It’s been a year since COVID-19 actually arrived in New York. But some of the first inhabitants of the area to detect the virus still experience debilitating symptoms that have made life impossible as they were: loss of employment and inability to read or study, let alone exercise.
“We don’t understand why the body is responding this way,” said Dr. David Putrino, director of rehabilitation innovation at The Mount Sinai Health, which investigates these so-called “long-distance” patients. He estimated that approximately 90% of participants in the hospital’s long-distance transportation program, who have a mean age of 42, did not need hospitalization while having COVID.
“Now, what we are seeing is, in these cases less serious [of the virus] – much younger, disproportionately previously fit and healthy [patients] – there is an extreme response after the acute [initial] the symptoms are gone, “Dr. Putrino told The Post.
Here, four New Yorkers, who say they were in good health before and none of whom were hospitalized with the virus, reveal the despair and isolation caused by their long-term COVID cases.
“I’m nervous about my brain”
A year after capturing COVID-19, Devin Russell has been unable to return to work in the direction of a wellness and medical practice center in the Hamptons. “My nervous system is really screwed up,” he said. “At night I have to alternate the ice cover and apply a heat pad to my head,” for the pain of shooting. “It looks like your nerves are firing, like you can’t think properly.”
To soothe the pain, the 35-year-old Southampton resident spends about 90 minutes a day in a hyperbaric tank that he rents for $ 549 a month and uses an oxygen tank and an ozone generator to “kill pathogens and help -to clear my head.
“My whole life revolves around [COVID health complications]”He is very far from his old life of constant activity, including playing in two basketball leagues, cycling, exercising with weights.
“I can’t push myself too hard. Even walking half a mile could inflame my nervous system, “said bachelor Russell, adding that he has dropped from 172 to 150 pounds.” It’s debilitating. I’m nervous about my brain. ” He has created CovidCastaways.org, a resource website for long haulers.
“When I get up, I feel like there’s an earthquake”
Helen Thompson Buffong is 46, but “It’s like turning 80 overnight,” said the mother of two children, ages 6 and 8, whom she can no longer follow. “I do not have the resistance. I have to say goodbye to the door instead of going to the park.
The Brooklynite married man fell ill on April 2 and until last week had not been able to work as a part-time student support advisor. “I have hives and swelling every day, everywhere. I always have an Epipen and steroids with me in case my face starts to swell. “
Neuropathy causes a relentless internal vibration throughout the body. “When I get up, I feel like there’s an earthquake every day,” he said. “A doctor said it can cure years, if I cure myself.”
“COVID is like an abusive partner”
Marissa Oliver experienced her first “respiratory attack” (a 10-hour constriction around her lungs and heart) during her initial battle with COVID last March.
Now he is still afraid of having one. “I referred to COVID as an abusive partner, because as soon as I get off the line and do something … I’m punished,” the 36-year-old art administration professional from Greenpoint said. Attacks are protected by symptoms such as fatigue and dizziness, and can result from stress, walking too far, or even just talking. The most recent attack was triggered after receiving the first dose of COVID vaccine.
She now uses an inhaler daily and does regular treatments such as locomotor therapy (usually recommended for athletes and artists suffering from repetitive stress injuries), recommended by her doctor at the Mount Sinai Post-COVID Care Center.
“It was the first time I spoke to doctors who completely believed me and said,‘ This is what we can do for you, ’” he said.
“I take 40 milligrams of melatonin a night, which is ridiculous”
“I feel like it’s still me, even less so, which is terrifying,” said Leigh Jerome, a Bushwick resident in his fifties who fell ill on March 5, 2020.
What started with cough and sore throat caused bilateral pneumonia and long-term symptoms with relapses for weeks. They include full body rashes, heart rate fluctuations, dizziness, and fatigue that completely exhausts you. She now takes about 25 medications and supplements at night just to sleep. “I take 40 milligrams of melatonin a night, which is ridiculous,” said Jerome, who is married without children. (A more typical dose is 5 mg.)
Prior to hiring COVID, Jerome, the founder of the nonprofit Relational Space Gallery, spent his afternoons in his art studio creating metal pieces.
“The idea of picking up and cutting a piece of metal and crushing it … just thinking about it makes me relapse,” he said. “I try to at least sit in the studio, which I know sounds a little absurd, but it’s part of who I am.”
From April 29, Relational Space will perform a virtual immersive installation, “Long COVID – We Are Here!” to raise awareness and drive more research and therapy.
“The only thing that keeps me from complete despair is that I maintain a positive attitude,” Jerome said. “I think I’ll get well.”
“The only thing that keeps me from complete despair is that I maintain a positive attitude,” Jerome said. “I think I’ll get well.”
“I don’t have the ability to learn anything”
Before she fell ill last March, Nia Raquelle Smith was in the process of applying for doctoral programs to study food culture. Today, the 36-year-old Navy veteran, who lives in Bedford-Stuyvesant, can only read three pages a good day.
“I don’t have the ability to learn anything and I have to figure out” How will I complete my research? “Smith said.
During the summer, he was on a panel to discuss his research, but he was too scared to open his mouth because of the brain fog. “I let everyone lead the conversation,” Smith said.
Over the past year, he said, the single Smith has experienced 57 complications related to COVID; he still experiences shocks, an intermittent internal vibration, and so much fatigue that just getting out of bed in the morning requires him to pull again. Use an inhaler and take various medications and supplements every day.
“I don’t think most people imagine what that is like,” said Smith, who works in nonprofit database administration.
I would like to be optimistic and have more days where I say to myself, ‘I’m going to go through this,’ ”he said. if this is my new normal “.