https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nc/charlo ... ew-variant
RALEIGH, N.C. — Washing dishes is one of the few household chores Ronald Rushing can do without catching his breath.
For one COVID-19 long-hauler, he's watched different waves of the virus develop while his symptoms have never gone away
"My eyes, I squint constantly because of the pain. I actually cracked a tooth from bearing down on my teeth," Rushing said.
The 46-year-old says he was in the best shape of his life before testing positive for COVID-19 in July 2020.
"We had ham for Thanksgiving, and it was too salty. I couldn't eat it. I've never been over 200 pounds in my life. I'm at 230 now," he said.
Since then, Rushing's symptoms have only gotten worse.
"It's a burning, sharp, shooting pain from all around my head from like all around my head like inside my brain," Rushing said.
The pain has held Rushing back from his passion of running marathons. He's been running for seven years.
"I used running to cope with my anxiety and my depression," he said.
Now, Rushing spends all his days at home.
A Facebook group for other COVID-19 long-haulers called Survivor Corps was once a safe place to let off some steam.
"There's 180,000 members in this group alone from all over the world. And it's just the more I look at it the sadder I become, because it's just people screaming out for help," Rushing said.
"There's 180,000 members in this group alone from all over the world. And it's just the more I look at it the sadder I become, because it's just people screaming out for help," Rushing said. "And nobody seems to care, bother with them because they don't have the active virus."
Even getting vaccinated can be a source of fear for these long-haulers. Rushing got his vaccine in October. Thankfully, he says the extra pain was temporary.
"I was hoping for my normal misery to come back, because I couldn't even move," he said.
As this new variant takes hold, Rushing isn't optimistic about the pandemic's end. For him, there may be no end.
"I deal with it five minutes at a time, because I don't have a hopeful future. I don't have a hope of going back to work. I don't have a hope of supporting my family at this point," Rushing said.
His family is all that matters.
"It's the only thing I feel like I haven't lost in all this," he said.
The last thing Rushing wants is for anyone else to go through this.
"You should wear your mask. You should get vaccinated. It's not going to stop. So, people need to protect themselves because nobody else is looking out for you," Rushing said.
Rushing is fearful of catching the virus again and is taking as many precautions as he can.
He's speaking out now in hopes it will motivate some people to take this virus seriously. And for others like him who are out there still suffering from these symptoms to know they're not alone.
Longhauler thread - This could be you
Longhauler thread - This could be you
Last edited by pelmet on Sun Jan 02, 2022 12:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.
-
ReserveTank
- Rank 6
- Posts: 493
- Joined: Thu Nov 29, 2012 6:32 am
Re: Longhauler thread
This is only an anecdote. It's fiction without some measurements. Get his height, weight, and medical history, which includes tobacco, sugar, and drug use, which also includes pharmaceutical use. Comorbidities matter.pelmet wrote: ↑Sat Jan 01, 2022 5:26 am https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nc/charlo ... ew-variant
RALEIGH, N.C. — Washing dishes is one of the few household chores Ronald Rushing can do without catching his breath.
For one COVID-19 long-hauler, he's watched different waves of the virus develop while his symptoms have never gone away
"My eyes, I squint constantly because of the pain. I actually cracked a tooth from bearing down on my teeth," Rushing said.
The 46-year-old says he was in the best shape of his life before testing positive for COVID-19 in July 2020.
"We had ham for Thanksgiving, and it was too salty. I couldn't eat it. I've never been over 200 pounds in my life. I'm at 230 now," he said.
Since then, Rushing's symptoms have only gotten worse.
"It's a burning, sharp, shooting pain from all around my head from like all around my head like inside my brain," Rushing said.
The pain has held Rushing back from his passion of running marathons. He's been running for seven years.
"I used running to cope with my anxiety and my depression," he said.
Now, Rushing spends all his days at home.
A Facebook group for other COVID-19 long-haulers called Survivor Corps was once a safe place to let off some steam.
"There's 180,000 members in this group alone from all over the world. And it's just the more I look at it the sadder I become, because it's just people screaming out for help," Rushing said.
"There's 180,000 members in this group alone from all over the world. And it's just the more I look at it the sadder I become, because it's just people screaming out for help," Rushing said. "And nobody seems to care, bother with them because they don't have the active virus."
Even getting vaccinated can be a source of fear for these long-haulers. Rushing got his vaccine in October. Thankfully, he says the extra pain was temporary.
"I was hoping for my normal misery to come back, because I couldn't even move," he said.
As this new variant takes hold, Rushing isn't optimistic about the pandemic's end. For him, there may be no end.
"I deal with it five minutes at a time, because I don't have a hopeful future. I don't have a hope of going back to work. I don't have a hope of supporting my family at this point," Rushing said.
His family is all that matters.
"It's the only thing I feel like I haven't lost in all this," he said.
The last thing Rushing wants is for anyone else to go through this.
"You should wear your mask. You should get vaccinated. It's not going to stop. So, people need to protect themselves because nobody else is looking out for you," Rushing said.
Rushing is fearful of catching the virus again and is taking as many precautions as he can.
He's speaking out now in hopes it will motivate some people to take this virus seriously. And for others like him who are out there still suffering from these symptoms to know they're not alone.
Re: Longhauler thread
Hmmm, the guy's passion is running marathons. Sounds like a real co-morbidity guy. But.....millions and millions are overweight and/or have a medical history. They are a large percentage of the population. While you may not care, many others do.ReserveTank wrote: ↑Sat Jan 01, 2022 1:37 pm
This is only an anecdote. It's fiction without some measurements. Get his height, weight, and medical history, which includes tobacco, sugar, and drug use, which also includes pharmaceutical use. Comorbidities matter.
