It's been about two weeks since I flew and boy do I have an update! I've spent some quality ER time. Let's unpack what happened and why flying is a bad idea right now 1/ https://twitter.com/TexasVC/status/1273625469846519809

I flew on Tuesday June 16th. Because COVID tests aren't effective until 4 days pass, I waited until Friday June 19th and took a free COVID test from the @HoustonHealth. I had no symptoms. 2/

For more info on when and how to take an effective covid test, this is a good primer from @HarvardHealth. TLDR you gotta wait a few days for the tests to be accurate. I was completely asymptomatic. https://www.health.harvard.edu/diseases-and-conditions/if-youve-been-exposed-to-the-coronavirus 3/

The City promised results in 3-5 business days after I took the test, not including day of testing, so at best I was looking at about a week to get results back. The tests were administered by Quest so I signed up for electronic notifications. Meanwhile I waited in quarantine. 4/

On Tuesday 6/23 I was struck by the worst body ache of my life. I also had a mild fever. I was also confused. I slept 20 of the next 24 hours. I also wet myself. 5/

On Thursday 6/25 with no resolution I went to an ER. After hearing my symptoms and asking about my history, especially the flying, the immediate assumption was that I had covid. My nurse immediately put on a Hazmat suit after confirming my fever. 6/

The rapid covid test, flu test, and strep test all came up negative. Chest x-rays found nothing. I also got a head CT potentially for meningitis (I had headache and confusion), that came up negative. 7/

They gave me Toradol for pain that immediately cleared my headache and bodyache. I also had elevated white blood cell counts from my blood tests indicating I was fighting some kind of infection. I was discharged to home and told to rest. That night I ended up peeing 10 times. 8/

The peeing is important, indicating something was wrong with my UTI. My brother @hagilani and his bff (a urologist) sent me to get urine labs with the assumption I had prostatitis on 6/27. 9/

I also finally got my original COVID test results back from @HoustonHealth on 6/28. By now we were chasing the bacterial infection though. My right lower back was killing me though. Right where my kidney is. 10/

On 6/30 I finally got my urine cultures and confirmed the exact infection type, allowing us to finally get the right antibiotics. I'm doing a lot better now! 11/

So flying definitely did NOT get me sick. You can't get an infection like mine from other people. But flying meant that I wasted 4 days getting to the bottom of this and created all kinds of unnecessary testing in an overtaxed health system. Don't fly if you don't need to! 12/12