When it became apparent that COVID-19 would not just be a medical event that happened over there but was going to affect everything I started jotting some notes. They have remained in Drafts for over a month, but now I am going to start publishing these diary entries mostly just to document the strangest, most unexpected experiences of my medical career.
After my first week in COVID land I was on-call and we adapted to the new crisis. That Saturday while on call I was very tired. This is not so unusual, call is tiring. But that night I went to bed at 9:30, that is unusual. I never go to bed that early. By the next afternoon I had a scratchy throat and I started to wonder if I had the ‘Rona. Monday morning I woke up with a headache, body aches and a sore throat. I definitely was having a viral syndrome. No fever though.
I texted one of my favorite ID docs, Miriam Levine, explained my symptoms and she suggest I take the day off and see how things develop. I should also get tested. I called employee health and they took my information and told me they would set up a test and call me back. No time though, just a vague promise that they would call me back. I decided to take matters into my own and get tested through the Detroit Health Department. They were running a drive through testing program at the State Fair Grounds. All you needed was a doctors order and through the magic of self prescribing I got myself an appointment for Tuesday.
The following day, I remained afebrile, the myalgias and sore throat had resolved. I went through the state fair grounds but when I arrived I realized I hadn’t actually written out the prescription for the test. I scrambled around my car and found a script pad but no pen. I tore off the top page and put the black script on the dashboard and hoped no one looked too carefully. Amazingly it worked and I got the brain biopsy, err nasal swab without a hitch. Later that day St John called me and gave me an appointment for testing the next day. That afternoon I did Telehealth visits for my CKD patients.
I also updated Dr. Levine, and she said that if I remained afebrile tomorrow I could return to work. So Wednesday, I went to the St John testing facility on my way to work. While the Detroit Public Health was a wham bam thank you ma’am test, St John had a much more traditional doctor experience, I came in, filled out forms, had an MA take a full set of vitals. Then a doctor came in and did a full history and physical culminating with an influenza swab as well as the desired COVID swab. Later that afternoon I got this text:
I have never returned a page so fast in my life. I was positive for Influenza A. I had previously been immunized so I had a really mild case without fever. The fatigue and viral syndrome I felt on over the week-end bleeding into Monday were real, but they weren’t the COVID. Fake COVID, FauxVID.
And if you are a doctor reading this, don’t send out texts like that.
PS On thursday my COVID came back negative and a week later the Department of Public Health called and told me I was COVID negative.