Last edited by pelmet on Sat Jan 01, 2022 6:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Longhauler thread
Some more longhauler stories with pics. Look like normal people to me......Get your vaccine. It ain't worth it.
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/millions- ... d=75044159
COVID long-haulers speak about living with brain fog, rancid smells and crushing fatigue
Long-haulers describe feeling lost, hopeful and irrevocably changed
The life of COVID-19 long-haulers
For 19-year-old Danielle Jordan, everything tasted terrible.
Retired sales executive Donn Seidholz couldn't stay focused enough to finish a hand of cards.
And Heather-Elizabeth Brown, a 36-year-old ordained minister, couldn't do her own laundry without help.
For millions of people, surviving COVID-19 has been the starting point of a longer journey -- one that is poorly understood and increasingly consequential as the U.S. and the world grapple with the pandemic.
Rather than returning to good health as many do, an estimated 10% to 30% have enduring symptoms even after their infection has cleared.
"If even a small proportion of the vast numbers of people infected with COVID-19 develop Long COVID syndrome, it represents a significant public health concern," Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, wrote in January.
What we know about and don't about long COVID
Long COVID's litany of symptoms range from fatigue and "brain fog" to sleep disorders, fever, gastrointestinal issues, anxiety, depression, and countless others. There's no official definition, but having persistent symptoms 28 days after being infected is the framework most researchers are operating under.
Many so-called "long-haulers" had mild initial infections that never required hospitalization, but their problems lingered. In the largest global study of emerging symptoms, which included survey results from more than 3,700 self-described long-haulers in 56 countries, more than half couldn't work full time because of prolonged COVID-19 symptoms.
In February, the NIH announced a four-year, $1.15 billion dollar initiative to study what causes long COVID, but even before the initiative was put forth, clinics were springing up around the country to research and treat the growing number of long-haul patients. Health experts, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, have also drawn connections between long COVID and myalgic encephalomyelitis, also known as chronic fatigue syndrome, which is characterized by symptoms like fatigue and brain fog and can be triggered by infectious diseases like mononucleosis, Lyme disease and severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS.
Dr. Sara Martin is working to get one such initiative off the ground. The Adult Post-Acute COVID clinic at Vanderbilt University, which launched this week, brings together specialists from internal medicine, infectious disease, pulmonology, cardiology, ophthalmology, psychology, physical medicine, ear, nose and throat, speech pathology and neurology.
"We're trying to cover any potential issues patients might have," Martin said. "Every day it seems like there are new conditions or symptoms that are being reported." The clinic hasn't done any advertising yet, but they're already fielding phone calls from potential patients. Anyone who is experiencing persistent symptoms four weeks after being diagnosed is eligible. "We know that there's an interest and a need in the community," Martin added.
Long-haulers treatments can include physical therapy and speech therapy, breathing exercises and work with specialists, including mental health providers. Some long-haulers have reported feeling relief from symptoms after receiving the COVID-19 vaccine, although more research is needed to determine whether that improvement is a placebo effect.
Martin also spoke to the sense of uncertainty that the first cohort of patients with long COVID feels. In addition to not knowing what to expect, suffering from a chronic and invisible illness can be frustrating or downright frightening.
"The truth is we just don't know a lot," Martin said. "It's important for them to know that we believe them. We think these symptoms are real and we're doing everything we can to better understand why these symptoms are happening."
For a window into what living with long COVID is like, ABC News spoke with three long-haulers about their symptoms, their struggles and what comes next.
Jordan was among the first students at the University of Miami to test positive for COVID-19 this summer, and after isolating at a family friend's empty apartment for 10 days with minor symptoms, she thought she'd put the experience behind her.
Instead, "my symptoms gradually got worse," she said.
She started each day by eating peanut butter to test that she could still taste and smell the potent spread. "One morning, I couldn't anymore," Jordan said.
Then came shortness of breath and chest tightness that persisted beyond when her initial symptoms faded. Doctors gave her chest X-rays that came back clear and suggested she might have anxiety.
"I know what anxiety feels like," Jordan said. "It wasn't that."
She went through rounds of medical tests and screenings and was eventually prescribed an inhaler, which she had never needed previously. Seven months later, her chest is feeling better, but it still tightens up and makes a popping sound when she stretches.
"It feels like when your back needs to crack, but in the front," Jordan said. "That happens a few times every single day."
Around Thanksgiving, three months after she'd gotten sick, Jordan's sense of smell and taste started to return. But something was different. Her senses were distorted, a condition known as parosmia, when a person's perception of odors changes and "something that normally smells pleasant now smells foul," according to the NIH.
Coffee, cigarettes and French fries all smelled the same. And they all smelled bad. It wasn't an odor she could identify, but it was overwhelming. Fruit suddenly smelled nauseatingly sweet to her.
Many foods, including fruit, smell terrible to Jordan after COVID-19.
She's tried to cope by eating plain foods like pasta, or a few scoops of yogurt and granola, but despite her best efforts, she lost weight. Once she fainted in the waiting room of her doctor's office because it hadn't occurred to her to eat that day. "That was not on purpose," Jordan said. "I forget to eat and then my body suffers the consequences."
Jordan's mother, Renée, had used the word long-hauler early on, but it took Jordan longer to think of herself that way. Before she'd gotten sick she'd been fit and strong. She ate well and often went running. She didn't have any pre-existing conditions. Her classmates who tested positive quickly recovered or never had symptoms at all.
"Why wasn’t I getting better when everybody else seemed to be?" Jordan asked.
