This #Beersaturday as many past weeks will be done at my house. I have not been leaving my house much in the last few months because I have Long Covid but I am still #alive.
The last week of January of this year, I started to feel sick and was tested on February 1, 2022, which showed positive for Covid. I struggled as many do through the flu like symptoms coughing, body aches, chills, and breathing difficulties. The symptoms hit me hard but not much harder than any other flu.
About 10 days later, I was feeling better but still had all the symptoms. But, by the end of my second week I could hardly talk and coughed nonstop. I began feeling really sick and was wondering if I had contracted Covid again since I seemed to be getting better and then had quickly felt sick again. My coughing was getting so bad that at times I would run out of air because I could not breathe in.
I went to the doctor and the doctor told me my Covid had led into pneumonia. I was put on a bunch of medications and started to feel better again. I still had not kicked all the symptoms of Covid but I figured over time they would go away. I decided I would go back to work. I also had brewed a batch of homebrew which I posted about earlier, in that post I thought I had beat Covid.
I worked three days and again started feeling really sick. My coughing had started increasing again. I felt I was back in the same spot I was when I was told I had pneumonia. Well I went back to the doctor and again had pneumonia. After more medications I started to feel better.
I stayed home for the next three weeks. I continued to have headaches, breathing trouble, muscle cramping, fatigue, chest pain, pain in the back, pain in the knees, pain in the shoulders / neck, and coughing. I was not getting any better and the doctor decided I should go back to work, but only working 5 hours a day, four days a week.
I worked my modified hours for a few weeks and began feeling really run down. I was sent to heart specialist and lung specialist since I was having such a difficult time breathing. Last week, I went to the urgent care where one of the doctors I had been seeing was located. The doctor asked me what was going on and I told him I was feeling worse then normal, sharp chest pain and having a really hard time catching my breath. The doctor looked at me and said, “I have to order an ambulance, you need to go to the emergency room.”
So an ambulance came and took me to the local emergency room. The doctors began doing numerous tests of my heart and lungs. The doctors informed me that my blood work showed I was having a heart attack. The doctors also said that once one of the heart tests was completed they would most likely be doing a stint or bypass on my heart. This scared me and for two days I remained in the hospital and completed over 26 tests. In the end, I did not need a stint or bypass, the doctors said they saw nothing wrong with my heart or lungs. Both my heart and lungs were very healthy and showed no signs of past trauma. The doctors said we are not sure what happened to you, but I think it’s all part of Long Covid.
So now we are into May and I still have all the symptoms. The breathing is the most troubling symptom. Due to the symptoms, I don’t have much energy to go out like my wife and I would like. So #Beersaturday will have to be done in my backyard for now. I really do enjoy my yard anyways so it’s not a bad thing.
So this week I am still #aliveandthriving, and I enjoyed a mixed IPA pack from Firestone Walker Brewery. Firestone Walker Brewery is located Paso Robles, California. This brewery like many in California started as two brother-in-laws doing a little homebrewing and turning it into a business. The two brother-in-laws were Adam Firestone and David Walker which is how the brewery got it’s name. Firestone Walker Brewery has become a fairly large brewery that distributes Nationwide.
The three beers that came in this mixed pack of IPA are the Union Jack IPA, Hopnosis IPA, and Simcoe Sequence IPA (A limited edition). This is a picture of the three beers at the bottom of my Magnum hop bine.
In this post the Union Jack and Hopnosis beers use a dry hopped method. Depending on when a hop is added to the brewing process will determine how much hop flavor, bitterness, or aroma is added. It was always common for the hops to be added during the brewing process or as the brewing process was ending. The Dry hopping is a method where the beer mash is placed into a fermenter and after that, hops are added to the fermenter. How many days the beer sits in the fermenter before the hops are added and how long the hops are added for can change flavor and aroma. I can write a few pages about the dry hopping process itself but just wanted to give an overview if you had never heard of it.
The first beer I started with is the Union Jack IPA. Union Jack IPA is a 7% beer brewed with CTZ, Cascade, and Centennial hops. Union Jack IPA then gets a dry hopping from Cascade, Centennial, Simcoe, Citra, Amarillo, and Chinook hops. I get a citrus and piney flavor from the hops and would say this is a nicely balanced IPA.
In my last post I talked about my goat Oliver who loves beer and will shake for a few drops of beer. So here is a picture and video of him with the Union Jack IPA.
The next beer I sampled was the Hopnosis IPA. Hopnosis IPA is a 6.7% beer and is brewed with Simcoe, Talus, and Callista hops. Hopnosis IPA then gets a dry hopping from cryo Mosiac, Idaho 7, El Dorado, Cashmere, Nelson Sauvin, and Riwaka hops. Cryo is a process of preserving the hop to produce the freshest and strongest hop flavors. This beer was my favorite of the three IPA’s I had from Firestone Walker. This beer had many fruity flavors and the bitterness excepted from an IPA.
Finally, I tasted the Simcoe Sequence IPA which is a limited release. Simcoe Sequence IPA is a 6% beer and is brewed with Simcoe and Motueka hops. Simcoe hops are one of my favorite hops and this beer having mostly Simcoe took me back to the beginning of IPA beers when they used a couple different varieties of hops in the beer. Today’s IPA brewers to keep adding more and more hop varieties. I do like beers with all the different hop varieties but a simple one, two, three different variety IPA is a nice throwback.
Thank you for reading this and hope everyone stays safe and healthy.
#alive
#aliveandthriving
!PGM
!LUV
!pizza
Hello, I hope all your symptoms goes away soonest. Cheers!
thank you
Great post!
I hope you get better soon.
Oliver the goat 🤣 loves beer. Oh no. 🥂 Oli
Hey! Hope you get past that Covid shit. That is way too long already! The best remedy for that is rest it out till you really feel good. Totally relate with the heavy breathing but somehow it just took me a few days.
But happy you still enjoyed some bottle of beer! The doctors didn't exempt you from drinking then? 😆
Thank you, yes still get to enjoy a cold one.
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