The Baranko Family: COVID (again)

August, 2021

So, yes, as shared in my previous post, I was unlucky enough to get a breakthrough case of COVID (and then gave it to Matt) last August. I assume I got the Delta variant, since that is what was going around at the time. I had tested on Friday before I left for the barn weekend because I had a slight sore throat, and it was negative. At this time a summer cold was going around, people thought you couldn't get COVID if you were double vaccinated, and you especially wouldn't/couldn't get it again if you had already gotten COVID. Plus, the wisdom was that if you were symptomatic already, you should show up on a rapid antigen test if you did have COVID. Apparently not to all of those things, because while I was negative for COVID with symptoms on Friday, I tested again on Sunday morning and I was positive - much to my horror! My biggest concerns at the time were that I had just exposed a house full of my closest friends in Lake Forest, and while they were all vaxxed (which means nothing re: if you'll actually contract COVID, we now know) were going home to all of their unvaccinated children. I was convinced I was the outbreak monkey of a super spreader event (which turned out to be only partially true). The second big concern at the time was that we were supposed to leave for our vacation to Alaska the next weekend! So that was cancelled immediately given the quarantine period, even if we just had mild symptoms (which we didn't). So sad.

So I went to the lake house when we got back from the barn weekend on Sunday to isolate while Matt went home to take care of the kids. It was a dark, dark time for me emotionally and I was physically getting sicker by the day. I was grateful to have Matt's support (he drove up to the lake house just to give me a masked hug, because he could tell I really needed one) and I had such love and support from my family and friends. Thank you, all!! By Tuesday, though, unfortunately Matt had tested positive, so he said "come home". We spent our time in isolation together then for the next 7 days, wearing N95's 100% of the time around the kids, not eating or drinking near them, and just trying to stay away from them as much as possible without hurting their little psyches.

My cold-like symptoms cleared up for the most part after about a week, but then I continued to have crushing fatigue (how can you sleep for 15 hours and still be tired to the bone?), weird low-grade fevers, and worst-of-all was the tachycardia (racing heart). My heart rate was just totally wacky, there's no other word for it. My heart rate would spike to 160 for no reason, and it would freak me out so that I would have anxiety that I think that made worse. I would just feel really, really off - like I was having an out-of-body experience. Matt went to the lake house after my 10 days of isolation were up so that we could start the clock on the kids' quarantine from being close contacts. We really wanted them to be able to go to the first day of school. (For those doing the math at home, that means that we were in quarantine as a family in our home for 24 days. My 10 days of isolation, plus 14 days of close contact for the kids, since we were in the same house as them. As I write this in June of 2022 the current rule is 5 days of isolation and no quarantine at all for exposed vaxxed people - a much, much different COVID experience!) We are happy to say that the kids never got it from us last August, our masking efforts were worth it, and they were able to start school on time.

Poor Matt, though, was alone at the lake house for days on end after my isolation ended because we didn't want him to come home until he tested negative. The antigen tests can be a gauge for viral shedding/contagiousness, and we had worked so hard to keep them healthy up until this point, we didn't want to let up right at the end. While I had tested negative on Day 10, he didn't test negative until Day 14!! Poor, poor Matty!! So lonely up there, and sick too. He had cold-like symptoms and brain fog.

On about Day 11 for me, my tachycardia had worsened and my doctor feared I had pneumonia or a blood clot since I wasn't improving. She had prescribed me an inhaler, but that wasn't helping the heart rate issues. She instructed me to go to the emergency room to get checked out. I had to call Matt to come back from the lake house to stay with the kids (he stayed outside and they were inside, so as not to expose them) and Donna was kind enough to take me to the ER, although she couldn't come in with me. Matt and I feared I would become one of those statistics that goes into the hospital with COVID and doesn't come out. It was really scary. While I had an abnormal EKG, it wasn't life threatening, and my chest x-ray was clear. No signs of pneumonia, blood clots, or myocarditis - phew! After many hours, they released me and recommended I get a follow up EKG and see my primary care doctor. I was relieved. The ER doctor thinks that the inhaler may have driven my heart rate up even higher than it had been, since it is a stimulant. But other than that - it is "just COVID, hopefully it will clear up!" they told me. Super helpful treatment advice.

Suffice it to say it was a super, super, super terrible time for us. Matt and I both ended up with long COVID, despite being somewhat young, our vaccination status, and having no underlying health conditions. We both did lose our senses of smell, but they both came back after a couple weeks. My fatigue and intermittent low grade fevers lasted for about 6-8 weeks, which made it hard to work, and my tachycardia lasted for even longer. Especially when I was dehydrated, it seemed to really get worse. I had an echocardiogram in October, and there was a little abnormality that they hope will clear up with time as I continue to recover from COVID. Matt still has brain fog even now, including difficulty with short-term memory. I think I had some anxiety/depression, too. It is now June, 2022, and knock-on-wood, I think I am back to feeling like myself for the most part. I'm still not back to my pre-COVID running fitness level. At least I don't notice the tachycardia episodes that I used to regularly have, though, so I'll take it. COVID is serious business! It sucks.