Thirty days went by and she still had symptoms. Then 60 days passed. When she hit the 60-day mark, she relented. "OK, I'm officially a long-hauler," she told herself.
It's scary to be in the first group of people experiencing persistent symptoms, but Jordan is trying to stay positive. Her symptoms have lessened over time and she hasn't given up on her sense of taste and smell returning to normal. She's seeing a doctor who has her smell essential oils like lavender and eucalyptus for 20 seconds each morning and night, in an effort to wake her senses back up. She's skeptical, she said, but she also has nothing to lose.
"I'm hopeful," she added.
For Seidholz, the clue was a bad day at the gym.
Seidholz, age 67, played professional baseball in his youth and still works out diligently, lifting weights and doing cardio most days. Usually he can lift 100 pounds, but on the day in August when he first sensed he might be sick, he could only eke out 75.
His diagnostic test came back positive and Seidholz spent three weeks in the basement, severely fatigued, with intermittent chills and headaches. He lost his sense of taste and smell.
"I was so tired that I couldn’t really tell if I had brain fog," Seidholz said. After his initial illness subsided, he'd lost weight and felt run down, but chalked it up to the post-infection malaise he'd felt in the past after having the flu. "I'll be back to normal within a month max," he told himself. "That clearly hasn't been the case," he added.
Instead, he said brain fog and fatigue have dogged him for seven months.
Seidholz struggles to have the energy to get out of bed these days.
"Last night we were playing cards and I lost track of what we were doing in the middle of a hand," he said. As a retired sales executive who kept track of business dealings in his head, losing his train of thought is troubling, Seidholz said. "All of the sudden, you're just lost."
Seidholz said he's used to being on the go, which makes the unpredictable nature of fatigue especially trying. Exerting himself one day can leave him completely exhausted the next and it takes him about twice as long as it used to to complete his normal workout. Other times, he'll work out and anticipate feeling run down, only to feel fine.
"I definitely have good days and bad days, but the fatigue and brain fog are always there," he said.
On days Seidholz has energy he lifts small hand weights. He could lift 100 lb weights bef...Read More
Seidholz, who had neuropathy, a nerve condition, prior to getting COVID, underwent a battery of tests this fall and doctors couldn't detect any irregularities. The standard response he received when he asked doctors about treatments was that his symptoms would get better with time. "Evidently a lot of people are being told that they're hypochondriacs," he said. "I'm here to tell you it's real." The studies and clinics that have launched call attention to long-haulers' plight, but it will take time before they yield results and long-haulers like Seidholz have any real answers.
"We don't have any history," Seidholz lamented. "We don't really know anything." On one hand he feels sorry for doctors, who have a limited ability to help patients recover from a disease they don't yet understand. On the other, he's fed up.
"Somebody come up with a solution or treatment or whatever so I can get back to my normal life," he said.
Heather-Elizabeth Brown was put into a medically induced coma and was on a ventilator for 31 days.
"My life is irrevocably changed," said Brown, who was just 35 when a severe case of COVID-19 landed her in the hospital last April.
Brown was healthy and independent prior to getting sick, and constantly on the go, kept busy by community outreach she did as a minister and her new job as a corporate trainer.
Forty-eight hours after being admitted to the hospital, all that changed. In order to save her life, doctors told Brown they'd have to put her into a medically induced coma. "I was on a ventilator for 31 days," Brown recalled.
Her recovery was brutal and slow after returning home. At first, Brown couldn't walk or use the left side of her body. Her days were filled with intensive therapy and adjustments: new medications, new doctors and new limitations.
Even with all of those challenges, it didn't occur to Brown that she might be a long-hauler. "I can do this, I can bounce back," she told herself after being released from the hospital. "I truly believe in resilience and grit." Two months passed, then three, and Brown was still exhausted, in pain and having trouble catching her breath. She felt foggy and her short-term memory was shot. Reality set in. "OK, this is going to be a long-term thing that I'm dealing with," she realized.
Sometimes she says she's on an upward trajectory, where she feels better for days or even weeks at a time. She recently hit a huge milestone by returning to remote work for the first time since April. Little acts of self-care, try a new make-up product or watching a TV show she enjoys keep her going and help remind her of life prior to COVID, she said.
But she's also had setbacks. Around Thanksgiving, Brown was diagnosed with diabetes, which she believes was triggered by COVID, and re-hospitalized. Some days, getting up and making breakfast or taking a shower feels impossible. It's difficult to get through the whole day without a nap and she relies on a home health aid to help with laundry and taking out the trash. "I'm just getting to the point where I don’t get fully winded coming up a flight of stairs in my apartment," she said.
Brown uses many colored sticky notes to help her remember things.
Brown once prided herself on having a phenomenal memory, but now posts colored sticky notes everywhere to jog her short-term memory. "Today I have ABC News and your name, just in case I forget that while I'm having this conversation," she said.
Over the past year, Brown has undergone extensive therapies, including pulmonary rehabilitation to increase her lung capacity and speech therapy to help restore her speaking and singing ability. She was on blood thinners for eight months after developing a blood clot and has seen an optometrist every few weeks when her vision started rapidly changing this fall. She's tried alternative treatments like massage and acupuncture. After being diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety, counseling has helped Brown process both her experience being in a medical coma and long COVID.
Although her team of doctors and specialists have been instrumental to her recovery thus far, the uncertainty of living life as a long-hauler looms large.
"It's coming up on a year," Brown said. "They can't tell me if this is going to be something that I'm going to be dealing with for another year or another five years. They can't tell me if this is going to be something that I'm going to be dealing with 20 years from now."
