I am 73 years old and when Covid hit of March in 2020 I was taking care of my 101 year old Aunty Gene and I wanted to make sure that she was safe as she was on hospice care in my home so every nurse or doctor that entered my home I was very conscious to make sure that they had clean gloves and mask and was not around prior Covid patients.
I was conscientious like this for two years. My mother-in-law passed away December 4 of 2021 and on January 8 I flew to Michigan for her memorial and the two days I was there was a first time I did not wear my mask and I was around people that I had never met and my whole family from Michigan. When I got back to California by January 11, 2022 I started having symptoms of feeling not very well and a splitting headache and sinus congestion and chills and I could barely touch my skin because it was sensitive to the touch and I had this fear that I had Covid.
So that day I went in through a drive-through and did a Covid test and got the results back that afternoon that it was negative. But by the time I got home I was so sick and I have never felt a sickness like this in my whole life my head hurts so bad and I had a fever that never went above 100.7 but I knew there was something seriously wrong and the next Covid test I could take would be on January 18, 2022. But on January 12 I woke up in the middle of the night very very nauseated so sick to my stomach that I thought I was going to die and I was taken to the emergency and they gave me fluids and they gave me Pepcid for my stomach and they gave me Zofran for my nausea. It was the most horrible feeling I’ve ever had I truly believed I was dying.
Less than 24 hours later all those symptoms came back again and back to the hospital I went and all my blood work was good I didn’t have a lung infection but I was seriously sick to my stomach. They again gave me Zofran for my nausea and Pepcid for my very acidic stomach. This happened a total of four times that I had to go to the hospital in less than 12 days to be treated for stomach problems. I was on Zofran and Pepcid for a total of two weeks and by the time I saw the (Gastroenterologist) I had taken myself off of Zofran and Pepcid and was starting to feel better. The gastroenterologist did a endoscopy of my stomach and esophagus And found that I had gastritis and more than three ulcers in my stomach. She put me on Prilosec to help with the acid and by day number three of taking Prilosec I was sicker than I was before so she switched my medication to Protonix and by day seven I felt like I had the most horrible feeling in my stomach of nausea and on top of it all I felt like I had poison in my whole system and the next thing I know droplets of oil are coming out when I’m having a bowel movement.
I went into panic and called the doctor and she took me off of the protonic‘s and told me to call her if I still had those droplets the next day which I did not and got switched back to Pepcid . I was on Pepcid for only four days and I was getting sicker by the day and now I wasn’t even able to go take car rides when my brother would want to take me out of the house. The doctor now has stopped me on all medication and is wanting me to possibly heal my ulcers and my acid on its own but this is now been day three of me not taking any medication and I am not getting any better I still feel nausea and the belching when I eat even a piece of bread or a banana is non-stop gas coming out of my stomach. It is so frightening because I have never had this before and the doctors thinking that my depression and anxiety is just getting the best of me and now has advised me to meet with her therapist and to be on antidepressant and anti-anxiety medication . Xanax helps me when I take a low-dose of it and it calms me down and it also calms my stomach down but it doesn’t take it totally away.
I have talked to so many friends that I’ve had Covid and no one has had the nausea past three weeks and I have now had it for 10 weeks . I feel so alone because when I reach out to those who have had Covid no one has had the experience of nine weeks going on 10 weeks of nausea. My life is at a standstill I lay in bed 24 hours a day trying and praying and hoping that the bread that I’m eating or the saltine crackers or the banana or the Jell-O or the applesauce will not make me sick. Now I’m finding that I’m having trouble drinking chicken broth because it is what is causing me to have oil droplets after a bowel movement. Now they want me to do another bloodwork panel and they want to do a CAT scan of my stomach area and my liver and gallbladder etc. I’m also going to go in for another stool specimen. This all started since I got Covid on January 11, 2022. If anybody is reading this and if anybody has had the same type of stomach symptoms I am asking you kindly if you could please respond to me and let me know that I’m not alone but this isn’t just an illness that I alone have to deal with. I wouldn’t wish this on any other human being but if someone by any chance houses can you please respond to me. Thank you so much for listening to my story. I feel so lonely and sometimes I feel so alone.
