it's blood or a very bad mess.  This was the latter.  It was thick, sticky and gooey, and covered over a six-square-foot area.  I think something spilled the previous week and dried over the weekend.  

The custodian came in and appeared to clean it.  I nearly fell when I walked over to check it after he left the room.  He had spread water all over the dried spill and made no attempt to clean it up. 

To be clear, approximately 25 students were in the classroom with me, and the custodian had left this large area covered with water and no warning sign.

After being moistened, the spill became a thick sludge that was as slick as ice.  I nearly fell and called for the custodian to come back and finish.  They blamed me and called me "rude" for being upset.  

I became tired on December 11, which I thought was a flare from what happened with the custodian.  It might have been, and there's no way of knowing.  On December 13, I felt out of sorts and depressed, which in hindsight I always notice is an early warning sign of me coming down with something.  On the 14th, my nose started running.

The week of December 15 was semester finals week, the very worst timing to get sick.  On the morning of Monday, December 15, I woke up, obviously with a virus but not enough to concern me, at least not for the first 10 minutes I was awake.  The fever then hit me, 101.3 degrees.  I was dismayed and worried.  I didn't want to take a covid test.  I wrestled with the thought for several minutes, even though I knew all along that I had to take the test.  It was positive.

I was disgusted and a bit angry.  I flung down the covid test and glared at it.  I walked around fretfully for about 10 minutes before I entered an absence for the day.  I could not miss semester tests on Wednesday and Thursday, and yet it was quite likely that I would have to be out.

I went to the school, wearing a KN95 mask, and got my classroom ready.  I came home, feeling awful.  I visited the CDC's site and read all the current information on covid.  I concluded that I could return to school once my fever went down without the aid of medication, so long as my symptoms were improving and I wore a mask.  I think that's a bit too lenient, but it was in line with what the CDC says.  My fever came down on Tuesday morning, and I did feel a little better.  I returned on Wednesday, masked and feeling awful.  

Students can download an app called Photomath where they can photograph any math problem and get all of the steps and the answer.  If I hadn't been present, many of my students would have used their phones to cheat on the test.  No, sir.  I wasn't going to allow that.  I fight it constantly.  Students are very sneaky.

By Thursday afternoon, wearing the mask was absolute torture, and I felt terrible.  I got the last grades entered, left a big mess all over my desk and floor, and walked out the door immediately after the bell rang to dismiss.  I flung things all over as I worked on grades the last two hours on Thursday due to my distress, so I will have quite a mess to pick up on January 6.  Lots of tests were dropped to the floor as I finished with them.

In brief summary of the virus, I had a horrific cough to the point that I lost control of multiple bodily functions as I coughed.  I'll let you figure out what that might mean.  I had terrible acid reflux, and a nose that ran like a faucet, meaning out of nowhere a complete liquid stream would run out of my nose and onto my clothing.  I was very tired and slept a lot.  Those were my symptoms.

I was definitely sicker this time than the first time I had covid.  I was getting better by December 22.  On December 24, I felt pretty normal mentally and physically.  My sense of taste is still off.  I am not coughing at all.  It's odd that I coughed for less than a week with this bout of covid, but in October, I had a mild virus that caused terrible coughing that lasted for six weeks.  Huh.  Who would have thought?

Today is the first day I can type well.  I started working on my blog posts again on Sunday, but my typing was bad.  I guess I was hitting the wrong keys.  I ended up with typos every few words.  I've done much better today.

I got my post on the musty books finished yesterday.  The one on musty books is lengthy and involved, and I spent around three hours creating it.  I'm soon going to work on my Hidden Clues posts.  It looks like what I planned for one post needs to be two posts.  I also will be listing books on eBay and Etsy. 

I have already listed some books on eBay, and I have another small stack pulled.  I'm going to read some more of the teen book that I found earlier today.  It's another apocalyse novel.  I haven't read one of those in a while.

The book listings and the blog posts are my focus during the next few days.  I go back and forth on what I work on.  I work a little here and a little there, and eventually, I'll get it all done.  Hopefully by next week, I'll post one of the blog posts.  I like to let them sit for a few days and read over them a few times.  Typos are a huge problem for me right now, even though I'm much improved.  I try to get all of them corrected if I possibly can.

If there are still any typos in this post, then you know why.

Positive Test Result for Sjogren's Syndrome

The last few months have been rough with multiple events causing increases in inflammation.  School started, we have new textbooks, I got my Covid vaccine, and I caught three or four viruses in September and October.  The viruses ran together, so I'm not sure how many I had.  The one from late October caused a terrible cough which I still have.

My struggle with dryness continues.  In my post from August 25, I wrote in regard to my summer autoimmune flare:

I feared that I had Sjögren's syndrome, which causes excessive dryness.  I have suspected Sjögren's syndrome for years, but I tested negative in the past.  Most people with Sjögren's syndrome do test negative, so that doesn't rule it out.  I plan to be tested again later this year, just in case the test shows something.

