Earlier this year we wrote a blog post on Long COVID and LTD claims. The medical community is only just learning what long COVID is, how it manifests, how long it lasts and whether those afflicted can recover fully. There are many questions and few answers.
As the numbers of COVID patients increases and we build data on who they are we can build models on the illness and try to answer the many questions about long COVID. It appears that for young patients the symptoms of the illness are particularly harmful and emotionally draining.
The long COVID, officially defined by the World Health Organization in October as “the condition after COVID-19,” is still a somewhat mysterious illness. Further research is needed to identify individual risk factors, the causes of which are multifactorial and complex.
“Long COVID is not as about the effects of the virus as other dysfunctions that occur in your body as a reaction to the virus,” explains Dr. Fahadrazak, lead author of the Ontario COVID-19 Science Table Report. increase. In September it was called “Understanding the Post-COVID-19 Condition (Long COVID) and the Expected Burden of Ontario”.
It was revealed that long COVID can cause more than 200 symptoms in 10 organ systems, with the most common distress being “severe and abnormal” fatigue, shortness of breath, muscle and joint pain. Cognitive effects such as brain fog. Depression and anxiety.
A long-haul carrier who spoke with a star from the Vancouver area also reported symptoms such as light and sound hypersensitivity, taste distortion, and unexplained allergic reactions.
Approximately 10% of people infected with COVID-19 are thought to have lasting effects after 12 months.
What is striking about Long COVID when compared to the virus itself is that it seems to be a greater threat to young and healthy people. People who have no mild acute infection or symptoms can also develop long COVID.
And there are clear signs that it can lead to an individual’s chronic condition, which can affect employment, family care, and long-term disability.
“Unlike the initial infection when we saw this strong gradient, it was very clear that in the case of severe infections, the risk increased dramatically with increasing age,” Razak said. “Long COVID makes it much flatter. You can get infected at the age of 20 or 30, and now their rest of their lives will be (potentially) affected by long COVID. “
For LONESS, who was infected with COVID-19 shortly after leaving his parents’ house, it has a kind of overwhelming weight. She suffers from rheumatoid arthritis, which she says is almost in remission, spurring plans to return to sports and exercise after the pandemic.
However, permanent fatigue means that she must plan her day around activities such as family visits and simple showers, knowing that she will be bedridden for the rest of the day. To do.
“It’s definitely a bit of a dire process you’ll experience,” Rhones said. “I mean any age, but especially when I was diagnosed between the ages of 22 and now 23, it’s like mourning the life you should have had.
There are days when Hobson Lynn wakes up and does not recognize the man in the mirror.
A recent college graduate and corporate communication writer lives in a haze. Words don’t come to him anymore. From time to time he loses his mind and finds himself confused about what he is doing.
His days usually consist of a series of medical appointments, from a psychiatrist to a physiotherapist, or lying in bed to undertaking freelance public relations to cover his claims.
He tested positive for COVID-19 last March, so the symptoms didn’t actually go away. The fog in the brain is constant, and he experiences extreme fatigue, at the expense of all kinds of physical activity.
“I have 90% of the day using my computer on the phone or in bed, and I’m basically trying to do the bare minimum,” says Lin. “Because I’m gone.”
He says his sense of taste and smell have changed forever — the other day he had to spit out a perfectly good egg that he thought was spoiled.
“You feel betrayed by your body,” he said of the psychological consequences of Long COVID.
Sometimes just as frustrating is the feeling that medical professionals don’t know how to deal with long COVIDs. Initially, some doctors were skeptical about whether the condition was real or imaginary.
There is more recognition now, but treatment is essentially a trial-and-error process — phosphorus is overweight and doctors perform continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) to see if they are sleeping. While saying that it may be a factor in his permanent symptoms, apnea is a factor.
“They are basically trying to scramble and deal with all the symptoms by what they know,” Lynn said. “But at the same time, you really are just a research experiment.”
In addition to Long COVID, Lynn is recovering from a car accident, and there is also the stress of having to decline to write a task because he can’t keep up.
He said he wondered if the decline in his quality of life was really worth living.
“I had suicidal ideation, coupled with chronic pain and everything, hopelessness, lack of support, and gas lights … where are you going from here?”
