Six different types of symptoms of COVID-19

Did you know this? From CBS News July 28, 2020 (here). It is in hopes of treating the symptoms better.

A new study of COVID-19, based on data from a symptom tracker app, determined that there are six distinct "types" of the disease involving different clusters of symptoms. The discovery could potentially open new possibilities for how doctors can better treat individual patients and predict what level of hospital care they would need.

Researchers from King's College London studied data from approximately 1,600 U.K. and U.S. patients who regularly logged their symptoms in the COVID Symptom Tracker App in March and April.

The six clusters of symptoms outlined in the study are:

1. Flu-like with no fever: Headache, loss of smell, muscle pains, cough, sore throat, chest pain, no fever.
2. Flu-like with fever: Headache, loss of smell, cough, sore throat, hoarseness, fever, loss of appetite.
3. Gastrointestinal: Headache, loss of smell, loss of appetite, diarrhea, sore throat, chest pain, no cough.
4. Severe level one, fatigue: Headache, loss of smell, cough, fever, hoarseness, chest pain, fatigue.
5. Severe level two, confusion: Headache, loss of smell, loss of appetite, cough, fever, hoarseness, sore throat, chest pain, fatigue, confusion, muscle pain.
6. Severe level three, abdominal and respiratory: Headache, loss of smell, loss of appetite, cough, fever, hoarseness, sore throat, chest pain, fatigue, confusion, muscle pain, shortness of breath, diarrhea, abdominal pain.

Today's quote:

David Abram has expressed:

That which has been and that which is to come are not elsewhere – they are not autonomous dimensions independent of the encompassing present in which we dwell. They are, rather, the very depths of this living place – the hidden depth of its distances and the concealed depth on which we stand. 

no clue it was my heart!

You've all heard that women experience heart attacks differently than men.

I had shoulder pain, all the time, and it wouldn't let up when I tried to lie down on my side to sleep. I'd finally gone to my general practitioner on Wed. after trouble sleeping for several nights.

But let me back up and just let you know what I already had going on...Bronchiectasis...the inability to clear mucous from my lungs which led to chronic coughing. For that I already had 2 kinds of breathing treatments, one of which was a C-PAP to help me breath while sleeping. Anyway, I had not been getting to sleep and had pain all across my shoulders. The more pain, the tireder and the more coughing, of course.

I also already took a blood pressure medicine, and that Wed. afternoon I had the highest reading I'd ever had at the Dr. office. So he put me on an additional blood pressure medicine.

My doctor also gave me Soma, a muscle relaxant, and prednesone, a steroid...for 5 days.  Nothing for the pain. I could tense my muscles, but then they wouldn't relax. My chest was just tense, a bit heavy feeling. No pain there. I finally took some ibprofen on Thurs. night and fell asleep. But Friday was more of tiredness. I didn't feel like doing a thing.

I can sit here at the computer for hours, and so I did that on Fri, but then was tired and tried for about 3 hours to rest. I remember raising my arms while lying on my back gave some relief.

I called the pharmacy to see if I could still take ibuprofen with the Soma, and they said yes.  I may have called the doctor's office earlier as well, but I'm a bit fuzzy about that.  They did say the doctor isn't working today. Someone said, it sounds like you might need to go to urgent care and may need an Xray. But it was close to 5 pm on Friday by then. And the only other option was E.R.

So I called my friend, Helen, who said she'd be glad to take me to ER. And away we went.  I walked into a kind of busy waiting area, after they took my temperature. I already was wearing my mask. I told them I had shoulder pain that went into my chest. A cardio technician heard me say chest pain, and she took me right away to do an EKG.

And it was abnormal, so off I went for more testing.

None of which showed a heart attack.  I had a CT scan, and blood work, and about 2-3 hours into much discomfort, a cardiologist came and stood at the foot of my bed and said:

"You've had a heart attack.  You've had a heart attack."

I never had an acute episode of pain. And so when I consider it now, I don't know when it happened at all. I now am very cautious of shoulder pain...since that was my only clue.

Yes in the next 5 hours I got a catheterization and a stent installed in my artery which was 100% blocked. More on that later...

But this is another patient who was female who had a heart attack without the standard symptoms. Pay attention ladies. I sure am!