I was joking with Susan yesterday that I may be allergic to Omaha. I’ve been having constant, clear nasal discharge for days.
Today, our daughter-in-law (DIL) developed a cough, and Susan complained of a scratchy throat. We figured it was just allergies or possibly, COVID. I looked up COVID rhinorrhea (runny nose), and the first reference retrieved was to a case report of CSF rhinorrhea after a nasal swab for a COVID test.
CSF, for my non-clinical friends, is Cerebro-Spinal Fluid. At the “roof” of the nasal passages is the cribiform plate – a bone with many tiny perforations through which passes the 1st cranial nerve, the olfactory nerve, which carries smell signals to the brain. This is the same bone by which the “brain-eating” amoeba, Naegeria Fowleri, gains entrance to the brain.
The foregoing is meant as background to understanding how a rigid object, pushed up the nose, can penetrate the fragile roof of the nose and enter the brain. Subsequently, one develops a CSF leak that the affected person may interpret as a runny nose.
The second article was an inventory of ENT symptoms that can occur with COVID. It turns out that runny nose, sneezing and similar symptoms do occur in COVID, but they are quite uncommon – occurring in about 2% of COVID-positive patients.
Susan has some doctor visits next week; so, she suggested I get tested for COVID. Our DIL has a sister who lives in the UK. When they last visited, her sister brought a box of rapid COVID tests courtesy of the National Health Service (NHS) that provides them free for the asking.
They gave me one test kit, and I self-tested – careful not to penetrate my cribiform plate. The test was negative.
Here in the US, we go to Walgreens or CVS and shell out $25-35 for a single, at home COVID test. In the UK, a package of seven tests is free from the NHS for the asking.
It is interesting that our healthcare system is profit-driven, expensive, slow to respond, generally difficult to access, and claims to be the “best in the world.”
Americans have no lack of ego, that’s for sure.