A nasty rooster and COVID-19 made for a tough week with EDS
After battling various illnesses and injuries, I'm finally on the upswing
Two weeks ago, I wrote that I was struggling to get back into the swing of the school year. It’s always a tough transition, but this year, I was dragging more than usual at my job as a teacher and college counselor. But I didn’t dwell on it and just kept pushing through, figuring things would get better.
Then it all caught up to me.
I recently went over to help my neighbor at her farm, and I let down my guard while getting out of my car. Considering she has one of the nastiest roosters I’ve ever encountered, that momentary slip of attention became the beginning of my downfall. As I walked toward her barn, I didn’t see Red Rooster, as he’s called, dart around the front of my car to come straight at me with its talons out.
As I backed away, trying to find something to distract him with, I accidentally stepped into the tractor bucket that was sitting just off the driveway, leading to a cartoon-worthy moment of me in a work dress tumbling backward over the tractor while being chased by a rooster. Fortunately, I wasn’t seriously injured. Unfortunately, courtesy of my Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS), I knew the resulting bruises would be epic in the worst way possible.
I wound up with a horrific bruise about the size of a small cantaloupe on my lower left calf, a baseball-size bruise on my right thigh, and a big scrape on my butt. Annoyed with myself (and Red Rooster) and in a good bit of pain, I was thankful it was a Thursday night and almost the weekend. It had to get better, right?
Well, not really. I woke up in the middle of the night on Friday, scratching like crazy. Confused, I turned on the light to find that I had hives. In my partially asleep brain, I scrambled for a reason but came up empty. I took two Benadryl (diphenhydramine) pills and waited for them to kick in, hoping that would be the end of it. If only that were true.
The next morning I still had some hives, but they weren’t terrible. Throughout the day, though, they got progressively worse, and the Benadryl wasn’t keeping them at bay. Not only were they exceptionally itchy, but I know from experience that too much inflammation in my body can trigger an EDS pain flare.
I went to urgent care, where the physician’s assistant who saw me was quite impressed by the red, blotchy pattern that now covered most of my skin. I also had the fun experience of explaining the outlandish bruises I’d received the day before. Fortunately, because I live in a rural area, the idea of being chased by a rogue rooster wasn’t that strange. She quickly decided I needed steroids to get the hives under control, and I hoped it would work quickly.
No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t come up with a reason for the reaction. The only thing I could think of was that my dog had gotten into something in the undergrowth, but that seemed like a stretch. It wasn’t until I arrived at work on Monday and a colleague mentioned how many students were out sick, many with COVID-19, that I had a thought.
A quick Google search showed that some people develop hives due to COVID-19. One study from 2021 found that a skin rash was the only symptom for 21% of people who tested positive for the illness. Rashes may develop weeks or months after someone recovers from COVID-19.
In a flash, I realized that my recent extreme exhaustion and hives could have been caused by the virus. By the time I thought to take a COVID-19 test, it came back negative, but I suspect it would’ve been positive a week or two earlier.
Thankfully, after several days of steroids and antihistamines and lots of help from awesome family and friends, I’m finally on the upswing. It’s been a tough couple weeks of fatigue — likely from both COVID-19 and EDS — along with hives, jitters from the steroids, and stress. Although I’m sore from my rooster-tractor incident, I’m lucky that my hives didn’t trigger a full-blown EDS pain flare.
While accidents and COVID-19 can happen to anyone, having a chronic condition sure adds another layer of struggle. I’ve been reminded this past week that having a support system is critical, and that, as much as I don’t enjoy it, it’s important to rest, relax, and heal.
Note: Ehlers-Danlos News is strictly a news and information website about the disease. It does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. This content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or another qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this website. The opinions expressed in this column are not those of Ehlers-Danlos News or its parent company, Bionews, and are intended to spark discussion about issues pertaining to Ehlers-Danlos.
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christy kennedy
Fascinating, and very sorry! Have had animal and illness/injury weeks as well, but am most curious with how COVID exposure presents so differently in people. I have hEDS and a list of other acronyms and have experienced flares of symptoms typical for me (flu-like symptoms, fatigue, pain, sore throat) without anything from my long trigger list . . . but I have been around someone who has had or was about to become symptomatic with COVID. I try TRY to remember, mid flare, that it will pass, but with neuroinflammation the uptick in depression and anxiety, and downturn in clear thinking, it's hard to remember. Hope your bruises are going away and you're feeling better!
Pat Chuppe
I’ve had Covid twice, the original variant in 2020, and a milder variant in 2023. While I was much, much, sicker in 2020, one thing was the same during and after both infections - an ongoing eruption of hives scattered randomly across my upper chest, back, and arms. Even after I had recovered from the respiratory part of the Covid, the random rash would continue to break out for months afterward. It wasn’t until my second experience that I believed that the rash was actually from the Covid, as it didn’t seem reasonable that a long term rash would be part of a respiratory virus, but my second infection confirmed that apparently for me at least, it is.
Val A
Sorry to hear about your "adventure." I agree, inflammation can totally trigger a flare! Covid itself gave me a couple of bad flares in 2022 that needed steroids to settle down. It attacked the stressed nerves in my thoracic outlet that are flare-y anyway. I get a booster every six months now, and the only time I caught Covid since then, the booster was enough help for my system to keep it below steroid crisis level. It's exhausting, the constant troubleshooting and hyper vigilance.