I was tested two weeks ago.  I tested positive for Anti-SSA/Ro antibodies, which are autoantibodies present in around eight different autoimmune diseases, most notably including Sjögren's syndrome.  I am being referred to rheumatology, but I know it is Sjögren's syndrome.  I have the hallmark symptoms.

Back to School Update

In a recent post, I wrote about my six-week autoimmune flare, caused by a chipped tooth.  I improved immediately after the tooth was repaired.  It's been a roller coaster ride since then.  I had temporary deep fatigue from August 8 to 10.  On the afternoon of August 9 during a meeting, I became so tired that I nearly fell out of my chair. 

This fatigue was caused by the dental x-ray of August 5.  The assistant, who I previously stated had an odd attitude, zapped me without covering my thyroid.  My chart is flagged that my thyroid must be covered when I am x-rayed.  She ignored it.  Right as she hit the button, I realized that my neck was uncovered.  Ugh.  I paid for that, but at least it was only for a few days.

I improved again, but the school year didn't start well.  We have new textbooks, so the entire year will be highly stressful.  A few days after I returned to work, I realized that the summer update to my work computer messed up the Smart Board.  I use the Smart Board for all instruction, so this was a big problem.

I put in a work order.  It was fixed but still screwed up and even harder to use.  This was a disaster, since by this point, the school year had started.  I put in another work order.  They figured it out on the second attempt.  Finally, I was functional on the fourth day of school.  

This made the first full week of school very stressful.

Last week was the second full week of school.  The system for distributing IEPs for special education students has not been working in Oklahoma, and this is a state-level problem, not local.  My school finally managed to get us the information last Monday.  Since I was giving a test on Wednesday, I had to speak to every special education student that I have in class about their accommodations.  

On Tuesday and Wednesday of last week, all of this happened:

• Fire Drill
• spoke to 30 students about accommodations and their needs
  
• Open House (late night Tuesday)
• Lockdown Drill
• Picture Day
• gave a test
  

And to top it off, a neighbor's cat was killed by dogs on Tuesday morning.  I also found out about the death of a very friendly neighborhood cat on Tuesday, likely from poisoning.

Everything I just mentioned caused a hard flare.  I felt awful all week.  I had a three-day weekend for the Labor Day holiday.  It took me from Friday evening until late Sunday evening to get back to feeling okay, so I lost most of my weekend.

I've had a crummy start to the year.

At least my eBay and Etsy sales are greatly diminished as I planned, and I'm doing okay with keeping both stores open in a limited capacity so that I don't lose my search rankings.  I currently have 67 items on eBay.  My active Etsy listings continue to drop as more items deactivate, reaching the end of their four-month run.  I'm down to 154 listings on Etsy.  Around 20 more will deactivate in a few days.

In case you haven't read my posts from the last few years, I usually shut down both stores for the first two months of school due to the autoimmune flare that occurs during the early part of the school year.  I am definitely in an ongoing flare that underlies the hard flares that I'm also experiencing.  Overall, I'm not doing that bad.  I mean... it could be a lot worse.

By the way, the real reason I decided to leave both stores open is because I have some free listings on Etsy due to a glitch.  21 of my Etsy listings have been expired for months and yet are still active listings.  By keeping the listings active, they continue to stay active indefinitely.  

I reasoned that if I was keeping Etsy open, then I would keep eBay open as well, only I deactivated most of my eBay listings.

My reading has been very sporadic.  I'll read a few books, then I get too stressed or have a flare.  When that happens, I go days or weeks without reading.  I've managed to read a few books in the last few weeks, which is surprising considering everything that has happened.  I will publish a few reviews soon.

I always bottom out with my thyroid sometime during September.  That should happen in the next two to three weeks, and then I will steadily improve.  How I feel at any given time is directly tied to what happened two weeks before, due to the pituitary-thyroid feedback loop.  Since last week was particularly awful, I expect that I will bottom out sometime next week. 

A Six-Week Autoimmune Flare of Mysterious Origin

The moral of this story is that a noticeable decline in physical well-being can be caused by something so ostensibly minor that you'd never suspect it of significantly impacting your health.

My summer break was not that great.  I had a lot of stress up until the end of June.  On June 23-25, I had to do a project outside in the summer heat.  The project was hard work, and I am very heat and sun sensitive.  I got up before daybreak each day and worked on this project from slightly before 6 AM up to 10 AM or so.  It was brutal.

Right before I did this project, I had thyroid labs done, and they were perfect.

Around July 1, I noticed that I was in an autoimmune flare.  Currently, my primary flare symptom is that my lips become unbearably dry.  My lips are dry all the time, but any flare increases the dryness to an unbearable level, resulting in my lips stinging for several days.  After a few days, the stinging subsides, and my lips return to my normal dryness, which is annoying but bearable.

Beginning around July 1, my lips began stinging.  I decided that my project of June 23-25 was the cause and figured that the stinging would subside within a few days.  It didn't.  