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/millions- ... d=75044159
COVID long-haulers speak about living with brain fog, rancid smells and crushing fatigue
Long-haulers describe feeling lost, hopeful and irrevocably changed
The life of COVID-19 long-haulers
For 19-year-old Danielle Jordan, everything tasted terrible.
Retired sales executive Donn Seidholz couldn't stay focused enough to finish a hand of cards.
And Heather-Elizabeth Brown, a 36-year-old ordained minister, couldn't do her own laundry without help.
For millions of people, surviving COVID-19 has been the starting point of a longer journey -- one that is poorly understood and increasingly consequential as the U.S. and the world grapple with the pandemic.
Rather than returning to good health as many do, an estimated 10% to 30% have enduring symptoms even after their infection has cleared.
"If even a small proportion of the vast numbers of people infected with COVID-19 develop Long COVID syndrome, it represents a significant public health concern," Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, wrote in January.
What we know about and don't about long COVID
Long COVID's litany of symptoms range from fatigue and "brain fog" to sleep disorders, fever, gastrointestinal issues, anxiety, depression, and countless others. There's no official definition, but having persistent symptoms 28 days after being infected is the framework most researchers are operating under.
Many so-called "long-haulers" had mild initial infections that never required hospitalization, but their problems lingered. In the largest global study of emerging symptoms, which included survey results from more than 3,700 self-described long-haulers in 56 countries, more than half couldn't work full time because of prolonged COVID-19 symptoms.
In February, the NIH announced a four-year, $1.15 billion dollar initiative to study what causes long COVID, but even before the initiative was put forth, clinics were springing up around the country to research and treat the growing number of long-haul patients. Health experts, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, have also drawn connections between long COVID and myalgic encephalomyelitis, also known as chronic fatigue syndrome, which is characterized by symptoms like fatigue and brain fog and can be triggered by infectious diseases like mononucleosis, Lyme disease and severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS.
Dr. Sara Martin is working to get one such initiative off the ground. The Adult Post-Acute COVID clinic at Vanderbilt University, which launched this week, brings together specialists from internal medicine, infectious disease, pulmonology, cardiology, ophthalmology, psychology, physical medicine, ear, nose and throat, speech pathology and neurology.
"We're trying to cover any potential issues patients might have," Martin said. "Every day it seems like there are new conditions or symptoms that are being reported." The clinic hasn't done any advertising yet, but they're already fielding phone calls from potential patients. Anyone who is experiencing persistent symptoms four weeks after being diagnosed is eligible. "We know that there's an interest and a need in the community," Martin added.
Long-haulers treatments can include physical therapy and speech therapy, breathing exercises and work with specialists, including mental health providers. Some long-haulers have reported feeling relief from symptoms after receiving the COVID-19 vaccine, although more research is needed to determine whether that improvement is a placebo effect.
Martin also spoke to the sense of uncertainty that the first cohort of patients with long COVID feels. In addition to not knowing what to expect, suffering from a chronic and invisible illness can be frustrating or downright frightening.
"The truth is we just don't know a lot," Martin said. "It's important for them to know that we believe them. We think these symptoms are real and we're doing everything we can to better understand why these symptoms are happening."
For a window into what living with long COVID is like, ABC News spoke with three long-haulers about their symptoms, their struggles and what comes next.
Jordan was among the first students at the University of Miami to test positive for COVID-19 this summer, and after isolating at a family friend's empty apartment for 10 days with minor symptoms, she thought she'd put the experience behind her.
Instead, "my symptoms gradually got worse," she said.
She started each day by eating peanut butter to test that she could still taste and smell the potent spread. "One morning, I couldn't anymore," Jordan said.
Then came shortness of breath and chest tightness that persisted beyond when her initial symptoms faded. Doctors gave her chest X-rays that came back clear and suggested she might have anxiety.
"I know what anxiety feels like," Jordan said. "It wasn't that."
She went through rounds of medical tests and screenings and was eventually prescribed an inhaler, which she had never needed previously. Seven months later, her chest is feeling better, but it still tightens up and makes a popping sound when she stretches.
"It feels like when your back needs to crack, but in the front," Jordan said. "That happens a few times every single day."
Around Thanksgiving, three months after she'd gotten sick, Jordan's sense of smell and taste started to return. But something was different. Her senses were distorted, a condition known as parosmia, when a person's perception of odors changes and "something that normally smells pleasant now smells foul," according to the NIH.
Coffee, cigarettes and French fries all smelled the same. And they all smelled bad. It wasn't an odor she could identify, but it was overwhelming. Fruit suddenly smelled nauseatingly sweet to her.
Many foods, including fruit, smell terrible to Jordan after COVID-19.
She's tried to cope by eating plain foods like pasta, or a few scoops of yogurt and granola, but despite her best efforts, she lost weight. Once she fainted in the waiting room of her doctor's office because it hadn't occurred to her to eat that day. "That was not on purpose," Jordan said. "I forget to eat and then my body suffers the consequences."
Jordan's mother, Renée, had used the word long-hauler early on, but it took Jordan longer to think of herself that way. Before she'd gotten sick she'd been fit and strong. She ate well and often went running. She didn't have any pre-existing conditions. Her classmates who tested positive quickly recovered or never had symptoms at all.
"Why wasn’t I getting better when everybody else seemed to be?" Jordan asked.
Thirty days went by and she still had symptoms. Then 60 days passed. When she hit the 60-day mark, she relented. "OK, I'm officially a long-hauler," she told herself.
