So that was fun. Now that I'm mostly back to "normal" I can sort of figure out what exactly happened. On Tuesday, I had my appointment with the long COVID clinic. Since the hospital is constantly under construction, I had to park a ways away and walk. I took it slow, but I was really out of breath by the time I got to the clinic. I felt OK though and went back to see the doc. About midway through everything, the doc had me do a pulmonary function test which requires blowing into a tube. That proved to be too much and I told her I didn't feel good. She immediately had me lay back and hooked me up to the vitals machine where my O2 was 85% and my heart rate was 145. I ended up throwing up too, which sucked because I hadn't eaten anything and it just hurt.
Anyway, the doc called the rapid response team and I was immediately put in a wheelchair and taken to the ER. I had a temp of 104, could barely breathe, and it felt like my head was going to pop off. They took a ton of blood and ran a whole host of tests looking at everything from COVID to Legionnaire's disease. I also had 4 chest X-rays and an ultrasound. I kept falling asleep though and barely remember anything. My wife showed up at one point though so either I must have called her or the nurse did.
After spending about 8 hours in the ER, they determined I had human metapneumovirus which is a lower respiratory infection and I had a huge spot on my lower left lung, which they said was an infection that was likely being made worse by my diminished lung capacity due to COVID. It hurt so bad I could barely move. They asked me if I thought I should be admitted to the hospital. I said no, my wife said yes, and the supervising doctor agreed with my wife so I ended up on one of the floors. My electrolytes were off the chart bad and I was still breathing pretty poorly. They pumped me full of antibiotics and replacement electrolytes along with a heavy dose of albuterol which made me start feeling better. Sometime during the night I woke up coughing up blood and eventually coughed up some really nasty stuff. Once that happened, my lung felt significantly better and I could sit up without hurting.
Thankfully, the following day my electrolytes had balanced, I was eating normally, and my O2 was stabilized at 95% on room air. My heart was still a little fast, but it wasn't alarming. They decided they could discharge me from the hospital with a high dose of antibiotics. For three days I was on 2,000mg three times a day, meaning 6 grams of antibiotics a day. That wrecked my stomach but really made me feel better.
I took it easy the rest of the week and over the weekend, and now I'm feeling OK. Not 100% by any means, but certainly better than a week ago. My mom also flew in from Michigan which was a really nice surprise and she's been helping out, especially with keeping my son entertained since he loves spending time with his grandma. My mom also helped my wife clean out a ton of stuff for our upcoming move too which is huge since I'm not sure I'd be able to physically do it anytime soon.
So ladies and gentlemen, don't get COVID then get some unpronounceable respiratory infection.
