Hi. I'm the Farker that wrote about surviving COVID in March of 2020. Turns out surviving the initial infection is the START of things, not the end.

If you feel sunburn in your legs / calves, or chest pain, immediately get checked out.

I was lucky to survive the initial infection, then MIS-A when I was discharged from Hospital. The Docs didn't tell me at the time I went home, that they thought my chances of making it were shaky at best. I was told point blank that I almost died twice six months after initial infection. My resting pulserate for those six months was 136-138.

Had I not been put on bloodthinners in ICU, I probably wouldn't be typing this.

Then I had tachycardia / arrhythmia. Tests showed nothing. Shortness of breath, insane levels of muscle weakness, tiredness. Phantom pains.

Then in October of 2021, I felt incredible sunburn in my left calf. As my former employer had nixed our health insurance, I couldn't go into Hospital or Urgent Care. I started taking aspirin daily in the hopes it would help be 'enough' of a bloodthinner.

Then, two weeks after the DVT in my calf, it vanished. Week three I came home from selling possessions to pay for rent and Ollie's teeth, because again, said former Boss was late with my Paycheck.

It started as a backache. Near my right shoulderblade. I was driving Hobbes the Fleetwood home from selling things and I couldn't believe the size of the knot in my back, how it hurt.

I came home, got onto the bed to take my shoes off after greeting Mrs. Z and it was like someone shot me.

I keeled over, I couldn't breathe. The pain was acute, intense and glittering, as if I'd been skewered on a bayonet. I forced in a breath. Then another. Then another.

Having had lung issues from COVID, I was well familiar with the benefits of using a Spirometer. I stood up, Kris looking alarmed, and forced in pain to take ten measured breaths with the Spirometer.

My entire back hurt. I couldn't lie down as it felt like connective tissue inside my ribcage was pulling itself apart. This lasted two weeks.

I slept in the front room, away from Kris, bolt upright on the leather couch that I'd previously nursed myself back to health on when I was released from ICU.

The pain was incredible, I was forced to use Belladonna-laced pain relieving patches all up and down my right side on my back (these are not exotic, they're a British pain-relieving staple).

For a week I coughed up clots. One as big as a dime. Apparently the DVT had turned into a full blown PE that then passed through the vasculature of my right lung.

Thanks to the Healthcare Marketplace, I was able to purchase my own health insurance. I went to see my regular doctor. She stood there, and I could see her turning pale the more I shared. I showed her the pictures of the clots I had coughed up on my phone.

"Znuh." She replied, calmly. "You know how you used up two of your nine lives with COVID?" I nodded. "You just had, and survived a Pulmonary Embolism. You should be dead. Again. We're going to start calling you Doctor Katz."

And then she instantly had me whisked off for an ultrasound, followed with a CATScan, which showed that yes, I'd survived a PE.

That ended with three more CATscans over a six month period. I was immediately put on Lovenox for a week. Now, Lovenox only works if it's injected into your stomach. I was given 28 syringes and told to inject this into my stomach, two syringes, twice daily.

You haven't lived until you've been given a VERY LARGE syringe and told that you, yourself have to inject this into your stomach. Then do it again. Then later that day do it once more. And Lovenox BURNS as it sinks into you.

Then it was six months of Warfarin, getting a 'groovy' chunky chrome medalert bracelet, and going in twice a week to dial in the dose.

Learning that leafy greens were out. That nuts were out. That all sorts of food that you thought were fine contribute to your clotting factor. When you're on bloodthinners, everything has to be watched. 

COVID infected my entire body. It went after my heart, lungs, kidneys and liver, and caused bright flashing in my eyes, as well as arresting my sense of smell and taste.

Surviving the initial infection was just the beginning.

It is still here, it doesn't fsck around. it's bloody nasty. Horrifying.

We're still in a pandemic. It's not over. Don't eat the FUD that's out there that suggests we're in the clear.

Take steps. Protect yourself.