It's scary to be in the first group of people experiencing persistent symptoms, but Jordan is trying to stay positive. Her symptoms have lessened over time and she hasn't given up on her sense of taste and smell returning to normal. She's seeing a doctor who has her smell essential oils like lavender and eucalyptus for 20 seconds each morning and night, in an effort to wake her senses back up. She's skeptical, she said, but she also has nothing to lose.
"I'm hopeful," she added.
For Seidholz, the clue was a bad day at the gym.
Seidholz, age 67, played professional baseball in his youth and still works out diligently, lifting weights and doing cardio most days. Usually he can lift 100 pounds, but on the day in August when he first sensed he might be sick, he could only eke out 75.
His diagnostic test came back positive and Seidholz spent three weeks in the basement, severely fatigued, with intermittent chills and headaches. He lost his sense of taste and smell.
"I was so tired that I couldn’t really tell if I had brain fog," Seidholz said. After his initial illness subsided, he'd lost weight and felt run down, but chalked it up to the post-infection malaise he'd felt in the past after having the flu. "I'll be back to normal within a month max," he told himself. "That clearly hasn't been the case," he added.
Instead, he said brain fog and fatigue have dogged him for seven months.
Seidholz struggles to have the energy to get out of bed these days.
"Last night we were playing cards and I lost track of what we were doing in the middle of a hand," he said. As a retired sales executive who kept track of business dealings in his head, losing his train of thought is troubling, Seidholz said. "All of the sudden, you're just lost."
Seidholz said he's used to being on the go, which makes the unpredictable nature of fatigue especially trying. Exerting himself one day can leave him completely exhausted the next and it takes him about twice as long as it used to to complete his normal workout. Other times, he'll work out and anticipate feeling run down, only to feel fine.
"I definitely have good days and bad days, but the fatigue and brain fog are always there," he said.
On days Seidholz has energy he lifts small hand weights. He could lift 100 lb weights bef...Read More
Seidholz, who had neuropathy, a nerve condition, prior to getting COVID, underwent a battery of tests this fall and doctors couldn't detect any irregularities. The standard response he received when he asked doctors about treatments was that his symptoms would get better with time. "Evidently a lot of people are being told that they're hypochondriacs," he said. "I'm here to tell you it's real." The studies and clinics that have launched call attention to long-haulers' plight, but it will take time before they yield results and long-haulers like Seidholz have any real answers.
"We don't have any history," Seidholz lamented. "We don't really know anything." On one hand he feels sorry for doctors, who have a limited ability to help patients recover from a disease they don't yet understand. On the other, he's fed up.
"Somebody come up with a solution or treatment or whatever so I can get back to my normal life," he said.
Heather-Elizabeth Brown was put into a medically induced coma and was on a ventilator for 31 days.
"My life is irrevocably changed," said Brown, who was just 35 when a severe case of COVID-19 landed her in the hospital last April.
Brown was healthy and independent prior to getting sick, and constantly on the go, kept busy by community outreach she did as a minister and her new job as a corporate trainer.
Forty-eight hours after being admitted to the hospital, all that changed. In order to save her life, doctors told Brown they'd have to put her into a medically induced coma. "I was on a ventilator for 31 days," Brown recalled.
Her recovery was brutal and slow after returning home. At first, Brown couldn't walk or use the left side of her body. Her days were filled with intensive therapy and adjustments: new medications, new doctors and new limitations.
Even with all of those challenges, it didn't occur to Brown that she might be a long-hauler. "I can do this, I can bounce back," she told herself after being released from the hospital. "I truly believe in resilience and grit." Two months passed, then three, and Brown was still exhausted, in pain and having trouble catching her breath. She felt foggy and her short-term memory was shot. Reality set in. "OK, this is going to be a long-term thing that I'm dealing with," she realized.
Sometimes she says she's on an upward trajectory, where she feels better for days or even weeks at a time. She recently hit a huge milestone by returning to remote work for the first time since April. Little acts of self-care, try a new make-up product or watching a TV show she enjoys keep her going and help remind her of life prior to COVID, she said.
But she's also had setbacks. Around Thanksgiving, Brown was diagnosed with diabetes, which she believes was triggered by COVID, and re-hospitalized. Some days, getting up and making breakfast or taking a shower feels impossible. It's difficult to get through the whole day without a nap and she relies on a home health aid to help with laundry and taking out the trash. "I'm just getting to the point where I don’t get fully winded coming up a flight of stairs in my apartment," she said.
Brown uses many colored sticky notes to help her remember things.
Brown once prided herself on having a phenomenal memory, but now posts colored sticky notes everywhere to jog her short-term memory. "Today I have ABC News and your name, just in case I forget that while I'm having this conversation," she said.
Over the past year, Brown has undergone extensive therapies, including pulmonary rehabilitation to increase her lung capacity and speech therapy to help restore her speaking and singing ability. She was on blood thinners for eight months after developing a blood clot and has seen an optometrist every few weeks when her vision started rapidly changing this fall. She's tried alternative treatments like massage and acupuncture. After being diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety, counseling has helped Brown process both her experience being in a medical coma and long COVID.
Although her team of doctors and specialists have been instrumental to her recovery thus far, the uncertainty of living life as a long-hauler looms large.
"It's coming up on a year," Brown said. "They can't tell me if this is going to be something that I'm going to be dealing with for another year or another five years. They can't tell me if this is going to be something that I'm going to be dealing with 20 years from now."
-
Vaticinator
- Rank 4
- Posts: 222
- Joined: Mon Nov 29, 2021 11:29 am
Re: Longhauler thread
Great, more anecdotes. The foundation of any good reasonable decision.
