[ad_1]
Coronavirus patient Tera Greene considers herself one of the lucky ones: lucky that she escaped the ICU with her life, lucky that her debilitating COVID-19 symptoms didn’t last, and lucky that she may soon have a chance to get back to something of normal.
It’s been about six months since Greene, 59, was discharged from the Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center after 47 days in hospital. The ordeal made her so weak that she had to relearn the little things, like walking, brushing her teeth and taking a shower.
Then there was the hospitalization budget itself, when Greene was intubated for four weeks. He now goes to physical therapy every few days to deal with a pinched nerve from staying in one position for so long during his illness, even as he is nearing the end of his treatment.
The after-effects of COVID can seem very different from patient to patient, said Dr. Daniel Nuss, an ear, nose and throat specialist at the Our Lady of the Lake medical group who works with patients recovering from the virus. . Doctors are still trying to figure out exactly how COVID-19 affects people who have recovered, but a wide range of symptoms and varying timing make it complicated.
“Most people currently know more about COVID than they ever wanted to know,” Nuss said. “We are still trying to understand it and understand how we should behave, what we should do to prevent it, and then how to deal with the problems that arise.”
Nuss said that, as with many other viruses, some people with COVID-19 get sick, recover, and return to normal within weeks. Others experience a specific symptom, such as a persistent cough or vocal exhaustion, which may go away in a month or two.
Then there are the “long-haul travelers” – a category Nuss said isn’t well defined but is characterized by people who have had COVID-19 and continue to deal with “extremely burdensome” symptoms long after their last positive test. . For these patients, getting out of bed every day can be a huge challenge.
“We don’t have a good sense of how long the average person takes to recover,” Nuss said.
“I’m not really healed.”
Natasha Venable, a 36-year-old assistant nurse at the Lake, is a former patient who continues to suffer the aftershocks of her illness months later. She was one of the first patients to be admitted with the COVID-19 diagnosis in mid-March.
Like Greene, she was intubated and finally released after 71 days, making it the 450th discharge of coronavirus patients in the lake. Her family was overjoyed when she got home and continues to rely on her husband and teenage children to get through each day.
But Venable said everything hasn’t returned to normal yet.
“I’m not really healed,” she said.
Venable pitted a litany of health issues that she said have plagued her since leaving the hospital: numbness, post-traumatic stress disorder, shortness of breath, interrupted odor, short-term memory loss and problems. of understanding.
He attended speech therapy and physiotherapy to relearn how to walk. His lungs “took a hit,” he said, so his breathing was strained.
A self-styled independent person who has long been her family’s rock, the physical setbacks have had an emotional impact.
“I doubt myself more than before. I’m afraid of many things,” she said. “My balance is not completely behind. I’m afraid to run. I’m afraid to recover.”
It disturbs her to see people who refuse to wear a mask in public or neglect precautions of social distancing. She has learned to never take life for granted, she said, so she now spends her time raising awareness about her experience with COVID-19 so that others don’t suffer like her.
“I’m showing him the tracheostomy sign,” he said, referring to the scar on his throat from the time the breathing tube was inserted.
Venable is not alone in her daily challenges.
Dr Nuss said some of his recovering coronavirus patients tell him they struggle with depression, headaches and a “brain fog” that makes it difficult to concentrate. These symptoms can last for months, he said.
It is unclear whether these symptoms are damage from the virus itself or the result of a long stay in intensive care combined with a cocktail of drugs.
Less frequently, some patients face blood clotting disorders or permanent breathing problems, with injuries to their lung function, Nuss said. Many people have severe kidney damage which, in some cases, can be permanent. Those patients will have to live on dialysis or receive a kidney transplant.
Under certain circumstances, the quality of life becomes another issue. For example, a patient’s loss of taste and smell can be temporary or permanent.
Post-COVID life translates to “almost like PTSD” for some, Nuss explained.
“They were fine one day, and in a short period of time they fell fatally ill with a little understood virus,” he said. “They may have survived, but it is persistent with lasting problems. This wears out a human being.”
The survivor’s depression
For other patients, they may have gotten through the worst, but they may also have lost someone to the virus.
Tim Hasten, a 45-year-old behavioral health nurse at Baton Rouge General, fell ill over the summer. Several family members have also contracted the virus: his mother, stepfather, grandfather and two uncles.
While he managed to fight his symptoms at home, several loved ones died. Hasten continues to have problems, like blood pressure problems, chronic fatigue, and occasional shortness of breath, but his frustration is reserved for those who don’t believe in the harmful effects of COVID-19 after losing so much.
“It sucks because people don’t take it seriously,” he said. “Unless people really have someone they know is doing – God forbid, someone is leaving – then it’s like a slap in the face to them. They are like, oh, this thing is real.”
Aside from the potential isolation following their coronavirus diagnosis which Dr. Nuss said may be “profoundly dehumanizing,” these recovered patients may also suffer psychologically from the loss of the people they care about.
“We have some people who survived who can’t reconcile why they survived and someone they love didn’t survive,” she said. “It’s a bit of a survivor’s depression.”
Greene’s mother also died from the virus while she was unconscious; his brother tested positive and became seriously ill.
“It’s Thanksgiving, my mom’s favorite holiday, but it’s a little busy,” said Greene. “A little bit difficult.”
A continuous evolution
Kristen Gradney, senior director of operations at the Lake who oversees the COVID operations center, said people are still asking for help for months after the pandemic.
The COVID-19 Al Lago call center makes available to convalescent patients contacts for support groups, social workers and specialists to help them recover.
Gradney contracted the virus and immediately got back to work as soon as she could. But it warns others to “take time to take care of themselves” and to address any physical or mental health problems that arise during recovery.
“People just need resources,” Gradney said. “It’s so new and people are so scared.”
Dr Nuss, one such specialist that patients can reach, said he and his colleagues are working to treat people’s symptoms to “help bring them back to a productive, or at least enjoyable, life.”
In the meantime, they collected data from patients to better understand what they are up against and how best to move forward.
“Believe it or not, many months into the pandemic is still not well defined, but I think over time we will learn better and better which symptoms are most likely to be long-term or permanent and hopefully how we can mitigate them. “he said.
Although the vaccine – which Nuss said everyone should receive – is on the horizon, he warned Louisiana residents to continue taking precautions in the months ahead.
“It’s not over yet, and we all need to keep our guard up,” he said.
.
[ad_2]
Source link