By July 8, I was really freaking out mentally.  My lips were stinging 24 hours a day.  They felt like they had been rubbed with commercial-grade paper towels.  It was very upsetting, and I spent hours online trying to figure out what was happening.  I was miserable.  

You need to understand that when my lips become inflamed that nothing helps.  All brands of lip balm irritate my lips.  Even brands for sensitive lips irritate my lips.  Aquaphor was my savior for a couple years until it badly burned my lips one night.  I looked like a clown the next morning.

I can only use Vaseline or petroleum-based hydrocortisone on my lips.  Everything else irritates them.  The Vaseline sometimes irritates my lips.  

During the last 4 1/2 years since my lips became unusually dry, I've tried drinking more fluid, drinking sports drinks, changing my toothpaste, and everything else you can possibly imagine.  So don't give me any advice.  I've read every piece of advice imaginable and acted on most of it, to no avail.  I just have to put up with it.

My bouts with stinging lips never last more than around three days.  This is why I was so upset by July 8.  I was past the one-week mark.

Around July 8, I realized that I had been bitten by something.  I worried that it could have been a tick.  I figured that I had been bitten when I did my outside project on June 23-25.

I was then really freaked out.  I am fearful of ticks and Lyme disease.  A former student of mine was bitten by a tick around 16 years ago and got Lyme disease.  It wasn't caught quickly, and she still has continuing very serious health problems.  

So... I worried about Lyme disease.  However, I talked myself down, reasoning that I probably didn't have Lyme disease.

I was distinctly more tired than was normal, which was odd for summer break.  I had an increase in muscle aches.  My thyroid was more swollen than normal for me.

I tested myself for Covid.  Nope.

I feared that I had Sjögren's syndrome, which causes excessive dryness.  I have suspected Sjögren's syndrome for years, but I tested negative in the past.  Most people with Sjögren's syndrome do test negative, so that doesn't rule it out.  I plan to be tested again later this year, just in case the test shows something.

But autoimmune thyroid disease causes dryness as well.  The problem was that I was on summer break, and nothing was going on.  Why were my lips stinging?  They continued stinging all of July and into August.

I was set to go back to work on August 8.

On August 7 as the day progressed, I noticed that the infernal stinging was easing.  By evening, it was gone.  Oh, the relief!  My lips had stung for approximately six weeks, and suddenly they weren't.  They were still dry, but the stinging had eased.

I was perplexed.  Something must have changed, but what? 

I thought back to recent events.  I purchased my new car on July 29, and it was a very tiring experience.  However, that would make me worse, not better.  I was feeling stressed about going back to work, but that would also make me worse, not better.  None of this made sense.  Why was I better?

I then realized.  I went to the dentist on August 5 to fix a broken filling. 

Bingo.

Let's back up to late June.

I went to the dentist on June 27 for my six-month cleaning.  That doesn't have anything to do with it, but I noticed either slightly before or after the cleaning (between June 24 and June 30) that the outside front corner of tooth #18 had become sharp.  It had chipped just a little.  It seemed fine, so I decided not to worry about it.  I don't think it could have been repaired at that time unless I wanted to be extreme and get a crown to fix a mild chip in a tooth.  That would have been illogical.  I figured the tooth was okay.  It didn't hurt.  I just had a sharp corner that had not been like that before.

On the late afternoon of August 2, after the dentist was closed for the weekend, the front wall and part of the filling on tooth #18 broke off, causing a hole.  It didn't hurt.  I did clean the hole by aiming a water pick into it.  That was a mistake, but even then, it was just a dull ache.  I tested the tooth by biting down on it and found that it was mildly pressure sensitive.  But at least I wasn't in pain aside from some cold and pressure sensitivity.

On the morning of August 5, I called the dentist, and they worked me in that afternoon.  The filling was repaired.

I have to comment about the dental assistant.  She didn't seem to understand my concern, simply because I was not in pain.  I'm sorry, but a hole in a tooth needs to be repaired ASAP.  It will break further, and I will do anything to avoid extreme tooth pain like what I experienced in 2021.  

Fortunately, the dentist was not dismissive like she was.  The assistant's attitude was odd.

It's now apparent to me that the minor chip in tooth #18 must have also caused a crack in the filling, just not enough for me to know.  The filling must have become leaky, causing bacteria to get inside and then enter my blood stream. 

I had a leaky filling for six weeks.  That's why my thyroid became more swollen and why I was so tired.  My lips burned all of July and into early August because of what appeared to be a mildly damaged tooth.  Who would think that such a minor chip would cause that much discomfort for six weeks?

In 2022 in my post "What Happened with My Teeth and Some Advice," I mentioned how my health improved after two bad teeth were removed.  Having good teeth is extremely important.  If you have any kind of problem with your teeth, get it fixed if at all possible.  I guarantee that any bad teeth are impacting your health in some fashion, even if you don't notice anything.