-
imjustlurking
- Rank 7
- Posts: 700
- Joined: Tue Sep 14, 2021 9:12 am
Re: Longhauler thread
Choose your experts of choice.Vaticinator wrote: ↑Sun Jan 02, 2022 7:57 am Great, more anecdotes. The foundation of any good reasonable decision.
Hopkins
CDC
Mayo Clinic
Government of Ontario
Government of Newfoundland and Labrador
Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC)
NHS
ImJustLurking
Re: Longhauler thread
Is it worth the risk. You won't die but........
'This could happen to anyone
Laurel Schafer, 35, contracted the virus last November and can’t shake off debilitating symptoms.'
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatch ... -1.6169637
-
Vaticinator
- Rank 4
- Posts: 222
- Joined: Mon Nov 29, 2021 11:29 am
-
Vaticinator
- Rank 4
- Posts: 222
- Joined: Mon Nov 29, 2021 11:29 am
Re: Longhauler thread
https://newsrescue.com/silencedvoices-v ... ear-panel/Ohio resident Stephanie de Garay, who signed her three kids up in Pfizers 12-15-year-old clinical trial, also appeared with her 12-year-old daughter Maddie to describe how the vaccine left her otherwise healthy, normal child wheelchair-bound.
...
Upon receiving the second shot, Maddie immediately felt pain at the injection site and over the next 24-hours she developed severe abdominal and chest pain, and the way she described the chest pain, and I quote, ‘It feels like my heart is being ripped out through my neck.’ She had painful electrical shocks down her neck and spine that forced her to walk hunched over.
...
Over the next two and a half months her abdominal muscle and nerve pain became unbearable. She developed additional symptoms that included gastroparesis, nausea and vomiting, erratic blood pressure, and heart rate, memory loss; she mixes up words, brain fog, headaches, dizziness, fainting – she fell and hit her head – and then seizures. She had verbal… she developed verbal and motor tics. She had loss of feeling from the waist down and muscle weakness, drastic changes in her vision, urinary retention, and loss of bladder control, severely irregular and heavy menstrual cycles and eventually she had to have an NG tube put in to get nutrition. All of these symptoms are still here today, some days are worse than others.
...
Over the past five months Maddie has been into the ER nine times and has been hospitalized three times for a total of two months in the hospital.
What I want to ask, Maddie volunteered for the Pfizer trial, why aren’t they researching her to figure out why this happened so other people don’t have to go through this? Instead they’re just saying it’s mental. If anybody’s mental, it’s me. So today our journey as parents to help our daughter Maddie continues. All we want is for Maddie to be seen heard and believed, because she has not been and we want her to get the care she desperately needs so that she can go back to normal. Why is she not back to normal? She was totally fine before this. She did the right thing trying to help everybody else and they’re not helping her.
Aren't anecdotes great?
Re: Longhauler thread
'This could happen to anyone': Sask. COVID-19 long-hauler hopes personal story will spark government action
Laurel Schafer, 35, contracted the virus last November and can’t shake off debilitating symptoms
Jessie Anton · CBC News · Posted: Sep 09, 2021 12:24 PM CT | Last Updated: September 9, 2021
Laurel Schafer, 35, has been living with lingering COVID-19 symptoms since she contracted the virus in November 2020. Oftentimes, they leave her bedridden and unable to accomplish basic tasks, like drinking water. (Submitted by Laurel Schafer)
This time last year, Laurel Schafer was an active mother and physical therapist running a business in Swift Current, Sask. Today, the 35-year-old can't muster the energy to tuck her kids into bed.
Schafer contracted COVID-19 last November, presumably from her husband, who caught it first while at work.
"He sneezed a few times and sniffled twice, and I was sick for about three weeks — basically bed-ridden sick," she recalled in an interview with CBC Radio's The Morning Edition on Thursday.
The illness forced Schafer off work for two months. When she returned full-time in January, she said she could only push through for a while before things grew progressively worse.
"I wasn't able to function at all in my life outside of work," Schafer said, adding she would come home, go to bed and sleep until morning.
"Every moment that I was awake was basically trying to ignore my symptoms as best as possible, and trying to get through the next moment until I could sleep again."
Almost a year later, Schafer is back to work for two and a half hours each day with some modifications, but she's still feeling the effects.
Since contracting COVID-19 last November, Schafer has remained on a cocktail of medications that help regulate her heart rate and sleep schedule. The Swift Current mother and entrepreneur also uses an inhaler at least twice a day. (Submitted by Laurel Schafer)
She now lives with a long list of COVID-19 symptoms — from dizziness to shortness of breath to fatigue, which she said is the most debilitating.
"People say, 'We're all tired sometimes, I didn't sleep last night or I had a big day' — but this is a different sort of sensation," Schafer said. "When it's bad, it's to the point where I'm so thirsty but I can't even summon enough energy for myself to roll over in bed and grab my water bottle."
Constant exhaustion, struggling to keep up with family life: Sask. woman explains long-hauling COVID-19 symptoms
She was an active, healthy mom of two young children who ran her own business as a physical therapist. Then, she got COVID-19. Nine months later, she still has serious symptoms -- and can only work a couple of hours a day, sitting down. 9:31
Light and noise are also irritants, so if her kids are around, for example, she said they have to stay totally silent. Watching television is also not an option to pass time in bed.
Schafer said her lingering brain fog still makes her forget words or the next thing to do in a sequence of tasks.
"Say, if I was cooking supper, I might stand there for five minutes, trying to figure out, 'OK, I need to get out a pot, I need to turn on the stove and figure out what burner is on,'" she explained. "Things that would normally come really naturally, I struggle with."
