Do I Have Covid?

Why did I think I got COVID?

A quick Google search for the symptoms of Covid19 will give you this list:

  • Fever or chills
  • Cough
  • Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing
  • Fatigue
  • Muscle or body aches
  • Headache
  • New loss of taste or smell
  • Sore throat
  • Congestion or runny nose
  • Nausea or vomiting
  • Diarrhea

In that list of 11 symptoms, I was feeling 8 of them, and they are the ones bolded above.

So I decided to get tested if I got Covid, and the results came out negative.

Benj Arriola's Covid 19 Test Result

So why did I have all those Covid19 Symptoms?

It was just a big coincidence of multiple ailments that happened all at the same time, and here are my causes, and I’ve state them in order when the symptoms appeared.

Fatigue, Muscle and Body Aches, Colds – Thursday, December 2, 2021

Every Thursday night at 7pm is sparring day where I go attend classes at North County Taekwondo. After that sparring day, I went on shin to shin with my sparring partner, which I didn’t mind since that happens multiple times even when I started doing Taekwondo in the early 90s, but back then I was less than half my age today, more nimble, strong, durable, etc. Aside from the shin-to-shin impact, I got bruises on my thigh and upper arm.

All the while, during this time, I already had a slight cold. Probably cause of the weather change, where I am often sick during this time of the year.

Nausea, Vomiting, Chills, and a Runny Nose – Friday, December 3, 2021

The sun sets early this time of the year. Around 4:30 to 5:00 pm the sun sets already here in San Diego, California. I finished my day from work early that day and was adding pathway lights.

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Since I was adding a lot of pathway lights, poking the stakes in the ground, and standing up, and going down again, repeatedly, and chasing before the sun goes down, I guess those crystals in your ear involved in your balance got misplaced causing some Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo (BPPV).

In the evening, the dizziness started to happen. And I could barely move around. I though sleeping through it would make me feel better, but still felt even more dizzier when I work up the next morning.

More Dizziness, Nausea, Vomiting, Chills, Runny Nose, Sore Throat – Saturday, December 4, 2021

The next day, I started doing the Epley Maneuver and as I did it, that’s when I started vomiting. And as I vomited, it was giving me the chills. My cold has worsened and was coughing, and I started to feel my throat getting sore.

Difficulty Breathing, Shortness of Breath – Sunday, December 5, 2021

I started to suspect my dizziness might be due to a fracture I am not aware of. So, I decided to go to urgent care, have the doctors check it out. My shin was x-rayed, the bumps on my foot checked out, and medication was given for my vertigo situation. Meclizine was prescribed for me for my dizziness. And I bought myself some Cepacol for my sore throat. I believed everything should get better by then. But in the evening, my sore throat got worse, and I started to get asthma.

More Foot Pain – Monday, December 6, 2021

I have a history of Vertigo, where I had some similar episodes in 2017, 2014, and 2010. I also had asthma since I was a kid. Then out of the blue, some bump appears at the back of my heel, and my foot is painful to walk on. Even if I had history of these ailments, I never had all these all at the same time, body aches + vertigo + asthma, where if you combine the symptoms, it starts to look like Covid! So, I schedule a test online at the earliest possible time, which was the next day.

Walking with Crutches – Tuesday, December 7, 2021

My wife Marcia has been helping me all throughout this situation, and she drives me to my Covid test, and she decides to take the test as well where hers is schedule about an hour after mine at a further location. But since the pain of my foot was getting more painful, I try to setup a new appointment at the soonest possible time with my primary care physician, but the nearest schedule is January 10, 2022.

But Sharp Rees-Stealy offered some virtual urgent care visits where I can get something scheduled for the next day with an online meeting.

Achilles Tendinitis – Wednesday, December 8, 2021

I showed the doctor 3 things on my foot during this virtual consultation.

First was my shin inflammation. My latest photo cannot show it well and the swelling has decreased already.

Benj Arriola's Swollen Shin from Taekwondo

Bruising area that stared to increase near the bottom of my foot, there was no pain though. You can see the distinct line separation of the bruised area and non-bruised area. Also visible is the cyst near the heel. This one is not the painful bump, and I had this since last year. The doctor said is there is no pain, and it does not bother me, there is no need to do anything about it.

Benj Arriola's Bruised Foot with a Cyst

On the other side of my heel, was the painful bump.

Achilles Tendinities or Haglunds Deformity

Aside from the bump, it is also reddish turning black like. This is painful to touch or press. It is also painful putting weight on this foot.

The diagnosis I got was this bump is Achilles Tendinitis and was prescribed some higher dosage of Ibuprofen, and if the pain still exists for 2 weeks, come back for an appointment with my primary care doctor and possibly with a podiatrist.

I am not a doctor, but just by reading about these ailments, and comparing it to what I feel, I think I do not have Achilles Tendinitis. What I believe I have is Haglund’s Deformity. But still, I am not a medical professional, so I will just do the 2 weeks of ibuprofen and see how it goes, if it doesn’t go away, and I go back to the doctor. I will bring up Haglund’s Deformity to see if this is a possibility.

This is also the day I got my Covid test results back that had a negative result.

How I am feeling today – Monday, December 13, 2021

No more asthma, but still got some cold and cough that I believe is on the way out already. No more dizziness. Looks like vertigo is gone. But that foot pain is still there. It limits the movements I do at home, the speed of the movement I have at home, which then affects my productivity at the same time. I can still do my work though since I work mainly in front of a computer. But work with chores, helping in the house, feeding the cats, bringing out my niece to the school bus, going to the bathroom, feeding the cats, cleaning the cats’ litter box, refilling the water dispenser, and all other everyday task are a bit more challenging. But I am still optimistically thinking this will all get better and hopefully soon.

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