Covid, anyone?

When I thought I was almost over my Covid infection, the pesky virus still had a surprise for me. 

Early morning, on August 16, 12 days after I tested positive and I thought I was out of it, I woke up with a violent pain in the left side of my chest. I rose, got the morning coffee going and the pain transferred to the upper part of my left arm, still acute, but it completely disappeared half an hour later. 

The next morning, the same situation recurred mostly in the form of left shoulder pain, and also the following morning. I messaged my doctor to request a Monday appointment. Earlier that day of August 19, I woke up just after midnight with another acute shoulder pain, I considered driving to the Hospital’s ER but didn’t want to scare off my wife. 

Instead, I waited till the afternoon appointment at my doctor’s office where I was given an EKG and sent right away to the Park City Hospital’s ER. There, after another EKG, after I was drown blood, they found troponin in my blood. This is a protein found in the cells of the heart muscle. 

Normally, troponin levels in blood are so low that only the most sensitive types of tests can measure them. But when the heart muscle is damaged, troponin leaks into one’s bloodstream, rising its level in the blood. 

This was a marker for a heart attack, but after 24 hours of extra tests, heart echography and a comprehensive stress test, it was determined that my high troponin level wasn’t related to a heart attack; but was acute inflammation caused by my severe case of Covid. 

I had learned a new word and was shortly discharged with a clean bill of health. My Covid attack would have lasted more than two weeks and I don’t wish that kind of complication on anyone!