'Little things we just have to appreciate'
Schafer said her family and work support systems are what get her by and help her cope.
Her husband has stepped up, she said, and what he's not doing her young children have taken on.
"My seven-year-old cleans our bathrooms, my nine-year-old makes sure her brother is ready for school in the morning and they make their own lunches," Schafer said. "They do it all — and they've really had to gain a lot of responsibility."
After contracting COVID-19 last fall, Schafer said she relies heavily on her husband and young children to accomplish daily tasks. (Submitted by Laurel Schafer)
She can no longer do physical activities with her kids that she used to enjoy — like riding a bike, walking around the block or tucking them in at night because their bedrooms are in the basement and she can't get down the stairs.
"My nine-year-old has been really understanding, but the other night she couldn't sleep and she said to me, 'Mom, what if you never get better?' And what do I say to her about that? Because none of us know if I'm going to get better," Schafer said.
For now, she celebrates small wins.
"Last night, I was able to read bedtime stories with them, which often I'm not even capable of at that time of day. They thought it was wonderful," Schafer said. "It's those little things we just have to appreciate."
A pleading call for public health measures
As COVID-19 numbers continue to surge across Saskatchewan with little to no provincial government response, Schafer turned to social media to share her experience.
"I want people to realize that the numbers they see on survival rates really don't tell the whole story," she said. "I was considered recovered in 14 days but I'm certainly not recovered."
On Twitter, Schafer called out Premier Scott Moe for not taking the advice of local medical health officers who have repeatedly urged the province to bring back COVID-19 public health restrictions.
"I think blatantly disregarding the things that they have clearly outlined is incomprehensible," she said. "It's just incompetent and really negligent. It's going to result in more death and disability and I think that's really unfortunate."
In an emailed statement Wednesday afternoon, Moe's press secretary said the government "continues to monitor the COVID-19 situation in our province and consult with Dr. [Saqib] Shahab as the situation evolves."
The statement goes on to say that Moe and Health Minister Paul Merriman are "further engaging" with the health authority about the recent rise in hospitalizations and the ongoing capacity of the health-care system.
"Premier Moe will have more to say on this in the coming days," the statement said.
With those measures in place, she hopes it will slow the transmission of COVID-19, so no one else has to experience such symptoms.
"This could happen to anyone — this could happen to you or your mom or your kids," she said. "I think that's terrifying, and I think that we need to be aware of that and consider that in our day-to-day actions."
Laurel Schafer, 35, contracted the virus last November and can’t shake off debilitating symptoms
Jessie Anton · CBC News · Posted: Sep 09, 2021 12:24 PM CT | Last Updated: September 9, 2021
Laurel Schafer, 35, has been living with lingering COVID-19 symptoms since she contracted the virus in November 2020. Oftentimes, they leave her bedridden and unable to accomplish basic tasks, like drinking water. (Submitted by Laurel Schafer)
This time last year, Laurel Schafer was an active mother and physical therapist running a business in Swift Current, Sask. Today, the 35-year-old can't muster the energy to tuck her kids into bed.
Schafer contracted COVID-19 last November, presumably from her husband, who caught it first while at work.
"He sneezed a few times and sniffled twice, and I was sick for about three weeks — basically bed-ridden sick," she recalled in an interview with CBC Radio's The Morning Edition on Thursday.
The illness forced Schafer off work for two months. When she returned full-time in January, she said she could only push through for a while before things grew progressively worse.
"I wasn't able to function at all in my life outside of work," Schafer said, adding she would come home, go to bed and sleep until morning.
"Every moment that I was awake was basically trying to ignore my symptoms as best as possible, and trying to get through the next moment until I could sleep again."
Almost a year later, Schafer is back to work for two and a half hours each day with some modifications, but she's still feeling the effects.
Since contracting COVID-19 last November, Schafer has remained on a cocktail of medications that help regulate her heart rate and sleep schedule. The Swift Current mother and entrepreneur also uses an inhaler at least twice a day. (Submitted by Laurel Schafer)
She now lives with a long list of COVID-19 symptoms — from dizziness to shortness of breath to fatigue, which she said is the most debilitating.
"People say, 'We're all tired sometimes, I didn't sleep last night or I had a big day' — but this is a different sort of sensation," Schafer said. "When it's bad, it's to the point where I'm so thirsty but I can't even summon enough energy for myself to roll over in bed and grab my water bottle."
Constant exhaustion, struggling to keep up with family life: Sask. woman explains long-hauling COVID-19 symptoms
She was an active, healthy mom of two young children who ran her own business as a physical therapist. Then, she got COVID-19. Nine months later, she still has serious symptoms -- and can only work a couple of hours a day, sitting down. 9:31
Light and noise are also irritants, so if her kids are around, for example, she said they have to stay totally silent. Watching television is also not an option to pass time in bed.
Schafer said her lingering brain fog still makes her forget words or the next thing to do in a sequence of tasks.
"Say, if I was cooking supper, I might stand there for five minutes, trying to figure out, 'OK, I need to get out a pot, I need to turn on the stove and figure out what burner is on,'" she explained. "Things that would normally come really naturally, I struggle with."
'Little things we just have to appreciate'
Schafer said her family and work support systems are what get her by and help her cope.
Her husband has stepped up, she said, and what he's not doing her young children have taken on.
"My seven-year-old cleans our bathrooms, my nine-year-old makes sure her brother is ready for school in the morning and they make their own lunches," Schafer said. "They do it all — and they've really had to gain a lot of responsibility."
