LONG COVID: Patients Fight To Be Believed

[appalachiablue]

- Marta Esperti had to wait a year until doctors took her symptoms seriously.
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- DW, Aug. 12, 2021. News from Germany.

Millions of COVID patients still experience debilitating symptoms months after their infection. Many of them have to fight the additional battle of convincing their doctors or loved ones to take them seriously. In the past 18 months, the answer Marta Esperti has heard from doctors most often is: "You will have to wait it out."

But she felt waiting was not an option when her flare-ups of fever, vomiting, fatigue, tachycardia, memory loss and a dangerously low oxygen saturation persisted more than a year after her COVID-19 infection. A PhD student who loved to travel and work out, Esperti can now run out of breath while cooking lunch.

After visiting countless specialists in France and her native Italy, and paying many medical expenses out of pocket, she finally got her diagnosis: Long COVID. And exams show significant damage to her heart and lungs. "I feel rage. For one year, I was not taken seriously," she said to DW. "Maybe if someone had listened, I would have had a chance to recover."

What is long COVID? Esperti is one of millions of long-haulers who continue to experience effects weeks or even months after an acute COVID infection. These symptoms can range from fatigue to brain fog to shortness of breath. About 15% of COVID patients still have several symptoms after 12 weeks, according to a study conducted by researchers at Imperial College London in the UK. Women and older patients are more likely to be affected, but men and children also experience it...

More + Video,
https://www.dw.com/en/long-covid-patients-fight-to-be-believed/a-58839340

[Murphyb849]

1. I am a nurse and have long haul

Gotten from caring for violent psych covid patients who did not know or understand we were trying to save their life. Pre wide vaccine availability. I had to take retirement and now on social security due to long haul. I am afraid for anyone with Delta right now who they believe the long haul is worse. I am but a shadow of my former self.

[appalachiablue]

2. I'm so sorry to hear that. Experts must start

taking this seriously and work on handling it. In the early 80s, a young woman I knew only a slightly came down with chronic fatigue symptoms.

She also had juvenile diabetes, no one would believe her or try any treatment. In less than 2 years, friends found her dead in a small boat on a lake behind her home. Like many others, a sad troubling case for an illness that was later proven valid.

Take care, and all the best, coping must be so difficult. Let us know if we can do anything.

[sheshe2]

3. We don't even have the whole story of long haulers.

Tachycardia is heart rhythms over 100 beats per minute.