I was conscientious like this for two years. My mother-in-law passed away December 4 of 2021 and on January 8 I flew to Michigan for her memorial and the two days I was there was a first time I did not wear my mask and I was around people that I had never met and my whole family from Michigan. When I got back to California by January 11, 2022 I started having symptoms of feeling not very well and a splitting headache and sinus congestion and chills and I could barely touch my skin because it was sensitive to the touch and I had this fear that I had Covid.
So that day I went in through a drive-through and did a Covid test and got the results back that afternoon that it was negative. But by the time I got home I was so sick and I have never felt a sickness like this in my whole life my head hurts so bad and I had a fever that never went above 100.7 but I knew there was something seriously wrong and the next Covid test I could take would be on January 18, 2022. But on January 12 I woke up in the middle of the night very very nauseated so sick to my stomach that I thought I was going to die and I was taken to the emergency and they gave me fluids and they gave me Pepcid for my stomach and they gave me Zofran for my nausea. It was the most horrible feeling I’ve ever had I truly believed I was dying.
Less than 24 hours later all those symptoms came back again and back to the hospital I went and all my blood work was good I didn’t have a lung infection but I was seriously sick to my stomach. They again gave me Zofran for my nausea and Pepcid for my very acidic stomach. This happened a total of four times that I had to go to the hospital in less than 12 days to be treated for stomach problems. I was on Zofran and Pepcid for a total of two weeks and by the time I saw the (Gastroenterologist) I had taken myself off of Zofran and Pepcid and was starting to feel better. The gastroenterologist did a endoscopy of my stomach and esophagus And found that I had gastritis and more than three ulcers in my stomach. She put me on Prilosec to help with the acid and by day number three of taking Prilosec I was sicker than I was before so she switched my medication to Protonix and by day seven I felt like I had the most horrible feeling in my stomach of nausea and on top of it all I felt like I had poison in my whole system and the next thing I know droplets of oil are coming out when I’m having a bowel movement.
I went into panic and called the doctor and she took me off of the protonic‘s and told me to call her if I still had those droplets the next day which I did not and got switched back to Pepcid . I was on Pepcid for only four days and I was getting sicker by the day and now I wasn’t even able to go take car rides when my brother would want to take me out of the house. The doctor now has stopped me on all medication and is wanting me to possibly heal my ulcers and my acid on its own but this is now been day three of me not taking any medication and I am not getting any better I still feel nausea and the belching when I eat even a piece of bread or a banana is non-stop gas coming out of my stomach. It is so frightening because I have never had this before and the doctors thinking that my depression and anxiety is just getting the best of me and now has advised me to meet with her therapist and to be on antidepressant and anti-anxiety medication . Xanax helps me when I take a low-dose of it and it calms me down and it also calms my stomach down but it doesn’t take it totally away.
I have talked to so many friends that I’ve had Covid and no one has had the nausea past three weeks and I have now had it for 10 weeks . I feel so alone because when I reach out to those who have had Covid no one has had the experience of nine weeks going on 10 weeks of nausea. My life is at a standstill I lay in bed 24 hours a day trying and praying and hoping that the bread that I’m eating or the saltine crackers or the banana or the Jell-O or the applesauce will not make me sick. Now I’m finding that I’m having trouble drinking chicken broth because it is what is causing me to have oil droplets after a bowel movement. Now they want me to do another bloodwork panel and they want to do a CAT scan of my stomach area and my liver and gallbladder etc. I’m also going to go in for another stool specimen. This all started since I got Covid on January 11, 2022. If anybody is reading this and if anybody has had the same type of stomach symptoms I am asking you kindly if you could please respond to me and let me know that I’m not alone but this isn’t just an illness that I alone have to deal with. I wouldn’t wish this on any other human being but if someone by any chance houses can you please respond to me. Thank you so much for listening to my story. I feel so lonely and sometimes I feel so alone.
Katherine Van Andel (California)
