Seven months after Cariline tested positive for COVID-19, she was still taking oxygen.
Prolonged illness initially limited the ability of the 51-year-old to take on the day-to-day work and is now at home most of the time.
“I never thought it would last this long,” said a resident of the Lower Columbia region who declined to use her surname. “When they said you went home with oxygen, I went home with 4 liters and now it’s 1 (liter). That’s not a big difference to me, but they told me,” You Is very ill and is doing as well as expected. “
Cariline is one of the potentially millions of US residents with long-standing COVID-19 and is often defined as a protracted sign of more than 4 weeks after infection.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the prevalence of long COVID, also known as chronic COVID or post-acute COVID status, varies from 5% to 80% in various studies and is difficult to estimate. Dr. Steve Craiger, Deputy Health Officer in Cowlitz County, said some of the variations are due to the lack of consensus on how to define long COVIDs.
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“Even low-priced estimates can have millions in the United States and thousands in Cowlitz County, and some long-term COVID syndrome can occur,” Krager said. “What it looks like varies greatly from person to person.”
Symptoms often caused by long COVID include dyspnea, fatigue / malaise, “brain fog”, cough, chest and stomach pain, headache, heartbeat, joint and muscle pain, pins and needles. These include sensation, diarrhea, sleep disorders, and fever. According to the CDC, lightheadedness, rashes, mood changes, odor and taste changes, and menstrual cycle changes.
Kaiser Permanente Physician Chris Shaw has been caring for patients both inside and outside the hospital since he was asked for help at the hospital last fall. Shaw stated that the most annoying and most common symptom of long COVID patients is “brain fog.” This is a mixture of poor memory, fatigue, poor concentration, and the feeling that things are not working properly. He said that many hospitalized patients also had dyspnea.
“The only thing that goes ahead and actually defines this is that you get a positive COVID test at the beginning of your symptoms and there is no clear” wow, I feel good “when the symptoms go away. “Shaw said. “Usually, people really feel sick when an infection begins, and over time they gradually become less rot, but it takes forever to get better.”
Kalilyn has made some progress, but is still in a “slow, less rotting” recovery stage.
She went to the hospital on the 12th day after a positive test on August 19th and not feeling so sick for the first few days.
“I realized I couldn’t walk a few feet without running out of air,” she said.
She spent a little over two weeks in the hospital, three days at the Peace Health St. John Medical Center, and the rest at the Peace Health Southwest Medical Center in Vancouver. She said it was difficult to stay alone in the hospital for a long time without seeing her family. Both hospitals banned visitors in most cases during the Delta Surge.
When she first got home, Karin said she needed to help with basic tasks such as taking a shower, and walking to the bathroom would blow the wind. She also had unexpected side effects, including hair loss.
She said she could do more than last month, including driving herself for the first time since August. However, her hobby, her side job, baking, spends “girl’s day” on her shopping and is still off the table.
“I’ve been going all the time,” she said. “I couldn’t do it before, so he taught me patience.”
Who gets a long COVID?
Researchers are studying long-term COVIDs, including potential reasons and risk factors. According to the CDC, older patients and people with underlying illness are at increased risk of serious illness, but younger people, including those who were in good health before the COVID infection, reported symptoms that lasted for several months. ..
More data is needed to determine if COVID-19 vaccination helps reduce the likelihood of long-term symptoms, according to Craiger.
It’s also unclear if the underlying conditions make people more likely to get a long COVID, Krager said. Long-term symptoms are strongly correlated with the severity of the illness, and people with underlying illness are at increased risk of severe illness. But that doesn’t mean that people who aren’t hospitalized, or low-risk children or other people, don’t get long COVIDs, he said.
Dr. Shaw of Kaiser Permanente said he has rarely seen patients with long COVIDs who have not been hospitalized. However, some people may not have been tested, and after the Omicron surge, it is premature to know the number of infected people and may show long-term symptoms, he said. rice field.
Cariline has asthma and diabetes and has two symptoms that are at high risk for COVID-19. She is also hospitalized and is more likely to have long-term symptoms. She said she was worried about getting COVID-19 because of her asthma.
“We’ve been careful not to be around people for a long time, but then I knew I was exposed,” she said. “I didn’t know how my body would handle it, but I didn’t know how dying I was … I think I could fight a little more.”
Karin said she didn’t know at the time, but when she was in the hospital, medical staff told her family that she might not be able to do it. After her return, she said she was paying particular attention to who she was because her immune system was depleted by COVID-19.
Treatment remains elusive
Researchers are still closing the gap, but they know that the virus that causes COVID-19 invades essentially every organ in the body, Craiger said. The effects of the attack are seen in people with long-term symptoms of COVID, he said.
In addition to the effects of viral attacks, the immune system’s response causes many symptoms in COVID-19 and other illnesses, Craiger said.
“In people with long COVID-19, the immune system is thought to be overreacting for long periods of time,” he said.
Shaw said there is no well-documented treatment for patients with long COVIDs. He advises people to eat more plant-based diets to help activate the immune system and improve recovery.
“If I’m going to give advice to people with chronic COVID, it’s’there’,” Shaw said. “It’s a really difficult situation, but it gets better.”
There is no end date for Karin’s recovery yet, but her doctor estimates that she will need at least three more months with oxygen.
“I have to be at my own pace, be careful and listen to my doctor,” she said. “It’s a long distance.”