After contracting COVID-19 last fall, Schafer said she relies heavily on her husband and young children to accomplish daily tasks. (Submitted by Laurel Schafer)
She can no longer do physical activities with her kids that she used to enjoy — like riding a bike, walking around the block or tucking them in at night because their bedrooms are in the basement and she can't get down the stairs.
"My nine-year-old has been really understanding, but the other night she couldn't sleep and she said to me, 'Mom, what if you never get better?' And what do I say to her about that? Because none of us know if I'm going to get better," Schafer said.
For now, she celebrates small wins.
"Last night, I was able to read bedtime stories with them, which often I'm not even capable of at that time of day. They thought it was wonderful," Schafer said. "It's those little things we just have to appreciate."
A pleading call for public health measures
As COVID-19 numbers continue to surge across Saskatchewan with little to no provincial government response, Schafer turned to social media to share her experience.
"I want people to realize that the numbers they see on survival rates really don't tell the whole story," she said. "I was considered recovered in 14 days but I'm certainly not recovered."
On Twitter, Schafer called out Premier Scott Moe for not taking the advice of local medical health officers who have repeatedly urged the province to bring back COVID-19 public health restrictions.
"I think blatantly disregarding the things that they have clearly outlined is incomprehensible," she said. "It's just incompetent and really negligent. It's going to result in more death and disability and I think that's really unfortunate."
In an emailed statement Wednesday afternoon, Moe's press secretary said the government "continues to monitor the COVID-19 situation in our province and consult with Dr. [Saqib] Shahab as the situation evolves."
The statement goes on to say that Moe and Health Minister Paul Merriman are "further engaging" with the health authority about the recent rise in hospitalizations and the ongoing capacity of the health-care system.
"Premier Moe will have more to say on this in the coming days," the statement said.
With those measures in place, she hopes it will slow the transmission of COVID-19, so no one else has to experience such symptoms.
"This could happen to anyone — this could happen to you or your mom or your kids," she said. "I think that's terrifying, and I think that we need to be aware of that and consider that in our day-to-day actions."
Re: Longhauler thread - This could be you
I'm not concerned about long covid. If you look at the data, after 16 weeks there is not much difference between long covid patients and the general population:
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulation ... august2021
After 60 days practically nobody has symptoms any more:
All the people I've read about having long covid acknowledge stress as being a major factor.
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulation ... august2021
After 60 days practically nobody has symptoms any more:
All the people I've read about having long covid acknowledge stress as being a major factor.
Re: Longhauler thread - This could be you
This is a quote from the study you linked us to.......
Figure 4: More than 1 in 10 study participants were experiencing self-reported long COVID 12 weeks after COVID-19 infection
Figure 4: More than 1 in 10 study participants were experiencing self-reported long COVID 12 weeks after COVID-19 infection
Re: Longhauler thread - This could be you
But control group had similar results. Table 1.
-
Bingo Fuel
- Rank 5
- Posts: 316
- Joined: Wed Sep 29, 2021 5:51 am
Re: Longhauler thread - This could be you
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2 ... 114112.htm
For more details, the full study:
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamane ... le/2784918
For more details, the full study:
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamane ... le/2784918
"Never wrestle with pigs. You both get dirty and the pig likes it." - George Bernard Shaw
Re: Longhauler thread - This could be you
That study just looked at hospialized patients. Quite different from “long covid” after a mild infection.Bingo Fuel wrote: ↑Sun Jan 02, 2022 9:48 pm https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2 ... 114112.htm
For more details, the full study:
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamane ... le/2784918
-
Bingo Fuel
- Rank 5
- Posts: 316
- Joined: Wed Sep 29, 2021 5:51 am
Re: Longhauler thread - This could be you
"Among those studied, 79% were hospitalized, and most patients (79%) lived in high-income countries. Patients' median age was 54, and the majority of individuals (56%) were male."CpnCrunch wrote: ↑Sun Jan 02, 2022 10:12 pmThat study just looked at hospialized patients. Quite different from “long covid” after a mild infection.Bingo Fuel wrote: ↑Sun Jan 02, 2022 9:48 pm https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2 ... 114112.htm
For more details, the full study:
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamane ... le/2784918
"Never wrestle with pigs. You both get dirty and the pig likes it." - George Bernard Shaw
Re: Longhauler thread - This could be you
Bottom line.....a lot of people are becoming longhaulers. Some seem to eventually get better, maybe all will....or not. Are you willing to chance it.
Get the vaccine.
Get the vaccine.
Re: Longhauler thread - This could be you
A lot of people who were mostly hospitalized. If you are in ICU for any reason you will tend to have ongoing issues. Yes, get vaccinated, but don't worry about getting a mild infection after that.
-
Vaticinator
- Rank 4
- Posts: 222
- Joined: Mon Nov 29, 2021 11:29 am
Re: Longhauler thread - This could be you
This study is just an analysis of other studies that were looking specifically at the different symptoms of "long haul" sufferers. It was designed to look at the most common symptoms in an effort to direct treatment strategies. It was not designed to determine numbers of long haulers or even establish causation, which the authors acknowledge they could not do. Their conclusions don't discuss these topics. But we already know that the overwhelming majority of people hospitalized due to covid have pre existing comorbidities. It's not exactly earth shattering news that a sick person who gets a viral infection serious enough to hospitalized them, would not suddenly be well after that virus clears.
Cleaning up your diet and starting a regular exercise program to get healthy should probably be top of the to do list in 2022.
Cleaning up your diet and starting a regular exercise program to get healthy should probably be top of the to do list in 2022.
Re: Longhauler thread - This could be you
So you’re saying we’re in this for the longhaul? 
Let’s Go Brandon
